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06/12/2008
NITRO Angler Joey Nania Wins Again
Joey ‘da fish’ Nania Wins Again!FLW/TBF Junior State Championship
Qualifies to fish FLW National Guard Junior World Championship in August
Potholes Reservoir, Othello, WA – May 31, June 1, 2008
NITRO® angler Joey Nania won his 5th state title in four years and qualified to fish in the 2008 FLW National Guard Junior World Championships scheduled for August on Lake Monticello in South Carolina. Joey has now qualified to fish both the BASS Junior Bassmasters World Championships and the FLW National Guard Junior World Championships. These tournaments represent his 4th and 5th trips to the World Championship events after winning the Junior Bassmasters in 2005 with boater Kevin VanDam.
For the record in the two day tournament: On day one, Joey brought in a five fish limit of largemouth bass weighing in at 18.26 lbs. taking the lead by 3.5 pounds. All other limits presented were comprised almost entirely of smallmouth. Joey had pre-fished both largie and smallie areas and felt confident that he could get five good largemouth bites while others fished bedding smallies. Joey’s last fish of day one was a 6.25 pound largie that he caught with 20 minutes left in the day, culling out a 2.75 pounder.
On day two, a cold front moved through with winds increasing. Joey realized that the wind conditions would make bed fishing tougher so he opted to go back to the largie well and nailed another five fish limit for 14.45 lbs winning the state title by over 10 pounds with a total of 32.71 pounds.
On both days Joey ventured into the complex ‘dunes’ of the reservoir squeezing his adults boat through narrow openings to find ponds holding largies who were guarding fry. He was able to spot the some of the bigger fish holding right under the fry balls. All of his fish were caught using a Green Pumpkin Live Line Stogie (similar to a Senko), on a 4/0 wide gap Gamakatsu hook, with 12 pound mono McCoy Mean Green set on an All Star 6’6” medium action spinning rod (to enable skipping baits) with Pflueger Supreme XT Reel. Joey also had the pleasure of fishing out of an older model Nitro boat for one of the days.
“My equipment is the best that a guy could have. We were fishing challenging conditions all day both days. Lots of heavy cover and tight areas were accuracy and strength were required to get the big ones out of the cover and into the boat. With such good equipment I could just concentrate on fishing and not worry about anything else. This has been a great season so far and I am having a blast!”
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