MBC Super Teams - April 20th - Roosevelt Lake

Well with the great day that had at Roosevelt the previous week, I was hoping the cold front that moved through didn't wreck the area that I had been fishing. We knew it was going to be a race there, as 5 of the top 6 finishers all fished the same stretch. This was the first tournament I was running my boat at since the rebuild so I was a little nervous having to race to an area. Well I decided to make the run but switched my setup to run a slight but less mph that topped out and still kept it easy. The boat performed flawlessly on the first run. We made it to the area without an issue, and that helped ease the stress right away. I noticed right away things had changed, the water was cooler and not nearly as many shad up spawning. We decided to fish the area anyways, it produced fish but not the umbers from the week before. The fish were slapping at the bait which resulted in a few lost fish, which was frustrating. As the morning progressed and we only has a few fish in the livewell, including one over 3lbs, and a number of short fish, we decided to change locations to find some more shad in the cleaner water. That move bagged us fish 3 and 4 but nothing that we needed to win. We moved to an area my partner caught a nice fish at last week, but the bigger fish had moved and only a few unders were in the area. We decided the fish may have moved deeper and hit some area with dropoffs. We found a couple of fish spawning and while my partner watch workng the bed, I threw a jig out deep, 2 casts and 2 fish, one of which culled a small keeper from earlier. We worked the area for a while and moved further down whch produced a couple more crankbait fish but nothing of size. We went back to the area where we caught the jig fish and culled twice more on depper crankbaits. We made a move to same area I lost a nice fish at the end of the day last week, and withing a few casts caught another fish that culled. We had a small limit and looking back at where everyone finished up, we should have stayed on that stretch. As the day warmed up the fish moved back onto that stretch of water and the guys that stayed in the salt caught huge numbers of fish and 4 of top 5fished that small area. We locked up 6th place in the points and are looking forward to the championship in May at Apache Lake

MBC Seniors - April 13th - Roosevelt Lake

Roosevelt Lake had been decent but hit or miss lately due to the rising muddy water, but my partner went out and prefished and found an area he was set on. It is currently in prespawn, spawn and post pawn timing with the shad spawn in full swing. We were boat 3 out and it seemed like it was a race up to the salt. Another guy and us were actually heading to the exact same stretch eventhough we didn't know it at the time. It was a little tense first thing but we talked it out and shared the water without any issues. The bite was on early for us as the shad were everywhere spawing. We threw squarebill crankbaits, varied the color if the bite ever slowed down. We has a quick limit and the fish just kept biting. We has almost 13lbs but 9am and had caught over 30 fish. It was one the best morning/days I can rememeber especially on that lake. By that time there were 6 of us sharing that stretch of water. Everyone seemed to take turns on each small cut and area of the stretch and each produced fish. After 10am the bite seemed to slow down, so we decided to make a move to try and find some less pressured water. We hit some other areas in the salt and also in the mainlake and caught some fish but nothing that would cull out what we had. At the end of the day we made one last run and effort to find a bigger fish on a drop in a cove. We could see the bigger shad but no fish chasing. We threw some deeper diving crankbaits and it produced one decent sized fish that threw the hooks after couple of jumps, and thats how our day ended. We ended up 6th, we may not have wonbut it sure was a blast out there. That's a day of fishing I won't soon forget. That finish locked us into 7th for the end of year points race, we arelooking forward to the championship at Apache in May.

MBC Super Teams - March 23 - Apache Lake

With the brutality from the last tournament the week before, I was hoping to turn things around this week. My partner for this tournament series had found some fish the week before so we decided to head there first thing in the morning. It didn't take long to hookup with the first fish of the morning. The bite proved to be great throughout the morning. We were throwing Lucky Craft Pointers to prespawn areas with some dropoffs and points. We had a limit fairly quickly and we proceeded to keep covering water in order to maximize the bite we had found. We culled all morning but not to the size we needed. We decided to try and cover water while looking for larger spawning females. This produced a few fish but no spawners that would help. We made a move to a cut that was out of the breeze and proceeded to cull out some of the smaller fish with fish on beds in the cut. Knowing it would take close to 20lbs to win, we realized while catching 2lb+ fish on beds was fun, we needed more size. We made a move the a banks with a boulder and access to deep water caught our biggest fish of the day on a 5XD in shallow water just before the drop. We ran out of time unfortunately to find the 4 and 5 pound class fish we needed. We had a great day on the water but the winners took it with 22.77lbs including big fish of the tournament 8.27lbs on a bed. They caught their fish on Senkos, while 2nd place caught their fish on jerkbaits within eyesight of the ramp. Third place caught their fish on dropshots and texas rigs, while 4th caught theirs all on jigs and 5th caught their fish on jerkbaits and jigs. The bite is great at Apache and will more than likely stay that way for awhile.
Here's a video of my partner's smallmouth

MBC Seniors - March 16th - Apache Lake

Well I had been looking forward to this tournament since last year. It is prespawn and this lake is returning to its old self prior to the fish kill over 10 years ago. Knowing that the bite for the last 2 months was primarily jigs with a few other tactics paying off, I was planning on sticking to that game plan in order the find the 18-25lbs it would take to win. The tournament proved to be a grind for my partner and I. We moved around and tried deep areas, shallow areas, shelves, flat, point etc. We just never found the fish. The jig bite was tough but did produce some fish, but at the end of the day had to make a switch to the dropshot in order to catch some fish. It produced 2 fish right away and I proceeded to lose 2 fish in the last 20 mins and one that was very good sized. Lesson learned that sometimes need to go with what the fish are telling you no matter what. We made the switch too late and it cost us. The 5 teams found the bigger fish on jigs, as we knew they would but we just couldnt locate them. A lack of prefish due to the boat being down proved to be the difference as we weren't able to figure the fish out prior to the tournament. Well now with the boat being back up and running I sure hope this won't be the case again.

MBC Super Teams - Feb. 23 - Bartlett Lake

I had fished a tournament the week before and found the squarebill bite decent, especially later in the day. My partner and I hoped that would be the ticket. The cold, muddy, rising water continued to be a problem at Bartlett. We started off on a short run almost directly across the lake, staying in the less muddy and only stained water. The morning bite was slow but produced a solid 3.26lb largemouth, it was caught on a KVD 2.5 squarebill. After another short fish we made a move towards the marina and continued to throw the squarebills shallow and the 5XD and 6XD on steeper banks. We worked a few coves all day which produced fish throught the day but we could only manage 4, or so we thought, that would keep. At the end of the day we measured on of the fish since it barely kept earlier in the day, it shrunk just enough that we had to toss it back. Well that one fish made all the difference as with its weight we would have finished 2nd instead of 8th. We did take big fish honors though with the 3.26. The squarebill bite was the right idea, as most of the teams besides the winners caught all of their fish on crankbaits. The team that won said they caught their fish early on crankbaits but found an area that they caught over 30 fish on jigs which proved to be outstanding. The next tournament should have some heavier weights as it will be held at Apache Lake.