David Ottman
tops field on Seneca Lake. Pavlot Wins
Cayuga. Bob Mabee Most Consistent
Angler over Two Days.
Salt City Bassmaster’s two-day event for 2005 was held on August 6th and 7th on Seneca and Cayuga Lakes. Cayuga is pretty familiar to most members, Seneca Lake is not. Most members expected the fishing to be tough. Add in that the BFL beat the place up the week before and a little cold front just slipped through and you have the ingredients for a decent fishing test.
David Ottman passed the test and proved to be master of his domain on Seneca Lake. Ottman fished the BFL just the week before and finished in the top ten there. He used that experience to help him to get back on the fish on this tournament day, weighing a limit of Smallmouth going 11 pounds 9 ounces. Dave also tied for lunker with a 3 pound 7 ounce fish. Ottman fished a Bomber Crankbait off of deep weeds in the 10’ to 15’ range with a drop nearby. He caught fish throughout the day and they were all over the water column.
In Second place was Jeff Edgarton. Jeff shared the boat with Ottman and was able to fend of the blinding glare of Ottman’s TEAM GANDER MOUNTAIN fishing shirt to weigh in a good limit of Seneca Smallies going 9 pounds 4 ounces. Jeff fished through the same water with a Japanese knock-off on the Rattle Trap.
Bob Mabee placed Third with just under 9 pounds of Smallmouth on only 4 fish. Bob found the winning school of Smallmouth but couldn’t get more than one taker out of a pack of bass averaging about 4 pounds. Bob seemed in a good mood anyway and was a little nostalgic. Last year, he was in second place after the first event of the two-day and Ottman was in first. Ottman would lose his lead and Mabee would eventually win out on the St. Lawrence River. Bob stuck his Seneca Lake fish on a combination of a Rapala Jerk Bait and a drop shot Senko. He found his fish on a drop with some healthy scattered milfoil around. Hmmm. Sounds like a pattern.
In Fourth place was Dick Wescott. Dick broke the small jaws trend by bringing four nice Largemouth to the scales going 8 pounds and 10 ounces. Dick took his fish on a Senko. Sharing Wescott’s ride was Tim Jones who boated four nearly identical Largemouth weighing in at 8 pounds and 7 ounces. Jones mixed it up a little more fishing a flipping tube, spinnerbait and crankbait. Team Wescott-Jones bucked the drop off pattern and fished an 8’-12’ weed flat with scattered clumps of weeds. They also fished some shallower “man-made structures” under the high sun. Dick is sponsored by PowerPro fishing line.
Tom Pavlot has been a Salt City Bassmaster for a very, very long time. Since he joined the club, Tom has seen the fall of Communism and the introduction of the Rubber Worm, Fiberglasss Boats, Sonar and dropshoting. In all that time and through all those changes, Tom has never seen a tournament victory. Tom could sense that things might change on the night that he drew Mike Cusano as his partner. He must have heard that Cusano was on the meat.
Cusano did put Pavlot on the meat on Day Two at Cayuga Lake. Pavlot cranked a 13 pound 13 ounce limit and won his first tournament with Salt City. Included in that limit was a 3 pound 12 ounce bigmouth taken on a drop shot rig. Good instincts and Congratulations Tom.
Mike Cusano put together a healthy 11 pound 1 ounce limit that was good for Fourth place on a somewhat off day of fishing. Team Cusano – Pavlot ticked, bumped, shook and backed deep diving cranks off of weeds in the 14’ to 20’ range. They reported the bite to be slow but steady and methodically put together their limits.
Second place went to Scott Allen who had a limit of Largemouth at 12 pounds 1 ounce. Scott used a slow finesse approach with a 4” worm for his limit. He fished deep weeds in the 15’-20’ range.
Third place went to Bob Mabee with an 11 pound 2 ounce limit. Bob fished a little shallower than the others, in the 9 –12’ range. He fished around scattered clumpy weeds and got a couple of his fish after he spotted them. Bob alternated between a whacky Senko and a drop shot rig.
Howard Krause took a nice 10 pound 9 ounce limit that was good for Fifth Place. Howard reports throwing a “rubber worm”. Whatever he used, he fished it in 8’ to 10’ water with those nice patchy weeds. Howard used a finesse approach with his rubber worm fishing it on 6# line and spinning tackle. He took a limit by 7:30. He later went out to about 18’, dead-sticked his plastic and was able to cull two fish. Howard said “color made all the difference in the world.”
After the fishing was done, Bob Mabee proved to be the most consistent angler in the field. He repeated as Champion of the Two-Day with a combined weight of 20 pounds and 1 ounce. Great Job Bob.
The complete results are available on the website.
Not covered above are Carl Moore and Ron Kelly. Carl put together two solid and consistent days of fishing, finishing in sixth place both days for an overall Third Place finish.
Ron Kelly was almost as consistent, he had two good days for an overall Sixth Place finish. Ron also tied for lunker on Seneca with a 3 pound 7 ounce Smallie fooled by a topwater bait.