Nelson Classic

2010 was quite the year with numerous club record being set, Nelson Lake was the scene for the 2010 Classic Championship as usual mother nature made the day a tough one with winds out of the southeast pushing 20 MPH and big waves rolling across the water, as we all stood there the scene appeared eerily familiar to the previous year with cold weather and fog clouding the whole lake finally a descision was made that we would start 15 minutes late again only idle speed as anglers dissapeared into the fog and out into the lake in search of fish.

 

  Fishing was overall not too bad given the circumstances upon arrival to my spot I turned the bow into the wind and dropped the terrova to the full 60 inches and cursed at the wind and started fishing it wasnt but a few minutes until I located my fish and proceeded to catch them at a steady pace as the bow of the boat dipped up and down with the wind driven waves, Matt was not far away as were several other anglers all battling the wind and cold. It was difficult to see other boats with the fog it was kinda like I was in my own little world.  as the day went on the wind got worse and it was a constant battle to try and stay in position to fish but on we went after all this is the classic! I saw boats zooming around in the fog and waves all day long in search of the big one, I stuck to my game plan and fished only one area the whole entire day back and forth like a little robot.

 

  Finally quitting time rolled around and everyone headed back to the docks lots of fish were being weighed in and many a curious angler wondered if they had enough weight to win, but in the end it was Marty Mantz of Center defending his title and taking the classic championship for the second year in a row on his home waters.  A total of 22 anglers weighed in 48 fish weighing 86.25 pounds and a 1.8 pound average. Full results and pictures can be found on the website, here are the top 3.

 

  1st place Marty Mantz       8.99 pounds

 

  After the tourney was over we all had some really good food and handed out several year ending awards to wrap up the season.

 

  Angler of the Year:  Marty Mantz

 

 

 

 

 

 

    The following are all new club records!

 

  Jeff Wetzel: Smallmouth bass 4.47 pounds at New Johns Lake!  

 

 

 

 

  All year long Geo showed up with a smile and his trailer and made good food for anyone who was present, A lot of us owe Geo a lot of thanks for all the services he provided to us this year! I will never forget coming off of Tschida Matt and I and Shaun and several others fished all day in the snow and sleet and were frozen when we came in only to find Geo standing there with a Hot Chocolate Machine waiting for us! we all stood around the fire and filled ourselves to the limit until we were warmed up again as we looked around and there was an inch of snow in our boats! 

 

  Things like that and people like that you never forget! it was a good year with a lot of good memories! see ya all in Bismarck at the meeting in February, times and details to be relased later.