“My Bass Fishing Friends,”

Coming into the meeting prior to the tournament I was really looking forward to where we were going to fish. Bill Coker and I talked about where he wanted to fish and he was saying, “About a million lakes.” I laughed. Before the meeting most of us were sitting there at dinner talking about fishing and what lakes do we all want to fish.

Bill Poirier was talking about Lake Reedy and saying it had a full pool and plenty of water. So we all voted and it was Lake Reedy we were going to. I was happy about that because last June I finished 3rd place. I was looking forward to it. I also brought my buddy I work with up at Betts Fishing Center, Michael Touchton.

Well a week before the tournament, I had my graduation party and had some of the guys from the club there. We were all talking about Reedy, but I wasn’t paying that much attention because I was trying to entertain everyone else. For the guys who came, I enjoyed everything and hope ya'll had fun making fun of me and telling jokes about me also (We did !!! – ed.).

That same weekend I went out fishing on Lake Tarpon and I broke my transom in my boat. I didn’t want to take the risk of taking it to Reedy. Michael was my partner so I called him and said we are going to have to bring your boat and he was fine with that. I called Chuck to make sure that was fine and he said it was OK.

Michael picked me up 4am Friday morning at my house. We enjoyed our time on the road and we got to the lake safe and sound. We headed to one of my spots on the lake and Michael got into them right away. I didn’t have a bite or anything. Michael said let’s move so we don’t mess all our fish up.

Next we moved to a spot of his, and he is catching fish after fish. I was getting aggrevated in the back of the boat, but I did not care that much as I was just enjoying my time on the lake and just the fact that I am fishing. Not much later I made a cast out there and I got a backlash. I started reeling it back in and I got a hard hit, but I lost it. We moved to another spot and Michael is still catching fish.

Well then I changed to a WATERMELLON-RED and I caught a dink off it, then another one. We come in at 12:30 and Jerry was there waiting to do the “Big Fish deal” we do. It was a nice fish, so congrats to Jerry on that. Let me tell you, if ya'll ever get in this big fish thing we do on Friday and if Jerry wins, he will hunt you down right away for your money.

We got our room and get all squared away and Mr. Poirier asked if we had any room in our cottage, so I was nice and took him in. Bill told us that he got laid off last Thursday so I said to him right away he better start fishing better and start winning. He started laughing and he said, “You are not kidding.”

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That evening we went out to dinner, a little place in town and we had a good time, laughed and told some jokes. Jerry told me that he was going to sing with that band later that evening. Man did i get a kick out of it. He said, “Matt, I can sing,” and he did a little demo at the table. I think he thought he was ELVIS. We got a kick out of it

Saturday morning came around and Coker comes banging on the door yelling, "GET UP !" We were rushing to get ready, getting everything done. After launch we took off to one of our spots and I started catching fish right away. It was nice because Friday I had 2 bites, and this morning I had 5 small ones in the boat in 10 minutes.

We moved down to our spot and Michael told me to stop the boat where we were fishing because Bill Poirier started heading towards us fishing. We left for a second, and let him fish it and we came back about 30 minutes latter.

I made a nice cast and I though to myself that there has to be a keeper there. Right away I got a hard bite and set the hook hard and like 5 seconds latter my line snapped with my reel breaking at the same time. It was horrible. I changed my one reel to my worm rod. I started fishing again and Michael got a couple keepers in the boat, but all I was getting is small ones.

About 12:00pm I changed to a 12" Junebug Culprit worm and that’s how i got my keeper. Soon after that I went back to red-bug and catching all small ones. That’s all I got the rest of the day !

Michael had 3 keepers. We come in to the weigh-in and me and Pat Stevens (Bill Poirier’s backseater) was talking, and he said they did really well and said Bill has a big fish. I said, “That’s good, congrats man.” He thanked me.

After everyone else weighed in Bill Poirier was the last one and man did he have a nice limit (5 fish 12.71 pounds including “Big Fish” at 5.40 lbs. – 1st Place). Second Place went to Scott Ellis with 3 fish (9.91 lbs) and his big fish was 5.12 pounds. Third Place went to Jerry Bischoff with 2 fish (8.79 lbs) and his big fish was 4.86 lbs. Final stats for Lake Reedy; 22 fisherman (including guests) caught 44 keepers weighing a whopping 98.43 pounds. Great tournament ! Congrats to ya’ll !

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Bill Poirier

Scott Ellis

Jerry Bischoff

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