NEW RECORD - 5 FISH - 23 Pounds, 7 ounces

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 2:07 pm

On the way up to my club tournament this weekend on a lake that will for the time remain "nameless", I had the privilege of fishing with the current record holder of the largest recorded 5 fish limit in a tournament, Neil Destefano. Neil and I have becomes friends over the last few years (despite the fact that we compete against each other in tournaments). The topic of big bags came up (20+ lbs) and I mentioned the fact that had never been able to break 20 lbs in a tournament and had yet to have a fish over 6lbs in a tournament.

For those of you who are not from NY, a 20 lbs. bag is a “Monster Bag”. In fact, of all of the bass clubs in the NYS Alliance of Bass Clubs, there have only been 6 bags over 20 lbs recorded at a tournament since the start of NY bass clubs over 30 years ago. Neil Destefano had 3 of the six bags weighed in and held the first place record of 20lbs, 13oz which has stood for over 7 years to date.

The lake we fished had a reputation for giving up consistent 5 fish limits going 16 lbs with frequent winning weights in the 17-18 lbs range and 6 lbs lunkers were common.

The tournament started at 6:00 am and within the first 30 minutes, I managed to put together a small limit of bass. The water was up from all the rain we have had in the northeast and the bass could be found in all three stages of Pre, post and spawn. At this point, I had 2 fish under two pounds and 3 fish in the 3 lbs range. Around 7:15 am, I culled one of my small bass with a smallmouth that was in the lower 2 lbs range followed by a fish weighing around 4 lbs.

So as of about 7:35 am, my bag consisted of onr fish over 4 lbs, three fish over 3 lbs and one smallie just over 2 lbs. Giving my somewhere in the neighbor hood of 15+ lbs for 5 fish. Neil was still trying to get a first keeper fish in the boat. On the way up, he stated that work has been taking him out of the zone this season and cutting into the mental aspect of tournament fishing. Plus being in the back of the boat when you are a boater, S U C K S!

At this point, I was completely in the zone and after landing a second fish over 4 lbs, I started to piece together a big fish pattern. Both 4 lbs fish came off the exact same type of cover with 3 identical features to the area. Here comes the first bad part of the day… while opening the live-well to cull out the 2 lbs smallie caught only 20 minutes early, I was shocked to find that he had died in the live-well. Tournament rules state that you “CAN NOT CULL A DEAD FISH”, so this 2 lbs smallie was stuck in my bag till the end. Since he was my smallest fish, I had throw back one of the three lbs largemouths… Man, does that hurt! Now I felt like I was taking steps backwards and would need to have an amazing day to recover from this mishap.

My bag now consisted of one permanent 2 lbs+ smallie, two 3 lbs+ and two 4 lbs+ bass. Neil was encouraging me to keep fishing hard because I wanted to make sure he was able to get himself a good limit too. With the two of us fishing from the front of the boat, big fish were “up for grabs” and Neil also knew where the bigger females where hiding. We took turns at possible targets, but for what ever reason, the ones I picked to throw at had the big fish on them and around 10:15am, I hooked my first 5 lbs + largemouth for the day which culled out one of my 3 pound fish. Within the next 15 minutes, I hooked into another fish over 4lbs and culled out my last 3 pound fish. Now I’m starting to see the potential of the bag I was building and that 2 lbs smallie that pasted away was really bringing me down. I just kept thinking “I’ll just have to fish harder”, so I did… and about an hour later, I pulled another fish over 5 lbs off of the same type of area and cover that the other 5 lbs and two 4’s came off. I turned to Neil and said “Hey, that’s got to make a 20 pound bag”. He just looked over and said, “Yeah, you might have 20 pounds. Keep pounding the cover, because today is your day and you won’t get many like this one”. Neil had a small limit at this point and I offered him the front of the boat for a while so he could work on his bag. We started trading back and forth and pointing out fish to each other. When I would spot a fish that was less than 4 lbs, I’d point it out to Neil (If he hadn’t already spotted it) and let him work the area. He began getting back into the game and culling some of his smaller fish out.

I continued culling what I could; I caught plenty of 3 pound bass and a couple more 4 pound bass which helped a little, but not much. When you are stuck with a 2 lbs fish, it really hurts throwing a back “4 pound fish”.

It was around 12 noon when I said something that really didn’t fit with the kind of day I was having… “Neil, I need to get a kicker fish, because that 2 lbs smallie is going to coast me the tournament”. Neil of course thinks that the sun has gotten to my head at this point and says “YOU HAVE FOUR KICKER FISH RIGHT NOW!!!”

