FOM National Championship Lake Murray SC

[fishon1219]

Well with the National Championship in the books I just wanted to give a report of how our week went during practise and the tournament itself.

Before I start I want to thank all of the members of this board for all of there well wishes that I received while we were down there.

Sunday May 6th- We arrived in Chapin SC at about 10am and the lake was off limits until Monday morning so we spent the day in tackle stores and making ourselves aquainted with the launch ramps in the area and found a Hooters not far from the hotel, so we had a few wings and some barley pops and headed back to the hotel around 5pm to get ready for a long week.

Monday May 7th- The first day of practise we decided to stay in the middle part of the lake and see how things worked out there and decide if we needed to go up the river and fish or down near the dam, so the middle of the lake was a good starting spot. We were greeted with ENE winds about 30mph thanks to the tropical storm off of the coast and the lake happens to run east and west so you can tell how hte wave action was when we got onto the main lake from the launching creek.

Our first spot was a point just inside the mouth of a main creek that had a very large spawning flat in the back of it with 5 more secondary points.

On my 5th cast I hang a nice 5lber on a rattle trap and than around 10 casts later I catch the biggest Largemouth I have ever caught on a Exodus baits jig that was right at 6lbs. We decide we seen all we need to in this little pocket and moved further back into the creek to try some more areas.

For those of you who have never fished any southern lakes the creeks down there are bigger than most of our lakes up here so to fish them right it will take you most of the day to find something. You can kinda develop a pattern real quick to find out if the fish are all the way back in the creek channels or are at the secondary points or primary point so we just run around this main creek arm all day.

We caught several fish in the 5lb range in the very backs of the creek arms and out on the secondary points so we felt real good about this creek and decided the second day of practise to move down by the dam and fish some creeks in that area of the lake and try and duplicat our pattern.
We finished out the day with a limit right around 24 lbs and several fish we did set the hook on on main points just because there was could tell they were good fish

Practise day 2 May 8th- We launched at the dam and were supprised to find out you could see the bottom in 20ft of water. We hit some major crrek arms trying to duplicate what we did the first practise day and could only catch smaller fish. Our biggest of the day was around 5lbs, but nothing like the quality size and numbers from the day before. The wind was blowing harder on this day than on Monday so it made running around tough, but it was nothing like lake Erie with just a 15 mph breeze out of the south.

We finished out this day with a limit just under 18lbs and decided to just fish main lake points on wednesday and try to put something together in a little deeper water if the wind laid down some.

Wednesday May 9th- The day before the tournament starts we decided to just hit the main lake points and look for some of the schooling fish this lake is famous for and we struggled big time to catch any quality fish. We threw jigs and carolina rigs and some suspending jerk baits on these points and could only catch a few that were in the 3lb range. After about the first 4 hours we decided that the creek arm we started on the first day of practise was the best thing we had going we went back to it to prob it a little bit more and just gain some more info for the first day of the tournament.

We check our starting spot and shook of a few fish on the jig and hit a couple other points in the area and didn't get a bite. We ran into the back of some of the spots we caught big fish on Monday and the wind had just about totaly laid down by this time and we could see lots of smaller males in the 3lb range guarding beds and bass fry so we figured we were golden for the first day of the tournament.

We packed it up early so we could get to the pre-tournament meeting and get all of our stuff together for the first day of the event.

We got to the meeting location which was at a country club right on the lake and it was very impressive to see about 500 people there that were all just as excited as we were for the upcoming days tournament.

There were going to be 150 teams fishing on Thursday and Friday and the field would cut to the top 32 teams for Saturday. After sitting down for dinner the reality of the size of this event set in and I actually was the most excited I had ever been for a fishing tournament.

Tournament Day 1 May 10th- Mark picked us an excellent blast off number, 14 and during the practise days pretty much every point on the lake had 2 or 3 boats on it we were glad to have such a good number to get to our favorite little point before many other boats did and we made it to the spot 1st. We fished around it for about an hour with not so much as a bite, but were were not concerned as the fish on this lake seemed to hit when the sun was up a little bit. We were fishing the point when all of a sudden we could see a scool of herring starting to make there way up on th flat of the point and knew that it was about to happen.

