BWS CHAMPIONSHIP SAM RAYBURN

I would love to be me telling you I was $200,000 richer and headed to the Bassmaster Classic next year after winning the BWS Championship but unfortunately, I wasnt even close!  My Texas trip was a disaster from the get go and I spent most of the drive down and the first two days I was there working on my Suburban.  I sprung a transfer case leak just outside of Little Rock, AR and luckily caught it in time to keep from doing any major damage.  It did however cut into an already abbreviated practice period and I ended up getting only 10 hours of practice on a lake that is huge and not very easy to navigate due to random standing timber scattered around as far out as 60 ft deep.

With very limited practice time I decided to pick an area of the lake and cover it as fast as possible.  I found a few stretches of grass I got multiple bites in and the only deep place I found was by accident when I stood on the front deck of my Triton looking for grass and a huge school of Gizzard Shad came up under my boat.  I fan casted a 6XD in the area and caught a couple of 3lbers.  I figured out pretty quickly the kind of grass I needed to look for so I decided to start the tournament on my deep place and then run through the grass stretches Id found.  If and when I got a limit, Id spend the rest of day one looking for more areas with the right ingredients.

SAM RAYBURN TOURNAMENT DAY 1:  I headed straight to my deep place the first morning and wouldnt you know it, there was a boat sitting pretty close to where I wanted to be.  It was a long point and he was on the opposite side of where I wanted to sit but he was basically throwing at the same place I wanted too.  I decided to idle in and see how close Id have to get to him in order to fish and I realized it was my buddy Scott Mansfield.  I couldnt believe wed found the same spot but I ask him if I could fish in there and he said he didnt mind so we fished within yelling distance of each other for about an hour.  I never caught a fish and Scott boated a couple of decent keepers so I left.  When I reached my first Hydrilla mat I didnt know what to expect since Id fished it so fast in practice.  I got bites on my first two flips and missed them both but that let me know there were a lot of fish around.  Well, two hours later and four passes up and down the stretch, Id had over 20 bites and had two keepers in the boat!  I missed them and lost them every possible way you can imagine and finally made a pass without a bite so I left.  I went to my next stretch which was more sparse coontail scattered around some lily pads and I had gotten eight bites there in practice fishing wide open so I thought if I slowed down I could surely scrounge up a few more keepers.  I spent an hour in there and only got three bites.  One was a short fish that got wrapped around a pad stem and came off and the other was a 2.75lber that came off in mid air when I tried to swing it in the boat!  I landed the other one believe it or not but it was just a 14 keeper.  I ran back to my first grass stretch but it had been picked apart by several other guys by the time I got back and I never got any bites.  I finished up the day on the deep place I started on and scrounged up another 14er on the 6XD but that was it. I weighed in 4 fish for a whopping 6.73lbs.

SAM RAYBURN TOURNAMENT DAY 2:  I decided to start on the grass on day 2 which was about 20 miles north of take off. The wind cut loose that day and we were greeted with 5 foot swells when we came out of the marina which is nothing for my Triton 21 HP but it did make fishing a little tougher.

I reached my Hydrilla mat and had picked it apart for about an hour and had two bites which…you guessed it, I missed!  I decided to scrap everything and just go look for new water and I found a perfect looking stretch of Hydrilla and started punching through it with my Rage Craw.  I caught a 2lber and lost one about 3lbs two flips later but that was it.  I ran to a pocket in a creek loaded with grass and put my Motor Guide on high and made as many flips as possible until I ran out of grass.  I missed four bites, caught a 2.5lber and a short fish and that was it.  I finished up the day on my deep place and caught a 2.75lber on a 6 XD. I weighed in 3 that day for 6.99lbs.

SAM RAYBURN TOURNAMENT DAY 3:  I knew I needed about 16lbs to make a check and salvage my tournament and I knew that was doable flipping the Hydrilla but I also knew Id have to fish perfectly and not lose 90% of my bites like Id been doing so well the first two days. I decided to start where Id been starting and work my way back down the lake.  I was 1 for 2 on my first stretch and boated a 2.75lber but lost one about that same size. Not a good start.  I ran to another stretch and didnt get any bites but I fished further back into the creek than the previous days.  I caught a small keeper and a 3.5lber back there and of course I missed a bite or two.  That told me I may need to fish further back on my other stretches so I finished out the day doing that.  I scrounged up one more decent keeper before time ran out.  That was my best day but I had about 10 or 11lbs with those 4, not nearly enough to get in check range so I pitched em back and put it on the trailer.

SUMMARY: Man, what a way to end the season.  I was pumped over this tournament and couldnt wait to get to Rayburn.  It was bad enough I barely got to practice but to lose all of those fish on the first day was tough to stomach.  Oh well, things happen and it wouldve taken a miracle for me to make a run at winning as the locals dominated the top of the leader board and it took 86lbs over 4 days to win it.

