Deer Creek Tournament #2

Mizike and I made it out last Thursday evening to search for some new tournament spots to fish. We tried some steep banks and a large cove on Deer Creek.

The cove looked good. There was a lot of flooded timber in about 5 foot of water next to a drop that went down to 11 foot. We fished around with several different lures but did not have any luck. I worked my way to the bank where I saw a fish keep surfacing under a branch. I cast my crawfish under the branch. My line hung on a twig above the spot. Almost instantly my line starts running to the side. I reeled in my slack but did not set the hook well due to my line hanging on the branch. The fish swam away and I was fishless.

We worked towards another spot I thought looked good. It was a small cove within the larger cove. I caught a bass and a couple white bass on a spoon at the point of the cove. There was not much size to either. We fished the cove out then headed to a high bank that I had seen others fishing the previous tournament. The wind was blowing into the bank pretty good and there was not much time left in the light so we worked it fairly fast with a crankbait. I missed one bass on the crankbait then caught one a ways down on a crawfish in about 5 foot of water. He was decent but not a keeper.

Sunday during the tournament Gene and I started out where I missed the first bass on the crankbait. We fished the high bank for a while then decided to try a huge point since the sun was shining on it. We worked it from the deep end towards the bank. We did not have any luck there so we headed up towards the river where we had luck before.

I missed one fish that hit as I was cranking over the top of some fallen trees. He hit and took me down and snapped my line. He ended up jumping right next to the boat and spit out the lure. I was able to get it back. It was a green and chartreuse series 3 strike king. Gene was casting a white spinner and lost one fairly close to where I missed mine. We moved to the next structure off the bank and Gene caught our first bass.

We worked our way on down the bank towards the river and I had a fish hit a crawfish. I set the hook hard and my line snapped. It started to get later and warm up and we were not having much luck. We moved back towards the dam to the large cove. There was a small cove near the mouth of the cove. We moved in there to get out of the large waves from all of the cabin cruisers shooting through the area.

Gene hooked up with a monster almost right away. It leaped into the air and as it did the crankbait came out and flew at Gene. It would have been close to a 3 lb. bass. We fished the cove for a while longer.

We had a little time left so we went back to see if we could get one of the 2 fish we missed in the same spot earlier in the day. No luck.

We weighed in 1 fish at 1.63 lbs. I didn't get 1st place weight but 2nd was 8.5 lbs. We had several opportunities to catch our 5 bass limit with fish that might have gotten us in the running for 1st or 2nd. My confidence level is the highest it has been all season.

We are finally getting things right to get the fish to bite, we just need to get them in the boat. We moved around more than in any of our other tournaments and I feel like we covered the areas well with the correct baits. I'm starting to establish patterns and getting confidence in several of my lures and techniques. I think we can actually win one of these tournaments this year.