This is my final post on this blog for two reasons:
1. All Daily Journal blogs have moved to the new Web site — nems360.com.
2. I am no longer a Daily Journal employee. Economics forced the newspaper to eliminate my position.
I hope to return in some form, but as of this time, I don’t know what it is.
Thank you for your support.
Buster
From the Associated Press:
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Mark Menendez won the Bassmasters Elite Series event on Lake Dardanelle, holding off a Sunday charge by four-time angler of the year Kevin VanDam.
Menendez, from Paducah, Ky., simplified his approach by using an aluminum boat-rig with minimal trappings to accumulate 55 pounds, 7 ounces. It was the first time since Roland Martin in 1994 that an angler won a top-level BASS event in an aluminum rig.
“This is the purest form of fishing, absolutely old school,” he said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just a method of transportation and you have to catch the fish to win.”
Menendez earned $100,000 for his third win of the season. VanDam trailed by more than 5 pounds heading into the final day and simply ran out of time trying to catch up, finishing with 53 pounds, 4 ounces. Chris Lane of Winter Haven, Fla. was third at 48-1.
GADSDEN, Ala. — Fighting a relentless current cast after cast, Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga., landed her fourth BASS win — her second on Neely Henry — Saturday by just 7 ounces in the Academy Sports Outdoors Women’s Bassmaster Tour season opener on Neely Henry Lake.
“It was simple persistence,” Martin-Wells said.
Her 38-pound, 10-ounce total bested Tammy Richardson of Amity, Ark., who recovered after a slow first day to finish second with 38-3.
Martin-Wells won $1,000 and a Skeeter/Yamaha boat rig valued at $55,000.
The Coosa River impoundment’s current picked up speed this week as water was pulled through the Neely Henry dam to handle three days of heavy rain.
“Even though I have a very good and strong trolling motor, the current was stronger, so the whole time I had my foot on it, I was straining from daylight to takeout every day,” Martin-Wells said. “If I caught a fish, or broke off, or had to cull, by the time I got through, I was half a mile from where I had been fishing, so I had to crank up the big motor to get back to my fish.”
Martin-Wells won the WBT’s 2008 event on Neely Henry as well as the inaugural WBT Championship in 2007 on another Coosa impoundment, Lake Mitchell. Her vast experience on Coosa waters led her to try just about every lure in her tacklebox this week— tubes, worms, crankbaits, spinnerbaits and even a drop-shot rig, something she rarely turns to.
Martin-Wells went into Saturday’s final round with a 2-pound, 10-ounce advantage over Richardson. Richardson did her best to catch up, weighing Saturday’s biggest bag of 15-4, but was short of trumping the pro from Georgia.
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – BASS announced the cancelation of the third day of competition, scheduled for Saturday, for the Toyota Trucks Diamond Drive on Lake Dardanelle because of unsafe weather conditions. The final day of competition, set for today, will feature the top 12 anglers and remain as previously scheduled.
The angler with the heaviest cumulative weight will take home the $100,000 top prize. The full standings will carry over to today.
Today’s activities include the live taping of Hooked Up, hosted by ESPN Outdoors personalities Mark Zona and Tommy Sanders. The show, which will air live at 3:30 p.m. on Bassmaster.com, will cover today’s final weigh-in.
The top 12 anglers are:
1. Mark Menendez of Paducah, Ky. (39 pounds, 4 ounces)
2. Cliff Pace of Petal (38-7)
3. Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Mich. (33-12)
4. Matt Herren of Trussville, Ala. (32-8)
5. Alton Jones of Waco, Texas (32-3)
6. Fred Roumbanis of Bixby, Okla. (32-1)
7. Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Mo. (31-11)
8. Jim Murray of Arabi, Ga. (31-3)
9. Greg Vinson of Wetumpka, Ala. (30-15)
10. Chris Lane of Lakeland, Fla. (30-6)
11. Skeet Reese of Auburn, Calif. (29-6)
12. Bradley Hallman of Norman, Okla. (28-14)
National Park Service News Release
Clarification Statement
WASHINGTON – On March 10, 2009, the National Park Service distributed a press release entitled “National Park Service Gets the Lead Out.” Due to some confusion over its contents, the agency provides the following clarifying statements:
1. Nothing has changed for the public. We are simply announcing the NPS goal of eliminating lead from NPS activities to protect human and wildlife health.
2. We will work to clean our own house by altering NPS resource management activities. In 2009, we will transition to non-lead ammunition in culling operations and dispatching sick or wounded animals.
