John Shpack Beats the Heat and the Field With Manchaug Win

Avid’s visit to Manchaug in July occurred during a scorching heat wave in the midst of a string of days topping 95 degrees, intense humidity, and drought conditions. The event started at 6 am in hopes of avoiding some of the heat and the inevitable boat traffic at the ramp and on the water, at least for the start of the tournament.

To our surprise, the water level was high and the water quality good, though the surface temperature was very high, measuring 87 degrees at weigh-in. It seems the lake may have had a weed kill earlier in the season as much of the vegetation was brown and grass was missing from many of the usual locations. So things were lining up to be quite different from our last couple of visits to this lake in 2020 and 2021.

As it turned out, the bite was good all day long but mostly with small, more aggressive fish. Most keepers were caught during early hours and once the sun got high and the boat traffic picked up, the bigger, older, smarter fish shut down.

As usual, the boat traffic was crazy but the wind was not. It was far from comfortable on the water but a light breeze was a welcome slight relief from the otherwise blistering heat and humidity.

Anglers tallied a total of 18 fish caught, all largemouth, and only one limit. With the small field, the event only paid out two places. Claiming second place with three fish tallying 7.48 lbs. was Dave Waugh. Dave’s bag also included the day’s lunker, a 4.32 lb. fish. John Shpack took the top spot, as he did last time we visited Manchaug, with the day’s only limit of 10.93 lbs.

Next up is Singletary on August 6.