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Local anglers take second place at Central Valley tourney
fish pic
Matt Frazier (Denair) and Sam Sawyer (Turlock) took second place with 18.66 pounds at the Central Valley WRL tournament on April 7. - photo by Photo Contributed

Monster bass was caught by Dan Marshall at Don Pedro on April 7 in the Central Valley WRL tournament. Twenty teams arrived early in anticipation of big fish being caught with the full moon bringing the fish in shallow to spawn.
The stage was set with calm winds, clear skies and warm weather forecast on this day before Easter weekend. The blast-off went smooth with all 20 boats skimming across the lake by 6:10 a.m. The early morning bite wasn't so great because of the cold front that went through the day before but as the sun rose higher up so did the temperature and fish started moving up shallow as expected.
John Flores and Dan Marshall (both Fresno) were the big winners coming to the scales with 20.34 pounds anchored with a monster 12.73 bucket mouth. They said all their fish were caught after 11 a.m. in Moccasin Creek on beds using drop shot with 6 inch Pro Worms. This great effort landed them two nice plaques, a beautiful Big Fish plaque, and $1,125.
To date, that monster caught by Marshall is the largest bass weighed in an Anglers' Choice tournament this year.
Matt Frazier (Denair) and Sam Sawyer (Turlock) were a little over a pound and a half from the leaders with 18.66 pounds and a 5.35 kicker to give them second big fish and 2nd place good for two nice plaques and a $705 payday. Frazier said their fish were in the back of coves, best was Big Creek, on beds and were caught using Berserk Mad Shad.
Next was Nick Barse of Waterford fishing by himself to take third place with 13.85 pounds backed with a nice 5.31 large mouth giving him two nice plaques and $450. Barse caught his fish on swim baits and jigs.
Last in the money, the current leaders in the Anglers of the Year race for the Central Valley, was Seth Rowe (Chowchilla) and Mike Alvarez (Clovis) taking 4th place with 13 pounds even and a $180 pay check.
All the teams had five fish limits for a total of 100 fish caught with only one casualty and a total weight of 218 pounds.
Coming up on May 6, will be the full moon madness tournament for the Motherlode WRL with the Bait Barn putting up an additional $1,000 in bonus money to be paid back in the place positions. Teams won't need to be in the options to qualify for this bonus money. Entry is $110, which includes big fish.
For more info contact Danny Peluso at 874-9525 dpeluso@inreach.com Our Tournament of Champions will be at Lake Oroville with first place being a Legend LE-186 SCX boat and trailer with a Mercury 150HP ProXS motor on Oct. 6-7.