july 2019 o’brien...“secret lure”, and then continued to it throw almost exclusively for the...

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PHO

TOS

BY: M

ARK

HA

ROLD

JULY 2019www.rochesterbassmasters.com

O’BRIENNAILS DOWNDAY ONE AT LAKE ERIE WITH 22.76 LBS.

LAKE ERIESMALL BOAT HARBOR, BUFFALO NY

ANGLER OF THE YEAR SERIES - J U N E 2 2 , 2 0 1 9

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WILL ROGERS (with his wife Lauren)3rd Place - 22.05 lbs.

Mark Harold - 4th Place - 21.60 lbs. & 5.64 lb. lunker.

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The 2019 Rochester Bassmasters Angler of the Year Series kicked off at Lake Erie.

The 2010 AOY Chris O’Brien weighed in 22.76 lbs. for another tournament win at the Douglas Rods AOY Series on Lake Erie. Chris said, “I wasn’t quite sure what stage to expect the fish in at Erie. Mentally I had a game plan to run a bunch of areas until I was able to find the quality of fish I was looking for. I started the day with a small quick limit of 15-16 lbs. in the first area I fished. I wasn’t impressed by the stature of the fish I was catching. From there, I did a lot of bouncing around before settling in on an area that seemed to be holding quantity and quality. The fish in this area seemed to be holding on isolated cover. Throughout the day I was able to weed through 40 or so fish using a variety of techniques. A tube and drop shot seemed to be pretty consistent, but the majority of my weight came on a Ledgehead Draggin head tipped with a swimbait. My go to Douglas Rod on Erie is the 744XF, a big rod to hook them way out deep and a soft enough tip to feel the subtle bites. Hats off to the tournament staff for fighting through the pleasure boater obstacles and putting on a great fun derby.”

Taking 2nd Place with 22.49 lbs. was Tyler Muhs. Tyler said, “Big thanks to Jim Bianchi, you don’t have days like this as a non-boater without guys like Jim putting in the work. Erie was the first I had been able to get out and fish, so I went with the same setup as last season. We spent the day drop shotting deep water with coincidentally the same type of bait, weights and lead length. I didn’t catch an abundance of fish, so luck was definitely on my side. I’ve had a lot on my mind leading up to Erie with the recent

passing of two family members and the declining health of another, but spending two days with Kevin Kinnear and Jim was great way to clear the mind, talk about whatever and just fish. (Dedicated to BAO, JDO and KAE. Thanks for being some of my biggest supporters. You are deeply missed.)

Rounding out the Top Three was Will Rogers. Will is always in the hunt on his home Lake. Will brought in a 5 fish limit of 22.05 lbs. Will said’ “Saturday started out to be a slow day of fishing for me. Luckily, I had Merritt Diamond on board to keep me company. If you haven’t had the pleasure of fishing with this man, do yourself a favor and take him out for a day of fun fishing or on a practice day. Not only is he a very genuine person but he helps keep the mood light as well. My first 5 fish weighed about 12.00 lbs. From there I was able to cull up to the 22.00 lb limit. All my fish were reeled in from a flat, in a depth of 35-40 feet of water. I caught around 30 fish on Saturday, with the bulk of them coming on a green tube. However my bigger fish came on the Ned Rig. Of course, being me, I had to throw a swimbait which I did get a few bites on. I was using a Douglas LRS 744xf spinning rod on both the tube and Ned Rig. When catching fish that deep, you have to fizz

each and every one of them unless you’re throwing them right back. I have to say that Merritt is one quick study. I showed him one time how to do it and watched over him the first time he did it. He was able to do each and every one of his fish from there on out. We did come back a little early to fish a couple walls, which did produce a handful of good 3.00 lb. fish, I had hoped Merritt was able to boat a couple of these as they did not help me. I want to first thank my wife Lauren Rogers for the constant support and allowing me to fish and hunt as much as I do. I also want to thank my family and friends for all the support they give me. A big Thank You to Douglas Rods, as well. Mike and the crew there do a great job!”

Multiple year AOY champ Mark Harold cam in 4th Place. Mark said, “What has now become a tradition, I made my first cast of the 2019 Rochester Bassmasters tournament season with a “secret lure”, and then continued to it throw almost exclusively for the entire day. I fished in the harbor area and caught good smallmouth all day. I had over 20 pounds in the first couple hours, anchored by the day’s lunker, a 5.64 pound beauty. I then jumped around the harbor adding



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an occasional bigger smallie to the well, bringing my total to 21.60 pounds and earning a 4th place finish.”

