The Last of my Ohio Fishing Experiences

The closer I get to the move the more hectic my life is becoming. This weekend I will be moving, then things should start slowing down.

The last post I had I was preparing to fish a club tournament at Buckeye. We fished that tournament. My predictions were somewhat right. The fish were either hard to catch or had been caught the day prior. I ended up with 2 fish, good enough for 4th or 5th place in the club. The winds were blowing about 30 mph so we were confined to the channels.

The next weekend we had a club open tournament at Alum Creek. The weather was awful. We had high winds again, rain, and at one point the boat was covered in hail. There was only 1 person that caught a bass all day. He did catch a nice 5 pound smallmouth. I tried everything including taking the boat through a narrow culvert to fish an area that never gets fished. The boat got scratched on the bolts. Even that didn't work.

I had a few weeks off and last weekend the club had another tournament at Rupert lake. I had an interview in Kansas so I missed the tournament. Quite a few large bass were brought in to weigh in.

This weekend we fished Knox lake. We hit it perfect for the spawn. Bass were on beds everywhere. My day started off horribly. I had 7 fish come unbuttoned before I could get them in the boat. It was more than likely the way they were biting. I got it figured out though and ended up having 5 nice bass for the weigh in. Several were 2 to 2 1/2 pounders. We had a paper tournament since Knox has an 18 inch length limit. Nobody caught a bass over 18 inches. I finished 4th in the tournament with 9.7 pounds. Third place was 9.76 and Gene who was fishing with me had 9.85 pounds and finished 2nd. The winner had slightly over 10 pounds.

Knox was a great tournament and gave me some much needed practice on sight fishing. I had 2 baits that worked well to get them to strike. One was a small red slugo rigged on a drop shot. The other was a 6 inch morning dawn roboworm rigged wacky style on a flick shake jig head. I would cast out to where there beds are and twitch the baits until they would strike.

With the big move being only a week away, I am pretty fortunate to have things work out the way they have. The house sold really quick. We had to take a loss. I had a face to face interview last weekend for a position at the local hospital in Kiowa. If that doesn't work out I will try to start my own business there. Our house is not quite ready for us to move into but the owners are going to let us keep our things there until they are moved out. I have also trained my replacement at my current position.

I don't have any plans to fish any more tournaments this year once I am moved to Kansas. That will likely change once I am there and look into the tournament scene. For now I am looking to fishing for fun with my parents, friends, and Leo and Gavin once I return.

Next year I would like to get back into the FLW BFL and see what other circuits work with that schedule.

Alum Creek Suageye and Crappie

Saturday night after the tournament I was beat. Getting up at 3:30 in the morning is something I rarely do. It is more likely that I stay up until that time.

When I got home from the tournament and put the boat in the garage, Christina said that we should have a family movie night so I picked out some DVD's that were kid appropriate, sort of. Leo picked out The Hulk from the group so we sat down to watch it. The recliner sucked me in and after 15 or so minutes it was Z time. I woke up at the end of the movie and went to bed at 9:30 on a Saturday night. At 9:00 the next morning I awoke.

Gene was sleeping on the couch. Instead of waking him up in a conventional way, I got a dog toy and got Kimber's dog Hunter to jump up on him and run back and forth across him. Gene finally opened his eyes and we started to get the boat ready.

His brother Glenn wanted to go so we invited him along.

Once at Alum Creek we boated to a regular bass spot to try for some bass and the possibility of a bonus musky. Glenn hooked into the first fish on a nightcrawler he was dragging along the bottom behind the boat. When he got it to the boat we realized it was a saugeye, about a 17 incher. He took it off the hook and chucked it back in the water. Gene and I looked at each other then let Glenn know that he could have kept that fish. Glenn said he had never caught a saugeye before and didn't know they were good eating.

Gene hooked into the next 2 saugeye, a 16 and a 17 incher, with a Rapala Extreem Shad. We anchored the boat and rigged up worms to try to catch some more. It had been raining and a thunderstorm was approaching. The wind picked up and even in the tree surrounded cove the wind was blowing hard. Rain started pouring down. It was a quick passing storm. The fish stopped co-operating in that cove so we went to try the next cove over.

