I was able to prefish for the event with my uncle and we found a decent squarebill bite later in the day after the water warmed up. It was main lake since the river end was extremely muddy from the recent rains. I knew it was going to be a tough tournament under rising, cold, muddy water conditions and figured the best bite would be some sort of reaction bait.
The morning of the tournament was warmer than during practice but the mudslick had moved into the main lake and the visibility went from 3-4ft to less than 1ft. My partner and I decided to stick with the plan and throw crankbaits and reaction baits in the coves where the water was a little calmer and warmer. The bite didn't pick up until about 12:30 and it was too little too late. We did catch a few small keepers but not the size from practice. If we had to do it over again, would have thrown something different early in the morning, more than likely a small profile jig or something similar. The next tournament is at Apache Lake and that should be a slugfest with some high weight totals.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
NuTech Lures - New Sponsorship
I am proud to announce a new sponsor for the 2013 season, NuTech Lures. The Nu-Jig is not any ordinary jig, with its cam heads, dual appendage weedguard, verticle line tie, and other cutting edge technology, it greatly increases hookup ratios and decreases hangups. This jig will be a huge part of my arsenal during this season. I can't wait to further this partnership with NuTech and show the results this jig can produce. For any information and ordering go to https://nutechlures.com/.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
MBC Super Teams - Lake Pleasant - Jan. 26th
With the fishing at Alamo Lake as bad as it was, the tournament director made a lake change Tuesday before the tournament, Lake Pleasant was the choice. I dislike Lake Pleasant most of the time but I figured it couldn't be any worse than Alamo, so I had some hope for the tournament. Thursday brought in a front that dumped water Thursday, part of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. My partner and I didn't mind the storm coming in but with no prefish, I had to go off of some info a friend gave me. With my motor blowing on Wednesday, we needed to take my partner's Ranger. We were boat 2 and I knew it would be a race to the back of Humbug.
With rain pouring and first light creating impaired vision we headed out across the lake. We made it to Humbug partially frozen and wet. We decided to throw Alabama Rigs and crankbaits early. It seemed to be the right decision with the bass busting shad shallow but we just couldn't get them to go. At 12pm and only 2 fish in the livwell I was starting to worry but we knew the fish were there. I made a change that I should have done earlier. Instead of a weedless A-rig I switched to the normal setup I have thrown the last few months and that was the ticket. The fish were mouthing the bait and I was missing fish since the hooks weren't exposed. Within tow cast we had the 3rd fish in the livewell and it was just under 3lbs, our best of the day. Over the next 2 hours the bite became consistant and my partner and I only threw the A-rig. We filled our limit and culled 3 or 4 times and caught plenty of others that just didn't help our total. We left at 2:30 to make our weigh-in time of 3pm. We weighed a little over 11 lbs, which was good enough for 3rd place and 3rd big fish.
We were happy with the turnout but we could have finished better, we figured out the bite a little late. The fish made the bite feel like were ticking tree branches since they were mouthing it instead of hitting and crushing it. If would have switched to the exposed hook A-rig earlier the tournament may have turned out differently. The bigger fish were caught early, and we were missing them not knowing the bite. It was a learning experience but on a rain filled and tough day we worked through it for a great finish. The points race tightened up so anything can happen with 3 tournaments left.
With rain pouring and first light creating impaired vision we headed out across the lake. We made it to Humbug partially frozen and wet. We decided to throw Alabama Rigs and crankbaits early. It seemed to be the right decision with the bass busting shad shallow but we just couldn't get them to go. At 12pm and only 2 fish in the livwell I was starting to worry but we knew the fish were there. I made a change that I should have done earlier. Instead of a weedless A-rig I switched to the normal setup I have thrown the last few months and that was the ticket. The fish were mouthing the bait and I was missing fish since the hooks weren't exposed. Within tow cast we had the 3rd fish in the livewell and it was just under 3lbs, our best of the day. Over the next 2 hours the bite became consistant and my partner and I only threw the A-rig. We filled our limit and culled 3 or 4 times and caught plenty of others that just didn't help our total. We left at 2:30 to make our weigh-in time of 3pm. We weighed a little over 11 lbs, which was good enough for 3rd place and 3rd big fish.
We were happy with the turnout but we could have finished better, we figured out the bite a little late. The fish made the bite feel like were ticking tree branches since they were mouthing it instead of hitting and crushing it. If would have switched to the exposed hook A-rig earlier the tournament may have turned out differently. The bigger fish were caught early, and we were missing them not knowing the bite. It was a learning experience but on a rain filled and tough day we worked through it for a great finish. The points race tightened up so anything can happen with 3 tournaments left.
Monday, January 21, 2013
MBC Seniors - Jan.19th - Alamo Lake
Well, I am not sure how to describe this tournament as anything other than brutal. Last week the temperatures were int he teens and the temps for tournament were looking to be about 70 and a low in the 30s. My partner and I were looking forward to the warming trend in hopes it would have the fish moving around. Well as it turns out that never happened.
