Posts Tagged Tournament Fishing
17th Annual Crappie Buddy Tournament
Posted by Staff in Open Tournaments on March 1, 2010
17TH ANNUAL LAKE ARTHUR
CRAPPIE BUDDY TOURNAMENT
MAY 23, 2010
7:00 am To 3:00 pm
Guaranteed $1,000 1st Place
Rules
“Please read and follow these rules precisely, as there will be no Pre-Tournament Meeting”
1. 100% Pay-out based on total entries: pay 1 place per 10 boats (Example: 50 boats – 5 places, etc.)
2. Smallest Total weight will win the Waterbec T-Shirt Award.
3. Fishing off limits May 23,2010,12:01 am to 7:00 am starting time.
4. Any entries after May 16, 2010 cash only (can also be accepted at Bait Boy Inc., Bob Warren Boat Sales.)
Also cash at 528 Boat Launch on May 23, 2010 from 6:00 AM to 6:30 AM.
5. MANDATORY BOAT CHECK AT 528 BOAT LAUNCH, STARTING AT 5:30 AM, AFTER BOAT CHECK YOU MAY
LAUNCH FROM ANY BOAT LAUNCH, BUT CAN NOT LEAVE THE BOAT LAUNCH UNTIL 6:00 AM. NO FISHING
UNTIL 7:00 AM.
6. BOTH TEAM MEMBERS MUST BE PRESENT, ON THE WATER, AT TIME OF CHECK-IN AND WEIGH-IN TO WIN PRIZES. You must fish together in the same boat and are not allowed to leave boat (except in dire emergency). No spectators allowed on your boat. NO FISHING WITHIN 50 YARDS OF OPPONENTS ANCHORED BOAT.
7. Tournament will be held regardless of weather.
More rules on Application
Last Years Top 5
1st Place $1000
Don Wagner & Robert Wagner – 11.36 lbs.
2nd Place $415
Ken Zaludek & Sonny Daniels -8.62 lbs.
3rd Place $265
Bob Barnes & Scott Barnes – 8.21 lbs.
4th Place $165
Robert McAnallen & Zach Sawyer – 7.95 lbs.
5th Place $100 Cash – Main St Florist
Andy Radwanski & John Reep – 7.19 lbs.
See Full Rules and Download your Application Here
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Final Tournament of the Year – Lake Arthur
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on November 12, 2009
The final bass tournament of the year has come and gone. The bass club I fish in, West Penn Bass Hunters, had there final tournament of the year on Lake Arthur last Sunday. I had not pre-fished for this tournament, but Lake Arthur is my home lake so I had a good idea where the fish might be. After looking through my notes from the past few years, I decided that I would need to fish shallow weedlines and/or wood to get my fish. We launched from 528 launch at 8am, with clear skies, no wind, warmer than average air temp, and the water temp was 49°. My first stop of the day was a cove about half way down the lake. Not knowing exactly where the fish would be I picked up my white chatterbait and started down the bank. It didn’t take long to get my first hit, maybe 15-20 minutes, but it was just a 13” largemouth. My next bite, coming just a few minutes later was much better, a solid 4.56lb largemouth. After getting that big girl so early, I was planning on having a great day of fishing. I fished around that cove for the next few hours, changing my lures and trying a spinnerbait, jig, jerkbait, and a beaver but was only able to get few more dinks. I moved down around Bear Run next but didn’t get anything down there so I decided to make the run all the way back up to muddy creek. I fished around in weeds with a spinnerbait and chatterbait for a few more hours with no success, so I decided to try dragging a beaver. I was able to get one hit on the beaver, which ended up being my last keeper of the day, a 3lb largie. My final stop of the day was up in Shannon’s Bay where I got one more dink on a chatterbait. It was time to take in my fish in and see how everyone else did. My total weight with my two fish was 7.65lbs and it was just enough to squeak out the win over two other guys that had three fish limits. It was a great day to be on the water as the weather was nice and even though the fishing wasn’t great the size of the fish I got made up for the low number of fish I caught.
ABA New York West Division on Oneida Lake
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on October 1, 2009
This past weekend I fished as a rider in the last divisional event for the bassmaster weekend series, New York West Division on Oneida Lake. This was the championship so it was a two day event held on Saturday and Sunday. Much like Leo has said in the past, these guys from the ABA do a fine job at putting on a tournament.
Leo and I arrived at Oneida Lake Thursday afternoon and practiced both Thursday and Friday. We found some solid spots around some of the shoals that littered the lake. The main pattern was a 3/8 or ½ oz white spinnerbait over 10 or so feet of water. Let me tell you that the smallmouth in Oneida are some of the strongest fighting smallies I have every seen. In fact I didn’t talk to too many guys that didn’t have at least one spinnerbait broken by these guys, I myself broke two. The secondary pattern was to pull a green pumpkin tube or beaver.
