The winners Mike O'Leary and fill in Partner for the day Tony Vachelli had 22.74 pounds with 8 fish to win the Johnsons Pond event.

The weather was horrible I was told. Torrential down pours, cold temperatures which caused the water temperature to drop and wind..

Mike told me he practiced a few days before the tournament and he found fish on beds in an area North of Colwells however he knew he would need a good number in the draw to get to this prime location. On tournament day he said he and partner Tony V watched and waited as each boat took off and none went near the spot they had pre-fished on. They had a number in the high teens. Mike thought they would never get the chance to fish the area so productive in pre-fish. When it was their turn to blast off they were suprised to find no one near the SPOT.. With the cloud cover and the rain it was difficult to see any fish on beds but with the water temp around 61 They both felt confident the fish were around the beds and started with top water. They started fishing the inside weed beds near the bedding areas they had seen fish gurading beds in practice. It wasn't long before they had their limit using shaky heads tubes and worms however most fish came on the shaky heads according to Mike Oleary. The fish had pulled off the beds but were in eye shot of the beds to chase sunfish and other small fish.

Their big fish was 4.99 and the total weight was 22.74.

Mike Oleary told me it was one of those days that everything went their way from the blast off and with each fish they gained more confidence to stay glued to what they were doing. They obviously made the right decision. Congratulations on doing your home work and sticking to the game plan.