We launched Boat 1 and headed to our first spot. We threw squarebills and jerkbaits looking for some active fish. We covered water slow but effectively mixing it up with other baits as well including dropshots, shakey heads, jigs, carolina rigs etc. Nothing seem to work. We made a move to some rocky points and fished every onch of them without any bites. We decided to try some deeper water, hoping to find some suspended fish. We located a school in about 45ft over 68ft of water but from the arches they seemed like crappie but we fished for them trying to get a bite to find out for sure. After exhausting modified deep crankbaits, a-rigs, dropshots, and spoons we gave up on the fish and covered some bank with reaction baits. No luck on the sun warmed rock banks so went bak to the longer points with rockpiles on the ends to coax a bite. Nothing seemed to work. We finished the day off flipping some shallow trees and throwing blades through them as well. We were humbled and beaten but we weren't the only ones. Out of 24 boats only 8 weighed fish, and 7 of those weighed 1 fish. The winners weighed 3 fish for just over 6lbs and second was below 2lbs. Congrats to the winners they did a great job grinding out the win. I am looking forward to not seeing this lake again except during the late spring or early fall and hopefully it will be higher than 2 percent full.
We launched Boat 1 and headed to our first spot. We threw squarebills and jerkbaits looking for some active fish. We covered water slow but effectively mixing it up with other baits as well including dropshots, shakey heads, jigs, carolina rigs etc. Nothing seem to work. We made a move to some rocky points and fished every onch of them without any bites. We decided to try some deeper water, hoping to find some suspended fish. We located a school in about 45ft over 68ft of water but from the arches they seemed like crappie but we fished for them trying to get a bite to find out for sure. After exhausting modified deep crankbaits, a-rigs, dropshots, and spoons we gave up on the fish and covered some bank with reaction baits. No luck on the sun warmed rock banks so went bak to the longer points with rockpiles on the ends to coax a bite. Nothing seemed to work. We finished the day off flipping some shallow trees and throwing blades through them as well. We were humbled and beaten but we weren't the only ones. Out of 24 boats only 8 weighed fish, and 7 of those weighed 1 fish. The winners weighed 3 fish for just over 6lbs and second was below 2lbs. Congrats to the winners they did a great job grinding out the win. I am looking forward to not seeing this lake again except during the late spring or early fall and hopefully it will be higher than 2 percent full.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
WackOjig - New Sponsor
I am proud to announce, I am now on WackOjig's Pro-Staff. It is a new an innovative way to fish a wacky rig and will help me put those extra fish in the livewell when they are needed. Combined with a PowerTeam Lures Sick Stick this will be a top choice for me all year!
The WackOjig™ comes in a 3 pack, and features a super sharp Black Nickel Finish 4/0 Mustad hook w/ wire weed guard. The WackOjig™ is designed to hold your soft plastic Stick worm, Senko, or "Sick Stick" so that it can be cast over & over again without the worm ripping off the hook. Simply insert your worm into the patent pending keeper ring, and position the ring in the center of the worm. You can swim the WackOjig™ through shallow or deep water, fish it on bottom, or you can flip it in heavy cover just like jig-n-pig. Our jigs are Powder Coated with premium paint, and oven baked for added durability. The WackOjig™ was developed with the fishermen's pocket book in mind, fewer worms lost equals more money saved.
Here's a link to the website: www.wackojig.com
The WackOjig™ comes in a 3 pack, and features a super sharp Black Nickel Finish 4/0 Mustad hook w/ wire weed guard. The WackOjig™ is designed to hold your soft plastic Stick worm, Senko, or "Sick Stick" so that it can be cast over & over again without the worm ripping off the hook. Simply insert your worm into the patent pending keeper ring, and position the ring in the center of the worm. You can swim the WackOjig™ through shallow or deep water, fish it on bottom, or you can flip it in heavy cover just like jig-n-pig. Our jigs are Powder Coated with premium paint, and oven baked for added durability. The WackOjig™ was developed with the fishermen's pocket book in mind, fewer worms lost equals more money saved.
Here's a link to the website: www.wackojig.com
Thursday, December 13, 2012
MBC Seniors - Dec. 8th - Lake Pleasant
Lake Pleasant (Lake unPleasant) can be a tough lake at times. During this tournament it was exactly that. After a decent prefish we decided to head back into Humbug Cove. The A-rig bite had been decent in practice so my partner and I decided to go with it for the tournament. After the long idle time, we finally made it to the back and started throwing, unfortunately with the cold water being influxed in and the weather making a change the bait and fish just weren't there like they had been. We covered water in the same area but could only catch a few short nonkeepers and a nice striper. We decided to make a move and hit another cut on the way out but that only produced another short fish. After a few moves the results were still the same, short fish with no keepers. We fished hard until the very last minute.
It was a very humbling tournament. I was looking forward to it with the bite we had in practice, but it just didn't work out like we planned. At least it was a nice day on the water with more lessons learned.
It was a very humbling tournament. I was looking forward to it with the bite we had in practice, but it just didn't work out like we planned. At least it was a nice day on the water with more lessons learned.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwTneSf8VCw
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)