Day Two Eastern Divisional Results
Orillia, Ontario, Canada—Tyler Hanatow proved he is a good student at the art of bass fishing today at Lake Simcoe by taking over the lead in the BASS Federation Nation Eastern Divisional presented Skeeter Boats and Yamaha Outboards.
The 22-year-old Hanatow is an art major at Plymouth State University and he has become a quick learner while competing in his first divisional. The Back Bay Bass Club member caught a five-fish limit weighing 20 pounds, 15 ounces to jump from 10th place to first with 37-4.Hanatow disclosed that he is fishing “completely different” than what he did in practice. “I caught a few in practice the same way that I caught them today but I was mainly fishing smallies,” said Hanatow, whose bag today included some hefty largemouth. “The fish moved out from where they were yesterday. On the bright sunny days the fish have been inside the cover in the shade and today in the rain they were (scattered) in the weeds.” Most of the fish he caught today were about 5 feet deep.
While on his summer break, Hanatow has been fishing nearly every day, which has helped him prepare for this event, especially since he has been unable to fish his strengths. I very rarely fish like I did the past two days,” he said.
The top finisher in each state and the Canadian province of Ontario qualifies for the Federation Nation Championship, the ultimate tournament for amateur bass anglers from Federation Nations throughout the world.
Tournament pace-setter Hanatow will qualify for the championship if he finishes as the top angler on his 14-man New Hampshire squad. Other team leaders are Mark Desjardin (Maine), Al Gambardella (Connecticut), James Moorey (Massachusetts), Jody White (Vermont), Joel St. Germain (Rhode Island), David Johnson (Ontario), Jim Bianchi (New York).Eight Federation Nation chapters are also vying in the team competition of this event for bragging rights and the chance to take home the grand prize of the tournament, a $30,000 Skeeter bass boat /Yamaha outboard rig. Rhode Island continues to lead the event with an accumulative weight of 279 pounds, 4 ounces, followed by New York with 225-15.Six youngsters also competed today in the Eastern Divisional CastingKids contest with the winners advancing to the national finals. A pair of sisters from Ontario, Sierra and Shauni Voisin, both scored 130 to win their age divisions. Sierra won the 7- to 10-year-olds age division and Shauni topped the 11-14 age group.
The championship qualifiers and winning team will be determined tomorrow when the final weigh-in for the Eastern Divisional begins at 2 p.m. EDT at Centennial Park.