In the next cove we tried several areas with hardly any luck. Glenn cuaght a small catfish on his worm. I think most of the time we were moving the boat around trying to get those 2 out of snags. Finally we started making our way back out of the cove. I had saw a couple small swirls in the back of the cove and started using my tiny dancer as I thought they were crappie swirls.

A couple guys came down on the bank and started casting bobbers and minnows into the water. They asked if we had caught any crappie. I answered no and at that time Gene was hung up in a laydown again. We pulled over to the laydown for Gene to free his lure and I cast neer the structure and pulled out a crappie. I ended up catching about 50 crappie in that spot. There were a lot of small fish but I pulled out a few 10 inchers to keep. Gene was using the same thing and only managed to pull out 1 crappie. It was a slab measuring about 13 inches and made my 10 inchers look tiny.

That spot dried up after a while and Gene and Glenn wanted to try for some more saugeye so we made our way back to the first cove. We worked it all the way to the back of the cove and I found another crappie spot where I pulled out about another 50 crappie. This time only 2 keepers. Glenn pulled out a couple small bass and Gene finally catching a few crappie.

At one point when Glenn had snagged on the bank, Gene had pulled the boat to the bank to free the lure. We were next to a fallen tree in the water so once Gene got the lure I used my foot to push off the roots of the tree to get us back out away from bank. The roots were rotted and broke under the force causing me to lose my balance. I fell trying to make it back in the boat. Instead of falling outward or into the boat I fell straight down. My left leg made it in the water up to the knee before the trolling motor finally caught me right in between my legs. It stopped me from going into the lake but I don't know if it was worth it.

I sat down for a little bit recovering while Gene and Glenn had a good chuckle.

We tried one other spot for a while before giving it up for the day around 6:30. By the time we left we were all cold and soaked.

First Bass of the Year

It's been a couple weeks since I last posted. Part of the reason was there was not much that happened but the primary reason was that I had a stinky virus for 2 weeks. It pretty much kicked my butt, but I was finally able to fight it off and feel better now.

There is an open tournament at Alum Creek next weekend for our club. The plan was to spend the last 3 weekends at the lake getting in practice for my first tournament and to get more comfortable out on the water prior to tournament season.

Instead what happened was a road trip with the wife and kids, being sick and only spending a couple days on the water.

Last weekend on Sunday I started feeling a little better so I pulled the boat out of the garage to clean it up for spring and to fire up the motor. I hooked up the garden hose and it fired right up. After a few hours with the vacuum and a bucket of suds the boat was sparkly again. Since it was out of the garage and hooked up to the truck already I just couldn't help but to take it out for a bit.

I called my buddy Gene and he came over to go fishing for a few hours. Deer Creek was the closest lake so we headed there to run the boat and get in a bit of fishing. We hit some of our primary early spring spots as well as some of our fall hotspots. The fish were not cooperative and Gene was the only one to boat a fish. It was a rather small white bass.

By the time we made it back to the house I realized that I had pushed it too hard for the day, and the virus sensing that I had used up all my energy, proceeded to take its licks. It was still worth it.

While we were out on Deer Creek the trolling motor batteries died really quick. We were on a really shallow flat and had to ore quite a ways to get to some deeper water to fire up the big motor. New batteries are not in the budget but I have a contact in the bass club that can get me good new batteries at a great price.

Over the couse of the next week it was a battle of me vs. Viro. It was that bad it gets a name. Saturday rolled around and I was ready to hit the water again in anticipation of my first bass of the season. Friday night was filled with dreams of lots of bass being caught. Saturday morning I arose to less than desirable conditions. It was cold and really windy. Since it was not a tournament day, I chose to stay home and take the kids to the zoo in the afternoon. It was a good choice as I will not get to spend as much time with them once tournament time comes around.

Sunday was going to be a day on the water regardless of the weather though. I text Gene and let him know we would be heading out early. He text back and said that he will be on the couch when I get up. Saturday night I got on pokerstars to take a stab at a tournament around 8:00. About 4:30 in the morning I was nearing the end of the tournament when I lost in 47th place out of 2800 players for a decent profit. The early start to Sunday morning fishing was looking like it would start a little later. Gene rolled in about 3:00 as well and stayed up with me almost until the end so I didn't figure he would mind.

