Pro Teen a Tradition that keeps Growing!

July 17 2005 will a day that many Western Teen bass anglers will remember for years to come as be the 7th annual Pro Teen Tournament on the California Delta Waterways. Andy “Cooch” Cuccia and many of his friends once again did a great job bringing smiles to these young anglers. This event is designed to bring young anglers from 13 to 19 years of age who have never fished a “Pro-Am” event and are not currently fishing a team circuit out for a day of competitive bass fishing. It is a chance for a kid, who otherwise does not have the opportunity, to enter and participate in a "Pro style" tournament event the purpose of the Pro-Teen event is to introduce teenage kids to alternative activities, in our particular case it is tournament bass fishing. This years event brought Young anglers from Southern Ca, Oregon and Nevada to the Delta for some great fun. Saturday night featured seminars in the Beautiful Russo’s Marina facility.

Russo’s Marina on Bethel Island is is a hidden often overlooked camping and boat access location on the Nationally Famous Frank’s Tract. Yes, clean full hook-ups sites superior boat access and the On-the-water location of the Hook Line and Sinker highlight this resort.

I have experienced many big events out of Russo’s the past couple of years and have always been impressed with their helpful outgoing staff and ever continuing improvements. This is simply one of the cleanest Resorts in the area. Here are some of the many amenities. Clean Showers and Restrooms make this facility worth checking out as a Delta Destination.

The resort is located on Bethel Island’s Piper Slough close to fast water access, great fishing for Black Bass, Stripers, Sturgeon, panfish and catfish. Bethel Island has planty of restaurants, stores within minutes. As I mentioned before, big changes have taken place here. During the past three years there have been vast improvements. One resident couple mentioned, “It has gone from sand pit to first class resort as Chuck Russo has worked with Gene Bucholz of the Hook line and Sinker. Bucholz said, “Dan you know I have experienced some real headaches over the years working with Dupont at Big Break. This is by far the best situation I could be in as Chuck (Russo) has really worked hard to bring events here and provide consistent improvements to the resort. I couldn’t be happier with the situation here’.

The teens were the real winners here as each participating teen was paired with a pro for a day of fun and introduction into tournament bass fishing. While I set shore bound at Russo’s for a couple of days prior to the event I was able to get real feel for the excitement of the kids coming to fish the event. I spoke with Jordan Buchannan of Huntington Beach as he was checking out the area prior to the event. His enthusiastic smile and willingness to learn struck me, I remembered why I enjoyed this event so much.

Western pro Dewayne Bonham had this to say about his experience, “This may have been the best CO Teen/Pro yet. I was really impressed from the Valet parking/pickup to the food crew, from the fantastic host location to the group of great kids.

Cooch and his entire team of support and sponsors I appreciate you giving us the chance to fish with these kids. Each year I get more worried that I will have to fish against these kids in tournaments someday.

This year I fished with Alvaro Munoz. We met in the morning and first thing he tells me is that I don't know how good of a fisherman I have drawn. I remembers back to when I was 12 years old and the confidence I had from getting to fish most of the summers at Contra Loma. I smile and we get ready to fish. He had one rod it was baitcaster, whew!

I pull out a few rods and tell hit to help himself as he liked. Our first spot he wanted to thow a popper. I hand him a popper on a 7' rod with one of my fast Curado reels. I tell him I will work near the tules with a frog and he can work the outside. He tells me he feels the fish will be in the cuts in the tules and proceeds to cast into a 4' wide cut that runs about 8' into the tules. The cast lands perfectly about 1' from the back. I think to myself that was a lucky cast and this will going to be a long day of pulling baits out of the tules. He then proceeded to put on a casting clinic. One time the entire day he did hang up the popper.

We had a blast and he caught about 8 fish for the day. We never got the big bites we were searching for, but what a great time with an outstanding young man”.

Well with every great event there are results, here are the pro teen Top 20:

1 Ryan Martin Zack Thompson 5 18.80 3.53
2 Brett Low Sean Stafford 5 18.67 5.27
3 Kevin Fleischman Ken Mah 5 16.28
4 Blake Dyer Jarod Bollardo 5 14.98
5 Angelo Ambrosino Chris Zelenka 5 14.23
6 Drew Gillian Jerry Fournier 5 14.13
7 Jeremy Riddle JR Taylor 5 13.85
8 Patricia Pinkard Bobby Barrack 3 13.22
9 Dan Barnett Chuck Russo 5 13.15
10 Stefano Particelli Patrick Sexton 5 13.03
11 CJ Burleigh Dan Daniel 5 12.68
12 Jefferey Fitzgerald Steve Moduno 5 12.37 4.08
13 Bruce Saechao Rich Thiel 5 12.11
14 John McQuade Michael Watson 5 11.79 5.41
15 Sean Sipe Mike Rosalez 5 11.65 5.48
16 Max Hudock John Harper 5 11.6
17 Jonathan Bradford Jon Ewing 5 11.49
18 Lucas Boden Bob Santora 5 11.40
19 Brad Abraham Dan Isaac 4 11.3 2.40
20 Pedram Yazdanfar Terry Flowers 5 11.28

Cooch with the help of Shimano, Power Pro, Berkley, Bobby D’s Ranger Boats and many others put together a Great event. Fishing Hall of fames Dee Thomas was on hand to sign the commemorative magazines distributed. Thanks to all that helped make this a great event, Cooch even your boaters can’t wait til next year at this facility. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

Dan Mathisen
FishDelta.com - All Species, All Delta
The Ultimate Resource For California Delta Fishing

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