3. In the future, we will look at the potential for transitioning to non-lead ammunition and non-lead fishing tackle for recreational use by working with our policy office and appropriate stakeholders/groups. This will require public involvement, comment, and review.
GADSDEN, Ala. — Emily Shaffer of Mount Juliet, Tenn., took the Day One lead by almost 2 pounds Thursday in the season opener of the Academy Sports + Outdoors Women’s Bassmaster Tour on Neely Henry Lake.
Shaffer’s 14-pound, 8-ounce bag of spotted bass pushed her ahead of Kim Stapp of Ringgold, Ga., who weighed in 12-10 to put her in second place on the leaderboard.
Stapp was just ounces ahead of Gina Jones of Alexandria, Ala., who had 12-8 in her first WBT entry.
The field squeezed up even more tightly from there. Sharing fourth place with 12-4 were Penny Berryman of Hot Springs, Ark.; Cheryl LaLumandier of St. Charles, Mo.; and defending champion Pam Martin-Wells of Bainbridge, Ga.; who won in 2008 on Neely Henry by an almost 9-pound margin.
The six led the pro field vying for a first-place prize of $1,000 cash and a Skeeter/Yamaha boat rig valued at $55,000.
Kathi Hurst of Ripley boated three fish at 4-06 for 52nd place so far.
The Academy Sports + Outdoors Women’s Bassmaster Tour will open its fourth season out of Gadsden, Ala., when the circuit returns Friday-Sunday to Neely Henry Lake, a fishery that’s proved to be one of the toughest stops on the tour.
Ripley’s Kathi Hurst is expected to be among the competitors.
By several accounts, WBT anglers will have to fish hard for five-fish limits three days running for a chance to claim the event’s top prizes, fully rigged boat-and-motor packages. The rig that will go to the winner in the pro division is valued at $55,000; on the co-angler side, it’s worth $25,000.
For pro division competitors, the season-opening event also is the starting line in the 2009 Toyota Tundra Women’s Bassmaster Tour Angler of the Year points race. The AOY crown comes with a new Toyota Tundra and a berth in the 2010 Bassmaster Classic set for Feb. 19-21, out of Birmingham, Ala.
WBT pro Karen Elkins of Oxford, Ala., said she’s been fishing Neely Henry since she was a teenager.
“The lake has flooded twice since January,” Elkins said. “It may be still running dirty and full when we fish. In the main river, the water temperature is around 54-55 degrees. In the back of the southernmost creeks, the temps are about 60 degrees. I haven’t seen anything other than pre-spawn conditions.”
Neely Henry Lake, one of the Coosa River’s six impoundments, encompasses 11,235 acres. It is home of a prolific spotted bass population as well as a healthy number of largemouth bass.
It was right in the middle of Highway 1 in Thibodaux, La.
Highway 1 runs south to the Gulf, all the way to Grand Isle. Through Houma to Cut Off, Golden Meadow, Leeville then off the end of the earth. Or at least the end of Louisiana.
If you’ve lived in Louisiana at all, you’ve seen a dead raccoon in the middle of the road.
If you’ve lived in the right parts of Louisiana, you’ve seen dead raccoons with lane striping paint over them.
If not, go here.
The 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series brings BASS back to an old friend in Arkansas’ Lake Dardanelle for the March 26-29 Diamond Drive out of Russellville. The last BASS tournament held there was a 2007 Bassmaster Major won by Boyd Duckett of Demopolis, Ala., not long after his 2007 Bassmaster Classic victory. Duckett’s four-day total weight for the event was 55 pounds, 9 ounces.
The Diamond Drive includes a top prize of $100,000 and awards valuable points in the 2009 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title race. Before Day Three competition Saturday, the field will be cut to the top 50 anglers. Only the top 12 will go on to compete in Sunday’s final day.
Part of the Arkansas River Valley, the 34,300-acre Lake Dardanelle has been host to five BASS events. Duckett’s August 2007 victory came together on the final day of competition, after he struggled to find the bite in deeper water on Day Three. He switched to a heavy jig – a 1 ½-ounce Tru Tungsten flipped to shallow grass mats. He also used a 3/16-ounce Tru Tungsten jig with a 7-inch, electric blue Berkley Power Worm.
Two years later, second-year Elite Series pro Clark Reehm of Russellville, Ark., says anglers should expect an entirely different fishery.
“Most of the grass is dead, it hasn’t grown yet,” Reehm said. “And the water temp is 52 to 54 degrees. There are very few limits being weighed in at local tournaments.”
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