Cass lake Oakland Bassmasters tournament

[McCarter]

Man it was cold yesterday morning.  Woke up to 35 degrees ( at least thats what my truck said ) and ice on the windshield.  Pakced the truck up and left at 5:05am to meet up with my partner, Vic Cerabone.  Once we got there, we put the boat in and waited around for the meeting to start.  I spotted Jeff Cheetam and Steve Smith warming themselves in Steves truck, so we decided to join them.  We all talked strategy for the day and discussed possible post tournament hang out spots.  Then it was meeting time. 

After a quick meeting, we jumped in the boat and headed out to the blast off area.  Vic and I were boat 11 of 27.  The first 10 boats were called and then it was our turn.  We made a short run to a shoreline flat and started fishing.  Vic was throwing topwater and I started with a small, deep diving jerkbait that suspends.  After only a couple of casts, my rod loaded up and i let Vic know i had a fish.  It wasnt fighting much so i figured it to be a walleye. I was right.  But it was a decent fish and it made me feel like the jerkbait was the ticket.  After several more casts, i decided to put the jerkbait down and join Vic in the topwater game. 

It didnt take him long to put our first keeper in the boat.  And shortly after that, our second.  Fish were busting all around us but we didnt seem to get bit casting to them.  The bites came in random areas along the flat and break where there was no signs of activity.  We shuffled through a mess of short fish, and then i finally put a keeper in the boat.  We are halfway to our limit withing the first 45 minutes of the day.  Things are looking good.  Then it got slow.  We went for a while with no bites and started talking about moving.  While discussing our options, we continued casting the flat.  Out of nowhere, a good fish busts on my bait, coming completly out of the water and revealing its size.  It looked to be a good 8 lb smallmouth but looking back it was probably closer to 3 lbs.  It never got my bait and didnt come back to try again.  A few more casts and we decided to move.

Our next spot would turn out to be the hot spot of the day.  Another break, this time on the complete oppostite side of the lake.  The sun was up a lot more now and i thought a fast moving reactionary bait would be a better choice that topwater, so i tied on a small lipless crankbait.  I hooked up almost immediatly with a short.  But after several more casts, i had nothing to show.  Vic was still getting hits on top, but they were all shorts as well.  We noticed fish busting the surface in deeper water and talked about how cool it would be to put together a winning pattern out in 100 feet of water.  But we continued fishing the shallower areas along the break. 

I had since put down the lipless crank and picked the jerkbait back up.  A little further down the line, as i went to give it another jerk, i felt nothing but slack.  Thinking we were just moving too fast and i wasnt keeping up, i began to reel the slack in.  Once i caught up, i felt a fish wiggling on the other end.  By the time i tried to set the hook, it was gone.  But i looked ahead and seen my jerkbait surrounded by a dozen smallmouth.  None of them willing to hit again.

Fish were still busting bait over the deep water behind us so we decided to give it a shot.  VIc hooked up immediatly with a keeper.  I looked at the depth finder, 45 feet.  I grabbed my topwater rod and immediatly got a hit but missed.  I looked to my bait and seen 25 -30 fish around it.  It was on.  We fished furiously in depths ranging from 35 - 66 feet of water, missing blow ups left and rights and hooking into the occasional fish, most of them shorts, but we ended up filling our limit and culling one in this area thanks to Vic and his 'magic' 6" topwater bait.  There must have been millions of minnows around us, but we never seen any.  Fish were crushing the surface and seagulls were diving bombing everywhere.  On more than one occasion, our baits were swiped and even picked up by the birds.  Finally, one learned its lesson.  It grabbed Vics bait and started flying away.  He gave the rod tip a small twitch in an attempt to pop his bait out of the birds claws and inadvertantly hooked the thing in the leg.  It immediatly dropped back into the water and the battle bagan. 

I have heard stories and have even done battle with a seagull myself, but nothing could top this.  Vic began reeling the bird in, which was no problem at first.  But as the bird approached the boat, it spooked and took flight.  With only about 10 feet of line out, the bird was doing circles around the boat as Vic held  on for life.  I was up front with him which lead to me ducking on every rotation.  There were a few other boats pretty close by that must have been cracking up.  After several trips around the boat, Vic cried out for the pliers and started reeling the bird in.  Luckily, it got tired and landed back in the water.  Vic reached out and tried to grab the gull, but it let out a loud screech and started pecking at him.  Finally, he was able to get the pliers around the hook and wiggle it out of the birds leg.  Our new friend didnt stay long.  But he appeared no worse for wear.

