MBC Super Teams - April 18th - Roosevelt Lake

This was the last tournament of the regular season and of course another post frontal with 3 previously cold days dropping the water temps over 5 degrees. The forecast was a gorgeous morning with nasty winds later in the day. The lake is in a weird spawn post-spawn time due to the stained water and quick warming water. We decided to cover water early with topwaters and swimbaits hoping to find the shad spawn going on like it was during practice.
Within an hour I knew the morning bite was going to be tough, I could watch fish darting after the swimbait and following it and not committing and also the shad were gone. After awhile with nothing to show we made a run to the Tonto end of the lake where I hadn't fished in years. We found some fish on beds and had two in the boat rather quickly. We did find others that would have helped but they just weren't quite ready to go yet. We ran further down lake but the water was bloomed out and made it tough to see and water was surprisingly colder. We fished our way back on every drop off but without any luck. We moved to our pre-spawn area from prior months and thankfully it produced some fish. We filled out our limit within an hour and were culling even in the 20-30 mph wind while dragging Carolina-rigs.
We finished with a limit for 9.71 and a big fish of 3.23 and placed 12th. We once again never had the big bite but did find some quality fish going back to the basics. The championships are in May and a lake that can put out some big bags or humble you, hopefully we figure it out before its over.

MBC Seniors - March 7th - Bartlett Lake

Once again another post front tournament with seriously rising water. The water rose close to 3 vertical feet while we were fishing during the tournament. We started in the clean water near the dam and I just couldn't get a bite to hookup early. The fish were just slamming the bait on the drop-off we were fishing but not holding onto it very well. We did catch one off the area but was hard to stay with the strong early winds. Once it slowed a little we moved repeatedly covering water with reefs and drop-offs. We caught a few more fish but most were short. We decided to move back to where we started and fish inside to cove instead of the break line, it was a great move. We caught out 5th keeper and proceeded to cull by "video-game" fishing. We just paid attention to the graph and could tell when a school moved in deep which produced some nice fish. We culled up to 8.68lbs with another cookie cutter bag. We never got the big bite we needed and with ounces mattering we finished 25th. Thankfully there are no more tournaments at Bartlett Lake until summer time, the lake needs time to stabilize from the water and mud influx.

MBC Super Teams - Feb. 21st - Roosevelt Lake

Well with the last tournament behind us at Roosevelt, we had some hope with the lake clearing up some, but we knew to avoid that muddy water. The weather was another post frontal sunny day so we decided to start shallow early and deeper as the day went on.
We started in the area we finished weeks before which yielded one small keeper. We made a move which then produced within a few minutes. From that point on, the bite was fairly consistent. We got onto a Carolina-rig bite that was just a blast. My partner tried throwing a deep crankbait hoping for a kicker for most of the day it just never happened. We covered a few spots in a couple hundred yard stretch that produced 20-25 fish, and a few misses, on baby brush hogs. The fish were nearly ripping the rod out of our hands. We culled most of the day and culled up to a cookie cutter bag of 9.98 for 5 fish with the smallest at just under 2lbs and the biggest barely over 2lbs.
We never got that kicker pre-spawn female but wasn't from a lack of trying. We finished in 11th place and had an absolute blast fishing.

MBC Seniors - Feb 7th - Roosevelt Lake

With the recent heavy rains and muddy rising water, we knew the tournament would fish tough for us. The weather was post frontal and all sun, which didn't make it much better. We made a run to an early spot that produced two bites but neither hooked up. That was the majority of our action until the last hour of the day. We made a move near the ramp and threw deep crankbaits and Carolina-rigs which produced 6 fish for us, only three keepers, the biggest weighing 2.96. We weighed in at 5.44 for 3 fish and finished a lowly 27th. It was a learning experience dealing with rising, cold, muddy water, not a normal occurrence here in AZ.