Feeling a little rough, I ended up getting out of bed about 9:00. We hooked up the boat and drove to Alum Creek. It was breezy and cold but I was able to catch a 12" bass on a white and chartreuse spinnerbait off a stretch of reeds right away. That would end up being the only bass of the day.

There was also 2 bluegill and a crappie that fell for "Tiny Dancer", my jig head and grub skirt combo that is my go to for pan fish.

I had a huge swirl and miss on my spinnerbait off another reed stretch on the North end of the lake. If it was a bass it was huge. More than likely it was one of the many Musky that lurk around Alum Creek.

The trolling motor batteries are apparently still going after several years of use. I had the three bank charger plugged in for 48 hours last week. They got a good test, running the trolling motor all day in the windy conditions.

With the cold and breezy conditions and the lack of action after 8 hours on the water we loaded the boat on the trailer. A stop at the Chinese buffett on the way home solidified yet again another great day.

I'm not sure if I will be fishing the Open this next weekend. Mizike moved and Gene has to work Saturday so I might just show up and fish that day unless I find somebody else that is wanting to partner up for the tournament.

Wednesday fishing for fun!

Mizike and I went fishing last Wednesday night and had a good time. I was not going to be able to fish our regualar Thursday night due to issues at work.

We went to Alum Creek. Mizike showed up before me to get some extra fishing in. He caught one small bass by the time I arrived. He picked me up and asked where to catch the crappie. I had a little spot that was not too far out of the way so I took him there.

We fished with minnows which is pretty rare for me. I usually use a jig head and skirt when I fish for crappie. I used the jig head and hooked the minnow on it about 2 1/2 foot under a bobber. We had good crappie fishing and caught around 15. We kept 5 that were well above 9 inches and threw about that many back that were right on the line. Mizike also hooked into about a 6 1/2 lb. catfish on his ultralight. He got it to the boat and out of the water but his line broke when he was swinging it into the boat.

I had one pole hooked up for crappie fishing and the rest for bass. We anchored in one spot to float a bobber and cast around there looking for bass. I pulled out my hula popper first. I cast next to a tree branch that stuck down in the water and popped it slowly past it. On my fifth cast I looked at Mizike and said, "I'm about to make the bass under that branch mad and he's going to take this popper." Right as I ended my sentence the water boiled at my lure and I set the hook. After a good battle I finally landed the 1 1/2 lb largemouth. I wish I had instincts like that all the time.

I caught a couple more bass on the crappie rigs and one on a spinner next to a hump and a willow. The crappie were taking the bobbers under pretty regular and we were catching about 3/4 of the ones that bit. Setting the hooks on crappie doesn't work like it does on bass.

We fished for about 2 hours before a storm rolled in and soaked us. It was raining so hard that even with my bilge on the water was rising inside the boat. I thought we were going to have to pull up to shore to keep her afloat for a bit.

By the time we made it back to the ramp and backed the trailer in it had finished raining. It was still quite a trip. It always feels good to catch fish after fish and I love seeing fish hit topwater.

Birthday fishing trip

We missed the tournament Sunday. I woke up at 6 AM with the phone stuck to my chest. I must have woke up at 4:45 and grabbed my phone to turn off the ring and fell right back asleep. When I rolled over at 6 the phone was indented into my chest. I woke up and quickly looked at the time. I thought I was dreaming. I couldn't have overslept. I just stand up and get out of bed if I wake up to go fishing. I must have still been sleeping when the alarm went off.

I had a really good feeling about the tournament too. It was my birthday so I was going to try extra hard to win it. Gene was downstairs on the couch. I asked him what he wanted to do since we had missed the beginning of the tournament. He said whatever. I decided that we should go fish Alum Creek and try to catch some Saugeye and Crappie.

We got to Alum Creek around 10 AM after getting some breakfast and bait. It was overcast and about 10 degrees cooler than the previous day. We started out trolling around some points and an island on the Northern end of the lake. Gene caught 2 white bass but no saugeye.

We decided to troll the Road Bed and then troll some points on the main lake but did not have any luck at those spots. We finally headed back to the Northwest side where we had discovered another old road bed in a cove. We had caught some crappie there during a bass tournament so we hit that for a few hours. We got a few crappie and tried casting a worm on a spinner for some Saugeye.