When they made it up to about 6 feet of water it was like an explosine and bait was flying everywere. We manged to have our limit in about 15 minuets from that time, but there were no big fish, We were sitting with about 10 lbs. We hung around that point until about 10am with not another bite so we moved back up into the creek mouth were we were able to cull out our smallest fish with a solid 4lber. That moved us up to about 12lbs. We worked our way back out to the point and mark hangs a big one on a fluke and it is almost 5 lbs and that put us a right around 14 lbs. We hung around some more with out a bite and it was around 1pm and we new we needed to upgrade some more so we headed up the creek farther were we saw some males guarding beds and upgraded to right at 15lbs and decided to not hook any fish that were not going to cull for us and just crusied around looking for some more bedders, but just couldn't find any that were bigger.

Our check in time was 3:00pm and we were a little bit discouraged with our small limit especially on this lake and figured we would be in the top 50 at the end of the day. We weighed our fish and had 14.91 lbs and found out at the end of the weigh in we were sitting in 21st place. Apparently the whole field caught a bunch of fish on those wind blown points during practise, but there wasen't a breath of air on this day and there fish shut right down. The leaders had 23lbs today and the field was preety streched out down to the number 32 team with about 10lbs.

We werent so discouraged at our limit any more and knew we needed a limit on Friday to stay in the top 32 to fish on Saturday and make a check.

Tournament day 2 Friday May 11th- We were greeted with blue bird skies and not so much as breeze at take off. We were one of the last boats to take off and just new somebody was going to be on our favorite point. Well we got there at about 6:45 and were suprised to see nobody sitting on it. We caught fish number 1 in about 10 minuets and set there for about 2 more hours with out another bite. We didnt see any herring working the area so we figured it was about useless to hang around there any more so we moved to the back of the spawning flat hoping to find a few fish left and at least get a limit, but there was nothing happining. It was now about 10:30 and we had one fish in the boat so we worked bak out to our starting point and the herring were there  right on top of it with no other activity. I started to throw my jig just off of the point under the herring when Thump. I set the hook and a giant of a bass jumps with my jig securly attached to his upper jaw and get here in the boat and she weighed just a hair under 6 lbs.
That fish right there boost our spirits a little bit and we sat there fishing for about 2 more hours with noting but 8lbs in the live well and a sunburn. There was no wind at all and it was right around 90 degrees. We decided to head up this creek a little bit to a pocket we found in practise that held lots of smaller fish in hopes of getting a limit. We moved around the pocket and every spot we saw some fry we would drop a McCarter stick in Kent Lake Killer right in the middle and managed our limit with just about 12 lbs again. We new we would be fishing Saturday now and had just about 4 hours to go until our check in time at 4:20. I grabbed the map and found a spot that looked like our starting area further down the lake kind of in the middle and said "Lets go hunting some stuff for tomorrow. We packed up and headed east and pulled up to a point and about the 3rd cast we catch a 3lber on the jig and that upgraded us to just about 14 lbs. We fished in the back of this pocket and I kept catching slime on the jig so I picked up the McCarter Stick and let it sink when I see my line take off to the middle of the canal. I figure another 2 lber so I st the hook and out jumps the biggest bass I have ever hooked in my life. I play it up close to the boat and after walking it all around Mark gets it in the net and it is a giant. It weighed 7lbs 13 ounces on my scale and the excitment of this fish is overwhelming. I think I even said that beacuse of that fish we were going to be fishing for 1st place on Saturday. We are now sitting with a 21lb limit and decided to further investigate this area. We could only manage 2 lbers around there, but were feeling good of the potential of this spot for the next morning.

We head to the weigh in and found out the leaders had managed only 19lbs and we weighed in with 21lbs 6 ounces with the big fish going 7.73 lbs. and taking big fish for the day. No were are only 5lbs out of first place and I cannot even begin to tell you how excited we were knowing that we would have been happy just fishing the final day and no we have a chance to win.

Final day in the next post.

[bshaner]

You cant just lop off the final day like that in a post and leave me at work staring at my computer screen with drool dripping down one corner of my mouth.  That has to be against some kind of Angler Man Law or something!!   

I cannot stinking wait for the final day!  Very impressive first two days!! Way to go!!

