TBA Summer Night Series Championship - August 22nd - Saguaro Lake

This was the first tournament for the new Ranger, so Mike and I were hoping would bring some luck. The summer storms stayed away for the night and the weather was awesome, even got a little chilled near the end of the night. There were 29 teams that qualified for the championship and we drew boat number 9 out. I was hoping for a later draw with the boat still being in break in mode but we launched and stayed in position due to all the extra lake traffic out.
Our first few hours were a little brutal, with no bites and hitting 3 separate areas. I decided might as well check an old area from the previous year that only fished for a few minutes earlier in the season. The move paid off for us with a few nice keepers, including our big fish of the night, 4.59lb largemouth. With 4 fish in the boat and some smaller fish we made a few passes until no fish on 2 passes and moved to our normal area. Within a few minutes we filled out our limit and culled 3 times, but none of significance. We continued to move from this spot to the other and culled each time and at the end of the night we managed to cull up to a 5 fish limit of 12.53lbs, which was good enough for 9th place.
After the tournament we heard how tough the fishing was for guys, we were 1 of 6 boats with a limit, but we needed the kickers that some of the guys had. We caught our fish on dropshots, texas rigged plastics and crankbaits, this was our main bite all season. While we caught some nice fish throughout the series we could never produce the monster bags like last season. On a good note, the boat ran well, the new graphs will definitely help during the regular season, and until next summer its all daylight tournaments. I am already looking forward to this series next year and looking forward to multiple series this year.

New Boat - Ranger Z520 - Agust 10th

Well the day finally came to make the drive to Lake Havasu to pickup the new ride, 2012 Ranger Z520 with Mercury 250 Pro XS. I was stoked and couldn't think of anyone better to go with me to get it than my step-dad, who started me out in tournament fishing. The 3.5 hour ride there was nerve wrecking but a blast, Fred's new Ram MegaCab Dually is incredible. I had seen the boat in pictures but it looked even better in person. Justin had the boat completely detailed for me and wanted to take it out on the lake to explain all the new options and show me the all the fun extras in it.
We launched the boat and I didn't realize it was throttle run, have always had a Hot Foot, it scared me at first when hit it but got used to it pretty quickly. We cruised around the lake for an hour or so and he showed me different areas and how to find them on side scan etc plus gave me some awesome fishing advise that he's learned along the way.
Once back we had a few snags with needing longer wiring for the trailer to the plug but Justin offered to help and even paid for lunch. He helped the entire time and I am happy to have been able to purchase his boat, he is a standup guy and I couldn't be happier with the purchase. The boat has tons more room in the front and insane storage and all the new options I was missing on my other Ranger.
Boat Specs:
2012 Ranger Z520
2012 Mercury 250 Pro XS
2012 Ranger Trailer
Humminbird 1198c and Humminbird 998c

Total Bass Addicts Summer Night Series - August 8th - Saguaro Lake

August 8th marked the season finale of the TBA Summer Night Series and the last qualifying tournament for the year end championship. My partner and I qualified via doing the required number of tournaments and decided to go use this as a prefish for the championship in two weeks. There were 36 boats for this tournament, the majority of which we knew were fishing 3 main areas.
We launched and decided to make a run toward the river to fish a reef near the channel edge. We planned to throw crankbaits and topwater but after about 30 minutes that plan changed. We made an adjustment to go smaller which instantly produced 3 fish, all caught on dropshots of the drop. We did keep mixing it up and finally caught the 4th keeper on a crankbait. Once the action slowed we made the move back to areas we had previously fished but none produced any keepers. We decided to run to the main lake to hit same stretch hoping to catch another big fish. Within minutes we caught our fifth keeper and over the next hour we kept culling up but couldn't get the big bite. With about an hour left we made a run back to the river to see if could get the big bite we were looking for. We caught one in a few casts but didn't help us any. We had about 30 minutes left and were going to return to our main area and crank through it but on the ride back, had boat issues - one that I feared was worse than it was - had a sensor going out and my alarms were just warning me of it. We weren't sure what it was at the time so we idled and trolled back which caused us to be late, therefore a DQ. We didn't have enough to win the tournament but we had between 13 and 14lbs, which would have been 13th place.
The season finale was bittersweet, it was the last tournament in my 2004 Ranger, and it was only time never made it back to weigh-in on time. I am going to miss that boat when it sells but the new Ranger and its warranty will allow me to fish a little more stress-free. I can't wait for the season finale and the new season to start.

TBA Saguaro Summer Nights Series - June 27th - Saguaro Lake

With the number of fish we caught two weeks prior during the full moon, we were looking forward to this tournament. We figured our game plan would stay the same, but with temps in the 108 degree range and water temps up 6-8 degrees from two weeks prior it turned out to be much different.
We fished our same areas as the tournament prior but the results were not the same. Our first spot we shared with two other boats, none of us caught anything in the area. Our next move produced a keeper but was the only bite we got there. Next we made a move to the main lake to an area that didn't produce last time, but thankfully produced a good bite. My partner caught one that weighed just over 5lbs. Unfortunately I continued to struggle and could only get one keeper in the boat along with a few shorts. We had our lowest fish of the season so far and made us rethink some options.

