O'Shaughnessy Club Tournament and Weekend Update

This weekend went fast. I guess they all do anymore.

Friday night was spent playing online poker. I was up around 30.00 when I finished playing.

Saturday Christina and I went to Cedar Point to ride the coasters. We rode a lot of them. The picture below is of Christina standing in line at the Top Thrill Dragster. It was our second coaster of the day. I wasn't too nervous getting on. I should have been. The whole ride lasts 17 seconds. Your body is rocketed to unbelievable speeds in no time. Definately a thrill!



Christina made friends with a couple of 15 year olds on one of the rides in the middle of the day and we rode rides with them the rest of the day. They were a couple of good kids but I am unsure of why they wanted to hang out with people twice their age.

We didn't get back to Columbus until after midnight. I had drank a monster on the way home to stay focused. It stuck with me and I had a really hard time getting to sleep.

A couple hours later I was up getting the boat out of the garage and ready for our club tournament on O'Shaughnessy.

I got to the lake and met Scott who was riding with me at the tournament. I was ready for redemption on the lake.

We started out close to the ramp. Knowing the lakes around here you have to get your fish early and the more time you spend casting the better chance you have of getting in on the early bite.

I caught a bluegill then a keeper pretty quick working down the bank. He was about 13 1/2 inches. We didn't have anymore bites on that bank so we moved up the lake a little to a bridge. It was a little deeper water. I caught a keeper bass right away about the same size as the first. We worked back and forth down the bridge a bit without any more fish. I could see some more working in that area but couldn't get them to bite.

We worked our way out to the shallow point and worked a weed line. As we were pulling out to move Scott was getting a bite so we pulled back in to work the line a little more. No luck.

We moved the opposit direction toward the dam. It was starting to get warmer and the sun was getting above the trees.

We stopped at a cove where I had a few fish break me off last year. I caught a few short bass out of there and a couple more bluegill. The short bass were fat.

I changed out the water in the livewell and noticed that there were a lot of crayfish pieces in the water. I stuck with my finesse worm since it had been working. I'm not sure if that was the right decision.

We worked back along a weed line to another small cove. We came across some sparse weeds and Scott had a couple nice fish hit his bait but get off before he could get them all the way to the boat. He was thinking it was the pole he was using. It didn't have much sensitivity and he wasn't feeling the bite until the fish already had the bait and then he couldn't get a good hook set.

I could have hooked up what he was using as it was starting to show signs of productivity. Yet again I stuck with what I was using. Probably not the best decision even though I still caught a few more short bass and a couple more bluegill.

We fished another larger cove with no luck. The good thing about fishing it is what I learned from it.

The whole cove was filled with 1 inch shad and I saw later that the rest of the lake had an abundance of them as well. When they flashed sideways it looked like the finesse worm I was using when I twitched it. In the main lake the shad were more balled up and not spread as far apart. The fish were feeding on them in the main lake.

The reason I said not switching baits throughout the day was not the best decision was due to the different structures we were fishing. The more I fish with the finesse worm the more I learn about it and realize that it is best for specific uses but not for every lake or structure.

It works great for rock banks. Especially smaller rock. Even better where the water drops quickly. It also works better where the water is cleaner.

Thinking back on the day. I should have used a ribbontail or twist tail worm texas rigged in the weeds. On the shallow banks I should have used a craw. I also wish I would have had a small topwater bait tied on.

I weighed in 2 bass for 2.11 pounds. I finally caught a keeper bass out of O'Shaughnessy. I didn't catch all the weights but think I finished around 6th. There were a lot of 1 or 2 fish catches. Only 2 people had 3 fish. There were also a few people that didn't catch any keepers.

TNT return and preperations

Summer weather is just getting here but fall is coming fast. We are finally starting to get the warmer days of summer I have been waiting for all year. It has been a great spring and early summer with only 3 days above 90 degrees so far this year.

As the summer continues on I am still continually thinking about bass. Even if I could be out there every day catching them, I would want more, I would want to start fishing for them at night as well.

To keep gaining experience and grow on my so far poor rookie year I am going to fish the Thursday TNT tournament at O'Shaughnessy tomorrow evening. I will be camping at Indian Lake this weekend and will not be able to get in the Sunday Deer Creek tournament.