Overall it was a pretty successful season.  My guide business really picked up this year and Ive already booked a few trips for 2013.  As far as tournament results, I managed top 10s in exactly 50% of my tournaments and checks in 57% of them.  Those numbers were down a little from last year but, I had two wins this year which more than makes up for missing a couple of checks.  I also accomplished another goal and that was winning the Angler of the Year in the BWS and I finished 3^rd in the AOY race in the BFLs which is my best finish to date in that division.  I also recently found out that I was the leading Triton Gold money winner for the entire Bassmaster Weekend Series and Triton is going to use my photo in the Triton Gold ads for 2013 which will be great exposure for my sponsors, so that was very good news. 

The only thing I would change would be the championships and regionals these past two months.  I had several shots at winning a boat or a really big paycheck and things just didnt work out.  I had the best practice of the year in a couple of the team championships on KY Lake and something always went wrong, be it the weather or mechanical issues or something that I couldnt control.  Unfortunately thats part of the game, a big part of it.

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.

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.

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!

BWS DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

I didn't find much in practice but I did find out the stretch I finished 3rd in the BFL on last weekend had a fresh crop of largemouth on it and they were readily chasing down my Baby Burner spinnerbait.  The plan was to catch as much as I could there as quickly as I could and then go flip Hydrilla and maybe hit a deep stump or 2 and try and upgrade.

Day 1 was working to perfection.  It took me 17 minutes to catch 15lbs and then I made a 12 mile run south to the Hydrilla. After an hour and a half I hadn't had a bite so I eased back north hitting a couple of deep places along the way which failed to produce.  I caught a few keepers that wouldn't help on some other places similar to my primary area.  I decided to spend the last 30 minutes on the goods and I finally got a brown fish to eat!  It was my biggest fish of the day, a 4.31lber that culled a 2.5lber.  I weighed in 17.04 and was in 2nd place.

Day 2 was a little bit tougher and after 10 minutes I hadn't had a bite which was unusual. I finally hooked up and a 6lb class largemouth jumped right by the boat and threw my swim jig!  Not the way you want to start the day but that's part of the game.  It took me until 9 am to get a limit that weighed about 14lbs and one of them was just a 2lber.  I kept seeing that big largemouth coming unbuttoned in my mind and couldn't help but have a sick feeling.  Finally at 11 am, I decided to change gears and I ran and threw a football jig on some stumps and caught a 4lber.  I returned to my primary spot to finish the day and caught several more keepers but none would cull.  I just knew that big fish was going to cost me the tournament but I always say when it's your time it's your time and the day 1 leader struggled on day 2 and I ended up winning the tournament by more than 3lbs. 

More importantly, I overcame a horrible 32nd place finish in May and ended the season tied for the point's championship with my good friend David Gnewikow.  I ended up winning the point's on a tie breaker because I had 91lbs for the season and David only had 88lbs.  The point's champion receives free entry's into next years tournaments, an automatic berth into the National championship and a free set of the best batteries on the planet, Odyssey's!


I've been very blessed the past few tournaments and hopefully I can keep it rolling into the regionals and championships coming up in October.

LBL BFL SUPER TOURNAMENT

I didn't have much going on in September other than the BFL and BWS 2 day tournaments.  I usually try to stay off the water until 2 or 3 days right before the tournament but I was chomping to get out and see what the grass fish were doing so I hit the water 8 days before the BFL.  I found a stretch of grass that was chalk full of bass and the biggest of the bunch were SMALLMOUTH!  I don't catch a lot of smallies so I was bouncing off the walls wondering if they'd hang around long enough for me to exploit them in the BFL.

The fish stayed put but they changed colors on me and I weighed in 31lbs 5oz worth of largemouth that all fell victim to a 7/16oz Strike King Baby Burner spinnerbait or a 3/8oz Tour Grade Swimming Jig tipped with a pearl Rage Craw.  I caught a ton of fish but only had one smallmouth and it was a 17 3/4" beauty but unfortunately they have to be 18" in the BFL's so I had to let her swim away.  I managed a 3rd place finish and finished the year in 3rd place in the point's standings.

Fishing with the Parents round 3

My parents were more pumped up over me catching some fish out of the grass than I was and headed straight to the lake two days after my BWS win.  We fished about 6 hours on Tuesday and the football field size mat I'd found practicing for the BWS that didn't produce a single bite during my tournament was on FIRE!  We didn't catch anything over 3.5lbs but they had a blast catching 2.5 to 3.5lbers on Sexy frogs.  My mom had at least 30 blow ups and boated around 20 of them on her frog and my dad and I flipped, spinnerbaited and frogged up 20 or 30 more.  Another awesome day on the water with my two favorite fishing partners! I'm truly blessed.