MBC Summer Nights - June 21st - Bartlett Lake

With the lake rising over 20ft in the days prior to the tournament, my partner and I, knew the fishing was going to be tough and the weights close. The tournament ran 6pm-1am and it was going to be a moonless warm night. At launch the wind was blowing 15-20mph and it was 108 degrees. Bartlett is notorious for smaller fish and with the rising water and heat we decided to throw deep crankbaits on the first drops and near any point or boulders.
The first hour was slow only producing a 12lb flathead catfish. We decided to make a run to a spot that holds fish year round. It turned out to be the right decision, but took 20 minutes to find the pattern and placement of the fish. We found them on the drop from 10-16ft, and the deep diving crankbait was the ticket. Over the next two hours we proceeded to catch well over 60 fish, all cookie cutter look-alikes. Once the bite slowed we milked the spot with Carolina-rigged plastics for a few extra fish. We made a run to try to find some kicker fish. We kept catching fish throughout the night but couldn't seem to find the fish we needed. We weighed 7.93lbs and finished in 8th place - 34 boat field - 6th place taking the last check weighed 8.13lbs.
Most guys were reporting it being hard to get a bite and the winners only had 7 bites all night, but the right ones. We had the right pattern but not the right size. We are already looking forward to the next one and what it might bring.

Total Bass Addicts Saguaro Summer Night Series - June 13th - Saguaro Lake

My partner and I missed the first tournament of the series, due to it being on the same weekend as our championship, so we were looking forward to going out and having fun and hopefully sticking some good sized fish. With no prefish, we just decided to wing it and enjoy it.
We hit our first spot and wasn't long before we had a fish in the boat. A few minutes later, another and within the hour we had 3 to start but nothing major in size. We made a run to another spot that produced late summer last year. We fished up and down the area without a bite and moved again. This move finally paid off with two keepers, so we had our limit. The best pattern we had was back in the grass so we headed back to where we started, that happened to be the area for the night. We proceeded to upgrade for the rest of the night, but never getting that big bite we needed. We finished with 13.18lbs, and in 13th place - 42 boat field. Hopefully the crankbait and night time wall bite will get better as the season goes along.

 

 

MBC Seniors Championship - May 30th & 31st - Apache Lake

Well Championship weekend was here, two days at Apache Lake. Temperatures were supposed to be around 100+ and little to no wind in the morning with a few gusts in the afternoons. With one great day of prefish and one horrible day a week later, we knew it was going to be a challenge where we just had to go out and fish hard all day both days.
Day 1 - We started at the same area from prefish and noticed that the water warmed up to 72 degrees, 6 degrees warmer than previous times there and that the schools of shad had moved. There were still fish in the area and shad as well but they had moved out with the warming water. We went down the bank and managed to catch one keeper on a jerkbait and number short fish on topwater. As we came around a steep cliff Mike threw out a small crankbait and caught a nice keeper smallmouth. A few casts later to the same spot and he hooked up with another one, this one over 5lbs. After a decent fight it ended up shaking off the crankbait. Even though it was a heartbreaker it showed us that there was going to be a crankbait bite, one we couldn't find the previous 2 weeks. A few minutes later he hooked up again and we had 3 keepers in the boat. I decided to throw out deep with a deeper diving crankbait to see if could get a kicker fish. Second cast I was coming up the break-line and the bait stopped, I thought I was snagged, I pulled into it anyways to try to keep it coming and then the line shot to the top of the water. The massive fish came up shaking its head throwing water everywhere, and also shook free as my bait went flying out of its mouth. I was in shock, it was my own fault I never really set into it, only pulled into it. It took a few minutes to reset myself but had to stay focused. We made a run to our spot from last year that had bluegill beds, and we fished dropshots in order to fill out a limit. With one pass we had our limit while also culling a couple times. We went back through the area but didn't produce any other culling fish. We decided to hit another area with steep sides with crankbaits and big worms hoping for the big bite. Once again my partner hooked into a beast that was jumping and ripping line then all of a sudden was off, we couldn't believe it. Under closer inspection, the hook actually broke at the barb, key lesson always upgrade stock hooks! We made another move and managed a few more keepers of jigs and worms, to cull up but nothing of size. We weighed a limit of 10.77 and we were seriously behind the 8-ball needing a massive limit, which we had the right pattern if could only get them in the boat.
Day 2 - We started where we had the smallmouth and lost the big one, and within a couple casts we had a good fish on a crankbait and we were excited for the day. With 2 fish in the boat we came around a steep drop corner, through the deep crankbait out and it got slammed, I could tell was a big fish but something wasn't right, after a fight back and forth finally got the fish to the boat, a 15lb channel catfish. Right size wrong fish, learned a valuable lesson though while handling the fish, never stick your hand it its mouth, it rolled and ripped my thumb pretty good. The rest of the morning was tough, we fished out same areas but only had 4 fish in the livewell. We hit a steep shelf area and I hooked up on a texas-rig but it came off at the boat, fish swam straight at me and couldn't catch up. A minute later my partner had a good fish that was jumping from one side of the boat to the other, after a battle on super light test he got it in. It weighed 4.01lbs and boosted our spirits a little that finally got a quality fish in the boat and didn't lose it. We fish a few areas on the way back in and caught a few fish that culled and tons of bluegill. We managed to catch a limit for 12.21 with the 4.01 big fish. We finished 16th and could only blame ourselves due to the unforced errors. It was a ton of fun though and look forward to next season.