Skaneateles Lake

Sunday, 12 May 2013

 

This is our first tournament of the season.  NYS allows you to fish for bass during this time period, however you must release them back into the water.  Therefore this is what we call a paper tournament.  The fish are measured and using a chart the length is calculated into weight.

We launched just a little bit before 6 AM.  Of course the preceding days the weather was warm.  But the day before the tournament a cold front came through.  Weather conditions were not ideal.  The air temp. was 48 deg., started out cloudy, a slight wind out of the NW at 5 mph.  By the end of the day the temp. rose to a balmy 52 deg. partially sunny, wind shifted to the WSW with gusts up to 20 mph.  Surface water temp. varied 48 – 54 deg., wave height was dependent upon where you were, west side 6 inches, east side up to 2 – 4 feet in height.

Dick Hyde fishing close to shore on the west side

Tom Hudson with a 16.5 inch small mouth caught on a jerk bait

Tom Hudson, 6th place

sponsored by Bass Pro Shop of Auburn, NY

Kevin Schneider 5th place

Jeff Botting 4th place

Jack “Jake” Wilson III, 3rd place

Fred Blom, 2nd place

Mike Higgins (guest) 1st place

Jeff Botting Big Bass

sponsored by Bass Pro Shop of Auburn, NY

There was a variety of techniques that were used from drop shot, lipless crank baits, and jerk baits.  1st and 2nd place targeted large mouth bass on the South end of the lake.  The rest of the group targeted small mouth bass.