A while later I had saw a bass surfacing in the shade of a tree. I cast a crazy leg chigger craw out and he picked it up and swam with it. I yanked the rod back and reeled in a 11 1/2 inch largemouth. The next cast I flew the craw past the road bed and hopped it up over the bed. Right as it got to the edge of the roadbed I felt a tug on my line so I ripped it back and pulled in a 12 1/2 inch largemouth. He was pretty thick too.

We fished for crappie a while longer before moving around the shore fishing for some more bass. No luck through the next cove so we decided to try our spring crappie spot. On our way out of the no wake zone we decided to troll. As we crossed over a point Gene snagged one pole and while reeling in his other had a fish hit. He pulled in an 18 inch musky. He was pretty excited. We cast around the point a while then headed for the crappie spot.

It was quite a ride to the crappie spot. We didn't know if the crappie were there still or not. We finally got there and dropped anchor. We fished for a while and did not get any bites. Then I took my bobber and minnow off and just cast my jig liek we had this spring. I cast right up by bank and caught one. I thought they might be by bank so I cast again and I had another hit. They were about a foot out from bank.

We moved closer and caught a few more then they turned off. It was getting later in the day. After a bit I noticed that some smaller fish were surfacing behind us. I cast out and got one in the deeper water. They must have moved to feed.

We finally had 7 larger crappie and white bass in the livewell and it was getting close to dark so we headed home. Once we arrived at the house i unloaded the fish from the livewell and put the boat in the garage. I went to clean the fish and realized I had left my fillet knife in Dad's truck back in Kansas. I didn't want to try to fillet them without a knife and they were still alive so I put them in my coy pond. Once I get my knife I can fish them out of there and clean them. There are quite a few minnows in there to keep them happy until then.

All in all it was a good birthday filled with fishing for fun. I like to multi-species fish every once in a while. Fishing for bass around here can be a grind. Sometime in September my wife kids and I are going to go to Kentucky Barkley lakes in Tennessee. From what I have seen and heard there are large numbers of larger fish there. I am really excited to camp and fish for a week there.

TNT 4 5 and Kansas trip

We fished O'Shaughnessy for tournament number 4. We had moved into the top 60% of the field with our 1 catch of the year due to making all of the tournaments and getting points for showing. We didn't have any luck. I had 2 keepers on but lost them both at the boat. The first I pulled in from bank. The other I had hit at the boat and flopped off when I went to lift it in.

Tournament number 5 was at Alum Creek. I was not here so Mizike and our alternate fished the tournament. They caught a 1.88 pound smallmouth that was setting up next to a rock. It was raining hard and the rest of the field struggled as well. We still did not place.

Kansas fishing was awesome! I got to the lake last Monday. I set up the tent and blew up the air beds and set up the rest of camp then went to unload Dad's Lund to go after some fish. It was afternoon by the time I had gotten my fishing liscence and made it to the lake from the in-laws. We had a few hours to fish in the evening. We caught some wiper, white bass, and a couple walleye trolling. Then a few more walleye drifting over the spot we had just trolled and caught the first walleye.

The next morning I woke up at 3:30 A.M. anxious to get back out to catch more fish. I sat around the campfire ring until about 5:00 A.M. and decided it was almost light enough to see the shore from the water. I grabbed my pole and walked down to the bank of the cove we were camping next to. I cast out a white 1.5 inch grub with a pink 1/16th oz head and caught a small crappie on the first cast. For the next hour I caught a fish every cast. In that mix I had 5 keeper smallmouths and 8 cleaning size crappie. I usually only keep crappie 9 inches or longer. I threw the bass back of course. I still have never tried eating a bass.

I woke up Dad as soon as it was light and told him he better get down there the bite is on. He got a cup of coffee and ended up coming down as well. He caught 3 crappie and the sun popped up. The bite turned off almost instantly. I think the fish moved to deeper water or had fed well on the small fry that were in the area and moved to cover to sit out the sun. A crappie guy at work thinks that they were still feeding and I needed to try a different color. I will try that next time. The water was extreemly clear there though so I still think they moved.

