Mitchell Rides to Victory on The Connecticut River!

On August 16th, the club returned to the Connecticut River out of the Salmon River State launch. It had been two year's since the club last fished the river and many anglers were not looking forward to going back. The stingy river would prove very important in shaping the final results and bringing in a few fish to "survive" the event was first and foremost on the minds of many of the top anglers.

One angler who had his sights on doing more than just surviving was Scott Mitchell. Since he did not know the river well, Scott entered as a non-boater and was fortunate to be paired with Nick Albano. Nick won the last event on the river but this time around, Nick's spots were not holding fish. Scott fell back on plan 'B' which had him focusing on some information he received and he parlayed that information into 15 keepers for the day. Culling up only ounces, his eventual total was 8 pounds 8 ounces which was good enough for first place in the event. Scott utilized a brown jig-n-pig for most of his fish.

Placing second with the only other limit in the tournament was Rich Kalanz. Richie located his fish in practice in the southern section of the river by a feeder creek and his bait of choice was a drop-shotted Senko. His five largemouth totaled 8 pounds 2 ounces.

Known as an excellent river fisherman, Kirk Stober tied Nick Albano for third place in the event. Each angler had four fish for a total of 7 pounds 11 ounces. While Nick traveled many miles upriver for his fish, including the 3 pound 9 ounce tournament lunker, Kirk concentrated on areas closer to the launch.

Alvin Walters also decided to fish within only a few miles of the Salmon River launch site and the extra time allowed him to catch four largemouth for a total of 5 pounds 2 ounces.

Once again and as expected, the Connecticut River proved to be a very stingy and difficult place to fish for the Bergen Bassmasters. The 29 club anglers brought in a total of only 42 keepers for 62 pounds 7 ounces. Scott's top finish moved him closer to first place overall and Rich Kalanz's second place has him eyeing a top twelve spot. A few other anglers high up in the standings were breathing a sigh of relief if they weighed in at least one fish while other were cursing the river, hoping never to return.

All contents created 2002 by Mark B. Scocco.