At 7:01 this past Sunday the second event of the UBFL season got underway at Lake White Hall in Hopkinton. In honor of last years achievements, throwing the ceremonial first swimbait was two time UBFL champion Justin "The Champ" Fish making his first start of the 2016 season. Welcome back Justin!...
His toss was promptly followed by 15 Pats Perches (Can I get on a list Pat?)( trade you for a day of marlin fishing in Cabo?).....14 Tsunamis ( bless you Rich...same offer in Cabo), one tricked out Chatterbait, (if anyone happens to catch a big pickerel with it in its mouth.....), and one Jerkbait (a rather scratched and beat up Jerkbait with a couple of bent hooks and very little of the original color on it)......all flew into the morning sky as a league record 17 boats and 31 fisherman streamed out of the landing cove of White Hall in quest of big fish and "The Belt".
The weather wasn't the best. Our anglers faced a cold, misty, and rainy day with the sun never busting through the clouds. You would think that the fish would be biting given the overcast skies and wind...but as luck would have it, we still had a high pressure system overhead and the big ladies just refused to bite. The majority of the bags were filled with 1 1/4 lbs. dinks with the fat mamas glued into the smallest piece of cover they could find which is a lot more than plentiful all over White Hall. We had 11 limits. All of the fish weighed were very healthy and swam away quickly! Only three fish were brought to scale over three pounds which is amazing considering the fish in White Hall, the anglers competing, and our anglers familiarity with the waters.....7 teams were within one fair kicker fish of taking "The Belt"!
Taking home "The Belt", the scratch, honor, and the bragging rights of winning in a big crowd was the Happy Hooker team of Ed "Happy" Dunbar and his son/ prodigy/ heir to the families fortune; Kyle "Hooker" Dunbar....... "Happy Dunbar " was happy because "Hooker Dunbar" was hooking. The pair of Hookers plied there trade all over White Hall but only attracted lots of male fish...oops!!........Rumor has it that "Hooker" carried the day with a Senko, a Drop Shot Rig and a Jerkbait. No worries Ed, all of us Dads know the we just let our sons catch most of the fish because we don't want to hear them moaning and groaning and wanting to go home to watch cartoons and eat Coco Krispy's. I'm sure you tied his lures and told him wear to throw. Like you, I also let my son throw to the sweet spots! How to hammer them Kyle!
In all seriousness, the really fricking good, veteran UBFL team filled an early bag on better than average fish and culled four more time during the day to bring in the winning 9.5 oz bag. ......Great job Ed and Kyle. You got yourselves a big victory in tough fishing conditions in a big field event........... a victory made even better when you consider the quality of the teams in the 17 boat field.................a true accomplishment.
Coming in second place this week was Team Bite Me........another veteran team of anglers ....Mark "MD Doc" Degrenier and his fellow slinger of the lead Mitch "MVD" Degrenier. The seasoned team managed to trick enough fish into the boat to carry home second place ... .....great job boys and see you next time.....rumor has it they were throwing more prayers out there than lures.......It helped as they rode the good graces of the fish gods to a 9.0.lb bag
Third place was a tie with the "Party with the Marleys" team of Scott "Bob" Marley and Shawn "Ziggy" Marley and the "Gift Horse" team of Russ and Glen the victorious. Each team wound up with equal weights. Great fishing guys and we're glad to have you fishing with us. Sorry for the confusion.
Third place was a tie due to a rules loophole which has been addressed by the veterans committee and will be addressed in a later email.
As for the Big Fish.......Remember the battered Jerkbait mentioned at the beginning of this message? That's the same lure (now referred to as Roadkill) that carried Ben "Bonefish" Bailey to the Big Fish award and the overall victory last week at Farm pond..........well........ Bonefish took Roadkill out of retirement...tied it on...... and on his first cast...... 300 yards from the launch........ next to a stick not bigger than his.....lure.......and in front of the entire fleet ...hooked a rather gaunt, tired looking, but still pretty 4lb 8 oz spawned out bluegill banger......... the battle ended with "big skinny mama" taking a nice, all day boat ride in the back of Bonefish's Pond Prowler, and "Roadkill" going back into its slot in the box...Very entertaining and funny watching the whole field route for the fish lol! I did hear that "Roadkill" might be coming available through auction to fund Bonefish's new Ranger! Ten dollars is worth one chance. (Nicholas "The Lucky King" Queen can't enter because winning two Pats at two separate raffles is enough.)
All that being said......Nice fish Bonefish and a big UBFL congrats on yet another big fish award, and....... on another nice wad of scratch!! Two tourneys in a row in big fields Bonefish...I see a trend!
We did have one boat unable to make it.....I did hear from him via three different avenues and he had a puking kid so a pass on this transgression is in order.....good reason because without it I was going to post on facebook he was selling each of his 100 strong Tsunami and Pats Perch swimbait collection for 25 dollars apiece and put his phone number in the post begging for immediate buyers..
).
Fishing Report.....the best I can say... is that the fishing was very tough bordering on shitty.............hard to get a read on where the fish were if they are not on the beds and only biting sporadically. The usual haunts in Whitehall as well as the seasonal spots, ditches, ridges, humps, current breaks, funnels and islands were tested with very minimal results. I'm sure many techniques were utilized in that effort The majority of fish were caught on either Jerkbaits or worms...with a smattering of other lures contributing. During pre fishing, I saw some nice fish including a 5.5...a mid 4's, and a few threes but never saw any large fish in those areas during the tourney....... despite working through the entire area ...go figure!
Our next event is at Peters Pond. This event is full at this point. We do have a wait list if you want to get on it
Most of our tourneys are full...we have waiting lists for some .....let me know the tourneys your interested in if you haven't already!
