Edgewood Volleyball Bass Tourney

Just like you would draw it up…Saturday, June 15 was one beautiful day at Lake Lemon as 18 teams competed in the first ever Edgewood Volleyball Three Fish Shootout. What a fun day as teams of 2 fishermen competed while at the same time helping our volleyball team in their search for funds that will help us travel to Michigan in mid-July to compete at the U of Michigan volleyball team camp.

I am not bothered by getting up early, in fact I do it on a most routine basis, but to rise early to travel to Lake Lemon for our own bass tourney wasn’t a problem at all. As I pulled into Riddle Point and past the entry point I could see that there were already several trucks and trailers lined up, ready to be checked in for the day.

Once again I am pleased to inform you that outdoor people are the very best; while most folks were still deep in slumber, this group of guys were up, cheerful and chomping at the big to catch “The Big One”!  Not far behind was several of my volleyball players along with a couple of devoted moms and they immediately started to sell raffle tickets for a myriad of prizes (more on this later). Our tournament director, Wayne Wells, along with his bride Kendra (my former volleyball player Kendra Bartlett) were also up, bright eyed and bushy tailed…and ready to fire off the troops.

At or about 6:30am, Wayne started calling off numbers for teams and there in the morning dusk I could see the boats speeding away in various directions in search of that perfect piece of water that would hold a big three fish limit of bass. You could sense the excitement; me and the girls even caught one of the fellas doing what we thought was the Harlem Shake out in the bay atop his bass boat….still not for sure about that one yet?

The best part of the day was the fact that just  a few minutes away was Bear Lake…and with float tube in hand…I buzzed over and fished this charming little Brown Count lake for a few hours before returning to Riddle Point for the weigh-in. I would like to tell some big fish story…but the truth is I could only muster up about 5 fish and none were keepers; guess it was a good thing I was not on the clock or having to feed my family?

By 2pm Kendra, Vickie and myself….along with the second wave of volleyball players were back at the weigh in area and preparing for the ‘show’. I had never seen a weigh in live before and honestly didn’t know what to expect. The only thing I had to compare it with was the grand bass tourneys that I have watched on TV where guys in monster rigs drive in and yank out 2 giant bass in each hand before a crazed group of followers! What I found was not quite as dramatic but yet, there seemed to be a little showmanship going on as one by one a pair of guys would bring their bag to the scales and then wait with eager anticipation as Wayne called out the crucial numbers.

When it all shook out the top prize of the day was paid out to Tom Fitzgerald and Jeff Potter as their three fish weighed in at a whopping 8.97 pounds! Second place went to Shawn and Sam York with 8.82 pounds…along with the big bass of the event, a beauty that weighed in at 4.87 pounds and brought a huge fist pump from 3^rd grader Sam…who was tough with his information and wouldn’t readily give out what the big fish was caught on (that kind of tight lipped professionalism starts very early on the bass circuits). The 3^rd and final spot went to Kelby Waldrip and Jeb Bond with a nice limit that weighed in at 8.25 pounds.

All in all it couldn’t have been a better day and I, along with our volleyball team want to thank the following folks for helping us by supplying prizes for our raffle that netted over $200: Frank Terkhorn at True Value Hardware, Kenny Williams at Edward Jones, Wayne Wells of Wayne’s Custom rods (for an awesome hand-made rod finished in Edgewood colors) and Darin, Ken Mitchell and Chad Smith of DC2 Custom Lures (for 8 hand painted bass lures that were almost to pretty to use?).

It was not only a great day of fundraising…but a superb day to be out in nature. To sit both by and in water was a needed end to a very busy week; I hope you will take a day and make time to find a buddy or youngster and take them out fishing as we all Enjoy the Great Outdoors.