Four members qualify for the State Championship after the Mr. Bass event at DeepCreek
The MBN Mr. Bass event took place on September 27th and 28th at Deep Creek Lake.
The weather for this event was not the best of conditions. Saturday, from about noon on
it rained. Sunday morning brought dense fog until 10:00. We finally got on the water
around 10:15 and I ended up extending the tournament until 5:00 on Sunday. The top
two boaters and the top two riders in this event qualified to fish our Maryland Bass
Nation Championship.
Justin Bronson won the tournament in the boater division with a total weight of 27.69
pounds for two days. Justin caught 16.17 pounds on day one with a big fish at 6.11
pounds which was big fish for the tournament and put him well ahead of the field. Day
one, Justin started on a shallow grass bed and caught a quick limit on a buzzbait and
flipping a small craw. Justin said he could not get bit on docks, so he continued running
shallow shallow grass (eel grass and milfoil beds) all over the south end of the lake and
culled a few times. Justin said, “at one last grass bed at the end of the day, I came
across that giant 6 pounder with about 20 minutes before weigh in.” He caught all his
culled fish including the big one on a chatterbait in a natural bluegill type color.
Day 2 after the fog delay, Justin’s grass bed wasn’t working so he ended up scrapping
the grass pattern and moving to docks. Justin spent the rest of the day running and
gunning small groups of docks with a senko. “Once again, in the same general area as
the 6 pounder on day one, I caught my biggest fish of the day just before weigh in but,
on a dock this time.” “That fish wrapped around multiple snags under the dock and even
jumped beside the dock while my line was still wrapped underneath but, I was fortunate
enough to get it out.” Justin said, “big thanks to you and everyone with MBN for putting
on another great tournament.”
Brian Trieschman took 2nd place on the boater side with 21.41 pounds for his two-day
total. Day one, Brian said he didn’t catch a fish until 12:00. He ended up catching his
fish the rest of the day on a frog with a limit weighing 10.26 pounds. Day two, with the
fog delay, Brian said the frog bite was not working. Brian said he ended up catching all
his fish the second day on a senko around docks.
Eric Poe finished in first place in the rider division with a total of 7.14 pounds for two
days. Saturday started with some topwater for Eric throwing a frog. He ended up getting
big fish on the rider side that first day. Day 2 the topwater bite went away with the fog
delay. Eric was lucky enough to get 3 keepers in the boat skipping docks with soft
plastics and luckily ended up with enough weight to win. Eric said, “fishing with Brian
Trieschman was a learning experience.” “Brian is one of the best anglers I have gotten
to fish with and he is even a better person.”
Mike Ridinger ended up in second place on the rider side with 6.77 pounds for his fish
caught during the two-day event. Mike said that he couldn’t have been paired with a
better boater. His boater, David Hankins ended up fishing most of the areas of the lake
that Mike normally fishes and he gave Mike the opportunity for shots at the docks. Mike
said he caught his fish on docks with a 4″ River Rock senko and 5″ Rite Bite senko. He
also threw a Rite Bite tube to catch some of his fish.
I would like to thank all the guys who helped me with the tournament so that everything
ran smoothly. Marty Osbourne helped me check boats in on Saturday morning. My rider,
Bill Brown checked boats in during the afternoon both days for me and he also bumped
fish on the first day. Eric Swearengen had volunteers come in and fill the tanks and set
up the first day and Eric also weighed fish for me the first day as I recorded weights.
The second day, Matt Vanleen bumped and weighed the fish for me. Many anglers
helped me pack up Sunday, Matt, Brian, Eric Poe, Mike Ridinger and others. Sorry for
the ones that I left out that helped. There were others and I cannot tell you how much I
appreciated that.