Shpack Finds Fish 'Gull'-ible at Harwich, Uses Pattern to Win

For Avid’s second visit to Long Pond Harwich in 2010 (The Easter Bunny Open was the first) the weather cooperated nicely. Temps were in the mid- to upper 60s, skies were mostly sunny and the wind was from the southwest and light—an unusual occurrence for this lake. That turned out to be a boon for those opting to target spawning fish, as it made spotting beds less difficult. As it turned out the smallmouth were still in heat, but it seemed the largemouth hadn't quite started in full force, even with water temps in the low 60s. Only 4 largemouths were weighed of the 38 total fish presented at weigh-in.

Only about half the membership made the trip to the Cape; eight boaters and two non-boaters completed the field. But no one came in empty-handed.

Taking third, with a bag of 11.75 lbs. was Fred Naymie; in second was Mark Donovan with five smallmouth weighing 14.38 lbs. John Shpack narrowly edged out Markie for the top spot, his winning sack of smallmouth coming in at 14.45 lbs. John also captured the content’s lunker award with a 3.72 lb. fish. Outstanding, gentlemen!

Even though the lake wasn’t “on fire,” it seems there were a few successful patterns going on. While one consisted of finding fish on deeper beds in 8-10 feet of water, there also seemed to be a decent shallow bite for fish either just moving up or cruising in water as shallow as two feet. John even claims to have located a few fish by following hungry seabirds who were gorging on herring that had schooled on the surface.

Our next tournament is at Barton’s Cove on June 27.