“Terry
Molea and Anthony Bonadona win
“Two
Tournaments” on same day”
When the EASL
Bass Club met to plan the upcoming Tournament, they decided to have
their Tournament to coincide with the 10 th Annual Sorrento Cops
and Kids Bass Tournament out of Doiron’s Landing on October 29 th
.
That gave members
the opportunity to participate in both Tournaments if they chose
to do so.
The dinner that
night was cooked up and served by Thad and Cheri Bellow. The deer
chili was enjoyed by all.
There were 7
boats signed up to fish the EASL Tournament. They decided to have
a 2:30 weigh in to ensure that they were done in time to weigh fish
in the other tournament as well.
The Club had
a discussion about the Bylaws that dealt with dual tournaments and
dual scales. After the discussion it was decided that there would
not be a problem with the members participating in each tournament.
There also was
a discussion held about the 14” minimum length for keeper bass in
the Atchafalaya Spillway area. The discussion was your normal discussion
about whether to continue this program or to change it. We were
fortunate to have Phil Bowman with us that night who has spent his
career working in the LDWF. He gave us a historical perspective
about the program that was very educational and enlightening. The
members did not continue the discussion due to the meeting that
had to be completed.
That Saturday
morning everyone arrived at Doiron’s Landing and took off at safe
daylight. The weather was “clear and cold and windy”. It was the
typical day after the front with a north wind that can really push
water out of the spillway quickly. This will cause fish to bite
due to the dropping water levels but could cause hazardous boating
conditions due to unexpected drop in the water level.
That is exactly
what occurred on that day as EASL Bass Club member Gary Louque and
his partner went across Flat Lake in the morning of the tournament.
All was fine until that afternoon when they took the same route
back to Doiron’s Landing after an all day north wind had pushed
the water out of Flat Lake . The one thing a Bass Boat driver does
not want to experience is low water in the form of a sand bar. Gary
had the unfortunate fate to beach his boat on the sand in Flat Lake
just 1 or 2 minutes away from the landing with no way to even have
help from another boat because of the low water. To make a long
story short, after several phone calls and attempts from others
to help, they had to finally have an air boat come out with assistance
from the Sheriffs Department to tow them off of the bar. Gary said
it was 7:45 PM when he was finally pulled off of the sand bar. The
air boat pulled them toward the Atchafalaya River and then they
had to navigate back to Doiron’s from there. When they approached
the Island in the Intracoastal, a boat in front of them went to
the right of the Island and got stuck. Gary then had to pull him
out so that they could both get back to Doiron’s.
Gary expressed
frustration about the fact that the Law Enforcement departments
in that area don’t have access to airboats for emergencies such
as that. They have boats but not the type of boat that could have
reached him and the two other boats that were beached in Flat Lake
.
To add insult
to injury, Gary weighed his fish later and saw that he had 12.6
lbs of Bass which would have put him in 4 th place in the Sorrento
tournament and 2 nd in the EASL Tournament. It was just “one of
those days” for Gary and he hopes that he doesn’t have another day
like that ever again.
The EASL Tournament
was won by Terry Molea and Anthony Bonadona with 14.88 lbs. They
also won Big Bass with a lunker that weighed 3.96 lbs.
Second place
went to M.J. Leblanc and Wilfred Daigle with 7.45 lbs.
Terry and Anthony
also won the Sorrento Tournament and took 3rd place Big Bass there
too.
Congratulations
to the winners of both Tournaments held that day. The next EASL
event is the annual “Classic” to be held November 12 th .
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