Club Tournaments 1 & 2..

[blakstr1]

Ahhh!!? Another year of tournament fishing is here and fortunately for sight fishing fanatics like myself, this is the best time of year hands down.? I love searching for beds, finding fish protecting them and persuading them into chasing my bait, I visualize this time of year all year long, I breathe it, dream about it, crumple it up and wipe my face with it?sight fishing is my favorite way to fish and I pride myself in being able to do it with a good deal of success.

With a preamble to a report such as this I know you might be expecting to read of my extraordinary weekend success, but unfortunately this time it?s much different than that, this time the story I have to share is full of anguish and despair.? It?s a horrifying tale of an angler that goes on an emotional roller coaster ride that really takes him to a soul searching state of bitterness and disgust, a state which is going to be hard to overcome, vastly more humbling than he believes he can endure.? Let me offer a parental guidance warning to which you are about to read, this is not for the faint of heart. If you feel ready to indulge than please stay and wade through the horror as I relive the toughest weekend of fishing in my career.

Black Lake 6/3/06 ? Tournament 1
After pre-fishing the previous morning I had my GPS coordinates entered and my nose pointed north, I knew where I wanted to start and only 1 boat blasting off before me.? I handed my extra Fish Hedz to my co-angler and strapped mine on as well, I told him to get ready because we were racing to the opposite end of the lake and I planned on getting there first.? We passed the #1 boat fairly quickly and it was smooth sailing to my first spot, the first spot of the day was basically a 3 or 4 cast spot on my way to my real starting location.? Nothing at the first stop so into the next we went, I had found 4 or 5 decent smallmouth in here the day before, two which were still protecting beds and two that seemed to be cruising for food.? After working this area for almost and hour without a bite or even seeing a fish I moved to a small boat channel where I spotted a decent largemouth squatting on a bed.? I positioned myself and lofted a small bait towards him, immediately he hit and the fight was on, I hauled him to within 8 feet of the boat and like he was never even there, the line went slack and he was gone.? I had lost my first bite of the day and he felt heavy, a decent fish for sure, would?ve been a good start.? I tried for a little while longer to get it to bite again but no luck, so I moved about a hundred yards away where I had saw a smallmouth bed the previous day, the fish was on the bed and I was anxious.? It took me about 15 minutes before the fish was finally fed up with my harassment and decided to bite, I set the hook good and hoisted the fish into the boat, I had one in the box, about 2 ? pounds.? We moved to my second main spot of the day, fishing reed beds, this is where the majority of the other Team Bass anglers were camped as well.? My spot was covered by smbassman and chase5004 so I moved further upwind and decided to go on a drift from reed to reed.? This proved to work as I hooked up with a 3 pounder within the first 15 minutes, 2 in the box and the first lost fish was a vague memory.? An hour or so past and I hooked into a heavy fish, it was actually tangled in the reeds at first but I maintained tension and moved the boat to him, I freed him from the reeds and could see the hook had him through the upper jaw and was poking out between his eyes, I arrogantly yelled to my co-angler I got him hooked good, when he made it to the side of the boat I reached down to get him safely out of the water and as I blinked he shook and set himself free?my hand was less than 6 inches from his lip.? I couldn?t believe my eyes, I yelled, screamed, and threw my pole into the water, which I felt dumb for doing luckily we were shallow and I grabbed it up quickly.? My stomach hurt, I was angry at myself, angry at the fish, and angry at the world.? I couldn?t contain my composure, which was the beginning of the end for me.? Suddenly the first lost fish came back into my mind, I was staring a solid 6 pounds of lost fish directly in the face, and I?m not kidding when I say I wasn?t made to handle such adversity.? Finally I did start fishing again but without much luck, I caught a few rock bass but not much else until Savage motored over and asked how I was doing, I reluctantly told him the story and he reminded me of a spot we knew of that had fish on it, you see Savage had his weight by 8 am that day and actually was getting board out there waiting for the weigh in.? I moved to the spot found the fish waiting for me on his bed, threw to it, and SLAM it hit and the fight was again on, I worked it slowly bringing it closer and closer to the boat, positioning it for landing when again before I ever knew what happened it made a charge up and shook its head at me as to say goodbye and through my hook, the 3rd lost fish of the day, totaling possibly 9 pounds of lost fish.? I?m again getting woozy typing this, but by then I was totally done, I turned away from it put my rods away and sat down in my seat.? I was ready to get out of the boat and off the water.? Never have I had troubles like this on the water, never.?

