Trinko Takes Eastern Regional at Lake Gaston
Hank Dewald, Staff Reporter
lakegastontoday.net
Beautiful Lake Gaston weather shown on Hoke County B.A.S.S. team member Joe Trinko as he swept both days of competition in the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Eastern Regional held Friday and Saturday, and claimed the Eastern Region Championship.
While the weather was perfect, according to most contestants, the fish themselves were not; Trinko, however, was able to coax 25.46 pounds of Bass into his boat to best local favorite and NC B.A.S.S. Federation Nation president Chuck Murray by 21/100ths of a pound.
Almost as important as the championship to Trinko was his being named to the NC B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Team that will now move on and fish against the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, in the Southern Divisional in April 2011. That event will be hosted by the KY BASS Federation Nation at a location to be determined later.
(Editor’s Note: Six other team members also qualified for the NC state team by placing in the top finishers. LGT will provide their names once they are officially announced)
“I was using a couple of different baits quite honestly,” Trinko said, reluctantly revealing his formula for success. “I’d start in the morning in a top water pattern and then I would go back to the same areas and fish probing baits to try to find fish that were taking shelter from the transition on the lake.”
“Top water was very good both mornings here, but in practice I was catching them on a crank bait every day,” Trinko continued. “Every day I had to make adjustments.” Apparently he made the right adjustments. “This place fishes just like the Stren did here last year; it’s a little better than last year,” he added.
Winning championships is not all new to Trinko, who is a two time world champion as a professional skydiver. He retired from the U.S. Army’s Golden Knights skydiving team in 2003. “If I could just win a (B.A.S.S.) tour event, I’d be the only person in history to win a championship in two different sports. (By winning this tournament Trinko already set a world record by winning championships in two different sports!)
Of course Chuck Murray is no stranger to winning championship either, having won several tournaments just here on Lake Gaston, and the “fish story” we recounted in our story yesterday seems to have been true. It was the talk of the weigh-in area Saturday before the competitors began weighing in their catches. While some gossip placed Murray’s escaped fish as large as three pounds, even a fish of the minimum size would have won him this tournament…
