BUFFALO, New York - After two days of coming up a
little shy on Lake Erie, Ohio's Frank Scalish brought in 17
pounds and 2 ounces to edge two-day leader Gaspare Costabile of
Canada at the CITGO Bassmaster Northern Open.
Scalish beat Costabile by a mere 4 ounces and claimed the
$50,000 victory with a three-day weight of 55-4.
"Can you believe it?" asked an excited Scalish. "I nearly fell
off the stage. They made me call my wife up there. She was
screaming and crying and screaming and crying. Then she told me
she loved me and I told her that I'd have to call her back
later.
"I did nothing different today than the first two days. I found
some bumps yesterday near the area that I was fishing and I
thought today that I could go to them because I was catching a
lot of smaller fish. I went there and found my big fish, a 4-14,
and that's the fish that gave me the victory.
"I wasn't doing anything fancy. I was throwing a 4-inch
watermelon Yum Dinger on a jig head. I think fishing it on a
jig head helped because I could get more feel. I could pop it
up over rocks and that's normally when the bite would come.
"I still can't believe it, though. I told Gaspare that we would
be arm wrestling over this one because I knew it was going to
be close."
Costabile was understandably dissapointed with the narrow upset,
but gracious about his second-place finish.
"Five lousy ounces short," Costabile said. "Can you believe it?
I have to give Frank the credit though. He really fished well. I
couldn't have done any better.
"My fish moved out today; the weather was rough again. We had 8
and 9 footers (waves) out there. I'm not complaining, though.
I had two excellent days and I did the best I could. I think
the conditions dirtied up a lot of my spots and they wouldn't
bite in the dirty areas.
"I threw smoke-colored tubes all day. I always like to win
here. Nobody likes to lose, but I really wanted to win here,
you know? The fishery here is just phenomenal."
Connecticut's Chris Bielert (53-1); Maryland's Aaron Hastings
(51-3) and Canada's George Saliba (50-6)
rounded out the top five.
On the non-boater side, it was Pennsylvanian Guyowen Hall taking
home the $24,000 top prize. Hall, who was 17th after day two,
brought in 17-4 Saturday, which catapulted him into first with a
three-day weight of 45-14.
"This is the first event I've ever entered," Hall said. "It's
awesome. I knew I needed a big bag today to be able to have a
chance.
"The way this tournament is run is top notch. I'm really
happy."
The Purolator Big Bass of the Day on the boater side, went to
Oklahoma's O.T. Fears on the boater side for his 5-7 lunker,
earning him $1,000.
On the non-boater side Pennsylvania's Scott Thomas brought in a
5-2 bass, earning him the $400 Purolator Big Bass of the Day for
the non-boaters. No one could top Canadaian Bill Wray's big
catch from Friday. His 5-11 fish was the biggest of the
tournament, earning him an additional $1,000 from Purolator for
the Purolator Big Bass of the Tournament.