Louie Bernardo wins at Long Pond Harwich, MA

WOW, what a Great Lake! Yes, it is a great lake. To experience the smallmouth there was to reward yourself with an everlasting memory of the most wildest creatures, pound for pound, found on earth. After two days of fishing water in the low 70's, eight-eight anglers brought in 46 limits. 718 fish weighing 1315lbs. That is an average of 1.83 lbs. Great Sacandaga Lake truly is a jewel… the generous merchants proved to be real gems. They provided a tremendous amount of behind-the-scene help that made our stay and our Thomas Aguiar Memorial SQT event all the better. The SQT committee, many of who fished, did a tremendous job in staying focused and switching gears on the fly. After two days of fishing, the cream once again rose to the top to create the new 2007 State Team. This elite group even had the closet finishes in reordered weigh than ever before.

2007 STATE TEAM Hosting in Connecticut River

I want to thank all the anglers for their participation, and for their patience in making this a memorable and "Great" SQT.

Regards,

Roy Costa, RI B.A.S.S. Nation Preident

Brewster-Harwich, MA. May 14, 2006. My phone call on Saturday night got veteran ABA Director Bo Medeiros out of bed. He had retired early so as to be at the ramp early for his Sunday tournament on Long Pond. Bob was concerned about the weather for the next day with heavy rains and high winds predicted. Some areas north of Boston had already had over 10 inches of rain.

Long Pond is the largest pond in the Cape Cod area with 740 acres. Bob describes the lake as "a glacier lake about 3 miles wide with some water up to 65 ft. It has sand points and chunk rock. The vegetation hasn't started growing yet, but the lake has a lot of elodea and fanwort."

"The water is very clear and often you can see the bottom 10 ft. deep. A lot of times you can see the fish and they can see you, so you have to back off. Friends have told me the water temp. is 54 and the fish are in a prespawn mode."

A major food source for the fish in the lake is alewifes. These are anadromous fish like salmon and spend their adult lives in the ocean and make a spawning run to freshwater. District 5 is always one of the highest in participation.

Tournament Day

Bob's concerns about the weather proved true. This is the way he described the day: "It was the worst day on the water I've had in 33 years of fishing. At three in the morning and it was 43 degrees and the wind was blowing 15 to 20 mph. City rules will not let us take off until 7, but it was held until 7:35. We had a vote on the stopping time and all but 2 wanted to fish until 3." "The wind increased during the day and it rained at least 2 inches. We ended up with 30-35 mph winds gusting to 45 and 3 to 4 ft. swells and the high for the day was 54."

For the day 39 anglers caught 44 fish with 2 limits weighed in. To say the least conditions
were brutal and by 10 o'clock fifteen boats had left. You don't expect to find fish bedding in 51 to 53 degree water, but that's what all of the top finishers reported. Water temperatures the week before the tournament were in the upper 50's and some smallies began bedding and a few were still hanging around their bedding sites. The full moon was Saturday night. The field was very tight with only .21 lbs. separating first from second place.

Louie Bernardo Finishes Second

Second place finisher was 40 year old Louie Bernardo of Taunton, MA with 5 fish weighing10.58 lbs. He had pre-fished on Thursday and located several bedding fish. Louie hand pours a small reeper look alike that he feels perfectly imitates alewifes and this lure produced all of his fish.

For the day, Louie caught a total of 9 fish. Two of his fish came from beds and the rest from the inside of points that were adjacent to deep water. He kept his boat in 18 to 20 ft. and his fish were in 4 to 6 ft. of water.

During the day he fished 5 points and caught fish on 3 of them. He fished the three point that produced fish two more times each. Louie felt the fish were staging on these points. He fished the plastic bait in two ways. One way was swimming it on a 1⁄2 oz. jig head, trying to keep it in contact with the bottom as best he could in the rough waters. The other way was on a drop shot rig with a 1⁄2 oz. weight that he would cast and slowly retrieve almost like a Carolina rig. Louie attributed his ability to see the bedding fish to his Costa Del Mar sunglasses. He was using Splash rods in 6'6' and 7-ft. lengths, Daiwa reels, and 8-lb test Trilene XT. He would like to thank his sponsors: Evinrude Motors, Charger Bass Boats, MinnKota, Costa Del Mar, Slip's Marina, Georgio's Pizza, Splash Rods and Bay Mortgage Service Corp.

by: Jimmy Yarbrough