I weighed in my 5 ? pounds of fish, not even close to the stellar day that Chase5004 (1st) and Savage (2nd) had, there 18+ pounds set the pace and most of the other anglers followed suit, I think I landed in the 10th place spot, but would have landed in 4th or 5th if I had protected my catch.? The damage was done and I needed to move on and get passed the day.? I had a chance to redeem myself on the next day, new day, and new lake.

Long Lake 6/4/06 ? Tournament 2
Today I had to bounce back from the trials of the day before, I was fishing alone today, which was a good thing to me so I could work through my problems and get back on the right track.? Long Lake is fairly small, you can actually see most of the anglers at any given time, and my starting spot was on beds about 75 yards from the launch along a couple boat docks.? I found my target fish and began offering up my best bait combinations.? The fish was very skittish; it had definitely been picked before and was wise to the ways of the tube.? I worked it for a solid 45 minutes then without warning I threw in a smaller Mizmo tube and it struck, and it struck good.? I fought it out from the shallow water urging it towards the boat.? I reached down with the net to land the fish and with an act that seemed to be rehearsed my tube, my line, and the fish all went different directions?my line had busted!? Lost fish #4 in two days, I sat down on the front deck quietly, shaking profusely, almost in shock to what was happening.? Was I in for another day like yesterday, I was scared, thoughts went through my mind of just leaving, instead I sat down for 20 minutes or so to regroup.? I started to work the fish again, I decided the only way to get through this was to get that fish in the boat, it was a solid 3 pounder and I didn?t have a fish in the box yet.? I worked that fish on that bed, by that dock, for 3 hours straight but could not get it to bite again.? I finally told myself if I stood a chance I needed to get a couple fish somewhere else so I moved a couple hundred yards out to a rock hump and was able to land a nice 2 pound smallmouth off of its bed.? Everything went right with this fish, solid hook set, kept him down, and a good one-handed scoop with the net.? My confidence was beginning to repair, it felt really good.? I moved a little further away along a break line and saw fish a little ways in front of me, it was actually a post spawn female swimming with a dogfish?when the bait hit the water they raced to it, luckily the smallmouth made it there first.? As with the last fish, another good hook up, a good fight, and decent net job and fish #2 was in the box.? My confidence was as high as it had been all weekend after catching those two fish within a half an hour of each other, so it was time to head back to the lost fish on the bed, I had to boat that fish and I decided I didn?t care how long it took.? I positioned myself a ways from it and began chucking baits, cast after cast, it was getting annoyed and short biting the skirt of my tube.? I cut all the tentacles off but a half an inch and threw in there one more time and it worked.? It hit, I fought it to the boat, scooped for it, and MISSED!? It charged under the boat, I tripped on a rod that was on my deck went down to one knee, punched the rod up in the air as high as I could and made one last scoop attempt and it swam into the net!? I had it and I began to yell and whoop!!? I?ve never been so happy about a 3 pound fish, I worked for it and I was glad it was over.? I looked at the time and would you believe I invested 4 hours into one 3 pound smallmouth bass.? The bass of my tournament, the bass of my entire weekend of fishing.? I fished around for the next couple hours catching a load of 13-3/4? fish but no more keepers; I really didn?t mind that much. I had caught ?the? fish that consumed my whole day.? I went to the scales and ended up with 10 ?? pounds, turns out the spawned out female was a 21 ?? 4 ? pound fish!? Once again I was a ways off of the leader board, with Chase5004 hoisting 19 ? pounds for 2nd place and Savage catching close to 16 ? pounds for 3rd.

I finished the weekend sitting in 10th place, but very well could?ve been in the 4th spot.? I have to find a way to get over the lost fish, they have been consuming my thoughts throughout this week.? I often say during the off season, ?I can?t wait to get back to the therapy of bass fishing?, never thought I would be in a situation where I needed therapy from bass fishing!!?

[Savage]

Maybe we should head up to Lake "Catchabiggun" for some therapy

I have to say that Blakstr1 is one of the better sight fishermen I have ever seen, so I was in utter shock that he had so much trouble this weekend.  Last year for our opener we went "1-2" at Grand Lake!  It just ges to show how important that confidence can be on the water, and we can all take a lesson away from what happened:  Take a minute to regain focus, and try something different if what you are doing now is not working!!!

I have no doubt that you will bounce back during the next 3 tournaments, buddy.  I sure hope you do, becuase reading stories like this one can be depressing!

[djkimmel]

You are due for a great day on the water now (because I would hate to rename this section - Blake's Nightmares - Youch!!). I felt I had a letdown and off day on Mullett too. You just have to suck it up and get after them the next time around. The bad ones are what makes the good ones that much sweeter. Plus, I'm sure you learned from the experience.