Hey Gil sorry you had such a bad experience this weekend. I actually had a good time. But I always have a good time at this tourney. The fishing was tough at State Park for sure; we sure could have used another foot of water or two!

Here's what I have to say about the running aspect of this tourney.
First the SCBBBC is a club that runs and always has been. Whether it is done legally or not isn't relevant anymore with the DFG permit that Rich has worked so hard to obtain. BnT was a running club when I joined some years ago but choose to become a non running club when we had our own discussions with DFG on the subject back in 03 I believe. Does this make one club right and one wrong when it comes to running? No, I don't think so, it just makes them different and I am OK with that!

Another thing to remember is that everybody who launched at State Park, myself included, had the option to run. For whatever reason it was we all choose not to. This did not work to our advantage that's for sure since it would seem that we all had to work harder for our bites than some of those who ran. The bites were there, some big ones too, but we just needed to work harder for fewer of them. Bottom line is this; the decision to stay at State Park when we had to option to go elsewhere was a bad one in my opinion.
So for this reason I would tend to say that the conditions were the same for 100% of the field. Some made good decisions and some did not.

The honey hole where this tourney was won, and it was a true honey hole this last weekend, is a place every BnT member is very familiar with. The tourney was won from M&M!

I guess when I think back on my experience this weekend I look at it differently. I knew what the running requirement were and I choose not to make a livewell that I could run with. I choose to stay and fish State Park after 2 days, half days actually of pre fishing with 2 or 3 bites each day. The bites were good ones; there was the potential to get 12-15 lbs if you got the right 3 bites. I knew the rain would change things and I hoped it would be for the better but it wasn't the case. I finished in the money at 11th place which made my lousy choices easier to take but in the end I know I made some bad decisions that didn't help me finish higher.

Once again sorry to hear about your missing @$$, I hope it is returned soon!

MT