The rest of the day we had a white bass and wiper fest. There were times Mom Dad and I would all have fish on at once. My oldest son had fun sitting in the boat all day. I took a couple toys and he played with them and played in the livewell. He also liked reeling in a fish every once in a while. I ended up with a decent looking 4 pound Wiper and Dad caught a 3 pound 21 inch walleye. We got some pictures with them.

My son lost his scooby doo pole over the side of the boat at some point while we were drifting for walleye. He might have snagged or had a fish hit. I wasn't watching at the time. He was pretty upset about it. He ended up crying himself to sleep. He did tell me that Wal-mart has a spiderman pole and that we needed to go get it. He points it out to me every time we are there.

We found a walleye spot on the last day I was there right before I had to go pick up my youngest son. We went across the hump 3 times and every time picked up a walleye. They were definately schooled there. I would have like to had some more time to hit that spot. It was a good thing I had to go though. It was over 90 degrees and I was burning fast. By the time I made the trip to meet my mother in law I was red as a lobster. We had only had 2 80 degree days so far in Ohio. I think I got a little sick from the sun or the heat that evening.

On our way back to Ohio we stopped at the Kansas City Bass Pro to pick up some fishing supplies. That is a really nice store. After we crossed through Indianapolis on I70 there was a deer in the slow lane. I saw it a little to late to get to a stop and merged to the fast lane to get around it. It ran at the same time and I got it with the passenger front of the mini-van. It did some pretty good damage as it got the light, the bumper, hood, front quarter panel, and the passenger side door. It took an hour for the highway patrol to arrive and make a report after I called them. He said this was his third deer strike report of the night.

We were able to drive the rest of the way home and made it around 4 AM. The next day I layed around all day watching TV. I was drained from the long week and the late and stressful night. We took the van to the insurance place for an estimate last night. They said 3000.00 worth of damage. Thank goodness for insurance.

We have our tournament Thursday evening then I think we will go to Lake Erie on Friday for the weekend. We're going to camp near Port Clinton and take a head boat out on Saturday. For 35.00 they take you out for a 7 hour trip and drift you across some walleye hot spots. I have gotten my limit almost every time I have been out on the headboats. I have only been out on Fisherman's Wharf Headboats. They are very good.

TNT # 3 and last weekend

I was going to try to fish Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday last week. It sounded like a great plan but like all plans things changed. Wednesday night was raining and cold.

Thursday ended up being a good day. We had a Southwest wind that blew some warm air in. Mizike had to work but me and an alternate fished the TNT series #3 event at Alum Creek. We started out rocketing across the lake to the North side. We found a cove just past the no wake zone on the Western part of the lake. There were some cattails in the water and a lot of grass and structure. We fished the cattails and moved out towards the mouth of the cove. I picked up my first bass on a blue and green double willow blade spinnerbait. It was about 11 inches so I returned it to the lake.

We went around the point into the second cove. We fished the southern bank all the way to the back of the cove. We fished the shallow areas of the cove without luck. I tied on a shakey head jig with a brown 6" curltail worm and worked the structure on the way back out of the cove. I was shaking the jig in about 5 foot of water reeling it toward the boat when I got a strong strike. I got it in and it was 1.98 lbs. I put it in the livewell.

Our alternate had another 1.5 lber on but lost it while he was watching another boat land a Musky. I had a few more bites on the shakey head. Most were right at the shore line in small clumps of grass. They were probably on their beds becuase they were not hitting the bait just nipping at it. I went back over the spots a few times but could not get them to take the bait after the initial hit.

We finally were able to weigh in at the end of the tournament. That felt a lot better than not bringing anything to the scales.

Friday was a perfect day. No wind, blue bird skies, and warm. I decided to wait to fish until Saturday so Mizike could go out too. I ended up going to garage sales and picking some toys out for the kids. That evening we picked up some Margarita mix and Tequilla and drank Margarita's on the deck all evening.

