The following story is a re-cap of the events that took place at the 2002 BASS Eastern Regionals. The Tournament took place September 22-27, 2002 in Hartford Connecticut. I interviewed Brian following the tournament and he offered to share the details of his Regional experience.
Being a boater in your first regional tournament is a daunting task, one that Brian handled with the poise of an experience veteran. Brian began preparing for this event back in August. After studying maps of the Connecticut River covering the Enfield CT to Long Island Sound area, Brian headed out for a day of pre-practice. With a reputation for being a tough tidal fishery, Brian was surprised and pleased to find the fishing somewhat enjoyable and the fish easy to pattern on the river. Brian located a few main river weedbeds where he caught several keeper largemouth by working various colored Senkos and plastic worms along the outside edge of the grass on an outgoing tide.
Practice
Once official practice began for Regionals in September, Brian found his weedbed devoid of any fish, but with 3 official practice days to figure out some new water, he wasn't too worried. Brian teamed up with Al Smith in practice and together they began to pattern the fish. Brian said he and Al found a stretch of river bank not far from the launch in the relatively under-utilized North section of the river that reminded him of his favorite stretch of Connecticut River in Hinsdale NH. The bank featured clear water gravel bars with a nice mix of milfoil and eelgrass. He and Al both secured nice limits of largemouth and smallmouth bass on the second practice day in this area and reported their finding to the team.
Tournament Day 1
Day One, Wednesday, September 25, 2002 was mild and sunny, but big changes would lay ahead. Brian raced to his start spot for the typical early morning bite. He started the tournament throwing a 5-inch smoke colored Yamamoto Senko on a 1/16oz. Slider head. Throughout the tournament Brian would rely on this bait, as he alternated between a 6 foot and a 6 ½ foot medium action Berkley Series One rod teamed with a Diawa Regal Z 2500 spinning reel with Berkley 10 lb. XT. Major frustration was waiting for Brian that first morning. His fish were there, but putting the feisty river smallies in the boat would prove to be another matter. Brian hooked 5 quality fish early that morning and every single one would elude the net. To make matters worse, Brian's partner caught 2 nice fish. Welcome to big time Tournament fishing, Rookie! This could easily have been Brian's undoing, but he kept his cool, and made a key change to his choice of tackle. He noticed the fish were bending out the light-wire Slider hook, yet he wanted the extra weight in the strong current so he switched to texas-rigging the Senko with a pegged 1/16 oz. weight and a 3/0 Gamakatsu hook. Using this set-up Brian began to catch fish! Slowly he worked on his limit and by noon, he had secured a solid 5 fish limit consisting of 4 smallies and 1 largemouth bass.
Alas, the Fish Gods were not done with him yet and they saved their best for last! Late in the day, Brian was working his Senko along the deeper side of the gravel bars when he hooked an enormous smallmouth bass. The fish jumped 3 times and then dove under the boat, his partner, ready with the net, said he could see the fish pumping hard toward the middle of the river, but he could not reach him yet. Just then, the hook simply pulled out and the estimated 3.5 to 4 lb. fish swam free. Despite the disappointment, things had turned out fairly well for Brian and the entire New Hampshire team. Brian's 5 fish weighed a respectable 9 lb. 12 oz. and this landed him in third place in the overall standings. Brian would not be the only New Hampshire angler to do well this day. When the scales stopped spinning, the New Hampshire team found itself on top of the team standings by nearly 16 pounds over perennial juggernaut New Jersey.
Tournament Day 2
Day 2 would dawn cloudy with strong winds and heavy rain courtesy of Hurricane Isadore in the forecast. Brian returned to his ½ mile stretch of bank to see if he could repeat his Day One success. Along Brian's favorite shoreline were two little rocky points that broke the current flow. Brian started Day 2 on the southern rocky point that had a 10-foot drop-off on the backside. He would cast the Senko above the point and allow the current to tumble the bait past the rocky outcropping. Within 20 minutes of arriving at this spot Brian and his partner would boat 7 keeper fish. Brian's first fish was a 3-lb. largemouth and that was followed by several quality smallmouth bass. Most of the bites occurred on the shallow side, just before the Senko tumbled over the drop into deeper water. When the blitz ended, Brian had 4 fish on his side of the livewell, while his partner had managed to coral three keepers. The rest of the day was spent working up and back along this shoreline. Brian would occasionally switch to a wacky-rigged Senko to give the fish a different look. While working the weed edges, he would use the 1/16 oz. rig and pop the bait through the thicker grass, most of his bites came when the Senko hit the outside weed edge and fell to the bottom.
