WEEK 3 --- Better Late Than Never

[Canalman]

I painted my house this weekend, and put in new front steps and planted a garden. So I was busy.. I tried to keep up as well as I could on Facebook, but I neglected S-B, here's what you missed.

TEAM GOTIGHT TOPS WEEK 3!
Every spring there is one week where the stripers seem to fall into a lull—not much action across the board and lots of fishless hours logged by surfmen across the east coast. This year, it appears as though that lull happened during Week 3 of the Surfcaster’s Classic! The week started somewhat slowly as most of the weeks so far have, not many guys are out fishing on a Thursday morning and Week 3 proved no different. However, when May Big Fish Award Winner “Chef” Chris Blouin of Team 5th Cousins checked in with a score of 58 it seemed like a good start. Later on, Jeff Lomonaco of Reel Team Six dropped a quick 26 on us and Mark Blackwell of The Barclay Boys added a 29-incher to his team total the stage seemed to be set for a decent weekend.
Then came the four fish entry from Blood for Blood’s Justin Trask, a seemingly innocent entry of short fish (13, 17, 19 and 23 inches) sparked the first real debate of this young tournament. A question of the ethics of entering small stripers was raised and the challenge caught fire—with polarized opinions waging sound reasoning in favor of both sides. Dave Anderson, GoTight organizer, commisoner and competitor put the decision to a vote and even though 20 of the 37 votes were in favor of making the change, going by the GoTight challenge rules a majority of 2/3 is required to enact a change and the entry of short fish (less than 28 inches) remains part of the Surfcaster’s Classic for the 2013 season. The debate will be reopened this fall when season 1 has ended.

Flipping the page to Friday morning things got a lot more interesting. Fishwhispering RI’s Chris Nelson and Scott Wilson battled a heaving surf for a combined five fish haul totaling 161 points which launched them to the top of the leaderboard with no challengers! The SS Bass Chasers’ Lou Caruso tried in vain to catch up with his three fish score of 97 points, Size Matters made their first waves of the Classic as Ethan Jaskulski hit the board with five fish of his own totaling 148 points, nipping at the heels of Fishwhispering RI! More entries came in from The Fish Pigs and The Barclay Boys filling out the leaderboard as we prepared for the weekend.

Weather reports for the first days of June were not what most of us would call perfect, with strong winds and tall waves many of us were either forced to brave the water or improvise in a sheltered cove or bay. As Saturday morning came, everyone was wondering when the power punch from Team Minus Tide would drop—a veritable all-star duo, Mike Morgan and Greg McSharry had yet to put a single inch on the board—that was about to change. Greg McSharry unloaded six fish on Saturday morning and his counterpart added one more, their top five put them at 158—look out top spot! Team GoTight’s Dave Daluz added two hard-won 40-plus inch fish totaling 85 points and putting Team GoTight in the middle of the pack. Pete Wells of Blood for Blood added some meat to his team’s pile with a three fish entry totaling 93 points, which combined with Trask’s two largest fish gave them a respectable score of 135. One more full limit came over the wire from Cuttyhunk where Ray West of RD’s Bass Habit scratched out a good score of 141. Sean Kearney of The Fish Pigs added a single 40-incher, Ethan Jaskulski of Size Matters bumped his smallest fish with a 29-inch upgrade and Tom Kosinski of The Night’s Huntsmen put up two for a score of 62. As usual, it was all going to come down to Sunday.

Sunday’s entries were not surprisingly few since the winds had intensified considerably throughout the day on Saturday. With forecasts of SSW 20-25 with gusts to 30 coming across from NOAA, it was one of those nights where you ask yourself, “Do I really want to go out there tonight?” The SS Bass Chasers, smelling the sweet scent of a top five finish braved the gale and added two more qualifying fish to their tally those two fish, measuring 28 and 31 inches, made the difference as their 156 point score was good enough for fourth place and 10 bonus points! Team Badfish had been dormant for Week 3 and then Toby and John combined for four fish totaling 138, falling just short of the top 5. Scott Wilson of Fishwhispering RI was not satisfied with their first place score of 161 and he upgraded their smallest fish with a 33-incher, upping their score to 169 points—oddly enough the same score they posted last week! But, it wasn’t enough, Dave and Dave of Team GoTight headed back for round two with the few fish they found the night before, as luck would have it, Anderson was able to log 71 inches and Daluz capped it off with a 30-incher on their last cast of the windy evening. Sealing the deal for the second week in a row, Team GoTight won it with a final tally of 186.

For a full breakdown of the team standings click here. For all the results, stats and more check out our Tournament Central Page.

FINAL STANDINGS
Team GoTight 186
Fishwhispering RI 169
Team Minus Tide 158
SS Bass Chasers 156
Size Matters 150
The Fish Pigs 149
RD's Bass Habit 141
Team Badfish 138
Blood for Blood 135
The Night's Huntsmen 99
The Barclay Boys 97
5th Cousins 62
The Castaways 34
Reel Team Six 26