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Ashley police arrest man who threatened to do ‘something like Orlando’

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Hot today and tomorrow; showers coming Tuesday

<p>There&#8217;s a common denominator that drives every bass tournament, regardless if it&#8217;s held on a lake or river.</p><p>Camaraderie.</p><p>Sure, the payouts are great as are the bragging rights that go with a tournament win, but getting together with only anglers who share a passion for bass fishing is what keeps the local competitions going every summer.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re competitive, but we&#8217;re also friends,&#8221; said Jim Lacomis, secretary of the Suskie Bassmasters. &#8220;Fishing is a big part of every tournament, but there&#8217;s more to it than that.&#8221;</p><p>The Suskie Bassmasters have been holding weekly Wednesday night tournaments every summer for the last 11 years, launching out of Nesbitt Park. Lacomis said the club also views itself as a steward of the Susquehanna River and community, taking on projects to promote the river and the area. They&#8217;ll be participating in RiverFest next weekend and are currently working to have solar lighting installed along the boat launch at Nesbitt Park.</p><p>The work, coupled with the popularity of the smallmouth bass fishery in the river, has resulted in 40 to 50 anglers participating in the tournament each week. The first tournament kicks off on June 22.</p><p>&#8220;Everybody&#8217;s excited about getting it rolling. We&#8217;ve had all off-season to think about the championship and Angler of the Year,&#8221; Lacomis said. &#8220;The interest is up.&#8221;</p><p>Over at Harveys Lake, Duke Dalley will run the Wednesday night tournament again this summer. The tourney also kicks off on June 22 and for Dalley, he looks forward to three things.</p><p>&#8220;My grandson, Tyler Dalley (13-years old) helps me run the tournament so I look forward to spending time with him,&#8221; Dalley said. &#8220;I also like seeing the anglers again and just being by the water. It&#8217;s the entire atmosphere that&#8217;s created by the lake and the tournament.&#8221;</p><p>Dalley said he&#8217;s been getting a lot of calls about the tournament - from anglers as far away as Scranton and Bloomsburg and he&#8217;s expecting the fishing to be better this year thanks to the easy winter and lack of prolonged ice cover on the lake.</p><p>The Harveys Lake tournament averages 25 boats per week, Dalley said.</p><p>&#8220;We caught a lot of fish last year, but not many big fish,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I think it had something to do with the thick ice from the previous winter, which killed thousands of alewives. That&#8217;s the number one source of protein for bass in Harveys Lake.&#8221;</p><p>Dalley has been on the lake doing some early season fishing and said he&#8217;s caught and released several nice largemouth and smallmouth bass, mainly near the docks.</p><p>One of the older club&#8217;s in the area, the PA BassCasters, will hold several open tournaments this summer on Harveys Lake and Lake Carey. The club also competes in tournaments throughout the northeastern part of the state and in New York. They&#8217;ll also hold a club tournament on Lake Winola this summer.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m hearing of a lot of nice bass coming out of that lake from the slot limits that were implemented,&#8221; Tournament director Joe Kosloski said.</p><p>Kosloski said the number of tournaments, and bass anglers, in the area has increased and the heightened attention brings more awareness to the fishery in the places where competitions are held. Every fish caught must be recorded and details sent to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission each week which allows the agency to maintain records of each fishery.</p><p>And by competing in tournaments every year, the anglers also have a good idea of what&#8217;s going on at each lake.</p><p>&#8220;Lake Carey is starting to change a little bit on us,&#8221; Kosloski said. &#8220;The weeds died off and the fish are moving out because the dead weeds are giving off carbon. It&#8217;s making the fishing there a little bit tougher.&#8221;</p><p>Another issue that Kosloski has experienced, and he&#8217;s not necessarily complaining, is the rise in bass fishing, which has made it challenging to schedule tournaments and avoid conflicts with other clubs.</p><p>&#8220;Every organization has their own place they fish, and their own days, so we try to avoid that,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Most of the clubs around here know who&#8217;s going to be fishing where, and when.&#8221;</p><p>The Suskie Bassmasters generally don&#8217;t have to contend with other tournaments on the river, but they do have to worry about low water levels at times during the summer. Lacomis said it&#8217;s just one of the things that makes fishing the river unique.</p><p>&#8220;The spring was good and the ice came off early, so the pre-spawn fishing was really good,&#8221; Lacomis said. &#8220;We&#8217;ve caught smallmouths up to 5 pounds, and that gets everyone excited for the tournament.</p><p>&#8220;But this is the river and they all know that those big ones get harder to find in the summer.&#8221;</p><p>Harveys Lake can also be a challenge as summer wears on, Dalley said, but he&#8217;s encouraged that bigger fish will be caught thanks to the easier winter conditions.</p><p>Last year, 118 anglers participated at one time or another in Dalley&#8217;s tournament, and he&#8217;s expecting an increase this summer.</p><p>&#8220;There are a lot of bass tournaments in the area, and I like to promote ours as one for the serious angler and for families. We get a few husbands and wives fishing, and parents with children as well as some the best anglers in the entire area,&#8221; he said. &#8220;A lot of guys change their summer work schedules around so their Wednesday&#8217;s are free to do this.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Duke Dalley, of Forty-Fort, holds up a 2.83-pound bass caught by Tim Harris, left, on Harveys Lake. His fishing companion Desirae David, of Noxen, looks on during a Wednesday night bass tournament last summer. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/web1_duke.jpg</photo0><caption0>Duke Dalley, of Forty-Fort, holds up a 2.83-pound bass caught by Tim Harris, left, on Harveys Lake. His fishing companion Desirae David, of Noxen, looks on during a Wednesday night bass tournament last summer. </caption0><photoCredit0>Charlotte Bartizek file photo | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Area tournaments set to begin this week</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Bass fishing season kicks off locally