Finally, Myself and the other Members of the Veterans Committee want to say that it's a real pleasure seeing all of the teams and fisherman join us to compete and enjoy our events. Thanks!
His toss was promptly followed by 15 Pats Perches (Can I get on a list Pat?)( trade you for a day of marlin fishing in Cabo?).....14 Tsunamis ( bless you Rich...same offer in Cabo), one tricked out Chatterbait, (if anyone happens to catch a big pickerel with it in its mouth.....), and one Jerkbait (a rather scratched and beat up Jerkbait with a couple of bent hooks and very little of the original color on it)......all flew into the morning sky as a league record 17 boats and 31 fisherman streamed out of the landing cove of White Hall in quest of big fish and "The Belt".
The weather wasn't the best. Our anglers faced a cold, misty, and rainy day with the sun never busting through the clouds. You would think that the fish would be biting given the overcast skies and wind...but as luck would have it, we still had a high pressure system overhead and the big ladies just refused to bite. The majority of the bags were filled with 1 1/4 lbs. dinks with the fat mamas glued into the smallest piece of cover they could find which is a lot more than plentiful all over White Hall. We had 11 limits. All of the fish weighed were very healthy and swam away quickly! Only three fish were brought to scale over three pounds which is amazing considering the fish in White Hall, the anglers competing, and our anglers familiarity with the waters.....7 teams were within one fair kicker fish of taking "The Belt"!
Taking home "The Belt", the scratch, honor, and the bragging rights of winning in a big crowd was the Happy Hooker team of Ed "Happy" Dunbar and his son/ prodigy/ heir to the families fortune; Kyle "Hooker" Dunbar....... "Happy Dunbar " was happy because "Hooker Dunbar" was hooking. The pair of Hookers plied there trade all over White Hall but only attracted lots of male fish...oops!!........Rumor has it that "Hooker" carried the day with a Senko, a Drop Shot Rig and a Jerkbait. No worries Ed, all of us Dads know the we just let our sons catch most of the fish because we don't want to hear them moaning and groaning and wanting to go home to watch cartoons and eat Coco Krispy's. I'm sure you tied his lures and told him wear to throw. Like you, I also let my son throw to the sweet spots! How to hammer them Kyle!
In all seriousness, the really fricking good, veteran UBFL team filled an early bag on better than average fish and culled four more time during the day to bring in the winning 9.5 oz bag. ......Great job Ed and Kyle. You got yourselves a big victory in tough fishing conditions in a big field event........... a victory made even better when you consider the quality of the teams in the 17 boat field.................a true accomplishment.
Coming in second place this week was Team Bite Me........another veteran team of anglers ....Mark "MD Doc" Degrenier and his fellow slinger of the lead Mitch "MVD" Degrenier. The seasoned team managed to trick enough fish into the boat to carry home second place ... .....great job boys and see you next time.....rumor has it they were throwing more prayers out there than lures.......It helped as they rode the good graces of the fish gods to a 9.0.lb bag
Third place was a tie with the "Party with the Marleys" team of Scott "Bob" Marley and Shawn "Ziggy" Marley and the "Gift Horse" team of Russ and Glen the victorious. Each team wound up with equal weights. Great fishing guys and we're glad to have you fishing with us. Sorry for the confusion.
Third place was a tie due to a rules loophole which has been addressed by the veterans committee and will be addressed in a later email.
As for the Big Fish.......Remember the battered Jerkbait mentioned at the beginning of this message? That's the same lure (now referred to as Roadkill) that carried Ben "Bonefish" Bailey to the Big Fish award and the overall victory last week at Farm pond..........well........ Bonefish took Roadkill out of retirement...tied it on...... and on his first cast...... 300 yards from the launch........ next to a stick not bigger than his.....lure.......and in front of the entire fleet ...hooked a rather gaunt, tired looking, but still pretty 4lb 8 oz spawned out bluegill banger......... the battle ended with "big skinny mama" taking a nice, all day boat ride in the back of Bonefish's Pond Prowler, and "Roadkill" going back into its slot in the box...Very entertaining and funny watching the whole field route for the fish lol! I did hear that "Roadkill" might be coming available through auction to fund Bonefish's new Ranger! Ten dollars is worth one chance. (Nicholas "The Lucky King" Queen can't enter because winning two Pats at two separate raffles is enough.)
All that being said......Nice fish Bonefish and a big UBFL congrats on yet another big fish award, and....... on another nice wad of scratch!! Two tourneys in a row in big fields Bonefish...I see a trend!
We did have one boat unable to make it.....I did hear from him via three different avenues and he had a puking kid so a pass on this transgression is in order.....good reason because without it I was going to post on facebook he was selling each of his 100 strong Tsunami and Pats Perch swimbait collection for 25 dollars apiece and put his phone number in the post begging for immediate buyers..
).
Fishing Report.....the best I can say... is that the fishing was very tough bordering on shitty.............hard to get a read on where the fish were if they are not on the beds and only biting sporadically. The usual haunts in Whitehall as well as the seasonal spots, ditches, ridges, humps, current breaks, funnels and islands were tested with very minimal results. I'm sure many techniques were utilized in that effort The majority of fish were caught on either Jerkbaits or worms...with a smattering of other lures contributing. During pre fishing, I saw some nice fish including a 5.5...a mid 4's, and a few threes but never saw any large fish in those areas during the tourney....... despite working through the entire area ...go figure!
Our next event is at Peters Pond. This event is full at this point. We do have a wait list if you want to get on it
Most of our tourneys are full...we have waiting lists for some .....let me know the tourneys your interested in if you haven't already!
Finally, Myself and the other Members of the Veterans Committee want to say that it's a real pleasure seeing all of the teams and fisherman join us to compete and enjoy our events. Thanks!
