NBAA 2008 Championship Stories

[MadWags]

Well this is where we can air it all about the NBAA 2008 Championship on the OHIO RIVER in Carrolton, KY. Board members can tell everyone how your event progressed and what you learned. I probably learned the biggest lesson of my tournament career. Although my story has its highs and lows, good points and bad points, it ended on a low that I am still trying to shake off. So I will wait a little longer to post my story as I want it to be clear and not influenced by my deep depression.

[MadWags]

Jason (Jay-MadWags) and I (MadWags) did our homework. Team MadWags did extensive research since neither of us have ever been anywhere near the Ohio River. I did fish the Mississippi River in a BFL Regional so I had some knowledge of what we may encounter in water clarity, current and techniques. Jason talked to an Ohio River fisherman via email over the past few months to get an idea of what might work and where fish might be located during the time we would be there. I did all my research on Google Earth and had determined where exactly I wanted to fish prior to our departure. Knowing that most of the field would travel northeast I set my eyes on everything southwest of Carrollton. I had selected a spot just north of Louisville.

We had qualified through the Double Barrel Shootout Weekend Series on Lake St. Clair so we would only be fishing on Thursday's Qualifier. The top 20 teams would advance to Saturday's Ultimate Championship.

Jason and I left Detroit on Monday night at approximately 8pm. We arrived in La Grange KY at approximately 2am and pulled into the hotel parking lot just to crash for a few hours in the truck. I awoke at 5am and drove to Westport where the launch was that we would use for pre-fish. Once dawn broke we prepared for launch but would have to deal with fog on our run toward what I hoped would be the spot.

Pre-fish Day 1

Fog made running difficult Tuesday Morning but we left the ramp as soon as dawn broke to maximize our time on the water. Now I must tell you that at first I did not realize what I was looking at through the fog but I soon realized the river was full of debris. Mostly floating wood and logs and.... whole trees!!! I have never seen so many logs in a river. It was literally an obstacle course. Needless to say we took our time to reach the creek mouth location. We proceeded to idle all the way back to the spot I had located on Google Earth. At this location it became apparent that it is hard to determine what you are actually seeing on Google Earth. I did identify what I thought would be a spawning flat, BUT, I did not recognize other features of the cove when we arrived. Mainly a shear bluff on one side. Anyway the temperature was a lot colder than I expected. You see the backs of the creeks are not warmer there in the spring; they are colder due to the mountain run off coming into the creeks. Jason proved my theory about this being a spot to hold fish by boating three largemouths that made the measurement. We were fishing for 12" and bigger fish. As we worked our way further back we came upon another spot that resembled the first. I lost one on a spinnerbait and Jason lost two on a crankbait. We decided to continue our way back and see what we could find. I saw a small cut choked with logs that looked promising beyond. I did not have a chainsaw on my list of things to bring so I headed in anyways to see if I could dislodge the logs and or cast beyond. I managed to relocate the floating timber and squeeze the 21ft Skeeter in the hole. Even though it looked like bass lived there we did not get a strike in the small tributary. As we headed out I heard a boat. I mentioned to Jason that it was probably the DNR. We stayed positioned off the side to see what would motor by. Turns out to be Yukonjack from this site. We wave him by. Caught up to him later further back in the creek to BS. He tells us he hasn't gotten bit all week. After exploring a few other areas in the reek we decided to pull out and explore more areas off the main river. The only pattern we could come up with in that creek was that fish were on the down current side of any tributary or opening but we did not find any fish with enough size to warrant further investigation.

Back out on the main we tried some rip rap in the current. Now you have to realize that this river is really moving. We were throwing crankbaits like maniacs. I finally hook up on a solid fish. After fighting it to the boat and hauling it in, I see it is a white bass. You really can't see what you have until you pull it out of the water. That fish hit where the current pushed against a docked barge tender. These fish like current. As I negotiated my way around the tender to cast on the slack current side my trolling motor struck a dead head in 8.5ft of water. My trolling motor shaft flexed and then snapped off. BANG! That was it. I told Jason we needed to get off the water and try to see how we can get this thing fixed. At the launch there was a marine repair shop. As I walked into the back I could hear the familiar sound of Led Zepplin at high volume. The owner was rockin out while working on a lower unit. I have to believe that he works on a lot of lower units. Anyway he could not help me with the trolling motor shaft but referred me to the only business in the area that could. B&J Marine in Loiusville is a Skeeter Yamaha dealer. They are a family owned and operated business. Judy and Sherrill Baker are the owners and their sons are also involved in the business. Judy answered the phone when I called and was generally concerned when I told her my story. She checked her stock and discovered that she had a 52" shaft in stock. Problem being that it was for a hand operated salt water series motor and that it was white not black. I did not care about the color but asked if the shaft could be made to work. It turns out that Sherrill, her husband, has been servicing MinnKota since 1964. If it can be made to work he could do it, even at 70 years old. He told Judy to have me come right in. He would ream the shaft and get it ready. To make a long story short Sherrill fixed my motor better than brand new. As it turns out my motor was missing a lower bearing which allowed the washer to cut into my shaft thus weakening it. He put in all new bearings and also replaced all of the sub standard electrical connectors. I now have a custom trolling motor with a white shaft. Looks like pimp my ride. I have to say that Judy and Sherrill are wonderful people and their hospitality was second to none. I f you are ever in Loiusville and need service or are in the market for a Skeeter or Champion boat, please go to: B&J Marine, Inc. 502-969-8511.