Day one of the tournament was not what I would call and nice day on the water. Heavy winds produced some bumpy conditions, 3 to 5 footers. Despite the bad weather conditions my boater was on good fish and I was able to get limit of solid fish using my ½ oz white spinnerbait on day one. This put me right where in needed to be for day two.
On day two the wind had died off a little but the rain moved in. My boater had some smallmouth he fished in practice about half way down the lake so after a few stops in the morning we decided to run down and see if we could get into them. We pulled up to spot and within an hour had a small limit. We worked this area for the reset of the day and we were able to cull up but not quite to the quality of fish from day one. Once again just about every fish came on a ½ oz white spinnerbait, a few came on a green pumpkin tube.
I was able to put together my first top 5 finish in this series, finishing 4th. All in all it was a good weekend of fishing. If I learned one thing from this trip it was that I’m more out of shape then I ever thought possible. Throwing a ½ oz spinnerbait for four straight days had my arms sore. I have no idea how KVD does it.
Practice Doesn’t Always make Prefect
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on August 24, 2009
This weekend was a mixed bag of fishing for me to say the least. My buddy and I were signed up to fish the Mcfeely Tournament at Lake Arthur on Sunday, which is a great tournament for a worthy cause, put on by the guys at Consumer Direct Sports Supplies every year. I had been getting a few nice fish out of the weeds just about every trip out there this year, but it had been less consistent as of late. I wanted to go practice the day before the tournament to check some spots and try to find some more spots to make sure I was on fish. I told myself going in I was going to stick one fish in each spot I hit just to make sure they were the quality of fish I was looking for.

5lb 13 oz Lake Arthur Largemouth
The morning started off better then I could have hoped for. I punched my black and blue Picasso jig with 65lb braid into the first patch of weeds I came to and bang, a nice 4lb largemouth. So I left and went to my next stop. On the first cast, I got a small keeper. I left that spot and went punching pads in th next area I wanted to fish and got a nice mid 40’s musky. The first of three musky I had hit in Bear Run that day, other two got off. I did have to give her my jig because I couldn’t even see it in her craw and I didn’t want to killer her trying to remove it. I didn’t get any bass in the pad so I made a run down the lake to check some other holes I hadn’t fished yet this year. At my next stop I punched into some weeds and pulled up a nice 5lb 13 oz largemouth. (Sorry for the bad picture all we had was a cell phone to take the picture.) After that I thought I was going to be in great shape going into the tournament the next day.
Well sorry to say my buddy and I never got a keeper during the tournament. I’m not sure if it was the weather difference that changed everything or what. Saturday was sunny and nice and Sunday was overcast and cold. We did catch some fish but never got a good one. We did, however, have another musky attack but it didn’t hook up. On that note, if anyone is looking for musky, Lake Arthur seems to be really picking up right now.
What can you do? Sometime you get the bass and sometimes the bass get you. What else can you say? I think of it this way, it better to have caught some fish on Saturday and had a good day of fishing then to have never caught them at all.
Cull-Buddy Culling System Review
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Accessories, Product Review on August 17, 2009
| Product Type | Culling System |
| Mounted | Livewell |
| Used With | Balanced Beam |
| MSRP | $35 + Shipping =$40.98 |

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FishPittsburgh.com Score (1- Poor to 10 – Fantastic) |
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Category |
Score |
Notes |
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Durability/Strength |
9 |
For any bass that you will be culling in the Pennsylvania water systems, the Cull-Buddy is strong enough and will handle the fish well. Up to 15 lbs per tag. |
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Mounting |
8 |
This is the only area that I can see a flaw in the product. For most guys this may not make a difference, but I don’t like exposed bolt heads on top of the boat carpet. See notes below. |
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Culling Fish |
10 |
Since the tag is through the fishes lip, it makes it easy to use a balance beam to cull fish. |
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Price |
10 |
You get what you pay for when it comes to this product. It may be a little more expensive than other systems, but it is worth the money. |
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Availibility |
8 |
Currently, the only place that I have found the product is the cull-buddy website, but they will have them to you in the matter of days. |
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Total |
45/50 |
See Comments Below. |
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Cull-Buddy |
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Pros |
Cons |
| Mounts on livewell lid. | Tag is through fishes lip. |
| Durable and strong. | Bolt through carpet and exposed. |
| Colored and numbered tags. | |
| Can be used with any culling beam. | |
| Keeps boat more organized. | |

NOTES: This is a great product based on a great idea. You tag fish and put them in the livewell, so why not mount the tags in the livewell. This helps keep the boat more organized and saves precious time when in a tournament. It saves time by you not looking for tags and being able to hook the tag onto the culling beam. As far as mounting is concerned, if you don’t mind seeing the 4 bolt heads on top of your carpet the livewell lid mount is great. I don’t truly have a solution to this problem besides mounting it inside a compartment. Which, mounting the system in the compartment will not help you save time on the water. By using this product I guarantee that you save time and become a more efficient tournament fisherman. Balance beam and scale are not included with the cull-buddy.
