1st TNT Series Results for Team MiRketti

Not good!

We didn't have a fish to weigh in but here's how the tournament went anyway.

I got to the lake at 5:00 pm. I met up with Mizike and we transferred the gear to the boat and finished getting the boat set up. Then we went to the check in to register. We drew our number out of a bucket which was written on the back of a poker chip. I turn it over and it says 1. I was really hoping to be in the back of the pack. I had the pontoon with a 70 hp motor that was not even running well. I wasn't sure where to fish, since I usually fish the North end of the Lake and we were starting at the South end of the lake. I knew with the motor barely running it would take forever to get there.

We hurried up and got the boat in the water and I motored up toward the bullhorn boat. All the boats were having a tough time staying in the area due to the high winds and large waves pushing us around. Finally the bullhorn guy said boat 1. I waved my had so he could see me and took off. I stayed fairly close to the shoreline so the other boats could blow by. We made it about 200 yards down the shoreline before the motor started powering down. I cut off towards a cove so it would look like that's where we wanted to fish.

I idled into the cove and looked around. There was one tree layed over in the water. It was only out about 4 or 5 feet out in the water and the water was maybe a foot and a half deep at the edge of it. I tied on a brown rubber worm and cast it into the branches, nothing. I cast again and as I'm coming over one of the branches at the top of the water a bass grabs the worm. I set the hook and all of a sudden the bass is off. I cast back several more times with no luck.

I was looking for a cove I saw from the road on the way in so we went up the lake a little bit to the next decent sized cove. We curved around to the back of the cove where the water got shallow. I thought that with the wind blowing into the coves there would be baitfish there out of the wind. There were lots of shad. I cast a few times and came over an underwater branch and felt a tick tick on the end of my line. I reeled in a little more and when I felt it again I set the hook. I reeled the bass up to the surface but he got off.

I had another bass hit a spinnerbait going across the top of the branches in the first cove on my way back out of the cove but missed him too.

We tried another long cove and Mizike caught a 12 inch crappie. I told him to throw it in the livewell and we would take it to weigh in and call it a spotted bass. We had already been made fun of for bringing a pontoon to a bass tournament when we were heading towards the bullhorn boat.

We fished the last cove pretty hard trying lots of things to get a strike. It was getting close to time to head back. We made it back to the boat ramp cove with about 30 minutes left thanks to Mizike squeezing the fuel bulb to push gas into the motor so we could go fast.

We fished toward the opening of the cove around some fallen timber. I saw one underwater log and cast to it a few times with a spinnerbait. There was about 15 minutes left. I was just about to head over to the dock and cast one more time over the sunken log. My spinnerbait came over the log like normal and then I felt some pressure so I set the hook. It did not move so I thought I had snagged. All of a sudden it starts coming at me. I am reeling it in and as it gets close the surface it takes a dive and the lure pops out of its mouth. I saw the fish as it got close to the surface. It was a HUGE Musky. I cast back a few times to see if she would take it again but no luck. We boat back over to the ramp and load the boat.

We stuck around for the weigh in. The winning weight was 15 lbs. The next place was around 7 and 3rd was a little over 6. The guys putting on the tournament had the 15lb sack and one of their fish was only a little over 12 inches. So they had 4 fish that were about 14lbs. The larger was about 4.5 lbs.

Even if I would have gotten all of my fish in we wouldn't have won but to not get any was pretty depressing. I had the bites and would have been in contention for a paid spot. Mizike also missed one so we could have had 4 fish maybe 5. I think I missed 2 bass on the spinnerbait. We have a lot of catching up to do now. We got the goose egg out of the way.

I was talking to Dad after the tournament and he asked if I took the plastic off the hook on the spinnerbait. I was about 16 the first time I took him bass fishing and he had bought a spinnerbait and kept getting bites but was not catching them. He finally realized he had the hook guard on it. He was pretty upset but we ended up catching plenty of bass that day out of my 8 foot ABC plastic boat. I was trying to figure out a way I could get a livewell on that boat 14 years ago so I could tournament fish.

I had went about 10 years without seriously bass fishing before this year. Some things are coming back to me every time I am out. I would have blown the doors off the competition back then if I had the chance. I could catch bass anytime anywhere. I fished all the time everywhere back then. That had a lot to do with it. The more I have fished this year the more I have figured out. You can only learn so much in books over the winter time.