O'Shaughnessy has been rough on us this year with no keeper bass during a tournament so far. I hope to turn that around tomorrow. I read some articles on mental preparation that should help me focus on fishing correctly and not focus on the previous tournaments we have had there. There was also an article by the same author that wrote about setting goals. He was writing about yearly goals but I think I will make some for this tournament as well.

Goal 1: I want to fish effectively on most of my casts. Casting for even a small amount of time without anything to show for it can be dulling. I start short casting or working areas that don't even look good. This week I want to refocus at least every half hour so I can make my casts count and keep my lure in the strike zone the longest and stay alert for when a strike does occur.

Goal 2: Find the fish. I have a few spots now that were a little more productive than others. I will try them but if we try several effective presentations and still do not get bites we will try another spot.

Goal 3: Keep lures on all of my poles. I have a bad habit of grabbing a different pole with a different lure if my line breaks. I might do this if fish are around but if I don't catch anything on the other lure I will at least re-tie my line and have it ready to go in case I need it.

Goal 4: Keep my focus on fishing and not on the time. I get scared of the time limit. According to the articles I read worry can cause you to tense up and that tension does not help fishing. If I need to I will relax a minute then get back to why I am there, to fish effectively.

Goal 5: Use my strengths that I have gained. I have tried lots of styles of fishing this year, but I am confortable working area's slowly with a craw. I will try other tackle as the fish show me what they want but I will keep a craw tied on as that is definately my confidence bait right now.

I still think we can win a tournament, but that will not be my goal this week. If I can fish effectively then winning will follow.

Pontoon Selling and Weekend Update

I met with the couple driving 3 hours last Thursday to look at the pontoon. They made it up early. Luckily I was able to get off a little early so they did not have to wait. I met them with the boat at Delaware lake. They looked over the pontoon then I took them out for a test ride. Everything ran good. The motor started up on the first crank like usual and everything else went smooth. We got back to the dock and after being out on the lake and I let them off and I continued to load the boat while they talked.

I backed the trailer down the ramp and another boat was loading. He pulled up on the trailer with ease and she made a comment on how easy the other boat loaded. After he pulled out I told her the pontoon was really easy to load and to demonstrate I pulled onto the trailer really crooked and showed how it would steer itself onto the trailer. Then I gave it a little gas and it slid right up to the front. She was extreemly impressed.

He asked how low I would go on the price. I had a guy interested on Saturday for 5500.00 so I said I would take 5750.00. He and his wife talked about it for a minute and said they would take it. The sale is not finalized. They are coming to Columbus to pick it up in a week and bringing a cashiers check. I am going with them to get all of the paperwork transferred so there will be no problems.

Thursday, Mizike and I went to O'Shaughnessy only did not get in the tournament. We decided just to fish for a while and if we start doing better give the tournaments a try again. On the first cast of the evening Mizike caught a 12 1/2 inch bass on a chartreuse spinner. We both were thinking "Why did we not fish the tournament". The rest of the day was not so well. We moved on down the bank and saw fish surfacing everywhere after the schools of fry all over the surface of the lake. We tried a lot of different presentations and ended up catching quite a few crappie and bluegill before we decided to try to go to a cove and catch some crappie.

I tied on a purple worm in the cove and fished a weed bed. I cast into an opening in the weeds and jigged the worm a little bit. I instantly got a hit. I missed the hookset. I cast into another opening and again another hit and again a missed hookset. I am starting to think the fish on this lake are going to require finesse fishing and I think I am getting closer to figuring it out. I have been downsizing my weights and hooks and am starting to figure out how to finesse again.

Mizike had to get to work so we left a little before the tournament boaters came in.

This weekend not much happened. I had Friday off and did not do much besides watch T.V. Saturday I watched T.V. all day and cleared off a lot of space on the DVR. I haven't been watching but a couple shows a week so it was about 97% full. We got it down to the 40%'s. Saturday evening I got a call from a friend I used to work with saying he was having a poker game at his house. Mizike's girlfriend and I went and played a low stakes tourney. It was fun even though I was out in 3rd, no money.