ABOUT THE CRITIC: You must know that I am very critical of my lures. I only have about 3 lures that I use that would receive a perfect 50 and I personally modify those lures once I have them. I consider any lure over 40 great and any lure over 30 good. Anything less than 30 and you probably won’t see it in my tackle box.
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For more information visit the Cull-Buddy website: Cull-Buddy Website
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K.B.B.C – Mon South Side Top 50 2009
Posted by Jon Parker in K.B.B.C on August 15, 2009
Results from the Mon South Side Tournament on August 15, 2009
| Place | Team ID | Team Names | Lunker | Wt. | # Fish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 142 | Gary Carlin/Bud Hoffman | 1.74 | 5.76 | 5 |
| 2 | 184 | Jason Gorbar/Nick McCarthy | 2.19 | 5.57 | 5 |
| 3 | 323 | Mike Curran/Harry Emmerling | 1.89 | 4.86 | 4 |
| 4 | 457 | Doug Beck/Gary Domian | 2.44 | 4.77 | 3 |
| 5 | 212 | Blain Bartley/Joe Dugas | 1.71 | 4.61 | 4 |
| 6 | 493 | Butch Marietta/Helen Marietta | 1.83 | 4.2 | 4 |
| 7 | 285 | Carl Dietz/Justin Wray | 1.57 | 4.12 | 4 |
| 8 | 104 | Wes Paskorz/Dean Murray | 3.28 | 3.99 | 2 |
| 9 | 145 | Wayne Bruno/Keith Kristoff | 1.48 | 3.93 | 4 |
| 10 | 241 | Jim Lunsford/John Aloia | 1.43 | 3.71 | 4 |
| 11 | 335 | Mark Mounts/Matt Farabee | 1.75 | 3.57 | 3 |
| 12 | 103 | Dan Modrovich/Ron Modrovich | 1.75 | 3.36 | 3 |
| 13 | 611 | Jim Lipo/Sam Allen | 1.53 | 3.27 | 3 |
| 14 | 114 | Ivan Malecki/Chuck Robison | 1.47 | 3.2 | 3 |
| 15 | 168 | Gus Kneidinger/Jason Kneidinger | 1.6 | 3.18 | 3 |
| 16 | 193 | Matthew Stasiak/Todd Yester | 1.5 | 3.14 | 3 |
| 17 | 247 | Tom DeSantis/Dave Oliverio | 1.53 | 3.1 | 3 |
| 18 | 524 | Dennis Smith/Jim Christy | 1.5 | 3.09 | 3 |
| 19 | 609 | Dan Lyle/Nick Lyle | 1.43 | 3.02 | 3 |
| 20 | 120 | John Bernard/Matt White | 1.76 | 2.76 | 2 |
| 21 | 137 | Nicolas Supik/Justin White | 1.76 | 2.64 | 2 |
| 22 | 304 | Ed Filipiak/Mike White | 2.59 | 2.59 | 1 |
| 23 | 426 | Rick McNulty/Jason Layman | 1.73 | 2.59 | 2 |
| 24 | 177 | Joe Vargo/Steve Kotvas | 1.53 | 2.54 | 2 |
| 25 | 197 | Rich Conlon/Matt Sullivan | 1.6 | 2.49 | 2 |
| 26 | 320 | Mark Meekins/Carlyle Meekins | 1.67 | 2.43 | 2 |
| 27 | 126 | Mark Melega/Lee Corazzi | 1.48 | 2.4 | 2 |
| 28 | 139 | Ed Lightner/Randy Fox | 1.6 | 2.29 | 2 |
| 29 | 162 | Doug Fodrey/Maddog Ranager | 1.4 | 2.23 | 2 |
| 30 | 214 | James Brown/Dean Poorbaugh | 1.38 | 2.1 | 2 |
| 31 | 107 | Barry Clapperton/Keith Kleespies | 1.71 | 1.71 | 1 |
| 32 | 134 | Richard Mislevy/Scott Mislevy | 1.71 | 1.71 | 1 |
| 33 | 262 | David Szulkowski/Robert Weiland | 1.64 | 1.64 | 1 |
| 34 | 359 | George Kuzemchak/Mike Coccia | 1.46 | 1.46 | 1 |
| 35 | 196 | Jerauld Smith, Jr/Jerauld Smith, Sr | 1.45 | 1.45 | 1 |
| 36 | 201 | Leo Cancilla/Ron Cancilla | 1.4 | 1.4 | 1 |
| 37 | 151 | Danny Konitsky/Andrew Konitsky | 1.39 | 1.39 | 1 |
| 38 | 438 | Chris Covert/Charles Walker, Jr | 1.39 | 1.39 | 1 |
| 39 | 205 | Jeff Hall/Todd Caddy | 1.37 | 1.37 | 1 |
| 40 | 181 | Michael Slater/Bill Otto | 1.36 | 1.36 | 1 |
| 41 | 321 | Steve Becket/Bradley Beckett | 2.17 | 1.17 | 1 |
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Also check out this list of the Big bags of 2009
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For more information on the Keystone Bass Buddy Circuit, visit there website at www.kbass.com
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There are fish in Lake Arthur?
