B.G.Y.M. Stoner Creek Tournament by Joe Maione

The Bluegrass Yakmasters held their 4th points bearing event on Stoner Creek in Paris, KY on June 22, 2013. Registration was held at Fryman's Boat Dock and anglers had two pools of stoner creek to fish from. 30 club members showed up bright and early ready to wear out some fish and have a great time.

I arrived the afternoon before to do a little pre-fishing and get to know the creek. Put in at Fryman's around 5:00pm and fished until dark. I didn't catch a lot of fish, but brought some nice sized largemouth to the boat and left for the hotel confident about the tournament in the morning. Taylor decided to take this tournament off ..... well she had an offer to go tubing with her best friend at Barren River.

Tournament day.... and registration went off without a hitch. Myself and most of the 30 anglers decided to launch at Fryman's and fish this pool while a handful headed off to fish the other pool. Turned out the bigger fish came from the other pool - story of my life! Anyway I launched and within the first 20 minutes I already had my 3 fish limit albeit on the small size. I continued to catch fish with regularity throughout the rest of the morning and then the bite just shut off. I was able to increase my limit to 40" for my 3 fish. I did catch a half dozen more in the afternoon but was unable to make any upgrades.

I had a pretty good day and ended up in the top 10 finishing in 9th place. I probably had the second biggest total of those fishing the Fryman's pool.... ahhh but that handful of guys that headed and launched at Ike's in the other pool got into some nice fish. Matt Schaefer finished first with a total length of 49.25". With 47.25" Keith Brown came in second with Drew Russell bringing in 45.25" to round out the top 3. A total of 976" of fish were caught with a 3 fish average of 32.5". Big Fish went to Keith Brown with a monster over 21".

A great time was had by all. As with all tournaments in the club cash prizes to the top 5 and 6-10 recieve prize packs from sponsors. I got a hat and a bunch of cool baits for my 9th place finish. Off to the next tournament - Licking River on July 27, 2013.