Sunday, October 14, 2012

BWS REGIONAL CHICKAMAUGA

After my last two days of practice I didn't know what to expect.  I really wasn't sure if I could catch a keeper. My only hope was that the places I found on Monday, which were loaded with fish that day, had enough still hanging around that I could coax a few into biting.  I've already qualified for the National Championship since I won the points championship in the KY division so I really had nothing to lose in this tournament but I desperately want to win a boat which I've never done and this was a free shot at accomplishing just that.

I started day 1 where I caught the 6lber in practice and after 30 minutes never had a bite.  I ran to where I'd caught a 3lber and never had a bite.  At 9:30 I rolled into a little pocket that was packed with fish on Monday and finally caught a 15"er on my Rage Craw.  A few minutes later I caught a 3lber on my swim jig and a little later got another bite flipping.  When I set the hook on the fish my bait flew back at me and my heavy wire flippin hook was straightened out!  That was a bad deal because I've swung 7lbers in the boat with that same hook and not bent them so I know that had to be the kind I was looking for.  I made a couple passes without a bite and made a move.  After another hour without a bite I decided to return to the area I'd had my 3 bites in.  When I pulled in one of my buddies, Brian Brown, was fishing my stretch.  I fell in behind him and watched him catch two 3lbers which was hard to stomach because I knew how tough it was to get a bite.  Brian eventually left and I spent the rest of the day picking apart every sprig of Hydrilla in the area and managed 3 more keepers.  I weighed in 14.14lbs and was in 8th place going into day 2.

I made up my mind to camp out in the 30 yard stretch where I caught all of my fish on day 1 and immediately caught two short fish.  After 2.5 hours working back and forth I finally caught a 17" keeper.  After another hour without a bite I couldn't stand it any longer and made a move.  I fished a few new places and a few I'd fished in practice that looked promising and never had a bite so I returned to my starting spot and finished the day.  I never caught another keeper the rest of the day and weighed in 2.83lbs.  Amazingly, I only dropped to 14th place and still cashed a check.  I knew if I only dropped 6 places after weighing in 1 keeper it had to be tough on everyone.  I looked at the stats and there were only 4 limits of bass weighed in out of 129 boats!  That was the 2nd toughest day of fishing I can remember ever having.  My buddy Brian Brown who I shared some water with had one of those limits and weighed in 17.20lbs and finished in 4th place. Good job Brian!

I'm headed to Pickwick for the BFL regional so maybe I will have a better showing in that one, but the word on the street is Pickwick is fishing as tough as nails right now.  I will probably take the hero or zero approach and fish Wilson or Bay Springs.  I'll definitely give them a look in practice.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

BWS REGIONAL CHICKAMAUGA PRACTICE

Practice started out great when I caught a 4 and a 6lber in the first 20 minutes.  They were on a specific type of grass line and the next two similar places I fished produced several keepers in the 3 to 5lb range. We ended the day with over 20lbs of bass and I was feeling pretty good about my flippin, swim jig and spinnerbait pattern.

Tuesday was like we were on a different lake and after several hours of trying to duplicate my day 1 pattern we hadn't had a sniff.  I finally pulled out an umbrella rig loaded down with 5.5" Shadalicious and caught a 5.5lber on my 3rd cast on a bluff end.  I thought I was on to something but after another hour of running that pattern I never had another bite.  We finally caught a couple other small keepers that day but it was brutally slow.

Wednesday started out strong and I caught a 3lber in the first 15 minutes throwing a Tour Grade swim jig around scattered hydrilla but my next bite was a catfish and it went down hill from there.  I fished several more grass lines and scrounged up one more small keeper and then spent the rest of the day scanning ledges and although there were a ton of shad on the river ledge, I never found any bass. 

