LAKE HOPATCONG, N.J. – No matter how tough any bass tournament gets, someone usually figures out how to catch them. Today, Virginia Bass Federation team member David Keisel was that somebody. Although Keisel failed to catch a limit, he was able to scratch and claw his way to gritty, four bass total weighing 9 pounds, 3 ounces. As a result of his yeoman-like efforts, Keisel leapfrogged from third place after yesterday’s competition into the leader slot with a two-day weight of 17 pounds, 3 ounces, nearly 3 pounds ahead of second-place angler Randy Follner, of Pennsylvania.
Keisel, a police officer from Virginia Beach and member of Little Creek Bass Anglers, continued to work docks with a wacky-rigged Senko during Thursday’s competition. According to Keisel, the key to his success was using a small hook and fluorocarbon line.
“I fished the same 250-yard stretch of docks I fished yesterday and that’s what I’m going to do tomorrow. I saw quite a few fish today, more than I saw yesterday, so I really don’t have a reason to go anywhere else,” he said. “There are some weed-eaters working in the area I’m fishing and I think that’s pushing fish onto the cover I’m catching them from. I saw some pretty nice ones that I didn’t catch.”
Not surprisingly, fishing conditions remained extremely difficult. Lake Hopatcong, considered stingy yesterday, proved to be an even tougher obstacle during today’s action. To underscore this point, over two-thirds of the 72 anglers competing in The Bass Federation Mid-Atlantic Divisional Championship failed to bring more than two bass to the stage. Overall, only two limits were caught and just seven anglers managed to produce four keeper bass.
Today’s tough conditions caused some significant shuffling of the leaderboard as well. Yesterday’s leader, Eric Stewart, who is fishing as a non-boater, brought only a single 1-pound bass to the scales today, resulting in a 10th-place finish.
Second-place angler Randy Follner rebounded from an eighth-place finish in yesterday’s competition and is the only angler in the tournament to catch two limits both days. Today’s limit weighed 8 pounds, 3 ounces, giving him a two-day total of 14 pounds, 9 ounces. Like Keisel, Follner also stayed in one small area.
” border=”1″ align=”left” />“I worked a spinnerbait in one section of water that wasn’t more than 75 yards long. I just went back and forth,” he said. “I figured out yesterday that the key was to slow-roll it after I got a backlash first thing in the morning. After I picked it out, I started reeling in my spinnerbait and I had a bass on it.”
Follner, a member of Pennsylvania’s Tamaqua Bass Club, has also had to contend with Hopatcong’s healthy pickerel population. He figured he caught over 20 yesterday and 10 today.
“They are destroying my spinnerbait supply,” he said. “I got some more so I should be in good shape tomorrow.”
Follner, a boater, plans to fish the same water tomorrow.
Yesterday’s second-place angler, New Jersey angler Rich Schneidereit, slipped to third after weighing only two fish today for a weight of 3 pounds, 12 ounces. Schneidereit boasts a two-day total of 12 pounds, 7 ounces, just 6 ounces ahead of Delaware angler Larry Taylor Jr.
Schneidereit only had two bites all day, but like Keisel and Follner, he plans to stick with the same area and tactics he used the first two days.
“They have to eat sooner or later. We’ve had two tough days, so I’m hoping tomorrow is better,” he said.
Danny Shanz of Adamstown, Md., is in fifth place with a total weight of 11 pounds, 12 ounces.
The members of the West Virginia Bass Federation held on to their team lead, but their total weight today was down significantly from yesterday. The 12-man team from New Jersey weighed 36 pounds, 6 ounces today for a two-day total of 68 pounds, 15 ounces, just 12 ounces behind West Virginia. The Delaware Bass Federation is in third place, followed by Pennsylvania.
Virginia dropped from second place to fifth overall while the District of Columbia was in sixth place.
The TBF Mid-Atlantic Divisional is sponsored by the New Jersey Bass Federation and is presented by the National Guard. Friday represents the final day of competition. Tomorrow’s weigh-in starts at 3 p.m. at Lee’s Park in Mt. Arlington.
The Bass Federation Mid-Atlantic Divisional Championship is hosted by the New Jersey Bass Federation and is presented by The National Guard. The event continues through Friday.