Pre-Fish Day 2

We launched once again at Westport with the intention of checking spots northeast towards Carrollton. The weather was....well, rainy and chilly. I noticed a small creek right next to the launch facility so we headed in to check it out. To my surprise this small creek was deep and we were able to navigate it with ease. You could be right up against the bank and be in 10ft of water. We were pitching jigs with craw trailers on 20lb braid. Things heated up fast. The rain had the fish suspended right up against the bank. In no time at all we had boated several decent Spotted Bass (Kentuckys). Jason said; "Dave we need to get out of here." And I agreed. The rain seemed to get them going and there was no sense staying in there and sticking fish. We checked other spots but it became apparent where we would be fishing our tournament and how we would be catching them. We decided to pull out and prepare our tackle and equipment prior to going to the registration. We had a late draw for the tournament and our spot would be about a 35 mile run. Oh and by the way, my trolling motor worked better than it ever had.

Tournament Day

I'll try to keep this short.
We made our run south without hitting anything big enough to do damage. You couldn't help but hit something here and there. We got to our creek mouth and headed in. A boat pulled up right behind us!  Anyway we had our program down and started pitching jigs. By 8:30am we had four keepers in the boat and had caught three shorts. Two of the keepers were pushing 14". Suddenly the morning bite tappered off. During this lull period I caught two Sauger on a jig and one Bluegill on steroids. We didn't get our limit fish until 12:30pm. Jason immediately culled it weight wise but we kept all fish in the boat to final cull before we returned to the launch. The boat that was with us motored out and another boat started working the creek mouth. After a few minutes more we were alone. We started working out towards the mouth and stuck two more. I then lost my mojo and missed three nice fish in a row. It started when I flipped one completely over the boat and back into the creek. I then missed two hooksets. Well it was time to head back. We stopped fishing to cull our final limit. This is where is gets ugly. Our two biggest fish had died. Don't know why, but we should have checked on them more often. We panicked because we did not know the rules on weight penalty for dead fish. Imagine that! We are playing the game and do not know the rules. We could have called the director, since we had plenty of time, but we did not. Then we made the fatal error. We culled out the dead fish and made a smaller limit. Turns out the penalty for a dead fish was only .25 which was less than we figured. Our final limit went 6.74lbs on the scales. They took the top 20 to the Ultimate Championship. 20th place was 6.76lbs so we missed the cut by one place. 6.99lbs was 15 place where the checks started. We calculated our original weight with the .50 penalty for two dead fish at about 7.75lbs.
So there you have it. We beat ourselves and came home banging our heads. Reliving our mistake over and over again and doing all the shoulda woulda coulda senarios.
On a positive note, we were pleased with our ability to find fish after only a day and a half prefishing and figuring out how to catch them. We figure we may have been able to pull 10lbs with the fish that were there. Not enough to win, but could have made enough checks to pay for the trip.
Oh well, lessons learned.
Read and understand your rules if you are going to play the game.
I must say in closing that my partner Jason, (who is my nephew) is one awesome fisherman.  He'll tell you he learned everything from me, but I feel he is now surpassing my abilities.

[Cheetam]

I always love reading people's recaps of tournaments.  I'm looking forward to the rest (hopefully it doesn't get too depressing...).

[fishndooder]

I'm looking foreward to hearing the rest as well.  I qualified via the tuesday night league in Traverse city, but whimped out.  I had heard to many nightmare stories about floating timber (and what it does to your motor) in the river and I didn't feel like being added to the list of stories.

Brent

[Genie]

Just parked the truck and boat in the garage from the long drive home ... all I can say is WOW!

[yukonjack2]

Madwags pretty much summed up my trip down there - lost a prop on the floating debris field called a river down there.  Very few bass, and all were too short.  Only thing that measured was the white bass crushing the shallow crankbaits.  Water came up almost 20 feet from saturday till thursday.  These shallow spawning creeks were now 20-30 fow, right up to the bank, and no more than 50 feet wide. Clear water was nowhere to be found(at least for me), and the creek lost 12-15 degrees from the main river to the backs -a few miles back. 

