This was a frustrating tournament for me. 
It was one where I lost four keepers and three were big. emoBang It is hard to win a tournament when you can't seem to keep the fish on and they keep coming off. James and I had discussed a plan and we had decided that if the water was fairly calm we would start on grass beds, grass edges and I was going to use top water.(spook) James used a worm. Got to our first grass flat and started fishing the edges. Right off a short hit my spook, I told James that was a good sign since now we knew they were there. Maybe fifteen minutes went by and boom! Big fish took the spook! I sunk the hook and held on. Moved it about six feet towards the boat and it just buried up. Turn the trolling motor on high and headed in to get it. Was still feeling it until about 20 feet from her and it just stopped. She had pulled off. emoDoh Moved back to the edge and it was not any time when another struck, this one did right, came top side, I held the rod high and James got the net under it....a two and a halfer. emoThumbsup Fished another 20 yards or so and BOOM!!! another big fish destroys my spook. I sunk the hook again and got this one on top. It was jumping and staying on top well and appeared to be a good 4 and a half pound bass. Holding my rod high and pulling her over the grass she was doing just like I wanted. Pulled her to the edge of the open water and got her coming to us. James had the net and she jumps throwing my spook from side to side and....you guessed it....the dang spook just came out. emoHoppingmad Now that was disgusting...two big bass lost and should be sitting on about 11.5 lbs right now.
Shake it off and tried not to think about it. The whole time we are doing this we are watching a huge storm rolling down on us. emoEek Move around the flat a little more and right as the sun it setting and darkness is moving in....BOOM!!!!!....Third big bass comes completely out of the water and down on my spook. I double my rod for just a second, it immediately buries and comes right off. emoHoppingmad emoHoppingmad Three big bass lost and the tournament is not even a third over. emoVomit Made me sick..... emoBooHoo I told James if it had not been for the points race I would want to go home. emoBawl That can mess up a fishing trip right there.
The storm is coming over the mountain now at Soddy and we can see it well. We did not want to get caught by that thing in open water so we made the choice to go back to HBSP and sit it out. We were glad we did. Before the rain started we hit a couple deeper places and were able to boat four more bass but all small. Two would keep that James boated but one was only 1/10 and the other was only 1/15. Both squeekers, not much but that gave us our limit. emoRolleyes
About then the storm hit and we headed in. Got in one of the open stalls and waited out the rain, lighting and thunder. Saw several more boats come in and take refuge under the stalls. Man...that was some bad stuff right there. We were both looking out watching it rain when a bolt of lighting either hit a sail boat anchored in the bay or it hit the park where we sometimes weigh in. Good Lord!!!! That was enough to mess your pants! emoEek It blinded me for a couple seconds like a flash bulb going off, that was too close. We waited there for at least an hour. Finally after it let up we got back out and started drowning worms. It was 11:00 now.
Nothing happened for a while after that. We moved around some more but could not get back on them. I finally was fishing some structure and had a nice hit and my rod just loaded up. Set the hook and one a little over three came into the boat off my shakey. emoToast Culled the 1/10 and felt a little better. Moved around there a while longer and was just about to leave when I felt the boat jerk and heard James say...."Oh yea, this is a better fish." Got the net and one almost four came into the boat off his worm. emoThumbsup Culled the 1/15 and knew we had over 9 lbs.
We made the choice at that time to go back where I had lost those good fish. This proved to be a bad idea because we never boated another bass after that. I guess we should have stayed in that area after catching two threes. emoRolleyes
Ended up with 9.66 lbs with those three, good enough for fifth place. Got a little money and got to fish for free. Also got some good points to stay in contention for AOY.
