TUG VALLEY BASS ANGLERS

"Tug Valley Bass Anglers Dewey Lake Tournament

Presented by Borders Sporting Goods"

On October 11th the Tug Valley Bass Anglers held its eighth tournament of the 2009 season on Dewey Lake. There was a good turn out with 23 anglers competing in the event.

Dewey was at normal summer pool with clear water on the lower end becoming stained as you got toward the back of the lake. The lower one third of the lake toward the dam was turning over and the water looked like black coffee. Generally, fishing during the turn over is tougher than normal. The reason is bad water with low oxygen. For those of you who have heard the term but didn't really know what it is I will explain. Everybody knows when you swim in the lake in the summer and you dive down the water about 5 to 10 feet deep is a lot colder than the surface water. In the Fall when the days get shorter and the air temperature begins to cool, that top surface layer of water also cools down. The colder water becomes the heavier and more dense it gets. When the surface water cools down to where its colder than the water under it, usually around 65 degrees it sinks because its heavier than the water below it forcing the water that's been on the bottom of the lake to the surface. This mixes the whole water column dropping oxygen levels and bringing decaying leaves and other stinky material to the surface.

Weather for the tournament was good with clouds in the morning giving way to partly sunny skies by 3 pm and a high temperature of about 65 degrees. A cold front came through that morning and the wind picked up dropping the air temperature by what felt like ten degrees.

The fish were in early fall patterns, and moving shallow. Most of the fish seemed to still be on the main lake and not in the creeks. Also, most of the shad were still on the main lake. For whatever reason the fish seem to be slow this year about going to the creeks at Dewey. Most of the fish were fairly shallow and the winning fish were caught in less than 3 feet of water, but deeper water had to be close by. The cold front made the fish hold real tight to cover and they wouldn't move very far to take a bait.

The main pattern for this tournament was to pitch soft plastics to any shallow wood cover on main lake flats close to deeper water.

The top finishers are as follows.

1st--Kevin Runyon --- (2 fish) 8.05 lbs. Big Fish - 4.57 lbs.

2nd--Lacy Edmiston --- (1 fish) 2.33 lbs.

3rd--James Riley --- (1 fish) 2.12 lbs.

4th--Brad May --- (1 fish) 1.96 lbs.

5th--MO --- (1 fish) 1.63 lbs.

6th--Brandon Staten --- (1 fish) 1.53 lbs.

Thanks to our sponsors Gander Mountain, TMK Security and Personnel, Borders Sporting Goods, Elliott Supply & glass, Perry Distributors, Don's Street Machine, Extreme Sounds, Pigeon Creek Log Company, Appalachian Wireless and Thoroughbred Steakhouse.