The bite is TOUGH right now on the Monongahela!
Jeff Miller Day 1 Leader
While the city of Morgantown, WV. has been a very gracious host for days while the TBF division championship anglers have been in town, The “Mon” as the locals call it, is rearing its head this week and is refusing to give up its bounty. Normally it will take 15 or 16 pounds a day here to win an event, but most of the typically stained “Mon” is ultra clear right now, (not all of it but most of it), with no current and no place for the baitfish to hide. So, they are balled up in the middle of the river channel and the wily bass are suspended up underneath them and can feed at will. Suspended bass are notorious difficult to catch, they will just sit there and watch you throw everything in the boat at them and then go on by…….its brutally tough.
As is always the case someone will figure out a way to catch some fish, this event is no exception and the team from Pennsylvania “caught them good” today, ….all things being relative on the term “good” of course! The 12 man squad from PA leads with a team total of 28 pounds and 9 ounces. West Virginia jumped from last to finish in second with 25-15 and Virginia sits in third at 20-09.
Anchoring the Pennsylvania Team as the tournament overall leader is Jeff Miller, this Johnstown, Pa angler weighed in a one of only two five bass limits that weighed out at 6.03. Understandably all the anglers were very tight lipped
Eric Hail
about what they were doing and where. The other limit of the day was weighed in by West Virginia’s own Robby Fleshman his five weighed 5.01.
Proving that there are big bass in the Monongahela river, Oil City, Pa angler Eric Heil had the big bass honors today with one fish that weighed exactly 5 pounds! That one fish landed him in 4th overall.
Day 2 of 3 days of weigh-in begins at 3pm EST in downtown Morgantown, West Virginia at the Hazel Ruby McQuin Park amphitheater, right on the riverwalk, it is free to the public.
