The Trophy Bassmasters narrowly escaped what could have been disastrous events at the Portage River club tournament. Extremely high winds from Hurricane Ike rolled into the area shortly after the 3:30PM weigh in. An hour earlier and most of the boaters would have been caught in dangerous rough water situations on the big waters of Lake Erie. All boaters returned safely however and many had good catches. Mark Dairy placed 1st for the fourth time this season. He weighed in a 5 fish limit of largemouth bass at 14.41lbs. Dairy's win all but assured him the Trophy Bassmaster 2008 Angler of the Year title. With only 1 tournament left and a 19 point lead he will only need to boat 1 keeper fish at Sanduasky Bay in 2 weeks to secure the title. Finishing 2nd was Dave Wedertz. His top finish was extremely impressive considering that he lost 5 hours of fishing time due to mechanical problems. Wedertz was still able to boat a 5 fish bag which weighed 11.32lbs in his 3 remaining hours of competition. Mark Butler won the 3rd place prize for the 2nd time at a Lake Erie tournament. He also had 5 keeper largemouth. His creel wieghed in at 10.72lbs. The big bass of the event went to Rick Schifer Sr. He nailed a 3.61lb smallmoth bass on a spinnerbait in the first hour of the day for the honor. The Angler of the Year race has been narrowed down to 3 possibilties heading into the final event. With only 35 point available for a win, only those anglers within 35 points of the leader are mathematically eligible. Heath McGrew is still the only angler to have caught at least 1 keeper bass in all 10 tournaments. He holds onto 2nd place while Boyd Downey is third and still within reach. Should Dairy boat just one 14" fish at Sandusky Bay though it is purely academic. The top 10 anglers at the end of the year will also be competeing in the year end classic, so there is still plenty to fish for.