Club Records went up for grabs at the first points tournament of the Southern Tier Bassmaster's 2002 season. Two distinctions went to the tournament winner, Bob Green. His bag of 18.80 pounds of largemouth is a new club, five fish record. His lunker, a 5.89 pound fish, has taken the lead as the Lunker of the Year. The Non-Boater five fish limit record was also set at this tournament with a 12.36 bag brought in by Andy Marino. The club set new records for numbers of fish and total weight in a points tournament.

With overcast skies for the first time all week on the day of the tournament, it could be assumed that most patterns developed while prefishing could be thrown out the window. This fact played perfectly into Bob Green's hands who did not prefish for the tournament at all. "I simply went to an area that I knew held fish in past years," related Green. Understanding that the bass had moved off the docks and into scattered weeds in 5 - 6 feet of water that dropped off into deep water, catching the fish was just a matter zig-zagging over the area until the fish were found. The action was in spurts according to Green and it was just a matter of finding where they had moved to.

The early bite that Bob Green enjoyed boated four fish in the morning, but almost led to heartbreak. The only fish that Green lost all day was his fifth fish which would have filled out an early limit. At that point, it was still questionable whether a limit was in the cards. These fears, however, were all for not. As Green said, "Little did I know, all the fish I had would be culled out."

Green, who is sponsored by Pure Fishing, Berkley, Abu Garcia, Fenwick, and Cooper Custom Baits, used a variety of lures to coax his impressive limit into striking. The weapons of choice were a Cooper Custom Baits' 4" finesse worm in a smoke color, a Texas rigged 3.5" green Berkley Power Tube, and a 5" Venom Senko type bait in smoke rigged wacky style. Green has an excellent track record: three Federation Club Team Event appearances, including Southern Tier's winning team last year on Chautauqua Lake.

The second place limit was carried in by Gregg Seal. With a bag of 15.13 pounds, Seal was able to begin the season with a strong finish. Seal, a Pennsylvania resident, has shown familiarity with the bass of New York, qualifying for the club classic last year and winning a club tournament on the Niagara River in October of 2000.

Seal prefished the night prior to the tournament, and found some fish. The following day was just a matter of spending a little more time to figure out the nuances of the area he found. After fishing the shallow water and coming up with little to show for it, Seal’s partner Andy Marino suggested fishing a bit deeper. That was the key.

Seal’s pattern centered around spotty weeds in nine to twenty feet of water. The technique was simply, "dragging tubes and dead-sticking senkos." Most of the action came in the morning, prior to the wind dying down. This was the case with most of the anglers. Seal would like to thank his sponsor: his wife, and his partner Andy Marino.

The top three was rounded out by a new face to the Southern Tier Bassmasters. Seth Valentine, who moved to New York from Michigan has made his mark on the tournament scene. Despite moving to New York just a few months ago, many figured that Seth would have great success, seeing that he moved right onto Conesus Lake.

Coming into the tournament, Valentine had two patterns that he felt would produce. "I really had to decide where to run and what to do," said Valentine. When his first spot turned up dry, Valentine hit his second area. When that produced only a 14" fish, he ran to a spot where he figured he could at least pick up a quick limit. In about an hour, he had a 13 pound limit. The rest of the day, Valentine was able to fend off the rest of the competition by upgrading that limit to a 14.20 pound bag. He lamented, "The only low point was not being able to find a 'kicker' fish." His largest bass weighed in at just under four pounds.

The area that Vanlentine was fishing was a bit deeper than most anglers. Sitting in 5 feet of water, he would cast his Carolina rig into 9 - 12 feet. When moving to the shallow area he intended on fishing, Valentine noticed lots of baitfish out deeper. Figuring that the bigger fish may be deeper too, he decided to concentrate on the deeper water.

Valentine's presentation was slow. While the fish would not hit the lure if it sat on the bottom, Valentine would have to let the Carolina rig sit for "a long time," and then move it. That's when they'd nail it. He also feels that going to a lighter when and shortening the leader were important variables that allowed him to pick up those fish.

The First Event of the 2002 season was a great success and Southern Tier Bassmasters would like to thank their sponsors for their support.

- John Siejak