Saturday Mizike did not get up until about 1:00. We go to the lake about 2:00. We fished for bass for about an hour then Mizike seemed to be getting bored with it. He asked to go after some crappie. I took him to my secret crappie spot. I caught 5 keepers and quite a few smaller fish. He got bored with that since he was not catching a lot so I decided to head back to the ramp. We had been rained on quite a bit and it looked like another round was getting ready to come through anyway. On my last cast with my crappie jig I had a huge bite and it was heading straight to the laid down tree. I pulled hard to keep it out of the tree but right as it reached the first branch my line snapped and I saw the large bass that had engulfed my crappie jig.

We made it back home by 7:00 so it was a pretty short day of fishing. We ended up going to the comedy club to watch a hypnotist by the name of Medicine hat. It was funny and we had way too many rum and cokes.

Sunday I layed on the couch all day suffering from the way to many rum and cokes. I was able to clear a lot of shows off the dvr. I watched 8 episodes of Chuck and 6 episodes of The Big Bang Theory.

I was back to work on Monday. Friday I leave for Kansas again for my 1 year old's first birthday and his baptism. He is going to stay with his Grandmother for a week while I take my older son to the lake with his other Grandparents for a week. We will be camping and fishing Milford lake. It is a good fishery for Kansas. My parents drive across the state to take their vacation there. I am excited to have a full week to camp and fish. I miss my older son and am ready to see him. He has been gone over a week now as we left him with his cousins our last trip back.

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.

Start of TNT Series and Goals

What a day! I got up this morning with tourney fishing on the mind, and that's all I can think about. I can't wait until I am at the lake and making that first cast.

Today is shaping up to be quite a day. It has been lightly raining since this morning. The wind is slowly picking up. By 5:00 when i reach the lake we are supposed to have heavy rain, 15-25 mile an hour winds with gusts up to 35 mph and possibly lightning and hail. That kind of weather is not what I'm used to fishing in. I've always made a habit of staying off the water in those kind of elements. If I'm gonna be a tournament bass fisherman I better get used to it though. They don't schedule the tournaments according to weather conditions.

I have a rain suit so I am o.k. with the rain. I've never liked the wind. Growing up in Kansas that is all I ever had. The pontoon is a good boat for high winds. It cuts through the waves for a smoother ride and keeps you dry. It is tough pulling it in the wind. Mizike is picking it up from storage and pulling it to the lake though so I don't have to worry about that today.

I guess I should have practiced for more extreeme conditions like the Jamaican bobsled team did in the movie Cool Runnings.

I am still excited about this evening even with the bad weather and a boat that is not fully operational. I grew up fishing and I've always believed that as long as I am fishing it is a good day. It might even be a great day if we find the bass and can pull off a win.

Mizike thinks the bass will be deeper with the rain and the cooler weather. I think they will still be in the spawning grounds or close to them. I think with the winds churning up the water they will even be actively feeding. We'll see who's right.

I am going to start out with a Brown 6" curltail worm. On my other poles I have a jig and crawtail, a spinnerbait, a crankbait and a swimbait. I will probably only try the swimbait for a short time if it isn't working. I think it could pull out some big fish but what we really need today is a limit. If we get 5 bass in the boat we should place. Even if we get 3 in the boat we might place with this weather.

The big tournament is after the season. My first goal is to do good enough to get into that tournament. I also want to win one tournament and place in several others. The last goal I have is to come out of this series with enough winnings to pay for the entry fees. It would be nice to win more but I would feel successful if I got our money back. I would gladly pay the fuel cost and other costs to go fishing anyway. Oh yeah, more importantly than all of the other goals, I am going to have fun the whole time. I'm fishing with my best friend every week for 20 weeks. This will definately be a memory building season.

Someday when we're sitting around the dining room table talking to our kids and we'll bring up, "Remember the first year we started tournament fishing", and "We had to walk up hill both ways through 6 feet of snow just to make it to the lake, dragging the boat the whole way."

Getting Outfished by a 3 Year Old - Cont.

We got to the lake around 3 PM and started setting up camp. Mizike's girlfriend was watching her new puppy and my wife was watching our 2 kids so I pretty much had to set up camp by myself.

I set up the tent and got out the air mattresses and went to blow them up. My wife mentions that our air filler had been moved from the camping supplies to our bedroom somehow and must still be there. There was a Wal-mart about 15 minutes away so instead of running an hour back home we drove to Wal-mart and picked up a new one that is rechargeable. I had been wanting the rechargeable type anyway.

