Maryland West Division

Deep Creek Lake Recap

On June 18th, 2005, we had 31 teams fish the 4th of 5 circuit events for the 2005 Maryland – West division of The Fishers’ of Men National Tournament Trail on Deep Creek Lake. This body of water is Maryland’s only “true” natural lake and is an extremely popular tourist destination but also a major fishing “hot-spot” with ample species including beautiful largemouth and hard fighting smallies. All but one team caught at least one legal 12+ inch bass with over half the field recording 5 fish limits. In total, 123 fish were brought to the scales with 1/3rd of them long and lean bronzebacks. The fields total weight of bass was just under 193 pounds with the majority of fish coming off slow fished soft plastics, jigs and jerkbaits from the 1000’s of docks that dot this lake.

Perennial favorites, Tony Slovak and Jim Iden proved once again that they know Deep Creek, claiming the 1st place prize money of $1188.00 with their 11.11 pounds as they just edged out the second place team, Shawn Skobel and Gary Crayton by a mere 4/100th’s of an ounce. Third place went to the rookie team of Ronald Dewitt and Chuck Harvey as their mixed bag of green and brown bass weighed in at just over 10 pounds, securing them prize money of $436.00. Charles Cunningham and Dave Mangold took 4th place while Derrick Hughes and Doug Hughes from north central PA earned 5th place, especially notable since this is a tough field of local anglers and they had never seen the water before. On the strength of the tournaments biggest bass at 3.36 pounds, Charles Plessinger and Kenny Walthers earned the final check of $372.00 with their 6 th place finish. Improving their place in the overall points standings to runner-up position, despite finishing one out of the money in 7th place was Kenneth Mills and Bruce Shives. Placing 8th, continuing to put the pressure on the rest of the field in the Year-To-Date point’s championship race, on the strength of being the only team all year to record a limit at every circuit event, was the father / son team of Terry and Brad Weese. SFVU Pro-Staff member Todd Rifenbery and Ron Hose finished in 9th place while Herb Fazenbaker and Jason Hardesty rounded out the top ten with their 5 fish limit of 7.35 pounds. Claiming the $120.00 for the tournaments second biggest bass was Tom Fram Jr. and Sr.

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The final tournament of the circuit season for the Maryland – West division will be on July 16th, 2005 on the Youghienny Reservoir launching out of the Summerfield Ramp but weighing in at our title sponsor’s retail facility, Woodland’s World. Every team will be trying to secure a top 20 finish in the year ending points standings with the following teams still in contention for the coveted Anglers of the Year honor; Weese/Weese (788), Mills/Shives (777), Mincin/Solties (768), Miller/Winters (766) and Plessinger/Walthers (764). Come out and support your favorite team at the beautiful Woodland’s World facility at 2:30pm on Saturday the 16 th. All the information for this event can be found at our national website www.FOMNTT.com under the Schedules tab or for more detailed information, at http://www.sfvu.com by double clicking on the FOM logo, then hitting the MD-West button.

Before we report on the Friday evening pre-tournament affair kindly hosted by Pleasant View Baptist, let me quickly report on the final results from the membership vote we took regarding their choice for the 2006 Fishers’ of Men circuit season for the MD West / WV North division. At FOM, we exist because of you and our only purpose is to first serve Jesus’ great commission by serving you as well as to provide the members and surrounding communities with the finest team tournament trail possible. With that in mind, we allowed our members voices to be heard and this is the consensus schedule won by majority vote. Of course, this would be tentative due to major unforeseen conflict or until permit approval:

Raystown Lake – April 1 st, 2006 (25 Votes)
Mount Storm – April 29 th , 2006 (31 Votes)
Cheat Lake – May 20 th, 2006 (23 Votes)
Youghienny Reservoir – June 17 th, 2006 (39 Votes)
Deep Creek Lake (RQT) – July 22 nd, 2006 (41 Votes)

Other bodies of water receiving votes were Lower Tidal Potomac (20), Jennings Randolph (13), Tygart (10), Upper Bay (8), Lake Erie (5), Mon River (3), Upper Potomac (2), Burnsville (2) Three Rivers (1) and receiving (8) votes was Stonewall Jackson although they do not allow weigh-in style tournaments.

Now, special thanks to Pastor Wally Weeks and all the staff for providing our Friday evening pre-tournament meeting place as well as food. Every team member and guests enjoyed an awesome and free meal of lasagna with all the fixins’ as well as incredible homemade desserts. As is always the case with any Fishers’ of Men event, we were excited about the opportunity to gather together for an awesome night of food, fellowship, pre-tournament planning, door prizes and powerful testimony. Much to the enjoyment of everyone, and thanks to the efforts of the media group from Sport Fishing Ventures Unlimited and Lindners Angling Edge, we heard videotaped messages of personal testimony, Christian education and relatable advice from Jimmy Houston, Darryl Christensen and Shaw Grigsby. Through beautiful footage, exciting tournament back-drops and commentary from Al Lindner, God’s great message of true salvation was laid out in simple, easy to understand terms; Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and earn everlasting life! Three individuals in the crowd indicated a personal desire to renew a stronger commitment to return to God and follow Jesus in all areas of their lives!

We would like to take this opportunity to thank our primary national sponsors: Triton Boats, Mercury Outboards, Strike King Lure Company, Kistler Custom Fishing Rods and Presnell Plantation Services.

The Pennsylvania - West division is blessed to have the following regional divisional sponsors: Call Brian, Craig or Brad at one of the nations largest and finest independent tackle dealers, Woodlands World (866-472-6969) and if you present your FOM membership card at checkout, you will get 15% off everything (except firearms and related optics). Call Chad at Halls Marine (570-546-2310) for your new Triton bass boat, whether it is fiberglass or aluminum. These guys rank as one of the nations premier dealerships and when you meet and talk with Chad and his staff, you will immediately know why! Ask him for the special Fishers’ of Men discount on your next Triton boat purchase. A special note of thanks to Melissa at Sport Fishing Ventures Unlimited ( SFVU ) http://www.sfvu.com, as well as Jim Herr of Herr’s Snacks, Trey at Kistler Custom Rods, Gary at Solar Bat Polarized Sunglasses, Troy at Mizmo Tubes and Lizards, Tom at RoboWorm Finesse Handpours, Sam at Penetrator Slick Coated Tungsten Weights, Joe at Secret Weapon Spinnerbaits and Buzzbaits and the National Promotions Team at Cracker Barrel Restaurants and Choice Hotels.