Brian caught 6 keepers on day two and culled to an 8.0 lb. limit. His two-day total of 17 lbs. 12 oz. put him in 5th place overall out of the 156 anglers fishing the regional championship. He was a little less then 4.5 lbs. behind tournament leader Ryan Hawthorne of Connecticut. New Hampshire slipped to second place in the team standings just 6 ounces behind a hard charging New York Team. The weather had deteriorated by 2 p.m. as strong rains began to drench the river valley and it was only the start of the bad weather. How would this affect the final day?
Tournament Final Day
The New Hampshire team checked out of the Hartford Marriott at 4:00 a.m. on Friday morning. It was dark and stormy and would remain so for the remainder of the day. Between two and three inches of rain would fall before it all ended later that evening. Would the rain muddy the upper stretches of the river? Would the eelgrass mats floating with the current make the river unfishable? Are there enough fish left on his magic shoreline? These were the questions going through Brian's mind as he floated with the tide in his Triton waiting for safe light and the start of Day 3. When he checked out late in the third flight, Brian raced to the little rocky point and began throwing the Senko, just like he had done every day this week. But no morning bite greeted him this day. The river had come up 2 feet over night and the bank was muddy. He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Brian worked the rocky point and then fished his shoreline, going even farther up the bank then he had ever fished before, he managed two small keepers on the Senko. At 11:00 a.m. he pulled the plug on his magical bank and headed to a back-up spot several miles south of Hartford. He rotated between main river weedbeds, continuing to throw the Senko, but only short fish would interrupt long stretches without a bite. Finally, at 3:00 p.m. with only a few minutes of fishing time remaining he would boat 2-keeper largemouth back to back on the Senko and race for check-in.
The storm had messed up most of the competitors plans and fishing was tougher this day then it had been. Brian weighed-in 4 keepers for a total weight of 5 lbs. 6 oz. His three-day total of 23 lbs. 2 oz. gave him enough weight to hold onto 6th place in the overall standings and he easily held off the challenges of his New Hampshire team-mates to qualify for the BASS Federation National Championship to be held May 12-17, 2003 in Tuscaloosa Alabama. New Hampshire battled back and forth with New York for the Team Championship and the nearly $11,000 that came with it. Hand calculations during the Day 3 weigh-in had NH ahead by ounces with one New York angler yet to weigh-in. That angler was Bill Alexander and he would eventually finish second overall. His 7 lb. bag would push New York over the top and leave New Hampshire to accept the runner-up prize and $7500.
Teamwork
Brian and the entire New Hampshire Team fished an excellent tournament. Brian expressed thanks to all 3 of his partners and also wished to thank all of his NH teammates for their support and friendship. Special thanks go out to Al Smith for helping him put his winning pattern together. This is the highest finish in New Hampshire Federation history since NH finished second to Massachusetts on Lake Winnipesaukee back in 1985. While Brian Morin anchored our weight each day of the Tournament the secret of the NH team's success lied in the teamwork amongst its members. Information was freely discussed and tactics and strategies were also shared. A final look at the standings shows that the 12th place finisher on the NH team had more weight than any other teams 12th place finisher. The New Hampshire Team ALL caught fish and caught them every day. All of this on unfriendly tidal water. This group of skilled anglers accomplished a lot together and shared a special week of fishing and each member is a stronger angler because of it. Congratulations to Brian Morin and the entire 2002 New Hampshire Team.
Brian Morin
Jim Hanatow
Alan Denise
Dave Andrews
Al Smith
Jason Faro
Dan Lewis
Mark Anthony
Larry Shirk
Scott Parker
Robert Hurst
John Rafuse
Don Fales
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