We got back to the lake about 4 and by 5 had the camp completely set up and were heading to the water. The wind was blowing pretty hard and the lake had 2 foot swells. I was glad we had the pontoon. I knew I could not keep it in one spot even with the trolling motor or anchors so I decided to troll the points to see if we could pick up a Musky or a Walleye. I put a green rapala on my son's scooby pole and I put on a perch colored rapala. We started down the West bank north of Cheshire road where I have had some luck before.

We had not been trolling long. My son was letting his line out a little ways then reeling it back into the boat. He yelled out, "I got one, I got one." I figured it was just the pull of the lure in the water. I looked back and line is singing out of his scooby reel and his 2 1/2 foot rod is doubled over. I put the boat in neutral and reeled my line in. My son would pull up on the rod and reel it back down the drag sounding the whole time. I was pretty impressed with his fishing skill for a 3 year old. He got it close to the boat and handed the pole to his Mom who lifted the fish over the edge of the boat. It was about a 2 1/2 pound white bass. He had caught the 1st fish and there were 2 other witnesses in the boat so I couldn't even get out of that one. It also ended up being the biggest fish for the day and the weekend. I caught one crappie to tie for most that was big for a crappie but not big enough to beat the white bass.

We fished for about an hour then I took everybody back to shore so they could go back to camp and I could try some bass fishing. I fished around the State park boat ramp with a yellow and white spinnerbait but had no luck. It was still windy and I wanted to get supper started so I trailered the boat and headed back to camp.

I started a fire and everybody wanted hot dogs so I found a good stick and carved it into a fine hot dog cooking tool and proceeded to slow cook hot dogs for everybody over a nice bed of coals. We got the kids to bed at a decent time and had a few drinks then the girls went to bed. I stayed up until the fire burned down then went to bed as well.

The next day we got up and I called my buddy. He was planning on coming out on Sunday to fish with us. My wife's cell phone was dying and I needed to know when and where to pick him up. We packed up camp after I cooked up some sausages and toasted some bread over a fire. Then we launched the boat and headed out fishing again.

The sun was pretty intense. I had gotten a bit of a burn the previous day. It was calm in the morning though. I trolled over the spot we had caught the crappie and the white bass to see if we could get into the fish. We didn't have any luck so I boated back to the Northwest side of the lake in a cove by the islands to try a little bass fishing. I cast a brown 6" curltail worm into a shallow area of the cove with lots of fallen branches sticking out of the water. I felt a tap tap tap and set the hook. It was a nice 12" largemouth.

We had trolled all the way back to that spot and had fished around another cove. We also had to idle back to the main lake area so we left that spot to go pick up my buddy. We met him at the Cheshire ramp and had lunch. The girls and kids headed home as everybody was feeling a little burnt and hot. It was about 86 degrees.

While we were eating the wind picked up. I asked my buddy if he wanted to go after some crappie. He said ok. The wind was too strong to hold the boat in one area again on the main lake so we headed back towards the river. We stopped at the first cove on the East side of the lake past hwy 36 and fished it. We didn't get a bite right away so I layed down on the pontoon and fell asleep with my line dangling over in the water.

I woke up about 20 minutes later sweating. My buddy had walked around the cove and did not have any luck. We decided to keep heading up the river. We went under the next bridge (i'm not sure which road that is) and saw a lot of boats and people fishing the west bank. We found a spot that nobody was fishing. I liked it because it had a tiny cove where a little stream ran into the lake. We pulled the boat onto land and walked back into the little cove. It was covered with branches in the water. I cast with a pink jig head and crappie skirt into the branches. I got a bite but missed it. A few casts later my buddy caught a small sunfish and tossed it at my feet in the water. I caught a small sunny a few casts after that and let it go. I walked to the mouth of the cove to try it. I caught a 9 1/2 inch crappie and put it in the livewell. We caught a couple more crappie in that spot but felt we had fished it out for the time being.

Ont the East side there was a cove with a little island. We boated to the backside of the island and saw some trees layed over in the water. We tied off to them and started to fish next to the trees. We found the spot and started smashing the crappie. About every four or five casts we were reeling one in. We ended up keeping about 22 that were mainly over 10 inches and throwing everything else back. I didn't think we had that many or we would have thrown a few more back before leaving. I don't like cleaning a lot of fish at once. We probably caught about 100 crappie out of that spot.

