The Albany Area Bassmasters has their 2013 schedule finalized.  This year the circuit is taking us to Lake Champlain (Ticonderoga), Rouses Point, Oneida Lake, Saratoga Lake, Sacandaga Lake and the Mohawk River.


We kickoff on May 4th with our annual warm-up Pike Tournament on Lake Champlain.


We are in store for some fun and challenging waters this year.  If only spring will get here already.

Our last tournament on Lake Bomoseen was quite an adventure.  First and foremost was the extreme cold and fog, and then, of course, the negativity of the fish!  But as usual, no matter how tough the bite, there are always some Albany Area Bassmasters with fish in the livewell.

Congratulations to Al Maher for not only winning the tournament, but sealing up the deal bigtime for the “2012 Bassman of theYear”. This is the second year Al has won our last tournament when he needed to!

Congratulations to John Hock for his 2nd place finish and to Frank Polomaine for his 3rd place finish.  These guys did a nice job with a very tough bite.

And, of course, we have to give a “shout out” to Felix Ortiz for his monster smallmouth.  This fish, at 5.89 lbs., became the new “Lunker of the Year” as well as the first time our Lunker of the Year was a smallmouth.

If there is anything you can take away from our Ticonderoga tournament, it is that this is a sport of all ages, where our determined young folk can be successful as well as our 
wheelchair-ready participants.  Although Terry Fleming may moan about his walk from his boat to the parking lot, his years of chasing bass on every conceivable type of water still 
trumps videos, gadgets and the internet.  I can remember back in the old days (yes, I’m old, too!) when Terry rubbed shoulders with the likes of Roland Martin, Bo Dowden, Rick Clunn, etc.  These guys were just becoming great back then and they treated Terry as a friend.

So, congratulations to Terry for a great win, right smack in the middle of other tournaments 
going on.  


Congratulations to Frank Rossetti for his second place finish as a non-boater who, I can assure, you will be quite the handful if he ever gets a boat.

What can you say about Al Maher, our third place finisher?  
He’s our 2011 “Bassman” and he is now back on top in 1st place!  We have so much talent in this club that it is always a wild ride, right to the very end.

Our 6 man team competed on Ticonderoga for the Club Team Championship on August 25- 26.  The weather for 4 days was stable but gruelinghot and I can tell you, it takes a toll on everyone. 

Our Captain, Paul Pflieger, did a great job as usual and had all the bases covered, which gave the rest of us the freedom to just concentrate on our fishing.

 

Our team finished 8th out of 26 teams and just missed the money by 2 ½ lbs. We were sitting in 12th place after the first day but made a nice move to 8th place on the second day.

Congratulations to Gene Lavigne for being the top man on our team.

Congratulations to all our team members for sharing their knowledge and for working their butts off. 

The couples dodged the rain up until weigh-in.  The results were far from soggy as the team of Team Curcurito (Joe & Laurie) won with 6 largemouth and a weight of 19.43.  Blowing the competition away!  Joe who won the Saratoga Lake tournament certainly knows where the fish are on that lake and proved it again with this team win.

Official results are in and our president George Locke figured out the fish in this years tournament.  Seen here is him with his 2.91lb lunker Smallmouth.  

Here are the top 5 from Sacandaga.
 
George Locke - 1st Place
Al Dickinson   - 2nd Place
Keith Adams  - 3rd Place
Mike Richard  - 4th Place
Al Maher    -  5th Place

Great job by all!

Official results have been posted.  Congratulations to Joe Curcurito on an impressive 27+ lbs for 2 days on what has become a tough lake.  Also, for the first time that I can recall, the entire club was able to catch a limit on both days...very nicely done! 

Bassman standings have also been updated and the race has tightened up quite a bit at the half-way point of our season.

The results are in and Paul Pflieger blew away the competition with a limit weighing in at over 18 lbs.  There were about 15 limits also brought in.  A far cry from the last time we visited this lake.

WOW!  Nice bag Paul.

The official results are posted.  Congratulations to Jimmy Underhill on the win.  He was able to bring in over 30 pounds during the 2 day event.  We'll hear how he did it at our next meeting, Friday, July 6.