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rbertazon's picture

2104 Tournament of Champions

Submitted by rbertazon on Sun, 10/26/2014 - 17:44

I wanted to make a quick post of the results for the top 3 teams in this years TOC. A more complete write-up will follow in a day or two.

Congratulations to Craig Gordon and Holden Wolfe. They weighed-in an impressive Day 2 bag of fish (the only limit of fish in the tournament) of 21.61 lbs. This added with the 8.42 lbs. Day 1 gave them 30.03 lbs. and the title of Champions of the 2014 MRA TOC.

Second place was claimed by the team of Matt Elliott and Al Farace. Matt and Al led after Day 1 with 16.97 lbs. Day 2 saw them bring 10.58 lbs. of fish to the scale for a two-day total of 27.55 lbs.

Finishing third was the team of Brian McQuaid and Bobby Standiford. With 11.31 lbs. on the first day and 10.72 lbs. on Day 2, Brian and Bobby brought a combined weight of 22.03 lbs. of fish to the scales during our season ending 2-day tournament.

Martin Cribb and Ken Denbow had the knack of pulling big fish out of Loch Raven this weekend. They had the Day 1 lunker largemouth of 3.95 lbs. and then followed it up with the largest smallmouth of the tournament on Day 2 with a 1.48 pounder. Note: there were no smallmouth caught on Day 1.

Steve Allender and John Cranblitt scored the Day 2 largemouth lunker with their 4.25 pound fish. Their fish was also the largest fish of this event.

Congratulations Gentlemen!

2014 MRA TOC Champions - Holden Wolfe (L) & Craig Gordon (R)
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wmarchant's picture

The 2014 Campaign, End of the road.

Submitted by wmarchant on Tue, 10/07/2014 - 11:04

The final regular season tournament is complete. Prettyboy posed a special challenge with bluebird skies and a BIG temperature drop the night before. To the teams of Bertazon & Broadwater, Gordon & Wolfe, and Godwin & Walker: You all put forth an Excellent effort on a very tough day. Well Done!
It was a revealing day to Max and me. We lost our bow-mount motor nearly 3 hours before the end of the day, forcing us to control the boat with the main motor. Max fishing from the bow, and me driving from the console. That's team fishing! During this time, we found a pattern that worked well, but it was too late in the day to get the job done. If we identified that pattern an hour earlier, it would have made a big difference. We put 4 keepers in the boat for 14th place.
Lessons learned from this season are numerous. Four important lessons are: We need to put more time into practice next year. We need to improve the quality of practice with better electronics. We need to fish to win rather than fish to fill a limit. There is a significant distinction between the two approaches. Finally, always be open to learning.
MRA is a great club. I truly enjoy the group and strongly encourage anyone interested in joining us to reach out to us. Come to the meeting next February.

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Bstandiford's picture

" Ending the regular season 2014"

Submitted by Bstandiford on Mon, 10/06/2014 - 18:43

The final tournament provided lots of excitement and a lot of teams showed their mettle on another tough day on Prettyboy reservoir. Congratulations Rob & Ron on 3 straight wins on 3 different reservoirs, capturing another AOY title. Also congrats to Craig & Holden for a strong finish to contend for AOY.Kudos to Ian & Ian for being one of the teams on the pre-tournament "bubble" and with your 3rd place finish puts you solidly in the TOC! Also nice job to my fishing partner Brian for catching that lunker LM that helped our cause as well. Also congrats to Mike & Shane, and Gary & Don for another strong Prettyboy finish. How about that giant smallmouth that Gary and Don brought in! I also have to mention Chad & Lenny on another impressive season and returning to the 100 lb. club with Rob & Ron and Craig & Holden! Way to go guys!!! On a different note however I would like to mention the Importance of everyone weighing in their fish each tournament so it does not preclude a deserved team to miss out on the tournament of champions. Earning a berth in the TOC is what the MRA is about! See you on the water.