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on July 30, 2009
There are fish in Lake Arthur, (see Leo’s blog below) say the guy who getting them every week. I will have to agree that the fishing was better then normal for us last night. My dad and I were also able to manage three keepers that got us in the top 8, 3rd place, for the first time this year. It hasn’t been a horrible season, like last year, but we haven’t been knocking them dead either. We have been able to get one or two keepers pretty much every night. We just haven’t had a good enough bag of fish to weigh in until last night. I’ll call it luck that got us our three keepers last night, we finally got the right bites and we were able to land all our fish. Lets hope it keeps up but knowing Lake Arthur we will probably not get a bite for the next two weeks.
Club Tournament at Pymatuning
Posted by Jon Parker in Parker's Fishing Blog on April 28, 2009

I fished a club tournament for bass at Pymatuning this past Saturday. I was able to catch 14 bass total, most of which were largemouth but there was as few smallmouth mixed in. They ranged in size from about 16” to 6” (don’t even know how he got the tube in his mouth). Most of my fish came on a tube or soft plastic crawfish bait, Texas rigged with a ¼ to 3/8 oz bullet weight. Most of the fish came by pitching or flipping into laydowns or stumps. Water temp varied greatly depending on where on the lake you were at, coves being in the low 60’s and open water being in the mid 50’s. All in all it was a good day of fishing.
Improve Live Release In Tournaments
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Tip of the Week on April 14, 2009
As a tournament fishermen I am very concerned about keeping my fish alive. Not only because there are penalties for dead fishbut we have to make sure that we do not harm the population for the future. There are a couple of ways to help ensure that your fish will be release alive no matter what species you are trying to catch. The easiest and cheapest way to help you keep your fish alive is go make sure that your live wells aeratoris working correctly. Next you should always take some ice with you in the summer months because the sun will heat the water in your live well. Adding 1 cup of ice per hour will help prevent the water from becoming to hot. The last precaution that I take is that I add the correct amount of CATCH AND RELEASE to the water. It is an additive that helps relax the fish, prevents loss of slim coat, and adds oxygen to the water. Please help us keep our fish alive for everyone to catch another day.
WHEN THE ICE COMES OFF
Posted by Leo Cancilla in Fishing Articles on March 15, 2009
It is the most exciting time of the year! The local lakes, rivers and streams are all thawing and the ice is coming off. We all have a few months of stored up fishing energy that we want to put to good use. Before we rush out to the bone chilling water temperatures here are a few things to remember.
Before you leave home, you should check the tire pressure of your trailer tires. While you are checking the tires, you might want to consider checking your bearings and pack them in grease. Also, you will want to check you trailer lights. I know that I usually have to replace light bulbs throughout the year and I usually start my year with new lights. Depending on what you had done before or during winter on your boats motor you may want to have it tuned, or at least buy a spare set of spark plugs.
Here are a couple personal rules that I follow and live by. When fishing from a boat in water less than 50 degrees I always wear my life jacket while the gas motor is running. The kill switch should always be attached to you as well. This should be practiced even with small engines. While fishing rough water with these cold water temperatures I find myself reaching for my life jacket. The life jacket may restrict or limit your motion, but if you end up in the lake or river these devices will be the main reason you survive. Tournament anglers and recreational fishermen alike should always be concerned with safety first.
Now we can talk fishing. That stored up energy that I talked about.
It can be a killer. You want to fish fast aggressive and cover water. If that is your plan then you might want to give the water a couple of weeks. You are going to have to work slow and be very patient. You are only going to get a few strikes and you may never even feel them. My lures of choice are suspending lures. Hard bodied jerkbaits and shad baits that suspend are my go to baits. The fish will range in depths from 3 feet to 15 feet depending on the lake and species of fish. Don’t expect your fish to have a bunch of hooks in its mouth either. More than likely it will barely be hooked. Fight your fish slow and make sure to keep good tension, but don’t put too much pressure on the hooks.
I hope your first trip to the water is a successful one.





