Club Tournament #3

[Savage]

Well, I'm going to post this at Blakstr1's request, he has his hands full with buying a new house, moving, and about 400 other things!  Too busy to fish, can you imagine it?   He didn't make it to our 3rd event, so I'll try to fill in and give the report.

Our 3rd tournament was on the club's favorite lake, a place so holy we dare not mention it's real name.  We simply call it Catchabiggun. Turnout was great, with only a couple members absent.  After the usually joking and predictions settled down, we gathered for our meeting.  Our tournament director Doug always seems to manage to come out with too much or not enough money for entry fees, and today was no exception.  Doug is a great guy, but he catches alot of grief from the club members for being from the south.  Been in the club 10 years or so with no wins under his belt, so he gets razzed about that, too.  Por guy.

I was first to blast off, and I left everyone in my wake.  As I ran to my starting spot, I looked behind me to see back to see the usual suspects dropping off in their usual spots.  I notice that Charlie, the guy just ahead of me in the standings, settles into his favorite honey hole.  I chuckled to myself, confident that no good fish were out there.  I had done my homework for this one, and pre-fishing had been good.  After a 15 minute run to my spot, my partner and I eased in to a cove, ready for some topwater action.  I started with a Case Buzzin' Frog, knowing the bite would be hot in the slop until the sun started to get up. 

At the mouth of the cove I started dragging the frog methodically across all the likely looking spots.  My 73 year old partner is throwing a Junebug tube, and just after I come through a spot, he tosses in behind me and nails a toad, just a shade under 4 pounds.  I'm thinking how much I'd like that one on my side of the livewell as I move into the first group of pads.  It's not long before a couple good fish have blown up on my frog, and I miss them both.  Frustrated, I sat down and changed out my hook from the mustad ultra points to the more reliable Gamakatsu 5/0.  I used the time to settle down and focus, I always get rattled when my non-boater gets one before me.  Two casts later I am tussling with a good solid fish, and land it with no issues.  In short order I miss another strrike, then get a stinkin' pike.  I'm thinking the action is pretty fast as right away another fish blows completely clear of the water with my frog in his jaws.  Two in the box, and it's not even 7:00 yet.  I miss another, and my partner picks it about two casts later with his tube.  It's a small keeper, and I'm happy to see him get it.  Not too many of the old guys still getting out there with us.

We make our way around the rest of the cove, I pick up one more keepr and a short fish on the topwater frog, and score a keeper and a short one at the mouth of the cove on a spinnerbait.  Things are going well, 4 fish already, and it's only a bit after 8!  To make things better, as I come out of my area I see that Charlie has moved off his spot, which means he is not getting bit.  Woohoo!

On to my next area, where I see a few of the club guys milling around.  I confidently pick up my spinnerbait and start chucking.  30 minutes and 4 short fish later, I decide to ditch the area for a more productive spot.  I don't see anybody else catch anything, so I'm feeling good.

We move into another cove, this one a bit deeper, that I know is packed with fish.  I decided to go with the wacky rigged senko, again confident I would hammer them.  I wasn't dissapointed.  A fish about every 10 casts or so, with my biggest of the day coming here.  Now I've culled and found myself at about 10 1/2 pounds.  Not what I wanted, but decent for this lake in the summer when others are struggling.

The whole morning has been cloudy, but now the sun is peeking through pretty good, and it's getting hot.  My partner and I find the bite getting tough, so we hunt around here and there for the next couple hours.  I only get one more keeper, and it's no help for my limit.  We head in to see what everyone else has, and I'm surprised to hear alot of dock talk about everyone getting limits.  Jeez, this doesn't look good!

Long story short, I ended up in 6th place, with a few new faces ahead of me in the line.  I have to give credit to a few guys here.  smbassman took second with a good limit of about 13, and chase5004 took 3rd with another solid limit.  Both these guys are rookies to the club, and right at the top in the standings already.  Ronhuntfish also had a good day, taking 4th or 5th place.  Chase5004 is now in the lead, with me and Charlie both falling farther behind him.  smbassman is sneaking up behind me with Ronhuntfish right on his feels as well.  The race is starting to really tighten up!

