I have had a couple want to know where my report was so here it goes. This is going to be a long one so go get a drink and get relaxed.
I had been fishing a couple evening this past week and last Saturday trying to find a better bite. I was not having much luck. I knew there should be some fish where Wiskers and I had won the CFF classic so I stayed away from those areas. I had hoped that Colby and I could at least do as well as me and Wiskers did for two days running.
The bass seemed to be scattered and I could not find bass willing to take a bait consistently no matter what I threw. In a two day tournament consistency is the name of the game and the winning word. With the type of anglers that you compete against in the CBA you had better bring your "A" game or just go for the fun of it. The competition is the hardest I have ever competed against and that includes the BASS Federation. emoWorthy
Day 1
Got to HBSP at 6 am but the fog was so thick we could not see to cross over. Had to drive around. Got there in a fog the thickest I have ever seen on the Chick. They delayed the blast off until about 9:15 when the fog finally started to burn off. I had hoped for an early top water bite but we had missed that time frame. I went straight to my third stop which was up in Wolftever. We went where Wiskers had caught his 5 and a halfer for the CFF classic but it was the dead sea in there. emoMad We wasted about two hours with Colby boating our only keeper on a shakey. It was in about 8 ft off a dock. We left the wolf and headed for my afternoon planned location. It is a large flat with a crap load of shad working it. I was using a crank running it under the shad. Right off Colby hangs a yellow and as I am reeling in looking at him with his yellow I have one clobber my crank. I yell to Colby to get the net and we boat our best one of the day, a 4.25 lber. I think we are on the mother load but after fishing the whole flat we have only two more yellows to show for it. emoConfused
Moved to a deep bank caught only two slick, move to another flat with a sharp drop and nothing. Now it is after 12 so I tell Colby we are going deep to try and get a limit of whatever.(Spots, SM or LM) Until this time we were targeting LM. Moved to the river and start drowning shakeys. I have learned on the Chick if all else fails the shakey will usually get you a limit. emoThumbsup We boat a couple decent small spots and then get on a loosing program. I must have lost three and we both missed two or three more. emoAngry One was a good one that I lost. You do not want to loose bass...especially fishing for $11,500.00 in a CBA!!! emoBang
We move again and this time it is to my back up to the back up. emoBigsmile A deep drop with current that most people go right by. I always catch bass there. It was where Wiskers caught our 4 lber during the CFF classic. Right off we limit out on spots and then cull a spot or two with slightly bigger spots. Finally after an hour or so I get a hard hit and set the hook. Tell Colby to get the net and this one is peeling drag. Up came a great looking SM?spot cross. It is colored like a SM but has a tooth patch and more brown then green. emoConfused I measured her and she was 17.75 inches. emoMad The more I looked at her the more she looked like a smallie. I was very tempted to put her in the well but decided to throw her back since she was more brown then green. emoBooHoo You could tell she was not a pure SM but yet mostly SM and I did not want to get into some debate at the weigh in. By now we were down to the last hour and they had moved the weigh in back to 5 o'clock since we started at 9:15.
We moved to a flat with grass and the sun was dimming. I went back to the top water bite and to my surprise I was able to cull two spots with two small keeper LM. We ran out of time and had to finish with the one good one, one spot and three small keeper LMs. We had 11.44 lbs and were in 34th place.
Day 2
Colby was under the weather and decided to sit this one out. Since we had done so poorly on the first day I really thought we would not end up all that well. Since the day before ended with a good top water bite I started there on day 2. It was raining and overcast. That is a good time for a top water bite as long as it is not poring. I worked a flat with grass with blades along the edge, spooks in the grass openings and frogs in the thicker grass. Someone had rang the dinner bell cause the bass to start with were very active. When it was raining hard I switched to a crank and blade along the edge and when the rain let up I went back to the spook and frog.
emoThumbsup I was slamming some good looking fish switching back and forth. I had a limit at 9:10 and called Colby. emoToast He was none too happy to know he was missing a banner day. I hit a ditch and was slowing rolling a blade down the edge and culled. Then switched to a frog right on the edge of the ditch and culled the cull. emoTongue Good time! I was weighing my bass as I went and knew what my smallest were so I could weigh and cull as I went.
