On April 14th, 2007 we had 45 teams launch out of Tydings Marina which sits in historic Havre de Grace, Maryland. This area, also known as the Tidal Susquehanna Flats, is now considered one of the finest bass fisheries in America where past FOM events have taken 20lb bags to get a check and as much as 27lbs to win. On a regular basis, the Upper Chesapeake Bay waters draw 15-20 tournament trails a month to compete on this vast bonanza of excellent largemouth bass fishing.
With severe post cold front conditions greeting these members as they fished their first Mid-Atlantic division tournament, God graced us with a reprieve Saturday morning as we did not have the tremendous 30-50 MPH winds that these angler faced on their practice day Friday. Many teams struggled with finding the quality fish they had found in practice prior to the off-limits cut-off with water temperatures dropping as much as 10-15 degrees in a week.
In total, 81 largemouth bass at 15 inches or better were caught for a total weight of 275.60 pounds. Only 3 teams managed a 5 bass limit while just over a 1/4 of the field could not manage to catch a keeper. In interviewing teams in the top 10, no significant patterns or locations were the key as teams caught fish from as far south as Middle River to as far as the Eastern Shore rivers with most being caught on reaction bites from crankbaits as well as jigs and soft plastics fished slow on the half to low outgoing tides.
The winning team of brothers, Eric and Brian McNulty, took home 1st place with a huge sack at 24.26 pounds. In total, with 1st place winnings from the regular payout, bonus bucks and having the biggest bass of the event at 6.73 pounds, they took home $1630.00. Claiming 2nd place with 18.59 pounds was Paul Wiley and Jon Crans from Pennsylvania – many of you remember Paul who unfortunately sunk his boat at the 2006 Regional Championships on Lake Erie. Showing the determination of a true winner, he was even more excited to be back this year and is obviously backing it up with fish in the boat.
Source : http://www.fomntt.com/schedule.php?id=983