Sunday my son brought home a gift for Father's day he made for me in Sunday school. It was made out of popsickle sticks and puzzle pieces and had a nifty little saying on it about loving me to pieces. He also had a big bag of reices pieces that the 2 boys gave to me and both were anxious to share them. We ate the lunch I had prepared and headed to the lake to the beach to go swimming. It was fun for the boys the girls and me. The boys enjoyed playing in the sand and swimming and getting to play with other kids.

We came back home and got cleaned up to go out for some barbecue. There are not a lot of places in Columbus so we went to Smokey Bones. None of us had ever been there. I was craving ribs and they had awesome ribs and even better onion rings. I ate until I couldn't eat no more and I still had enough left for another meal. The waitress gave us a coupon for my meal free since it was father's day. She also was one of the best waitresses we have had so I did not have any problem leaving a 15 dollar tip.

We came home and put the kids to bed and made it to bed by 10 ourselves. That is a rarity in our house. I feel rested today thanks to a very relaxing weekend.

TNT # 6

We fished O'Shaughnessy for tournament #6. I tried to go with smaller baits since we had not had any luck at the lake yet this year. I primarily used a beatlespin and a crappie skirt on a 1/16th jig head as well as a shakey worm on a 1/8 oz. shakey head jig.

We drew boat number 17 and went straight to the cove we wanted to fish but it was already occupied by another boat by the time we got there so we fished the points in front of the cove and went around to the next small cove. In the next small cove I caught an 11 1/2 largemouth right away. We worked our way around and I caught another 11 inch smallmouth. Mizike caught a crappie on a crankbait.

We worked our way back to the other larger cove that I wanted to work a drop that went from 5 to 9 ft. quickly. On the way around I had a hit at a weed edge. I set the hook and my line snapped. I caught about an 8 inch largemouth off the drop. Mizike wanted to try a different spot so we went toward the dam and fished a large cove for quite a while without a bite. We decided to go back to the first cove and see if we could catch a keeper there. No luck! We started working the bank line towards the ramp.

We had about 15 minutes left and I saw a small cove similar to the first so I pulled into it. I saw a little ditch extending into the water and thought that it might go out a few feet. There had to be a fish there so I cast to it. The lure barely hit the water and I had a hit. I reeled it in and it felt pretty nice. As I got it to the surface I noticed it was a nice fish but the wrong species. It was a huge crappie. I cast back and got another large black crappie.

The tournament was over so we headed back to the ramp fishless again. Next tournament at O'Shaughnessy we will work the whole lake a few casts at each spot before moving on. I did get a tip from a person that fishes the lake a lot. He said O'Shaughnessy and Griggs are really good tube lakes. I will have to figure out how to effectively use bass tubes.

This Thursday's tournament is at Alum Creek. I have been thinking of possibly just fishing the Alum Creek tournaments or one tournament a month. We have not been doing good and have not came close to placing yet in fact the most fish we have weighed in is 1. We could save money and practice to get better. I don't think Mizike would be able to get out if we were not in the tournament though. I want to get better and have been getting better each week. If we don't get out each week we will not get better.

I am already getting pressure from the wife that I am fishing too much and not doing enough as a family. My weekends have been taken up by family stuff and I have only made it out a handful of times to practice fish for bass. This last weekend we took the girls and kids to Lake Erie. Next weekend we have already been told no fishing. I guess we will keep fishing the tournaments just so we can go fishing.

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 # 2

Today's the day for our second TNT series tournament at O'Shaughnessy lake. I haven't been back since Sunday to see if the water has cleared up any. We haven't had a lot of rain so I bet it has cleared up a little toward the South end of the lake.

We will be starting out there. I plan to use a lot of rubber this trip out. There is a lot of shoreline structure that I want to work. I will also have a couple bright colored crankbaits tied on in case the water is still chocolate milk colored.

It should be overcast with a chance of rain this evening. The wind will be better than any tournament we've had so far so our fishing options will increase a lot. I'm kind of leary on how the fishing will be this time out. I am yet to catch a bass at O'Shaughnessy even though it is supposed to be one of the better bass lakes in central Ohio.

