Hard Core (Major League Fishing format) is pretty cool getting to count every fish you catch.

It is not supposed to be this hot going into October. I suppose Dennis might call it global warming, but we don't believe in that yet.

Like the real TV show every fish over 10" counts. You must catch 6 LB + in one of the qualifying tournaments to move into the semi-final. We set it low so most of our members would make to the second level. But there is three ways to qualify. Then in the semi-final on a portion of the lake drawn that morning:

The first ten members to catch 8 lbs will record it on the back of their score sheet and have the other person in the boat sign the sheet and record the time. They will qualify for the finals in November. Which will be held in one of the two remaining lake sections.

Today was the last qualifying tournament for 2017 with the next being the semi-final. Today Tim Gold, Terry Thompson and Stijn Lens qualified for the semi, joining every other participant in Hard Core. None of our members who fished it failed to qualify. A major improvement over 2016.

Today 9/21 was qualifying tournament # 12

Boaters:
First place went to Tim Gold of Mineola with 10 bass for 13.20 with a 2.02 lunker.
Second place went to Galen Smith Of Alba with 5 bass for 8.03 with the 3.31 lunker
Third place went to Terry Thompson of Sulphur Springs with 2 bass for 6.65 with THE 5.94 lunker.
Fourth place went to Charlie Abresch from Hawkins with 3 fish for 5.72 with a 3.02 lunker.


Co-Anglers (Judges)
First place went to Gene Shoemaker of Quitman with 8 bass for 23.35 with a 5.94 lunker.
Second place went to Jackie Price of Alba with 3 bass for 10.93 with THE 7.15 lunker
Third place went to Charlie Arnold of Lake Fork with 3 bass for 10.31 with a 5.49 lunker.
Fourth place went to Stijn Lens of Belgium with 5 bass for 8.72 with a 2.49 lunker.
Drop shots, T-rigs and c-rigs accounted for a bunch.

71 keepers were caught with lot's of slots involved.

For info on fishing this tournament and others put on by the Lake Fork Anglers contact me at sjbasser@aol.com. We have openings for both boaters and co-anglers right now. This is a club that fishes only on Thursday daytime. Dues are $5 a year.

All of our tournaments are priced for seniors as follows. $10 entry 100% payback, $1 for club and $1 for the Top 6 team* So Total entry of $12. Optional lunker pool 80% payback of $5. Optional 100% payback side pot for $10 per person.

In addition to this format that we call "Hard Core" we also fish our regular every other Thursday tournament, and a team tournament all at Lake Fork on a draw style fishing. All of our tournaments "paper" the bass and slot fish count.

If you are as "Hard Core" as some of us you can fish every Thursday like we do. And some Fridays too. And then Opens on the weekend.

Hey we are seniors and we are supposed to be doing something to keep us he