Saguaro Lake - A-Rig - 11/25/2012

I have been on a decent Alabama Rig bite at Saguaro Lake and decided to take some video. After 5 days of hitting the area pretty hard it still produced some fish. It was a fun hour early in the morning, here's a video of some of the footage. Enjoy, I sure did.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwTneSf8VCw

Saguaro Lake - Thankgiving Day - 11/22/12

For the first time in years, we had another Big Dog - Big Fish Challenge. It was and always has been all about the bragging rights between a group of us. This year it was held on Thanksgiving morning, and we were fishing at Saguaro Lake from 6:30-10:45. I had been on the lake the previous days breaking in the motor on my Ranger and found a spot that was holding fish deep. Fred and I were hoping they were still there as they were quality fish. We launched and headed straight to the spot but we were there way earlier than I had been in the previous days, 6:40am. About 7:30 we had our first fish in the livewell and the day just turned fun after that. We were throwing A-rigs in deep water and swimming it up through the schools of fish that were feeding on yellow bass and shad in 25-40ft. It was one strong solid fish after another until about 9:45. By that time we had 10-12 fish and our biggest was just shy of 5lbs. Fred and I both had a ton of fun, hard to beat a day on the water, especially when catching 3-5lb fish that are aggressively feeding and make it feel as if they are ripping the rod out of your hands. We won the bragging rights with the 5lb largemouth and we had a limit that would have went over 17lbs. We took some pictures and released them all healthy to be caught again. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

MBC Seniors - Nov. 17th - Alamo Lake

With the weather stabilizing after a front and bluebird skies, along with the lake turning over, the tournament at Alamo Lake looked like it was going to be a tough one, as had previous tournaments all month. The tough conditions didn't disappoint, it was some of the roughest fishing I have ever suffered through.
The weather was gorgeous and we were hoping to get on a reaction bite throwing crankbaits, topwaters, and A-rigs. After a couple hours and a few mainlake points and pockets we still had an empty bag. We saw some birds diving in the water and headed to the area. There were shad everywhere and birds eating them, but we couldn't buy a bite. We decided to make a move to some main lake structure near flats and fished those extensively without any luck as well. About 12:30 the wind started picking up and we chose to change up our plan and fished across the steep points. Within a few minutes we hooked up with our first fish of the day, a solid 3lb largemouth. That fish gave us some much needed energy and we ran that pattern the rest of the day. We made another pass fishing with the wind to our backs and picked up fish, a decent slot. That was it for our day, two bites, and we were very proud of those. We finished 6th place, 4.22lbs, and took the Big Fish honors with the 3.00lb largemouth. There were 9 teams that blanked and 6.49lbs won the tournament. We caught our fish on carolina-rigged baby brush hogs, it was just a pressure bite, you'd move the bait and they were just there.
The trip was the inaugural trip for the new tow vehicle. My partner bought a 2010 Dodge Ram 2500 MegaCab diesel. That is one of the nicest riding diesel trucks I have been in, and it has so much room its ridiculous. The ride back home was long but entertaining. Let's just hope the next tournament the fish are cooperating a little better.

MBC Super Teams - Lake Pleasant - Nov. 10th

Tournament number 3 of the 2012-2013 for MBS Super Teams was a cold one. With temps all week in the 90's until tournament day, where it rained all night and the high was 58 created less that favorable conditions. It was a slow start to the morning after launching at 6:33am, my partner and I made a short run to start throwing A-rigs and Skinny Dippers around some drop off near a channel. All we could get were some small followers on the Skinny Dipper and a few bigger followers on the A-rig but none would hit it and hook up. After a few hours and a couple short fish later with the clouds moving in with the wind, we made a move. It happened to be the right move, it was a cut with a slight breeze blowing into it with scattered trees. The first pass through produced out big fish of the day a solid 2.54lb largemouth and another quality fish. We made another pass and got our third keeper. We decided to hit some other similar areas, we had success but didn't catch any that would keep for the end of the day. We then went back to the same cut and caught number four and a few minutes later number 5. We had a decent limit especially for Lake Pleasant and we were now in the search for a kicker fish. We hit a few other areas in hopes of a bigger fish but once again the fish would only follow and do Z-patterns under the A-rig and never hit it. We fished to the last minute never upgrading the limit.
We finished 4th place with a limit just shy of 10lbs, which we were proud of. It's a very tough lake and the added cold front made it even tougher. We started and finished the day looking for the bigger fish on the A-rig but it was a shakey head that did all the damage for the day. It was the right bait for the situation and the fish almost choking it, which gave us all the confidence in throwing it the rest of the day. I was throwing the Omega Custom Tackle Savior head in green pumpkin. I have to give a ton of credit to my partner for figuring out the bite and sticking to what he does best and not letting the time of the season switch his thinking. Also thank you again to all my sponsors that make my fishing possible.

MBC Super Teams - Roosevelt Lake - Oct. 20th

Tournament 2 of the MBC Super Teams was one I was looking forward to. I had fished the week before and had found some quality fish and was hoping to capitalize on that. My partner and I had an early draw number and planned to head to the same area as where I had fished the week before. Another tournament was going out at the same time that did a shotgun start that created some havoc but we safely made it to our first area. The plan was to throw squarebill crankbaits in the shallow grass with brush. Within the first few casts we had our first fish in the boat. It looked like the same bite was still there, the only difference was that the water had fallen almost 2ft from the previous weekend. We fished the area thoroughly for the first hour plus and had 2 in the livewell with plenty of short fish. The quality wasn't there, we think they moved out due to the falling water and the bigger trees and brush were almost out of the water at this point. We made a move to an area my partner had caught two nice kicker fish last weeks in hopes of the same luck. We threw topwater, jigs, and flipped the trees but couldn't get a bite out of the area. We made a move hoping the buzzbait bite would still be on, on the shallow flats. We worked that flat and the drop near it with everything we had but no luck. We took a minute to regather our thought to try and figure the day out.We decided to go back to what was working and throw squarebills in flats and over points. The idea worked as we headed to our next area we had a fish within a few casts and another a few minutes after that. With 4 in the livewell and catching plenty of short fish we knew we had the right pattern. We worked a massive area for that 5th keeper but couldn't find it there. With 30 minutes left we headed back to where we started hoping for that last keeper. It was the right move, all the way in the back of a cover over some rock and grass, we got that limit fish and it felt like a huge pressure was lifted. It gave us that extra boost we needed and we fished as hard as we could for a kicker that last 20 minutes. We came in to the scales with a small limit that we grinded out.
Looking back I think we missed the small clues that the winners picked up on. The falling water pushed the bigger fish out to the next drop. They were still eating shad and bluegill but a little deeper that they previously were. We had the right basis but should have mixed it up shallow with the squarebills and also a little deeper on the secondary drops with deeper running crankbaits. Congrats to the winners, the Kreuzers, they did a great job figuring it out when everyone else struggled to find that bigger bite.