Down to the wire finish, bottom of the ninth walk-off, desperate Hail-Mary pass…all sports cliche’s to describe a close finish. I don’t believe any of these phrases could have done justice to the trio of talented bass teams who finished 1-2-3 at the 1st of 2 PAYCHECK Wildcard tournaments on the Upper Bay out of Anchor Marina on Sunday, October 13.
2 days of heavy rains and winds had the bay stirred up big time. The front tried to move out throughout the day but it was slow-moving despite the strong winds. One team ventured out to the prosperous grass flats but returned shortly with no olive branch as they could not locate the grass due to the wave action and color of the water.
Any of the 10 teams entered in this tournament were capable of taking home all of the marbles (yes, another cliche’). In fact, 7 out of 10 teams carried a limit to the scales and those that didn’t still had a nice caliber of bass.
Kevin Simpson and Sam Rineer were 2 bass shy of a tournament limit but oh, what a monster they laid on the scale. The big bass of the tournament weighed 6.38 pounds and Kevin swears the other 2 bass came to the scales just to honor the big fellow! They pocketed a cool hundred bucks.
Mike Sentore and Sean McKee, Angler’s of the year in the Premier Marine Division sacked up 5 bass weighing 16.88 and finished in 4th place. Good going!
After taking the lead early Steve Myers and John Richick could only watch and hope that their 17.24 pounds were enough for the win. Eventually two teams barely nudged ahead of them but what finish! Nice bag, guys!
John Valdez and Ed Davis squeaked ahead of Steve and John with a limit that weighed 17.29 pounds. They received $300 in total prize money. Great job!
Kings of the hill, top of the heap on this day were Keith Cowan and Zach Cowan who sneaked into the lead to stay with 17.49 pounds. Wow, that was close! Congratulations! They were awarded $710. Not a bad return on their $100 investment!
The next PAYCHECK Wildcard on the Bay will be Sunday, October 20 at Anchor Marine, one day after the 5th and final Pro Tour event on Saturday, also out of Anchor.
| # | Angler 1 | Angler 2 | # of fish | Big Bass | Total | Award |
| 1 | Keith Cowan | Zach Cowan | 5 | 4.44 | 17.49 | $710.00 |
| 2 | John Valdez | Ed Davis | 5 | 4.86 | 17.28 | $300 |
| 3 | Steve Myers | John Richick | 5 | 3.77 | 17.24 | 0 |
| 4 | Mike Sentore | Sean McKee | 5 | 4.32 | 16.88 | 0 |
| 5 | Clyde Brown | Dave Kilby | 5 | 4.97 | 15.86 | 0 |
| 6 | Kevin Simpson | Sam Rineer | 3 | 6.38 | 11.93 | $100 |
| 7 | JT Lang | Chris Lang | 5 | 2.96 | 11.68 | 0 |
| 8 | Jim Ahern | Mario Bitros | 5 | 3.42 | 11.41 | 0 |
| 9 | Vinny T | Brian Calloway | 3 | 3.97 | 8.06 | 0 |
| 10 | Danny Rodriguez | Eric McNulty | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