After seeing all the lower ends lost, I feel kinda lucky to get out with just a lost prop. Not going back tot hat kinda tough conditions when you can catch 3 lbers on LSC with a gum wrapper(juicyfruit only for those wondering). 

Some figured it out, with most weights around 10 bs or less.

[squid]

This was my first time experience fishing in someones back yard or corn field.  Thursdays weigh in had over 23 boats with limits...from just over 6 lbs to the winning weight of over 17 lbs.  We finished in 33rd with 4.23 lbs. 

I saw things there that I have never seen before....floating freezers....pontoons on their trailers still tied to a tree...didn't know why until thursday...lol. 

Just learning time with the flow of the river....and how to fish in very muddy waters.  I am glad to be in an area where the water is very clear...most of the time...lol

Fridays results were a little different....the water was up another 8 ft or so.  With over 80 boats...only 19 came in with fish.  19th place got a check with a weight of .95 lbs....yes I typed it in right....lol  We had to raffle off the last check...so there is a 20th place with no weight for the official records....lol.  Seven of the top 8 teams were all from the same location....wish I knew that spot on thursday...would have paid off for us....lol...maybe.

Oh well...I enjoyed it down there...If I ever go back.....I hope to see what normal pool level looks like.

[Ryan]

When I found out that the classic was going to be held on the Ohio River, I figured the fishing would be tough.  Apparently, I underestimated how tough it would be. 

Warning: The following contains some very discouraging fishing details.  No information was changed to protect the fisherman's reputations.  Just be glad you weren't there.

Day 1-Pre-fishing
I left home from Mason with my dad at 7:00am on tuesday and arrived in Carrollton around  1:00ish.  After checking in at the hotel, we decided to hit the river.  Upon arriving, I was very surprised at what I saw.  The very dirty river was full of all kinds of floating debris and was flowing very quickly.  Upon talking to a couple of guys at the dock, we found that the fishing was about as pleasant as the river.  Still a little optimistic that we could find some fish, we launched and headed downriver to check out some of the creeks we had looked at on Google Earth.  As soon as we pulled into the first little creek, we noticed quite a few fish surfacing.  This had to be a good sign.  Well after only a few minutes, my dad caught our first ever white bass.  This was quickly followed by another and another.  Well, we fished all the way to the back of the creek and then back out to the river and caught about a half dozen white bass, but that was it.  We then procedded on to about 4 other creeks without catching anything.  The clearest water we found was about 12 inches and we finished the day fishing in a flooded cornfield.  That was funny, but catching 0 bass in 5 hours wasn't.
Before loading the boat, we decided to run up to the dam in the Kentucky River.  We arrived at the bouys stating "Warning Dam" and we could see the locks, but no dam.  It seemed strange at the time, but we didn't think much of it.  Later we found out that there was about 7 feet of water OVER the dam.  This puts into perpective how high the water was.

Day 2-Pre-fishing
We stuck to our strategy of fishing creeks except today we ran upstream, but didn't lock through.  We fished everything we saw, throwing everthing from frogs and tubes, to jigs and spinnerbaits with only a few white bass in the first 6 hours.  We decided it would be impossible to fish the main river since the water was moving too quickly so little creeks were our only real option.  We decided not to run too far since we had a bad blastoff number and the river was so full of debris that the less time running in it, the better. 
With about an hour left to fish before the registration and pre-tournament meeting, we headed into a creek near Vevay on the Indiana side.  We pulled under a large bridge that had a bunch of riprap and looked like a lot of the bridges we fish back in the Grand River in Lansing.  Not expecting much going on our 11th hour with no bass, I was stunned to feel a "thunk" on my jig.  I set the hook and quickly pulled a 10 inch, super fat smallie into the boat.  Never in my life have I been so happy to catch such a small bass, but man did it feel good.  Ok, so now we refocus our attention and start to fish this bridge a little slower to see if that dink smallmouth had any big brothers.  About 15 minutes later, my dad catches a 12.5 inch smallie on a tube.  We are elated, 2 bass in 15 minutes, one of which is a keeper!!  We decide to take off before anyone else discovers our honeyhole and head back to the ramp.