Taking 5th was Rod Brown, Rod came to the scales with 21.08 lbs.

Coming in 6th Place was 2013, 2014 AOY Jim Bianchi. Jim brought 21.04 lbs. to the scales.

Taking the 7th spot was Jake Zaremski. Jake came to the scales with 19.80 lbs. for 7th Place. Jake said, “With our Lake Erie tournament being early in the season, I knew that we would most likely have spawning fish. I knew a few

areas from last year that would have fish spawning on it, but I was able to have a full day of practice to look for beds. I managed to mark probably 25-30 beds of fish that looked over 3 lbs. Unfortunately I only managed to find a few fish in the 4+ lb. range. I ended up being the last boat in takeoff so I knew it would be a long shot to get to my first stretch and have it alone. To my surprise there was only one boat in my first area. Unfortunately it was TJ Valle. I knew he was going to fish the area really well. We managed to share the area well and both had limits relatively early. He came to me in the afternoon and suggested we save the area for Day 2,

JAKE ZAREMSKI7th Place -19.80 lbs.

ROD BROWN5th Place - 21.08 lbs.

Place AnglerFish

CaughtFish

Weighed WeightDead Fish Penalties Lunker

Total Weight

1 Chris O'Brien 5 5 22.76 0 0.00 22.762 Tyler Muhs 5 5 22.49 0 0.00 5.02 22.493 Will Rogers 5 5 22.05 0 0.00 22.054 Mark Harold 5 5 21.60 0 0.00 5.64 21.605 Rod Brown 5 5 21.08 0 0.00 21.086 Jim Bianchi 5 5 21.04 0 0.00 21.047 Jake Zaremski 5 5 19.80 0 0.00 19.808 Tyler Austin 5 5 19.60 0 0.00 19.609 TJ Valle 5 5 19.22 0 0.00 19.22

10 Devon Talbot 5 5 19.14 0 0.00 5.05 19.1411 Steve Levine 5 5 19.10 0 0.00 19.1012 Dan Patane 5 5 18.99 0 0.00 5.43 18.9913 Matt Ferrante 5 5 18.85 0 0.00 18.8514 Jim Shamp 5 5 18.66 0 0.00 18.6615 Nate Kalpin 5 5 17.94 0 0.00 17.9416 Wes Vyverberg 5 5 17.71 0 0.00 5.01 17.7117 Paul Caldwell 5 5 17.67 0 0.00 17.6718 Kyle Sweers 5 5 16.88 0 0.00 16.8819 Todd Keller 5 4 17.09 1 0.00 17.0920 Kevin Kinnear 5 5 16.80 0 0.00 16.8021 Drew Damtoft 5 4 16.87 1 0.00 16.8722 Fred Ratcliffe 5 5 16.62 0 0.00 16.6223 Bill Wittman 5 5 16.57 0 0.00 16.5724 Merritt Diamond 5 5 16.38 0 0.00 16.3825 Orlando Roman 5 5 16.15 0 0.00 16.1526 Rich Bush 5 5 16.04 0 0.00 16.0427 Matt James 5 5 15.89 0 0.00 15.8928 Doug Walker 5 5 15.66 0 0.00 15.6629 Sean Brown 5 5 15.15 0 0.00 15.1530 Dave Livingston 5 5 14.89 0 0.00 14.8931 Jon Skirment 5 5 14.82 0 0.00 14.8232 Jack Kleinman 5 5 14.55 0 0.00 14.5533 Dom Cerasuolo 5 4 14.53 1 0.00 14.5334 Dalton Talbot 5 5 13.07 0 0.00 13.0735 Terry Gartz 5 5 10.63 0 0.00 10.6336 Tige Noni 4 4 9.34 0 0.00 9.3437 Bob Manley 3 3 7.12 0 0.00 7.1238 Ben Levy 1 1 3.31 0 0.00 3.3139 Don Joffelyn 2 2 2.56 0 0.00 2.56

because fish continued to pull up multiple times throughout the day. I agreed and ran to my second area. I noticed the quality and quantity on the second area was better than my starting spot, but it is one of the biggest community holes during the spring so I knew it would be busy to say the least. I bounced around between the community hole and an underwater point throughout the day and managed to pluck a few fish in each spot and culled my way up to 19.80 lbs.”





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www.rosenpitcherdental.com 585-586-2222

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july 2019 o’brien...“secret lure”, and then continued to it throw almost exclusively for the...

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