| January/February The guys have been fighting "cabin fever" by going to the fishing shows and seminars. The club's award banquet is scheduled to be held at Chuck's house on February the 20th. The schedule is posted on this site for 2010. We are fishing the same rivers as last year, but we are fishing Falls Lake later in the spring. Hopefully, this year we will be able to avoid severe weather. Our first tournament is out of Fort Washington Marina on the Potomac River on March 27th. |
| March We are presently going through typical early season problems. Chuck is still waiting on his new boat; Denis' boat is in the shop with injector problems; Scott's boat had a lower unit oil leak: and Walt hurt his back loading his boat. Our first tournament of the year, on the Potomac (March 27th), had to be moved ahead one week because of the above issues and also possible dangerous waters. The tournament was held on April 3rd out of Smallwood Park. The water temperature had dropped back down into the low 60's and there were a lot of smaller fish caught. But, as always, someone managed to catch some better fish. In this case, it was Walt who managed to squeeze out four keepers for 10 lbs 6.5 ozs on the main river for first place. Jeff took second with a lunker of 4 lbs 9 ozs that was the big fish of the day. Denis took third with a fish of 2 lbs 11 ozs. Our next tournament is on the Upper Bay on April 18th. The club is hoping to add a few new members which should help weather any boat problems that may come up in the future. |
| April Several new additions in the Tiderunner family this month. Denis became a grandfather for the first time in early April when his son and daughter-in-law had a little girl and Jeff became a dad for the first time in late April when he and his wife Liz had a little boy. Congrats to both. The tournament on the Upper Bay, of course, came after a cold front and we fished in the wind and an incoming tide most of the day. But, even so, everyone caught fish and some came in with good bags. Scott won it with a limit weighing 15-03 and a lunker of 4-03. Walt won lunker of the day with a hog weighing in at 6-00. He came in second with three fish at 11-00. The rest of the guys caught mostly small ones and only weighed in a few each. All-in-all a decent day considering what it could have been. |
| May Our two-day tournament on Falls Lake in North Carolina was changed to a one-day tournament on the Wicomico River because of the expense of going to North Carolina. The tournament on the Wicomico was won by Walt with 13 lbs 11.5 ozs. He also won lunker with a bass weighing 3 lbs 10 ozs. He fished all over the river, but caught his last two fish up river in the right split late in the day. Scott came in second with a bag weighing 7 lbs 1 oz. He caught most of his fish off of the long bulkhead down river. |
| June Our second tournament on the Potomac was a hot one with the temperatures in the upper 90's. Fish were still caught with four of the five members fishing bringing in limits. Denis had the best bag of 13-09.5 by fishing the grassbed between the Smallwood Marina and Grinder's wharf. He also had the lunker of 4-06.5. All of his fish were caught on Chigger Craws. Walt came in a close second with a 11-12.5 stringer |
| July / August Nothing much in July with some of the guys on vacation. In August we had our fifth tournament on the mighty Nanticoke River. Not many keepers were brought in with a lot of small bass being caught. Walt took the tournament by bringing in the only limit of the day which weighed a whopping 5-14. Walt said that he must have caught about 25 bass throughout the day, but most were dinks. He fished mostly in Delaware. No one else caught more than three keepers. |
| September We had two tournaments in September; the Wicomico River and our third Potomac River tournament. Dickie won the Wicomico tournament by weighing in five of the eight fish caught by the club. He said that he caught two on topwater baits in the pads early in the morning and then had to struggle to caught his final three. The fish had to be aggravated into biting by throwing to structure eight or nine times in a row. And even then, the bite was very subtle. Dickie's bag was 8-13. The Potomac Tournament was won by Denis with a limit weighing 10-04.5 and a lunker of 3-03. Four of the five guys fishing had limits with Chuck finishing second with 9-07.5. Dickie came in third with 8-05. Most of Denis, Chuck and Dickie's fish came from Chickamuxen Creek. |
| October Our final tournament of the year was held on the mighty Sassafras River on the 23rd. It was a beautiful day, but the fishing was tough for everyone except Walt Lechert who won with a bag of 14 lbs 1 oz. He picked up on a pattern of fishing windy points on the main river. Most of his fish came on plastics fished around laydowns near the drop. He also won lunker with a fish weighing 3 lbs 15.5 ozs. With this win, Walt secured the Mr. Bass title for the year with a total of 177.5 points. Congratulations Walt. Coming in second with two fish weighing 2 lbs 14.5 ozs, Chuck Doran just edged out Scott Dunlop who had two fish for 2 lbs 13.5 ozs. It's been a long season, but the club is looking forward to next year and is anticipating expanding the size of the club some. We have had two potential new members attend meetings and the hope is that we can add a few more. If you are interested in joining our club get in touch with one of the members or fill out an application by clicking on the link on the home page of this website. Coming up in November: Nominations for officers |
| November/December Finished up the year with officer elections and two prospective members for 2011, Bill Brown and Leonard Catterton, Jr, attending December's meeting. Officers for 2011 are: President/Treasurer - Walt Lechert; Secretary - Dickie Whitacre; Tx Director - Chuck Doran; Webmaster/Historian - Denis Schanberger; and Safety Chairman - Scott Dunlop. The club decided to go with 8 tx's again in 2011. The schedule will be formulated in January. |