Naymie is Big Winner at Winni 2-Day

It's hard to believe it had been four years since Avid last visited Lake Winnipesaukee but it's true; we last fished there in July of 2011. Fred Naymie won that contest and the intervening years didn't slow him down a bit, as he topped the field again in 2015.

The format this year was quite different than in the past though. This year's tournament kicked off the 2016 Avid season and was a two-day event, so Fred had to have it going on for consecutive days, not just one. That he was able to do that in the face of tough weather patterns that made the fish finicky for many, shows that the win was well deserved.

It seemed the lake was perched on the edge of a frontal system that never really broke one way or the other over the three days we were there. Friday, the practice day, was partly sunny but cool, with eunseasonably cool nights on either end, with winds out of the east, and building clouds as the day wore on. Saturday, the wind shifted to blow from the northwest and it was mostly overcast all day. Sunday brought the rain (though not much) and a southwest wind. As a result no stable weather pattern settled in and the fish were hard to catch. Every bite was valuable and few anglers reported getting enough bites to cull.

To illustrate the point, the bite in Lee's Mill was pretty much nonexistent both days, though largemouth were caught elsewhere. The largies and smallies that did bite were taken on dropshot and topwater, mostly in depths of 20 feet or less. It seems the smallmouth hadn't yet followed the bait to their deepest summer hangouts.

As for the numbers, Fred's winning total was 20.34 pounds on 10 fish. In second was John Shpack with 10 fish for 19.86 and the day 1 and 2 lunker smallmouth. Newcomer Jeff Jennes claimed third with 10 fish weighing 18.49 pounds and the day 2 lunker largemoth of 4.17 pounds. The fourth paid place went to Paul Carvalho who also had 10 fish for 18.91. Ed Doyle took the day 1 lunker largemouth prize with a 4.13 fish.

As tough as it was, this marks the third consecutive tournament in which everyone caught fish. Technically, it's the fourth day in a row because all anglers caught fish on both days in this event.

Our next event is a long way off: Sampsons Pond in mid-October.