Potholes Gold

By Ben Hanes, Writer

Northwest Bass Pro Staff

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Lewis and Percifield Press on Despite Dire Practice

         Six GPS waypoints.  That’s what it took for Matt Lewis and Jeremy Percifield from Tri-Cities to achieve a 4^th place finish at the Northwest Bass Potholes Qualifier sponsored by Nixon’s Marine. 

            After three days of brutal practice, the team had caught only six fish on an assortment of baits.  They simply could not establish a viable pattern with the intense cold-front conditions.  Hence, Lewis and Percifield chose to make a strategic decision that would ultimately make or break their tournament.  They believed the areas they had caught fish must hold more.  Accordingly, when the tournament finally rolled around, they decided to pound these areas. 

            It was a wise choice.  On the morning of the tournament, it seemed the fish had come alive.  The team was able to efficiently scrape up fifteen keepers in a mere 6 hours.  Their best five equated to 18.30 pounds, a meager 1.70 pounds out of 1^st place.  They caught the majority of their fish on a 3/8-ounce Terminator Spinnerbait with a Zoom double tail grub.  “We made casts toward specific structure and retrieved the spinnerbaits at a medium speed.  We would occasionally pause on the retrieve,” said Matt Lewis.  “Our targets included beaver huts, brush-lines, and fallen, dead trees.”  The team also rolled their spinnerbaits over grassy humps, which produced a couple of hefty largemouth.

            By noon, the fish in the team’s livewell were under the weather.  They were not entirely sure if the big bucket-mouths would make it to the weigh-in alive.  Therefore, Percifield and Lewis made another critical decision to end the day early and take their fish to the scales, to ensure they were released safely.  It was a selfless, conservative, and clever judgment that ultimately put an extra $2,350.00 dollars into the team’s pocketbook.   With 5^th place being a tiebreaker, they could have dropped several places with one or more quarter-pound, dead fish penalties.

            “We’d just like to thank Jeff Priester from Nixon’s Marine for keeping our boat running, and Jeff Bruce for getting us into this addiction called bass fishing!”

            Northwest Bass, the largest circuit in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho is sponsored locally by Nixon’s Marine.  In each and every qualifying tournament, the top finishing Triton Boat owner receives $1,000.00 in cash ($2500.00 for winning Triton Boat owners).  Thankfully, Percifield and Lewis were driving a 20-foot Triton Boat powered by a 225 HP motor.

~Ben Hanes, the author, currently resides in the Tri-Cities area.  Ben is an avid bass fisherman, and has been tournament fishing for 10 years.  He is currently sponsored by McCurley Integrity Dealerships, Columbia River Bank, Cascade Sign and Design, and writes articles for Nixon’s Marine and Northwest Bass.