At around 12:45 pm, I flipped my jig into the right place at the right time and was immediately greeted with a hard strike… I called for the net “Neil, this is the one man, get the net”. (He later told me he figured it was just another 4 pound fish so he didn’t hurry for the net this time). Now I yelled “NEIL, THIS IS A MONSTER, GET THE FREAKIN’ NET!!!” When he looked over, and saw what was stripping drag off my 7’ heavy action flipping stick, he sprang for the net. The fish ran all over the place and was not willing to come in easily. She circled ¾ of the boat and jumped twice before giving up. Neil managed to get her into the net and in the boat. What a slob!!! We both felt very comfortable calling the bass conservatively “over 6 pounds”. I turned to Neil and said, “Take the front for the rest of the day”.

The tournament ended and there were two other monster bags brought to the scales. Mike Ebris had 19 lbs, 3 oz and Frank Kavanagh had 20 lbs, 10 oz.

First they weighed my whole limit which went 23 lbs, 7 oz, and then they weighed my lunker… 7 pounds, 11 ounces…

Both numbers were personal goals I had wanted to achieve since I got serious about tournament fishing and they both got broken on the same day… which just happened to be my 30th birthday, June 28th. I couldn’t have asked for a better present or a better day!

I'll post the pictures when I get them from the guys in my club...

BC

Frank K SCB · Post by **Frank K SCB** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 2:51 pm

Congratulations Brendan!!
This was your day. You broke all the records!
Also I know that you did all of this under adverse conditions that would have caused a lot of guys to quit! You had electrical problems that caused you to have to keep running you Gas Engine and you still caught those "Tanks".
This certainly proves the saying to "Never give up" and Never stop fishing hard until the very end, and Never get discouraged and let it affect your fishing.
You had a lot of negative factors going against you and still won. By the way happy birthday.
I just wish everyone out there could have seen that bag of "monster fish" averaging 5 lbs (if you take out the dead Smallmouth). It was awesome!!
Frank K.

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 3:20 pm

Thanks Frank... As I understand, that was your first 20+ monster bag also? Don't let anything take credit away from your "Monster Bag"... I'd like to hear how you did it as well... If you feel like putting together something, I'm sure all the guys would like to hear from you too...

Can you believe the day we had???

Congrats to you my friend... your accomplishment shouldn't go un-noticed. I think you are now tied for the 3rd largest NYSABC bag with "20 pounds, 10 ounces"... with weights like that, people are going to think we were fishing down south and not in New York!!!

Great Job!

BC

MMT · Post by **MMT** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 4:33 pm

Way to go guys! Frank great bag man. Brendan, awesome performance on point. Every now and then it is possible to get in the zone, you were surely there on Sunday. Congrats. 7-11 in a tournament....egad! Makes you think had you been able to cull that smallie, you would have pushed 26lbs or so. Amazing day, we'll get out to Great soon! I'll call you!

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Mon Jun 30, 2003 5:23 pm

Neil and I did the math afterwords, and I actually caught 26 pounds almost on the button for my 5 best fish...

Those are the numbers guys talk about... but rarely get...

Someone was looking down on my that day...

ukey28 · Post by **ukey28** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 12:07 am

WOW!!!

What else can you say!!!!

I can't freakin' fathom a 26 pound bag in New York and in a tourney
yet. So what did you catch them on??
Frank

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 1:18 pm

All of my fish we taken on a bait you have probably never heard of....

A Black/Blue - Jig N' Pig... :rolleyes:

You know I was wondering if I had the smallie cryogenically frozen and one day could bring him back to life and release him back into the lake, would I be able to count one of the other four pound fish I had to throw back?

BC

ukey28 · Post by **ukey28** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 3:20 pm

Greed...man it affects us all. LOL

Frank K SCB · Post by **Frank K SCB** » Tue Jul 01, 2003 9:45 pm

Hi Brendan:
Almost all of my fish came on a wacky rigged Senko, Geen pumpkin, in shallow water and off docks. I caught a couple of fish on a jig same color and on a Yum 4.5" Tube watermellon.
My partner Kevin had 4 fish in the live well before I caught a legal fish. Finally, I caught one that was slightly over 12". Kevin felt bad for me because he had some really good fish in the live well and I had that one small fish. So he gave me a shot at a 3 lb fish that he saw. I caught that fish which turned out to be almost 4 lbs.
It sure is great to have a partner that will do that for you when you are competing agaist each other in an individual open tournament.
After that I got hot and started catching the quality fish. My last fish was over 5 lbs and I had to cull a fish that was almost 4 lbs. I almost cried when I turned that fish loose!
As Neil DeStefano said "you will not have many days like this so enjoy it". If anyone knows how it feels it would be Neil. It was his 20 lb + limit at Mahopac that convinced me to join SCB and strive to catch a limit like that!

brendanc · Post by **brendanc** » Wed Jul 02, 2003 1:25 pm

That's awesome Frank... That was really good of Kevin giving you first shot at that fish. It sounds like that was all the motivation you needed to get the ball rolling towards that monster bag!

After hooking my first four pound fish and feeling how hard those fish were fighting, I decided to stick with the heavy flipping rod with 20lb test line...

What were you using, 8lb? That must have made for some heart pounding moments when you had those tanks on?

BC