B

[fishon1219]

FOM National Championship Day 3- We were very excited going into this day as we new we were on the fish to win the event. The weather had changed up a little bit and now the wind was blowing about 5mph out of the south. The day before we were up in the air as to were to start fishing, be it the same place we have started the previous 2 day or to head right back to were I caught the big one the day before.

I tell you what the drive to the ramp that morning was the shortest drives ever because we were still up in the air as to were to start. We launch the boat and mark parks the truck and gets in and we idle out to the blast of boat and decide to hit our origanal starting spot as it has been good to us and gave us a big fish every day. Also the end of the day on Friday we saw several large bass crusing around one little strecth of bank and thought we could get them to bite while the sun was still low.

We head o spot number one and when we got there the water was already boiling with fish chasing herring. Mark get a solid hit on a fluke and we get it to the boat to find that it was a stripper. On his next cast he catches another one.

We fish around the point a couple of times with out even a hit and head up to were we saw the big guys crusing the day before and they are still there, but they would never lock down to a solid spot. Just idley crusing in about a 20 yard stretch of bank. We threw every bait you could think of at them and they were just not interested. My guess is they were getting ready to make a nest and could care less about eating anything.

It is now 8:00am and we have nothing in the boat so we head over to the spot I caught the big one in the day before and still nothing, not even a tap. The wind is blowing pretty good now and we get out to the point and Mark ties on  top water and has one explode on it and hooks it and it pulls off. His Pop-r floats back to the surface when another fish hits hit and misses it and than hits again and we get it to the boat. It is almost 3lbs. We fish around this point for quite a while with out another bite.

We move around the point into a little pocket were I pick up number 2 on a jig. It was just about 2lbs. We are feeling a little bit better now and decide to work some more of those windy points with top water to see what will happen. Nothing is what happened.

We move a little further back out of the creek towards the main lake were I pick up our 3rd keeper on a jig of off a little turn in the bottom. it is just bearly a keeper but it is number 3. A few more flips later and number 4 is in the boat a little 13 incher.

We hit several more points in the area with nothing to show. I forgot to mention that little bit of wind we had in the morning was gone and it was pretty flat again.

We decide to run to the back of a big flat were we seen some bigger crusing fish during practise and catch keeper number 5 a short little 12 1/2 incher. We catch several more fish in this pocket but nothing bigger than what we already had. We spent the rest of our time hitting the mouths of spawning pockets and could not get a decent bite.

Now it is 2:30 and check in time was at 3:00pm so we fished it out until the very last possible second knowing that any cast could get us that 8lber we would need.

Turns out it didnt. We got back to the ramp and they had the top 5 teams trailor there boats and the rest tie up in the canel. We thought for sure that we were going to fall way back with the small limit that we had and were very suprised to find out we were not the only team to have a tough day. It Came down to the final 5 boats and by our guess we were still in a top 5 finish and turns out we ended up in 7th place over all and won big bass of the tournament. The team that won was the team that held first place for the whole event and one of them happens to live less than a mile from the lake.

After the weigh in we talked to them and they were a little bit worried about us but knew how we were fishing and with that wind that came up you need to be on the points working top water to get bit. We kinda had that figured out after the first one we caught that morning, but we figured it out to late.

So we are very proud of our 7th place finnish and that big bass and we are looking forward to qualifiying for next years event.

I would like to thank my partner Mark Clark for all of his help in this event and helping me keep my head on straight that last day.
Also, A big thank you to Brian McCarter for supplying me with the sticks that helped me catch the biggest bass of my life. Several guys were wanting to buy the Kent Lake Killer sticks I had left over. Thay have never seen a color like that and really want to know how to get some. (I gave them your number)

[LGMOUTH]

What a great report, congrats on the 7th place finish.

[caseman]

Great job guys.

[bshaner]

Excellent report!  Congrats on a great showing down there!!  Way to show them that us Northern boys can hang!!   

B

[1javelin]

 

[SODY]

Thanks for representing Michigan sooo... well!!!
Way To Go! We are proud....

Dont forget guys it all starts right here, east or west soon. Get in on your chance at a national title. SW MI FOM starts June 2nd at Muskegon and East at Saginaw Bay....

Rich S FOM SW MI Director