Day 3-Pre-fishing for us, but day 1 of the tournament
Since we aren't in the tournament, we decided to stay out of the way of all of the guys fishing and scout some more water.  We launch in Vevay and run to our bridge just to see if anyone was there.  No one was and we were thrilled.  We then fish a couple of more creeks, but were very surprised to see so few boats.  We figured they must have all locked through or made long runs downstream.  Then another first, my dad caught a nine inch sauger on a crankbait. 
After fishing a while longer we decided to head up the Kentucky river and fish some cuts we had seen on day 1.
The first one we get to is a bunch of flooded maple tree saplings and is a flippers paradise.  I get a bite on a worm right away, but miss.  This is a good sign because throughout the entire trip, white bass only hit moving lures so I was sure it was a bass.  Ten minutes later and I catch our first largemouth of the trip.  He was only about 11 inches long, but we decide to save this as our backup spot and head back to launch so we could make it in time to watch the weigh in.
Watching the weigh in was pretty intimidating because over 20 limits were brought in.  I guess not everyone was struggling as much as they let on. Then, when the guy fishing by himself brought in 17lbs with one dead bass, and said that he had caught 13 keepers that day, I was stunned.  Wow!

Day 4-Tournament Day
We woke up, got prepared, loaded the boat and took off to the ramp.  Everything was going great.  That is until we get to the launch to find that the river had gone up 4 feet overnight and now the dock was underwater.  Also, there was so many full trees coming out of the Kentucky River it was crazy.  Well we launch, take off, and get to our first spot excited to see that no one else is there.  Unfortunately, our spot is now completely under water and looks completely different.  However the worst part is now the water clarity has gone from about 12 inches to maybe 3 inches.  It was like fishing in chocolate milk.  Well, we fished around that bridge for a couple of hours before deciding to head up to our second spot, the flooded maples.  The story wasn't much different there, the maples were flooded a lot more and the water looked like mud.  4 hours later and having fished that cut and the stuff around it for what seemed like forever, we had nothing to show for it.
We go back to the weigh in to discover that most teams struggled as much we did so that was atleast some consolation.

We were going to fish the Lunker Shootout, but having done so poorly for so long, we decided to save the time, boat gas money, and anguish and head for home a day early.

If I were to do it again, I don't know what I would do differently.  We threw pretty much everything we could think of.  We fished a lot of different creeks and ran all the way to the backs of a lot of them sometimes having to take the seats off and lie down on the deck to get under laydowns or having to back out because they got too small to turn around in.  Maybe, we would make a longer run, but I don't know if that would make much of a difference.  Overall, it was a pretty humbling experience.  Thanks for reading, I just had to get this off my chest so that maybe my luck will turn.

-Ryan

[Jonesman]

The Classic was a total waste.  We fish all year for the chance to go fish a new fun fishery.  This place is terrible no matter what time of year.  I wrote Jack the week it was announced last year that this would be the worst attended and worst fish weights ever.  It lived up to every piece of that puzzle.  We all want to go somewhere that provides a fair chance to catch fish.  This place is a female dog to fish on a good day.  Sure miss Kentucky Lake!!!

[dashaver63]

I know what you guy's are talking about. I fished the Ohio River once....ONCE. Ohio TBF had a State tournament at Tanners Creek a few years back and I finshed 19th with a 2.5lb. largemouth. This year, Ohio TBF is holding it's State qualifier #1 on the river and the state championship there also. I know attendance will be down, the top 50 from our regional back in April qualified to advance, but only about 20 accepted. I'll never fish it again, unless I'm going after cats or stripers.

[squid]

The Classic was a total waste.  We fish all year for the chance to go fish a new fun fishery.  This place is terrible no matter what time of year.  I wrote Jack the week it was announced last year that this would be the worst attended and worst fish weights ever.  It lived up to every piece of that puzzle.  We all want to go somewhere that provides a fair chance to catch fish.  This place is a female dog to fish on a good day.  Sure miss Kentucky Lake!!!

I am sorry to hear you feel/felt that way.  I enjoy fishing new and challenging places...it is what makes you better.  I had a great time there, even though I only caught 2 fish.  It was a learning experience.

So Houghton Lake will work for you this next year?  If I am reading you right.  Cause everyone will have 5 fish...it will come to LUCK, not skill on who has the biggest weight. 

I like it when you can show your skills and learn the water. I still need to work on river fishing....

See you at Houghton lake....I know not everyone is happy about that either....can't please EVERYONE......   Someday I hope we all can have a great experience at what ever lake NBAA chooses for the championship...whether it's meeting new people...catching fish, learing the waters, or the fellowships that are made.

Oh, I like Kentucky Lake also, but I have only weighed in 2 fish, both times we were there....which is the same as the Ohio river..Sounds like we both just need to learn to fish better...eh,  and enjoy the the time we have with each other?  Not the complaining I see and hear about where we fish.

[Genie]

MY opionion only ...

If you want to catch big fish and have fun and have lots of awesome stories ... take a vacation down south.

If you want to fish a classic - to be the best of the best - to face the conditions head on and show your game - fish the classics and try to learn.

I thought the best BASS classic was Pittsburgh - anglers really had to show their stuff!

Classics are not a postcard trip ... they are a chance for you to show your stuff and beat the best of the qualifiers ...

MY 2 cents.