The two Grumpy old men showed us all how to do it last night. emoWorthy They wooped everyone's butt coming in with over 13 lbs and had big bass at something like 6.75 (?) lbs. emoWorthy He had mentioned before this tournament that they were going to be a threat, I guess he knew what he was talking about. emoApplause Jmax
It was one where I lost four keepers and three were big. emoBang It is hard to win a tournament when you can't seem to keep the fish on and they keep coming off. James and I had discussed a plan and we had decided that if the water was fairly calm we would start on grass beds, grass edges and I was going to use top water.(spook) James used a worm. Got to our first grass flat and started fishing the edges. Right off a short hit my spook, I told James that was a good sign since now we knew they were there. Maybe fifteen minutes went by and boom! Big fish took the spook! I sunk the hook and held on. Moved it about six feet towards the boat and it just buried up. Turn the trolling motor on high and headed in to get it. Was still feeling it until about 20 feet from her and it just stopped. She had pulled off. emoDoh Moved back to the edge and it was not any time when another struck, this one did right, came top side, I held the rod high and James got the net under it....a two and a halfer. emoThumbsup Fished another 20 yards or so and BOOM!!! another big fish destroys my spook. I sunk the hook again and got this one on top. It was jumping and staying on top well and appeared to be a good 4 and a half pound bass. Holding my rod high and pulling her over the grass she was doing just like I wanted. Pulled her to the edge of the open water and got her coming to us. James had the net and she jumps throwing my spook from side to side and....you guessed it....the dang spook just came out. emoHoppingmad Now that was disgusting...two big bass lost and should be sitting on about 11.5 lbs right now.Shake it off and tried not to think about it. The whole time we are doing this we are watching a huge storm rolling down on us. emoEek Move around the flat a little more and right as the sun it setting and darkness is moving in....BOOM!!!!!....Third big bass comes completely out of the water and down on my spook. I double my rod for just a second, it immediately buries and comes right off. emoHoppingmad emoHoppingmad Three big bass lost and the tournament is not even a third over. emoVomit Made me sick..... emoBooHoo I told James if it had not been for the points race I would want to go home. emoBawl That can mess up a fishing trip right there.
The storm is coming over the mountain now at Soddy and we can see it well. We did not want to get caught by that thing in open water so we made the choice to go back to HBSP and sit it out. We were glad we did. Before the rain started we hit a couple deeper places and were able to boat four more bass but all small. Two would keep that James boated but one was only 1/10 and the other was only 1/15. Both squeekers, not much but that gave us our limit. emoRolleyes
About then the storm hit and we headed in. Got in one of the open stalls and waited out the rain, lighting and thunder. Saw several more boats come in and take refuge under the stalls. Man...that was some bad stuff right there. We were both looking out watching it rain when a bolt of lighting either hit a sail boat anchored in the bay or it hit the park where we sometimes weigh in. Good Lord!!!! That was enough to mess your pants! emoEek It blinded me for a couple seconds like a flash bulb going off, that was too close. We waited there for at least an hour. Finally after it let up we got back out and started drowning worms. It was 11:00 now.
Nothing happened for a while after that. We moved around some more but could not get back on them. I finally was fishing some structure and had a nice hit and my rod just loaded up. Set the hook and one a little over three came into the boat off my shakey. emoToast Culled the 1/10 and felt a little better. Moved around there a while longer and was just about to leave when I felt the boat jerk and heard James say...."Oh yea, this is a better fish." Got the net and one almost four came into the boat off his worm. emoThumbsup Culled the 1/15 and knew we had over 9 lbs.
We made the choice at that time to go back where I had lost those good fish. This proved to be a bad idea because we never boated another bass after that. I guess we should have stayed in that area after catching two threes. emoRolleyes
Ended up with 9.66 lbs with those three, good enough for fifth place. Got a little money and got to fish for free. Also got some good points to stay in contention for AOY.
The two Grumpy old men showed us all how to do it last night. emoWorthy They wooped everyone's butt coming in with over 13 lbs and had big bass at something like 6.75 (?) lbs. emoWorthy He had mentioned before this tournament that they were going to be a threat, I guess he knew what he was talking about. emoApplause Jmax
