The halfway point tourney in Archdale Bass Club’s season found us up bright and early at North Carolina’s own “Big Muddy.”

High Rock Lake has a wide-spread reputation for successfully hosting several national-level tournaments, as well as for being the home of many crankbait experts like Lexington’s David Fritts.

High Rock lived up to that reputation June 5. The nearly nightly string of thunderstorms just south of the Triad made the lake thick. A month-long barrage of tournaments seeking to capitalize on the lake’s stellar reputation for its post-spawn largejaws feeding frenzy in late May and early June left High Rock a hard nut to crack for some of the club. But someone always catches fish.

Third place went to our buddy Greg Moye. Greg had two fish for 9 pounds even. He also had big fish for the tournament with a great 5.85 pound lunker. Brian Sorrel scored second with five fish weighing 12.49 pounds.

First place went to Vernon Wilson with a five-fish bag tilting the scales at 13.67 pounds.

One of the top spot fishermen mumbled something about catching their fish swimming a jig and both of the top two spots came out of the back of the boat — meaning they are not the ones with priority to make the first and best casts.

As in past years, we start the countdown toward end-of-the-year honors at our midpoint tournament.

In the top weight category, Jamie Denison leads with 43.73 pounds. Slightly off his personal goal to weigh in a total of 100 pounds in club tournaments, but we know he can and will make it up.

Right behind him is our most senior angler, Clayton Proctor, followed by yours truly, Vernon Wilson, “Steady” Ed Brady and Sam Gunter.

Our angler-of-the-year points race is almost the reverse, led by Sam Gunter. Bill Frazier is in the second slot, followed by the other half of the father-son team, Steve, tied with Clayton Proctor for third.

“Famus Jamus” Lewis is in fourth, chunking and winding out of the back of Clayton’s boat with “Super” Jamie in the final of the six slots.

We vote on the next destination at the conclusion of a tournament. Apparently, the heat clouded some aspect of our democratic process and the club voted to fish Badin Lake next month. No mistaking it, Badin is a great fishery but choosing to fish it the weekend after Independence Day is going to make for a challenging event. It is what it is, so between dodging jet ski lunatics and pontoon cruisers, we’ll see you on the water.