Earlier this week my wife worked late Monday and Tuesday so I had to watch the kids in the evening. Last night I had two associates I had to let go so I did not get home until about 8:30. I am heading back to Kansas tomorrow for a wedding on Saturday, then I will make it back here on Sunday. It is about a 16 hour drive each way so that should be fun. At least I have a day off work tomorrow.

I will post the results of the tournament on Monday or Tuesday.

Weekend Happenings

There was quite a bit that happened this weekend so I will try to fit it all in here.

Friday evening I had plans to take my wife out for our anniversary. Mizike and his girlfriend were going to watch the kids. I got home and Mizike and Kimber were gone. They had went to watch Wolverine before we got home and were still out. My wife got home about 15 minutes after me. It was downpouring with a good lightning show so we got a beer and sat out on the porch with the kids watching it.

Mizike and his girlfriend got home shortly after that. We were still sitting on the porch and the tornado sirens go off. Me and Mizike jump off the porch and run out to the street to see if we can see anything. The girls take the kids inside and turn on the t.v. We didn't see anything that looked like tornadic clouds so we headed back inside to look at the t.v. The storm was already 20 miles past us.

We left to go eat at Red Lobster but as we pulled up to it there was a line of people outside in the rain and the parking lot was packed so we went to find some other place. We ended up in West Jefferson and ate at a little italian place there called Ann and Tony's. It was very good food, had a great atmosphere and was reasonably priced. As we were paying my wife saw a willowleaf decoration she wanted. It said anniversary on it so I bought it for her.

We headed back to Columbus to see Wolverine at the Theatre. On the way I got a craving for a Mocha. I didn't want to go to Starbucks, I'm not their biggest fan so we decided to try Carribou coffee. They had a Campfire Mocha that had chocolate and marshmallows and tasted kind of like smore's. That definately hit the spot.

Next, we headed to the Lennox to see the movie. They had a movie starting in about 5 minutes and another that started in about 20 minutes. We chose the 5 minutes. We got into the theatre and it was packed. We found the only spot that both of us could sit together. It was right at the very front. I remember being a kid and always wanting to sit at the very front. It ended up not being too bad. I was looking up a lot but could see the whole screen pretty well. The movie was awesome. I have been a collector of x-men comic books for years and the movies have been really good about adding to or following the story line.

Saturday I got up and went to a few garage sales to see if I could find some bargains. Every one I hit was way over priced. I only got a couple things for my son and a cookbook that looked like it had some really unique recipes in it.

After garage sale shopping I mowed the yard then I went to the marine to pick up the Nitro and drop off the Pontoon. I got back home a couple hours later and took a short 20 minute nap and watched Marlee and Me. It was a good movie but seemed to drag on at the end. It also reminded me a lot of my life and our last dog Malcom a Great Dane. I drove to Indian lake after the movie and hung out with a friend there celebrating his birthday. We had a couple too many shots but overall had a good time. We were in a bar that at 2:30 in the morning cooked us up some Ribeye and eggs for around $7.00. It was awesome.

I slept in the car at the lake. The next morning I got up about 10 and headed back to Columbus. I played a little pokerstars when I got back. I played a dollar game and doubled my money. My wife and son's got home from church around 12:30. I still had the boat hooked up so we headed to O'shaghnessy lake to do a little scouting for this weeks tournament.

The water was chocolate brown and had all kinds of branches and trash floating in it from all the rain we have been getting. I used a chartreuse lure and could only see it withing 2 inches of the surface of the water. I found some nice looking fishing spots but only had 1 bite all evening. I don't think it was a bass though.

I hope the water clears up a lot before Thursday. We are supposed to get another storm between now and then. There was a log in the launch area. All of the boats were pushing it out of the way with their oar. Then when they would get by it would float back in the way. I grabbed it and drug it onto the shore. It was actually about a 15 foot tree. The people lauching their boat behind me thanked me for getting it out.

The Nitro ran good. I had to dodge a lot of debree but was able to open it up on the southern end of the lake. It felt good to be fishing out of it after all of the trouble I've had so far this year with getting to the lake.

Last night we got home and barbecued some steaks and potatoes, and had some corn on the cob. It made a good end to the already good weekend.