One time I cast under the tree and hooked a crappie. I was pulling him out and he got loose. My lure came flying out of the water and right behind it a gigantic largemouth came out after it. He tried to catch it mid air but missed. I haven't seen a bass that size in Ohio. He was 5 1/2 to 6 lbs. I cast right back in there and caught another crappie. I think the next five casts into that spot I caught a crappie.

We lost a lot of jigs in the structure but had a fantastic day. We left with about an hour of daylight left to get back to the docks by dark. We had to idle 3/4 of the way due to no wake zone. We got back and got the boat unloaded right at dark. We took the boat to storage and headed to find a Chinese buffett. It is a tradition of ours to eat Chinese Buffett after a good day of fishing. We got back to Columbus a little after 10 so by the time we got to the Chinese place it was closed. I was not to hungry and wanted to get the fish cleaned so we parted ways.

I got home and had the fish cleaned and was ready for bed by 11:30. I got a picture of the fish I will try to post on here. It might take me some time to figure it out though.

Getting outfished by a 3 year old

Friday night I arrived at home after work and felt tired. I wanted to lay around and watch T.V. Mizike's girlfriend also our roomate wanted a dog so we ended up driving across Columbus to a pet shop to look at a puppy that she ended up getting. We got back to the house pretty late and had some Chipolte's. I went to bed right away so I could get up early to get the camping gear ready in the morning.

I got up at a decent time and started packing all the camping gear. I keep it in the front of my garage for easy loading when we are ready to go. There were few things we needed at Wal-Mart for the trip so I got a partial list ready for my wife. I was about finished packing and walked inside to wash my hands. When I came back out her and Mizike's girlfriend were gone. I hadn't finished my shopping list, packed the items that needed to go in the van, which they took or talk to them about how we were going to meet up.

I tried to call my wife's cell phone but it went straight to voicemail. I had to have the boat dropped off at the marine and the other picked up by 11 AM. It was about 9:30 when they left. I waited around about a half hour and they had not returned. I was getting pretty upset. We needed ice for the cooler that had meat in it outside and we needed gas and oil for the boat. I was going to have them pick it up on the way but they left and had not communicated with me.

I left to get ice, gas and oil. By the time I got back it was way past the time I needed to leave to make it to the marine while they were open. I was very upset. I have been trying to get the boat to the shop for the last couple weeks and now again after I had packed everything up, and was hoping to camp, I would not have a boat.

I pulled into the developement pulling the Nitro and saw my wife just now unloading things from the van. I threw my phone out the window turned around and started heading for a lake. I was so mad I didn't want them to call me or know where I was for the rest of the weekend.

I got to the other side of the developement and realized I had made a promise to my son to take him fishing. I really didn't want to but I turned around and went back to the house. I pulled up next to the driveway and my wife walked up with my cell phone. I yelled at her saying do you know what time it is. You know I had to be at the marine by 11:00. She tried to tell me she thought I would go on without them. I told her we need to communicate better because she took off without saying a thing or making any plans when she saw I was ready to head out.

I tried to walk inside and get away from her to calm down. She kept following me around and wanting to argue. Finally, after she had taken my phone and thrown it on the ground and broke it in two, I was able to convince her to leave me alone for a while. I had told her she needed to buy me a new phone because mine had gotten scratched when it was thrown out the car window. She took the phone and threw it against the floor. Luckily it is time for my new every 2 years phone.

I know I overreacted. I have a hard time when we are getting ready to go places. I always expect too much from her. It seems like I prep and prep for these things and she wings it at the last minute. She is just that way and is not going to change. I just need to realize that and not get so angry. She is a great wife most of the time.

I finally started to calm down and she came outside to see what we were going to do. I asked her to call the marine to see if they might stay open a little later. She called and they had changed their schedule for spring and summer. Starting this week they were open until 5 PM. Everything had worked out after all and I made a complete fool out of myself.

We continued to the lake and everything went good from there the rest of the weekend. I will continue with the rest of the weekend later.