New York ESPN Citgo Bassmaster Open Hey guys, I wanted to give all of you an update on the Bassmaster ESPN tournament I fished on the St. Lawrence River last week in Clayton NY. I want to first thank all of you again for you support and encouragement over the last two months. After making the 10 hour drive to Clayton NY, the official practice started on Monday Sept 9th. The actual tournament was on the 12th, 13th, and 14th. The week before the tournament all of the waters were off limits. On Monday's practice I made a 40 mile run / boat ride in my Triton Tr21 navigating only by my Lowrance GPS. Holy cow, Lake Ontario is overwhelming. This is definitely the biggest body of water I've ever been on other than the Atlantic. Anyway I fished Chaumont Bay with great success and caught some really fat small mouth bass. During the practice I spoke to many of the local people about how dangerous Lake Ontario can get when the wind blows. For those of you who aren't aware, bass boats are not intended for really rough water. I was told that if there is a 10 mph wind the waves could get as high as 10 feet. Absolutely scary in a bass boat. I knew had to come up with a strategy for catching fish consistently over the three day event. So after much pleading from my mother who also knew about the dangerous waves out on Ontario, I decided to focus my time in the much safer St. Lawrence River. Tues and Wed I fished the River and it took a little while to figure out exactly how the fish were going to be coaxed into biting. For the most part the Large Mouth Bass live in the River and the smallies live in the Lake. This is usually the opposite case on any other body of water. Going into Thursday I was confident. I planned out exactly what I was going to do down to the exact minute. The tournaments really do take so much preparation compared to the others I had fished in the past. I knew where I would start and where I would finish. My amateur partner on Thursday was from Ohio. We blasted off and headed way up the river to one spot I had caught a four pound Largemouth and started fishing. Within minutes I started loading the boat. For those of you not aware, the anglers are only allowed to weigh in their 5 largest fish. Well on Thursday I caught over 40 fish and went through almost four bags of Senko plastic worms. I used 12 pound Tuff Stuff Fishing line and believe it really made a difference in the super clear water. Tuff Stuff is super abrasion resistant and virtually invisible. I kept culling to find the five largest bass and felt really confident about my success on the first day. To my surprise I had only placed 72nd place on Thursday due to the huge bags of smallies coming from the Lake. My bag weighed 12 pounds and 14 ounces. Wow, was I frustrated and disappointed. To do so poorly after catching so many fish is just difficult. I knew something drastic must happen for me to make the top 50 and qualify for the last day of competition. As I was preparing the boat for the next day and I was notified that there were going to be 30 to 50 mph winds on Friday. That means huge waves, 10 to 15 foot waves and extremely dangerous conditions for a bass boat. Even a Triton. I knew that the die-hard fisherman would still go out and try to fish Lake Ontariotro which intern refueled my desire and confidence to fish the River. Some of you might be wondering why someone would put themselves in such danger to catch fish? My only answer is that fishing at this level is extremely competitive. The total earnings for this tournament were over $320,000 and each angler wanted their share. The top 15 anglers from the Northern Open tournament trail qualify for the "Tour" and the top 5 qualify for the Bassmaster Classic. The Bassmaster Classic is the biggest tournament in the world, basically the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing, and the winner is an instant millionaire. Not to mention the glory and fame of being the best fisherman in the world. Bass fishing has grown to a 60 billion dollar industry and the Classic winner is considered the king. Friday the weather was ridiculous with the rain and wind gusting all day long. I found fish again in the River and had another solid limit of fish. Boating back to the weigh in I was in extremely rough water and speared through 3 large waves. Imagine being hit in the face with a wall of water at 40 plus mph. Thank God I was in my Triton TR21 and had a chance against the waves. I weighed my fish and made a strong jump from 72nd place all the way to 34th place on Friday therefore qualifying for the top 50, to fish the final day. You're probably wondering at this point what happened to the other anglers out in Lake Ontario. More than 20 boats didn't even make it back to the weigh in, 9 boats were rescued, and 8 boats completely ripped off their lower unit (bottom part of the outboard approximately $1200 worth of damage). Kenyan Hill, a famous pro from Oklahoma, buried his boat into a wave and could not restart his motor. He jumped ship before it was smashed against the rocks. The boat split into two pieces and had to be dragged up a 40 foot rock cliff on a steel cable wench. To my the best of my knowledge none of the anglers were injured but they definitely were scared. Roland Martin, famous TV fishing host, had an enormous bag of fish the first day (19lbs) and only 14 ounces on the second. He didn't even make the top 50 because he tried to brave the rough water. I was ecstatic to be able to make it to the top 50 and fish against the rest of the qualifiers. Most of these pros fish full time. With Fishing was pretty ggo on Saturday and with 30 minutes left to fish I caught my biggest fish of the tournament (4 1/2 pounds) and sped from one spot to another trying to find similar areas. I even had a two spectator boats watching me as I fished. So nervous from all the attention, I made a huge backlash into the wind while the people watched (big Knot/ tangle). Pretty funny given that I was supposed to be the pro. Once again I weighed in a quality bag of fish with two fish in the four pound class. I finished in 37th spot with 34.13 pounds and the really good news is that because of my consistency I am in the 25th spot to fish the Bassmaster Classic. I need a very strong showing at the Hudson next month to be able to qualify for the for the Tour or the Classic. With a lot of luck and maybe a little skill I'll make it. I want to make sure to thank Pop's Marine in Toano Virginia, Triton Boats, Silver Buddy lures, Tuff Stuff Fishing Line, and Spike It Bait Co. Thank you all again and please wish me luck on the Hudson River in the first week of October. You can follow it on www.bassmaster.com I also want to thank Team Charlesworth. (My sister, Eve made it to the tournament but the rest of my family couldn't but were cheering me on. Thanks!) Thank you, James H. Charlesworth