Next stop is the Bay, and I'm really looking forward to it.  Hopefully I can put a good limit in the scales and gain back some ground on these guys.  Oh yeah, one last thing.  Doug, the lovable hillbilly tournament director who has never won; he BLASTED everyone out of the water by about 3 pounds with a huge sack of fish.  We were all really happy, and Charlie and I hoisted him up and headed for the lake to throw him in, but he talked us out of it at the last moment.  Maybe next time, Doug.

[smbassman]

Well, my day didn't start out nearly as fast as Savage's.  I think the high overnight temps kept the fish from moving under the docks and feeding on the tasty bluegills like they had the two days prior.  I was seriously only fishing every 7th or 8th good dock and it took less than an hour for a limit around 16-18#s - On practice day of course.  I spent the first two hours trying to find those big toads by the docks on tournament day and never caught a keeper.  So I moved out to some of my drop-off/deep water spots and proceeded to nail fish all day long.  I am guessing that I caught 25-30 keepers, I stopped even measuring them unless I thought they were over 16"s.  I just kept rotating all day between 3 different spots for all of these fish.

I was a little disappointed that I didn't get into the real quality fish I caught in practice, cause I really was expecting 17-18#s but I had a blast anyways.  13.39# of LM Bass out of a Michigan lake isn't too shabby.

Oh yeah, I caught all my fish on Yum Dingers and RI Flirt worms (7").  On practice day, I caught fish on these plus bitsy bugs and tubes, but the better fish were on the two I used on tournament day.

[ronhuntfish]

I think I got my limit by about 9:30.  Then I spent most of the rest of the day trying to get my partner even one keeper.  Poor kid, I felt bad for him.  He had a few over 13", but nothing over 14.  I knew I probably only had 10 or 11 pounds, which I didn't think would make the grade.  One fish jumped off that had to be pushing 5 lbs.  I think that nobody will want to fish with me.  It's happened a few times that I got a limit and my partner blanked!?!?
I gave him some of my baits (5" Hulagrubs) I was using.  I only had a few, so with only 2 left, I kept one and gave the other to him.  I don't think he was comfortable using it, cause he kept going back to the wacky senko, which should have got him at least one keeper.

Well, on to 'The Bay', where I expect to able to do NO prefishing.

[Savage]

smbassman, I think I know why you were on so many fish in practice but then had a tougher time in the tournament.  That's what happens to me every time my wife helps me pre-fish, too.    Good job out there, you're making me nervous as heck, man!  I have to talk to you about just where those 3 spots were...

As for the dock bite you were talking about, I think the clouds kept the bass out and roaming around far into the day.  When the sun came out, I'm sure those docks would have heated up a bit.

Hey Ron, sorry to hear you can't pre-fish the Bay, but it makes me fel better for sure!

[chase5004]

Well, as I told a couple of your fellas, I had two fish in the boat before anyone had even shut their big motors off. 1st and 3rd cast put 2 keepers in the boat, both on senkos. It then took me until around noon to get my limit. Caught a lot of 13s and 13 3/4s I was culling by 1230 and lost a toad that would have put me up in 2nd place, but hey that's fishing and I learned a very important lesson with that fish.

Most of my fish were on senkos, a coulpe on jigs, and a few on a jig -n- worm. I just hope luck continues to smile on me. I'm really excited to get on the bay, but what I am really looking forward to is going as a non-boater with Savage and having him put me on moster fish for the last event.

Nice job with tourny #3 fellas
Pat

[Savage]

but what I am really looking forward to is going as a non-boater with Savage and having him put me on moster fish for the last event.

Oh boy, I hope you do make that mistake.  I'll back-boat you so bad you wo'nt even remember what lake we are on.  You'll be cryin' for your mommy by noon.  I'll have you so mixed up you'll be fishing in the cooler trying to catch a pike.

Please please please please please!

[chase5004]

I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ronhuntfish]

Wow!!!

I haven't seen this much competitive banter among the Team Bass ranks in a while.

It looks like the season is really heating up!!

If any one needs some advise, I can think of lots of nice little tricks to slow the competition down.  Not that I would tamper with anyones gear or anything like that, as far as anyone really knows.

While you guys are beating each other up, I'll just sneak in from my 5th place position. (I know it's getting to be a long shot, but there's still a shot.)

[djkimmel]

Nice fill-in write up Savage!