About ten my top water bite died. emoBawl Blade and crank along the grass was still producing but my size decreased. I had moved to a long flat point that had a halo of grass around the outer edge. I was frogging the grass hoping for a kicker. I knew I had a good limit but needed a kicker to get it on up there. I will admit I remember saying a little prayer..."Lord if you don't mind I could sure use a kicker right now." emoAngel I no sooner said that and one blew up on my frog. I set the hook and the frog popped back up on top. emoBang I thought "Dang-it...I missed that one...moved it about a foot and KA-BOOM! the big girl destroyed that frog, she must have watched the other one miss it and thought she would steal it. emoApplause
She turned out to be my new personal best on the Chick. She was a fine example of some of the bass on this lake. She weighed on my scale 8 lbs and 12 ozes. On the CBA scale she was 8.64 lbs. She crushed a frog in about three foot of water. I had my reel clamped down so the drag would not go out and had on 60 lb braid. I thought she was going to brake my rod. Luckily the drag did give and she pulled out about six feet of line before I slowed her down. Looked like someone dropped a car battery in the water when she hit it. I can honestly say I about messed on myself. She then buried up in the grass and I thought she had come off. I netter her with about 30 lbs of grass. I had not yet seen her so you can imagine how I felt when I got the grass off of her.
I remember I culled one that was 2 lbs and 7 ozes for her. At that time I thought I was over 20 lbs in the well. emoParty I moved on and kept working the frog hoping to have one more kicker. Finally with only about an hour to go working a little ditch with grass on both sides one killed the frog yet again. Got it in and knew it was better then my smallest. I had to weigh a couple to find the next smallest was 2 lbs and 10 ozes. emoThumbsup After fishing for another thirty minutes and being just about spent I went on in.
Not a bad day at all. emoToast I got big bass of the day with the big one at 8.64 lbs and my final weight was 21.77 for day two with a total weight of the two days with 33.21 lbs. Good enough for fifth place and a pay day of $2,365.00. emoDance On a side note I had to take a "Lie Detector" test and got so nervous I think I flunked it the first time and he had to give it to me again. emoRedface I passed the second time. emoDoh That is the third time I have had to take one of those and they for some reason really make me nervous. Maybe I am afraid my past will catch up with me and they will find me. emoBigsmile Jmax
I had been fishing a couple evening this past week and last Saturday trying to find a better bite. I was not having much luck. I knew there should be some fish where Wiskers and I had won the CFF classic so I stayed away from those areas. I had hoped that Colby and I could at least do as well as me and Wiskers did for two days running.
The bass seemed to be scattered and I could not find bass willing to take a bait consistently no matter what I threw. In a two day tournament consistency is the name of the game and the winning word. With the type of anglers that you compete against in the CBA you had better bring your "A" game or just go for the fun of it. The competition is the hardest I have ever competed against and that includes the BASS Federation. emoWorthy
Day 1
Got to HBSP at 6 am but the fog was so thick we could not see to cross over. Had to drive around. Got there in a fog the thickest I have ever seen on the Chick. They delayed the blast off until about 9:15 when the fog finally started to burn off. I had hoped for an early top water bite but we had missed that time frame. I went straight to my third stop which was up in Wolftever. We went where Wiskers had caught his 5 and a halfer for the CFF classic but it was the dead sea in there. emoMad We wasted about two hours with Colby boating our only keeper on a shakey. It was in about 8 ft off a dock. We left the wolf and headed for my afternoon planned location. It is a large flat with a crap load of shad working it. I was using a crank running it under the shad. Right off Colby hangs a yellow and as I am reeling in looking at him with his yellow I have one clobber my crank. I yell to Colby to get the net and we boat our best one of the day, a 4.25 lber. I think we are on the mother load but after fishing the whole flat we have only two more yellows to show for it. emoConfused
Moved to a deep bank caught only two slick, move to another flat with a sharp drop and nothing. Now it is after 12 so I tell Colby we are going deep to try and get a limit of whatever.(Spots, SM or LM) Until this time we were targeting LM. Moved to the river and start drowning shakeys. I have learned on the Chick if all else fails the shakey will usually get you a limit. emoThumbsup We boat a couple decent small spots and then get on a loosing program. I must have lost three and we both missed two or three more. emoAngry One was a good one that I lost. You do not want to loose bass...especially fishing for $11,500.00 in a CBA!!! emoBang
We move again and this time it is to my back up to the back up. emoBigsmile A deep drop with current that most people go right by. I always catch bass there. It was where Wiskers caught our 4 lber during the CFF classic. Right off we limit out on spots and then cull a spot or two with slightly bigger spots. Finally after an hour or so I get a hard hit and set the hook. Tell Colby to get the net and this one is peeling drag. Up came a great looking SM?spot cross. It is colored like a SM but has a tooth patch and more brown then green. emoConfused I measured her and she was 17.75 inches. emoMad The more I looked at her the more she looked like a smallie. I was very tempted to put her in the well but decided to throw her back since she was more brown then green. emoBooHoo You could tell she was not a pure SM but yet mostly SM and I did not want to get into some debate at the weigh in. By now we were down to the last hour and they had moved the weigh in back to 5 o'clock since we started at 9:15.
