Mickelson Recap

I thought, even though it’s been almost a week, it would be nice for everyone that missed the Mickelson Open to get a little recap of what went on. 

The morning started with a lot of luck.  We parked the truck in the front of the parking lot and I made a mad dash for the bathroom praying that it would be open.  To my fortune, the cleaning crew was there and the stalls where fresh for using. 

As I walked satisfied back to the parking lot, I noticed a few boats had pulled in.  Tony LoFranco had parked next to me.  He came over to register and eagerly gave me a purple dragon that apparently he had been chasing for the last 4 months. 

The boats poured in and registration went smoothly.  Each participant was generous with their donations for Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital.  As we signed everyone up, boats were launched.  Unlike last year, everyone remembered to put their plugs in (Shawn McDaniel) and everyone who tied a rope also tied it to their boat, Frank White) so we had no abandoned drifters in the marina.

And then the strangest thing happened.  Registration wasn’t over until 7:00, but Dez and Tyler showed up at 6:30.  No one was really sure what to do, but they signed up and launch and no one got hurt!  It was a close one!

Blast off took place at about 7:15 a.m.  Eugene Gotsalo and His brother Sergey were the first boat out.  The E-Tech barely made a sound as they drifted by the pier for live well inspection.  I remember thinking, “wow, that is the most awesome looking Ranger.  Those white power poles are sweet!”  Unfortunately, they were only able to muster up 3 fish for 6.03 lbs.  Guess power poles don’t help much in October. 

Other than Bob Leary forgetting his partner, everyone was off down the lake.  He still managed a 10.57 pound limit. 

After the rooster tails had settled, I noticed Shane Storie and his partner Dan Heasler lost in the marina.  Shane had his boat in a tight counter clockwise spin.  After watching for a good 20 minutes, I realized, he couldn’t find his way out of the marina!  Finally, just after 1:00 p.m., he managed to head for the exit and made his way to the main lake.  But bad luck struck and he ran out of gas only a few hundred yards outside the buoys.   They were forced to abandon ship and swam back to shore.  A few minutes later, their boat drifted in behind them.  They had 1 fish in the live well for 1.31 pounds.  Tough day guys!

Chad Simon fished with his sister, Dannelle.  At about 2:30, he met up with 10 boats from the Evergreen club who had all launched at Mercer Island that morning.  They teamed up their best 5 fish and threw them in Chad’s live well.  Their combined efforts made a 5 fish limit for 7.83 pounds.  Nice work team Evergreen! 

Chris Ferry fished with Jim Endicott.  They actually did pretty well with a limit for 9.21 considering how paranoid Chris was to scratch that Phoenix that he had snuck out of the shop the previous night. 

Joe Scheperle and Ty Watterson had a pretty good day together.  They weighed 12.88 pounds, but lost a huge fish at the boat.  Joe blames George Bush, but it was actually Obama’s fault.

Kenny G and Doug Jorgensen also had a great day.  They finished 4^th overall and had the big fish of the tournament.  They caught 5 fish for 14.52 even though Kenny insisted they retie each knot after each cast.  Officer Jorgensen also busted two shoplifters.

Jaymee Strasbaugh and Shawn McDaniel mad a real run at the win.  Their 14.78 pound bag was good for third overall.  The most amazing part of this is, Shawn didn’t even pick up a rod.  He was too busy with his finger in the plug hole.  Seems he was too proud to go back to the dock.  Oh well, always next year guys!

In second place were Tom Librande and Ashley Freeman.  Tom was able to take second with 16.05 even with half his brain tied behind his back.  Way to go!

And with the win for the second year in a row were Tony Lofranco and Keith Brooks. They had a total weight of 16.42 pounds!  Tony said it was much easier to concentrate on fishing now that he was no longer chasing the purple dragon.  They also had the second biggest fish, a 4.55 pound brown dragon!

An honorable mention needs to go out to the team of Dan Caffrey and Ryan Perrey.  They took a respectable 8^th place with 11.24 even though their boat was overrun by Somali Pirates!  Dan attempted to negotiate with them, but in the end surcame to their demands of having a dance party on the deck of his boat.  Rock the boat!!!

Thank you to everyone that came!  I nearly filled the bed of my truck with toys!  Congrats to those that did well and I hope you all had a fun day!