WBM 2 Day Classic - Saratoga & Ballston
Menchen Wins!!!
Saratoga & Ballston Lakes
June 23 & 24, 2018
by Gary Menchen
On June 23 & 24 Watershed Bassmasters held their annual 2-day classic on Saratoga & Ballston Lakes in upstate NY. This is the most fun event of the season and the pre-tournament predictions of Saratoga being a numbers lake and Ballston producing better than average size fish certainly held true. Here is how it all went down.
On day #1 the rain held off for the first half of the day but then came down heavier as the day progressed. With the water temp around 73 degrees, most anglers found a good top-water bite early and really for all day long as spooks, frogs, and chuggers all produced. Gary Menchen culled up to 12.70 lbs to take a slim .15 lead over his son Greg as the first days fish were counted. Following very closely behind were Rick Faubert, Rob Lopez, Joe Raguzin, Chris Cain, Tony Fortugno and Andy Krayewsky who also had good limits and were all in contention. As the others did, Gary caught his top-water fish early (two good smallies) but then turned to worms & brush hogs to upgrade his livewell catching largemouth bass. Greg Menchen barely edged out Gary for the days lunker with a 3.30 lb largemouth. The others fished mostly jigs and chatterbaits as Saratoga Lake showed its full potential with average to good size bass in both green & brown colors. All anglers caught limits and culled.
Day #2 on Ballston Lake started cool as the front went thru but heated up and the layers came off quickly. Fish were caught early and often. The big bag of the day was brought in by Johnny “Bearpaw” Olsen and tipped the scales at 15.47 lbs. John said he was impressed with this lake and all of his fish were over 3 pounds. It was his first ever visit to Ballston. Watershed rookie Tony Fortugno brought in a very good sack weighing 14.37 lbs. He fished plastics most of the day.
Gary wound up bringing in 13.79 lbs. Realizing a top water bite like he had yesterday was not going to happen, he went to a jig & plastics but needed to make adjustments to lighter and smaller stuff and it paid off with four-fish-flurry about 10:AM including his biggest of the day, a 4.70 largemouth. Gary said he can't remember when he last won the WBM Classic. Actually he doesn't remember too much anymore but on this day showed the young guys that there is still some gas left in his tank.
For the second year in a row Rob Lopez placed second, last year he was runner-up to Greg Menchen. Rob caught a 4.87 lb bass late in the day to anchor his limit but it was a little short of what he would need to overtake Gary. Third place went to Anthony Fortugno who was fishing as a rider, Tony also had the day’s lunker a beautiful 4.90 bass. Congratulations to Tony on his best showing so far and we're sure more good tournaments are in his future. Rounding out the top-five were Rick “Cowby” Faubert and Greg Menchen.
I'd also like to point out that another club fishing the day before had some “sick” results with several team bags up to 22 lbs. Even though Watershed had to deal again with “sloppy seconds” the next day, the boys did OK for sure.
Special thanks & recognition to Joe Raguzin who manned the grill for our Sat evening cook-out in the rear parking lot of the La Quinta Motel in Clifton Park. Also to Rick Faubert who brought the beef, Andy Krayewsky the beer and Rob Lopez who donated his half of the 50/50 he won at our awards banquet last March to help out with expenses. Everyone enjoyed this annual event and can't wait till next year.
Our next club event will be our yearly all-night tournament on Candlewood Lake on Sat night July 7 and as always, should be a lunker fest with the big smallies and largemouth too. See you all there.