We moved to a flat with grass and the sun was dimming. I went back to the top water bite and to my surprise I was able to cull two spots with two small keeper LM. We ran out of time and had to finish with the one good one, one spot and three small keeper LMs. We had 11.44 lbs and were in 34th place.
Day 2
Colby was under the weather and decided to sit this one out. Since we had done so poorly on the first day I really thought we would not end up all that well. Since the day before ended with a good top water bite I started there on day 2. It was raining and overcast. That is a good time for a top water bite as long as it is not poring. I worked a flat with grass with blades along the edge, spooks in the grass openings and frogs in the thicker grass. Someone had rang the dinner bell cause the bass to start with were very active. When it was raining hard I switched to a crank and blade along the edge and when the rain let up I went back to the spook and frog.
emoThumbsup I was slamming some good looking fish switching back and forth. I had a limit at 9:10 and called Colby. emoToast He was none too happy to know he was missing a banner day. I hit a ditch and was slowing rolling a blade down the edge and culled. Then switched to a frog right on the edge of the ditch and culled the cull. emoTongue Good time! I was weighing my bass as I went and knew what my smallest were so I could weigh and cull as I went.
About ten my top water bite died. emoBawl Blade and crank along the grass was still producing but my size decreased. I had moved to a long flat point that had a halo of grass around the outer edge. I was frogging the grass hoping for a kicker. I knew I had a good limit but needed a kicker to get it on up there. I will admit I remember saying a little prayer..."Lord if you don't mind I could sure use a kicker right now." emoAngel I no sooner said that and one blew up on my frog. I set the hook and the frog popped back up on top. emoBang I thought "Dang-it...I missed that one...moved it about a foot and KA-BOOM! the big girl destroyed that frog, she must have watched the other one miss it and thought she would steal it. emoApplause
She turned out to be my new personal best on the Chick. She was a fine example of some of the bass on this lake. She weighed on my scale 8 lbs and 12 ozes. On the CBA scale she was 8.64 lbs. She crushed a frog in about three foot of water. I had my reel clamped down so the drag would not go out and had on 60 lb braid. I thought she was going to brake my rod. Luckily the drag did give and she pulled out about six feet of line before I slowed her down. Looked like someone dropped a car battery in the water when she hit it. I can honestly say I about messed on myself. She then buried up in the grass and I thought she had come off. I netter her with about 30 lbs of grass. I had not yet seen her so you can imagine how I felt when I got the grass off of her.
I remember I culled one that was 2 lbs and 7 ozes for her. At that time I thought I was over 20 lbs in the well. emoParty I moved on and kept working the frog hoping to have one more kicker. Finally with only about an hour to go working a little ditch with grass on both sides one killed the frog yet again. Got it in and knew it was better then my smallest. I had to weigh a couple to find the next smallest was 2 lbs and 10 ozes. emoThumbsup After fishing for another thirty minutes and being just about spent I went on in.
Not a bad day at all. emoToast I got big bass of the day with the big one at 8.64 lbs and my final weight was 21.77 for day two with a total weight of the two days with 33.21 lbs. Good enough for fifth place and a pay day of $2,365.00. emoDance On a side note I had to take a "Lie Detector" test and got so nervous I think I flunked it the first time and he had to give it to me again. emoRedface I passed the second time. emoDoh That is the third time I have had to take one of those and they for some reason really make me nervous. Maybe I am afraid my past will catch up with me and they will find me. emoBigsmile Jmax
Good job Jim !!