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tcgordon's picture

Bertazon and Broadwater Win Third in a Row and take Anglers of The Year

Submitted by tcgordon on Sun, 10/05/2014 - 18:58

Under blustery and tough conditions on Prettyboy Reservoir following an extreme overnight drop in temperature, Rob Bertazon and Ron Broadwater took their third tournament in a row and by doing so claimed another Anglers Of The Year title. Their winning limit of 8 fish weighed 18.72 pounds and was one of just 4 limits of fish brought to the scale. Finishing in second and also placing for the third tournament in row was the team of Craig Gordon and Holden Wolfe with 18.24 pounds. Third place went to the team of Ian Godwin and Ian Walker with 14.49 pounds.

The lunker largemouth of 4.51 pounds was brought to the scale by the team of Brian McQuaid and Bobby Standiford. The lunker smallmouth of 4.72 pounds was caught by the team of Gary Gangi and Don Kosdemba.

See tournament results and final Anglers of The Year Standings.

The top 12 teams in the Anglers of The Year points standings and any regular season tournament champions qualify for the 2-day Tournament of Champions on Loch Raven Reservoir on October 25-26th

Bertazon and Broadwater Win Third in a Row and take Anglers of The Year
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wmarchant's picture

2014 Campaign Tourney 5

Submitted by wmarchant on Wed, 10/01/2014 - 04:04

Loch Raven is in the books. It was certainly the toughest day on Loch Raven that I have witnessed, with only 3 limits from 24 boats. Max and I finished in 11th place with 3, count-em, 3 fish for 8.48 Lbs. The best positive that I can take from this tourney is that the tournament was won on the exact spot that Max and I identified in practice as our primary location that we wanted to fish for this tourney. We just couldn’t get to the spot fast enough. A couple of great fishermen arrived first and spent a very productive day there. Congratulations to Rob and Ron! Note to self: get a bigger motor (or two) or identify more productive spots next time. Prettyboy is next. I sit in a Chicago hotel room having not fished Prettyboy since our last tourney there. I have received two Prettyboy practice reports from Max, who put a lot of effort into searching the reservoir and developing an approach for the last tourney. As always, we will fish hard and try to make the best decisions we can. I know we’ll have fun and grow as fishermen, whatever the outcome.

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tcgordon's picture

Bertazon and Broadwater Find the Key to Un-Loch Raven

Submitted by tcgordon on Sun, 09/21/2014 - 08:14

The team of Rob Bertazon and Ron Broadwater found the key, again, to un-Loch Raven Reservoir at the 5th stop of the season on Saturday, September 20th, 2014. Following up their win at Liberty Reservoir 6 days ago, their winning limit of fish topped the scales at 24.84 pounds. On this extremely tough day of fishing, the other 2 registered limits took 2nd and 3rd place. Second place went to the team of Mike Bruening and Tommy Kobus with a weight of 23.70 pounds. Third place went to the team of Craig Gordon and Holden Wolfe with a weight of 21.33 lbs.

For big fish honors of the day, the team of Mike Krahl and Jeff Wise boated the lunker largemouth of 5.01 pounds and the father-son team of Ralph Davis and Kyle Davis found that needle in the haystack by catching a 2.54 pound rare Loch Raven smallmouth. See Results.

With one tournament remaining, the Anglers of the Year race tightened a bit at the top but the team of Chad and Lenny Wisner still hold a 5 and 7 point lead over the nearest competition. That will make the regular season-ending tournament at challenging Prettyboy Reservoir a little interesting. Teams will also be jockeying to qualify for the 2-day Tournament of Champions at Loch Raven. See Anglers of the Year Standings.

Bertazon and Broadwater Find the Key to Un-Loch Raven
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tcgordon's picture

Liberty for Bertazon, Broadwater and All

Submitted by tcgordon on Wed, 09/17/2014 - 20:42

While the nation celebrated the 200th anniversary of our national anthem at the Star Spangled Spectacular in Baltimore, defending Anglers of the Year Rob Bertazon and Ron Broadwater celebrated another tournament win, this time on Liberty Reservoir on Sunday September 14, 2014. Their winning limit of 25.94 lbs. was anchored by the tournament lunker largemouth of 5.38 lbs. Second place went to the team of Gary Gangi and Don Kosdemba who had some last minute heroics in the boat ramp by catching a 3.5 pounder to raise their weight to 24.78 pounds. Gangi/Kosdemba also took lunker smallmouth honors with a 3.58 "brownie". Third place went to the team of Craig Gordon and Holden Wolfe who posted a weight of 23.31 lbs. See Results.

