“To All My Bass Fishing Friends,”

Coming into to this tournament I was just so excited for like a couple months because we are back on Lake Tarpon, my favorite lake. This lake has just tons of fish and I just get so excited fishing Tarpon. Plus, if you go back into some club history on Lake Tarpon, we have caught the most weight on this lake than any other lake we fish.

During the week, I was working a lot and also was trying to concentrate in school, as my graduation is right around the corner, but no worries ! Also, in the back of my mind, I was getting the chance to fish my favorite lake.

A week before the tournament I had all four of my wisdom teeth cut out and man it was some kind of pain. By the Saturday before the tournament, I was at least able to get out of bed and walk around. Added to that, my boat mechanic was coming over to the house to fix my motor up right. He did a damn good job.

I called my friend Chase on Saturday night after my boat got fixed and asked him if he wanted to pre-fish Tarpon before the tournament as he was going to be my partner. He said, "Sure Matt, that’s fine with me." The only bad thing about pre-fishing was it was only 2 days after my surgery and I couldn’t eat anything besides ICE CREAM, and trust me, I ate a gallon of Publix Ice Cream in two days, but my stomach still felt so empty; plain in simple, it just sucked !

I picked up Chase on Sunday morning and we headed up to the lake, having a good conversation on the way there. I told him I really don’t want to go to any of the spots that I want to fish during the tournament, he said that's fine.

We fished some of the canals I’ve seen some of our members fish on previous tournaments, just checking things out. We hit one canal and after a couple casts I hooked into a keeper. We caught a few keepers, but mostly “dinks.” I spent most of the day leaning over my boat spitting blood from the surgery I had on my mouth, which just sucked. Finally I just told Chase, “Let’s go in as I was just so hungry and could not eat anything besides apple sauce and stuff like that. Anyway I was pleased the motor ran great.

I was off Wednesday so I got my boat all ready for the tournament. I just kept thinking, man where do I want to go in the morning ? I worked Friday night so I made sure I filled up my ice chest for my cooler on the boat. My partner was already at my house getting his stuff together for the tournament.

About 11:30 p.m. I finally got to go to bed get a little sleep, but soon after that my alarm went off and woke me up. Without much sleep we got going, headed up to breakfast at Denney’s. It was great, a good time in the early morning to talk a little fishing and have something to eat.

At breakfast our Tournament Director, Bill Poirier complained to me about not letting him know that I was bringing a guest. I told him I didn’t know I had to report to him every move I do, but he made it pretty clear to me and explained why and now I understand.

After breakfast we got our boats in the water up at Anderson Park, and I got my boat all organized so we can fish and tried to help the other guys put their boats in the water.

Chase asked me, "Where are we going to go first ?" I said, "We are going to go to “Bill’s Canal” first and let’s hope he is not there or does not go there." We all took off and I am pulling into the spot and Bill was no where to be found, I was happy.

So we start fishing back in there and about 5 minutes later Chase says he has a bite. I said, "GET HIM THEN," but he missed him. After a couple minutes I got a dink in the boat. I got a lot more of them fishing toward the end of the canal. At the end of the canal, I turned around to fish out and all sudden I got a hard strike, I set the hook and got my first keeper in the boat, Man, I was happy. I got my first keeper in the boat at 7 a.m. I knew it was going to be a good day.

I got about six fish out of that canal in the morning but only one keeper. I moved to another spot right across from the canal and I caught another one that was only 13 3/4 inches which sucked ! I said to myself, “That’s ok, just keep fishing.”

All I was doing all day was looking for structure where fish would be. A short while latter I got another hard hit, “Bang,” I set the hook and put that one in the boat, another keeper and I am very excited. It’s not even 9 in the morning and I have two keepers. We fished there a little more and then we moved.

I shot more south on the lake to a point I really like to fish; as I always catch fish in there. But there was one problem, the wind blowing me around like crazy and I couldn’t even feel this one bite I had.

I put down my worm rod and picked up my crankbait rod. I am just cranking along and casting and casting. All of a sudden I went to cast and my new Skeet Reese crankbait rod went right in the water. Man I dove so fast on my deck and grabbed it. I was scared of loosing that new rod. The wind was just killing me out there, so we left and went back into the Dolly Bay canal. Man, that whole canal was nasty, so we turned around and went back into the canal we started in.

I just keep on getting bites, kept getting dinks, but I just kept fishing and focusing on every cast, because I wanted to improve big time from last year. My guest, Chase lost his 6th fish and I turned around and told him, "Dude, look at what I do after every cast; look at the extra line I put out to give the fish a slack line." I think he half-listened then, all sudden he gets a bite again, then gives him slack, and he lost the fish. I told him again, and finally he listened to me, because after that, every bite he had was in the boat.

I got my stuff stored away for a ride back to the ramp for the weight in. I only have 2 keepers which I was happy about but not enough to win, and my partner, Chase did not catch a keeper all day. It was not like last year, where he kicked my butt out of my old john boat. But we still had a great time like always.

We got into the ramp and I pulled my boat right up besides Darrel's boat. He asked me how many fish did I have, I said, Two.” I asked him the same thing and he told me he had “one”. I said, “Well at least you caught a fish.”

Well, after I got my fish weighed in, he weighed his fish in and I see him holding up more than one fish. He looks at me and then tells me the truth and said he had five, I said, “Congrats man, good job,” he said, “Thank you.”

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Darrell Paquin

Bob Gwinn

Chuck Bearce

Along with Darrel having 5 fish, Bob Gwinn (2nd Place), and new member, Pat Stevens (4th Place – 5 @ 7.81 lbs.) which was Bob’s partner for the day had 5 fish also. Good job guys for catching a limit.

But Pat’s “5” were not enough to get into the top 3, when “2 years in a row - AOY Chuck Bearce (3rd Place)” comes up with 3 fish and had a Big Fish weighing 4.10 with a total of 7.95 pounds. “West by God Virginia” Bob Gwinn had a total of 8.45 pounds.

But the main guy on top right now is a new member, Darrel Paquin (1st Place) with a total of 9.45 pounds to win the tournament. Congratulations to everyone who caught fish also.

There were 21 people who fished and 51 fish were brought in for a total of 85.55 pounds and I am glad we had no dead fish. I finished 10th which I was happy about and had a good time.

After the tournament, we were invited to join South Pasco Bass Masters for a picnic which was great. (We had a joint Big Fish Pot between clubs - Matt Drew (r.) of SPBM - 4.56 lbs. was presented with the "Big Fish Traveling Plaque” by last year’s CBC winner, Bill Poirier.)

CBC Club thanks go to SPBM’s, Tony Office for a great job with the “burgers and dogs,” also, thanks go to all the South Pasco ladies who brought the excellent food and to CBC’s "prez," Chuck Bearce for bringing that cake. Also, I don’t want to forget to thank SPBM President, John Medvid for the idea and the organizing of this event. Well done, John !!!

We had a great time as it was fun to rag on each other between clubs about who is going to catch “Big Fish” next time. It was good to sit down and talk some fishing, but all in all it was a great time.

Finally, it was great hearing Luis (Bill Coker’s backseater) complaining to me about Bill Coker and his dog; it was great and we were all laughing.

Pics and April Photo Gallery by " Nick a Noche " & Pat Stevens