Massachusetts B.A.S.S. Nation
Classic Team Trail TOC “IT’S a RIVER”
The name of the place is Agawam River. The name should tell you how to fish it: “river.” Most of the people who fish this great body of water forget that it is a river. We forget because of all the weed. Then some lame brain person that lives on the river complains about the weed and it almost disappears. Then, with the weed gone, some fishermen remember it’s a river.
I have a feeling that either Chip Servant or Josh Cotier figured it out on September 21st at the MassB.A.S.S. Nation’s Classic Team Trail Tournament of Champions. This team kicked our butts and won the right to represent MassB.A.S.S. at the Harris Chain of Lakes, with a very good chance that they will go on to The BassMaster Classic.
Eli Delaney and I were fishing this one bay that wasn’t affected by the weed kill. Several times throughout the day we saw Chip and Josh in front of the bay fishing open water. I couldn’t figure out what they were doing out there. Obviously they had done very well throughout this year’s trail, but what was out there that they were fishing? Then the weigh in. They had 13.10 pounds. Eli and I came in second with 8.88 pounds. 3rd was Matt Szczoczarz/Josh Wunschel with 8.28; 4th was Matty Klinker/Dusty Chaulk with 7.08 and 5th was Jim and Jack Moorey with 6.81.
What were Chip and Josh doing????
Hurricane Florence dumped record breaking amounts of water from South Carolina to Massachusetts. The outflow over the Agawam shad dam roared from all that rain. This meant that the river we had been treating like a pond all of these years was raging. I think the bass moved out of the coves and into ambush areas along the current. If you know the Connecticut River, for example, you know the bass turn on and move to the edge of the current when they open the dams. Now it makes sense what Chip and Josh were doing “out there.” I wonder if they had figured that out or it was just luck. Knowing the caliber ‘stick’ Josh has become – I don’t think luck had anything to do with it.