That was exciting, but we needed to get back to fish mode.  We had a limit and wanted to upgrade so we left that area and headed across the lake to a spot where we had caught some nicer fish the week prior while practicing.  We gave it a good 45 minutes throwing traps, tubes, beavers, drop shots, etc but never got a bite.  Matter of fact, throughout the day we never got a bite on any plastics despite giving them more than a fair shake.

With only about 45 minutes left, we returned to our morning spot.  Gave that hell for 25 minutes with nothing but a pike to show for it.  So we headed back to our honey hole.  we caught a couple short fish there and then Vic hooked into a fish big enough to cull out our smallest.  Now its time to hit the road.

we got back and people started weighing in.  We figured we had about 10 lbs.  So we were looking good at first.  A lot of people came in early and left and the first half dozen guys who weighed in had small weights.  When we were up there, we decided to weigh our big fish for giggles.  It was only 1.76 lbs.  I knew we were in trouble.  Our bag was a lb smaller than we had though.  We weighed in 6 for 9.06 lbs.  We were still looking good for a minute, but the next couple bags were all in the high nines to 11 lbs.  When it was all said and done, were were sitting in 8th.  Vic commented that they will probably pay out 7 spots because we were 8th.  ANd he was right.  First out of the money. 

It was a good day on the water for us.  We had a few opportunities to win some cash and maybe even win the tournament.  I think we definatly found the right pattern and with a little fine tuning, we might have done alot better.  There were times where they were 30 fish follwing our baits, some of them in the 3 lb range.  Bottom line, catching fish on topwater in 50+ feet of water is awesome and win, loose, or draw it was one of the funnest days i have ever had on a boat.

McCarter himself

[Cheetam]

Yes, it was a tough day out there.  Steve and I managed to catch 7 keepers all day, four of which came in the last hour or so once the front started blowing through, including our "big" bass of 2.24 pounds (man that thing looked huge after catching shorts and 14.25 inch fish all day...lol).  We caught 5 of our keepers drop shotting and the other two on a topwater and a spinnerbait.  Fish were schooling and busting all over the lake in deeper water, but we couldn't manage to catch a keeper from any of the schools we threw to.  As was expected, the teams that caught good kicker fish (3+ pounds) placed high in the money.  We ended the day with 9.59 pounds...good for fifth place. 

[dartag]

after being there on tuesday i figured it would take 15-18 lbs with a 6 fish limit to win,  with 8 hours to fish.  i had caught a lot of 2.5-3 lb fish on tuesday.  it was very windy and the water was 67 degrees.  yesterday it was calm and the water was 57 deg.   it was a great day to be on the water. 

they even arranged for Local Pro  Kevin Barrows to show up at the weigh-in to sign autographs.

[Vic Cerabone]

Yeah, I called it: One spot out of the money!    I guess the positive out of yesterday was that we found a pattern that gave us a limit under tough condition.  It would have been very easy to stubbornly stick to soft plastic pattern that yielded a boat load of fish a week earlier, when it in 80's, and the water temps were 10 degrees warmer.  We fished the day it was, not the day we wanted it be.  I've been guilty of that a bit this year. 

I think that Seagull will think twice about whacking a "magic 6 inch topwater".  I'm going to have to add some Seagull pliers to my arsenal.

Oakland ran nice event as usual.  Nice job to Steve, Jeff, and all the other guys that finished in the $$$

-Vic

[djkimmel]

I wonder if we should have some type of record-keeping organizations for the most times one out of the money? I thinked I fished 6 events this year and finished 1 out of the money twice! I don't really want to talk about the other events... 

[Bloomer]

lol- don't get me started, - 9 times 1 out in the last two seasons.

[Vic Cerabone]

Given this lmornings weather, I'll take just out of the money today! 

[Skulley]

If I had a nickel for everytime I was one out of the money over the last 10 years or so.....I could almost retire..........(sarcasm).  This year alone for the 7 or 8 tournaments I fished I was one out twice and cashed a check twice.  Not bad...............    I may have done better if I had fished more tournaments.  Maybe a poll is in order...........

BD