In the Anglers of the Year race, the team of Chad Wisner and Lenny Wisner created more breathing room with 2 tournaments to go by posting their 4th, 4th place this year! THAT is consistency and on pace to be one, if not THE best year in MRA history. See Anglers of the Year standings.

Bertazon and Broadwater Win at Liberty Reservoir 09-14-2014
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wmarchant's picture

The 2014 campaign Tourney 3 Liberty

Submitted by wmarchant on Tue, 08/12/2014 - 07:31

Congratulations to the top performers in this tournament, Matt & Al with 29.66 lb, Butch & Larry with 24.27 and Davis & Spera with 21.61lbs. Fantastic effort! As for Max and me, it was good team effort. Unfortunately, this was only my third time on Liberty this year and the second for Max. This put us at a big disadvantage, as the vegetation has changed a lot since last year. We were fortunate to have a small limit before 7:30 AM. It’s interesting how an early limit changes ones fishing perspective, allowing us to fish very hard but in a more focused and un-rushed manner than if we were chasing a limit all day. The bite slowed dramatically for us by 10:00 AM, but we fished our plan and made some adjustments throughout the day, leading to Max catching two good upgrades. We had our final 8 fish, 18.26 lbs, limit at 12:30 PM, with two small (easily upgradeable) fish in the livewell and 3.5 hours to fish. Unfortunately, there were no upgrades to be found. Finish place was 9th. Team Marchant & Marchant has a lot of room for improvement, but Fishing MRA helps us enormously. We look forward to future tournaments.

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tcgordon's picture

Deja Vu All Over Again - Elliott and Farace win at Liberty

Submitted by tcgordon on Mon, 08/11/2014 - 19:01

This is probably not the last time that we can just cut and paste the headline and results. Again, Matt Elliott and Al Farace easily bested the field - this time at Liberty Reservoir on Aug 10, 2014. Their eight fish limit weighed an eye-popping 29.66 lbs to take their 2nd of 3 MRA 2014 tournaments. (As a refresher, Matt with partner Bill Constantine took 3 of the 6 MRA 2013 tournaments.)

Second place with a distant but huge bag of 24.27 went to Larry Barger and Butch Wilson. Third place with a 21.61 lb. limit went to the team of Davis and Spera.

Big fish honors went to the teams of Elliot/Farace and Martin/Novak for a 4.56 lb. largemouth and 3.90 smallmouth, respectively.

The Anglers of the Year race remains tight with the teams of Wisner/Wisner and Davis/Spera tied atop the leaderboard. Full Results

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wmarchant's picture

The 2014 Campaign Tourney 2 The Ugly

Submitted by wmarchant on Wed, 07/23/2014 - 06:06

I promised the Good, bad and ugly. Here is, what I hope will be, the ugliest. First, another congratulations to the top three finishers. With weights over 20 Lbs., they really got the job done. Our team had a significantly different performance. Two keepers for just over 3 lbs. total, and lots of undersized fish. This was our worst performance on our worst reservoir, Prettyboy, in 5 years. This was particularly disappointing to our team because our practices were pretty encouraging. Mid-day, Max and I discussed a change in strategy, and we made a few adjustments. Unfortunately, there was no change in results. Late in the day, we did find one big fish. A rookie mistake caused me to lose it. My drag was set too light, causing a poor hook-set. Fish lost after a 30 second battle. Heartbreaking because it would have been the only really good fish in the livewell. In the end, it was another day of fishing with my son, which is a good thing. Next we begin preparations for Liberty. Hope to have a happy report to come.

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