My confidence was quickly dwindling along with the bite and I rested up today and prepped tackle for tomorrow.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Renegade Classic Barkley Lake

The Renegade Classic is an interesting format in that the full field (269 boats) fish Thursday and Friday and then the top 50 after two days start at 0 on Saturday in a one day shootout for a new Nitro Z8. Historically about 16lbs for two days makes the cut but with the grass bloom we've had on KY Lake this year 2lbers seem to be more prevalent so we were shooting for 11 or 12lbs a day to feel good about making the cut.

I spent 3 days practicing for this one and my partner practiced about a week.  About all I figured out in practice was that the 3+ lb fish I'd been on were gone and I never figured out a way to catch anything over 2.75lbs. I did hook a good smallmouth off of a stump one day but it jumped in the boat, hit the front deck, came unhooked and flew out the other side of the boat.   It looked to be about a 4.5lber as it went skidding by. I also relocated a couple of deep schools that were readily choking down a 6XD and thought they were just small keepers I thought we probably could catch enough to make the cut pretty quickly out of them without having to burn too much fuel.  My partner had a decent day or two in the 15-17lb range during his practice session but it was inconsistent.

We headed to my deep schools in the Blood River area on Thursday morning and Mike caught two small keepers immediately.  I was feeling pretty good about getting a quick limit and then spending the rest of the day practicing.  The was the last bite we had fishing deep after two hours of rotating between my two spots.  I decided to run to Paris to a shcool of grass fish I'd been fishing for three weeks but they weren't the quality I was catching out of the school I did so well in my last two tournaments on.  We rolled up at 10am and at 10:15 we were culling!  They were smoking the 7/16oz Baby Burner and I even caught one pushing 4lbs which really surprised me.  I couldn't stand being that close to the place that had been so good to me the past few weeks without giving it a look.  I'd checked it three times in practice without a bite but I still had to make a pass down the stretch.  As I made my way through there I noticed a boil up on top of the bar so when I reached the end of the stretch without a bite I headed up on top and fan cast a Sexy Dawg.  I hit a wolf pack and we caugth several in a row in the 2.75lb range and culled up a few ounces.  We headed back north and checked some places but never found anything. We weighed in 13.82lbs and were in 14th after day one.

Day two we headed straight for the Paris spot and I was surprised when the first bite I got was a 4lber. We put a limit in the boat in no time that weighed about 15lbs, more than enough to get us to the last day.  With seven hours to kill we just went around fishing and caught 3lbers every where we went.  We finally headed back and weighed in a couple hours early with 16.69lbs and made the cut in 4th place.

Day three was post frontal with a 25 mph NE wind.  They also took an hour of  fishing time away and made us weigh in at 2pm which made it tough on us guys running to Paris and even further south.  We got to our starting spot hoping to catch a quick limit and then go hunt the big girls.  We had two 3lbers a 2.75 and a 2lber in the boat in the first 10 minutes and then it was over. We made several passes through the area without another bite. I finally fished another 300 yards down the grass line and picked up another small keeper which gave us a limit.  On the rough ride up there the bolts in Mike's trolling motor mount had gotten loose and after a couple of hours of fighting the waves on the trolling motor, the nuts had backed completely off and we were about to lose the entire thing.  I called Larry Odom at Blue and Gray Marine and he headed to Paris Landing with the tools we needed to make the repairs.  We beat Larry to Paris and while we were waiting on him I caught a 3lber out of a brush pile on a football jig and culled one of our tiny keepers.  It took us a good hour to get the trolling motor repaired which made an already short day even shorter.  Mike and I discussed what we should do, stay close and try to upgrade by ounces or make another 15 mile run south and lose another 30 minutes of fishing time and go for the kill.  We made the run south to where Mike had caught a couple of big fish in practice knowing that was our only chance to catch enough to win the boat.  We never got another bite the rest of the day.  We weighed in 12.82lbs and finished 9th overall.  It took 16lbs to win the boat and we had caught that in 10 minutes on day 2.  Oh well, thats fishing.  Now I head to Chickamauga for the BWS Regional and another shot at a new boat!