Captain Ron Atwood, “Topwater” Tom Pack

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& I boarded Brad Streelman’s beautiful 42’ Bertram “Diversion” around noon on fri. (9/7) & were shortly on or way from Long Beach to Mission Bay for the check in of the final leg of the WON Saltwater Series. Sign ups were smooth, quick & organized so we grabbed a quick dinner then set a course for an area Ron had scoped out about 20 mi. south of the Cortez 85 mi. from MB. The ride out was a clear gorgeous night with shooting stars & porpoise streaking around the boat a good portion of my watch. The good weather trend held up throughout the 3 days we spent on the water.

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It didn’t take long before we were greeted by single jig strikes on the darker colored 7 Strand tuna clones & were picking 1 or 2 bait fish each stop all in the 25-27 lb. class. After a short lull we stopped on a short strike, which resulted in a long, slow, Morro Bay style plunker drift for 6 fish doubling our total. 5 of these albies were in the 30 lb. class, which made us feel a little better. We never got a bite after 10:30 although some managed an evening bite.

Once the sun went down we ran back to Mission Bay for some shuteye. After a leisurely breakfast we headed over to the weigh in at Paradise Point. We were very happy to see the top weights were in the 70 lb. range as our best 3 came in at a little over 93. The more we saw the better we were felling about our weight until a huge Riviera came in, struggling to make it under the bridge. It was team Rickdiculous with a Rickdiculous weight so we started our slide down the leader board. Another team came in holding a couple 40 pounders, landing within ounces of Rick’s weight at 112 lbs.

When all was tallied we ended up in 3rd place for $880 & 4th overall for the series.

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Rick took the event & the series title with a very consistent season, congratulations!
I saw 2 other SWBA teams represented, both making the podium as well, nice job guys!!

The Awards Banquet was a full on Party including live music, way to much fun. Pat, Mike along with all the guys, gals & sponsors of this years series really stepped up this year to take these events to the next level. Thanks!!
We’d also like to thank Big Hammer, Booyaa, Avet, & Berkley for all the support, fishing these tournaments isn’t cheap, every little bit helps.