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.

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 # 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.

TNT Tournament 2 Results

I arrived at O'Shaughnessy at 5:00. Mizike had already checked us in and drew our boat number. He drew boat #1 this time. We hurried and got the boat ready and on the water. They called our number and we started idling out of the boat dock area. We got past the idle markers and opened up the throttle. The first three boats were heading to the same spot. Boat #2 had a 225 HP motor and passed us by a boat length to get the first spot in the cove. We were able to go on past them to the first spot I wanted to fish.

We tried my spot in a down tree. We didn't catch anything but the next boat that came along did catch one small bass out of it. I guess we should have tried a little more.

We fished for a while in the cove around structure before the trolling motor batteries died out. I had intentions of pluging them in all week but had forgotten to do so each evening after work. Last week was really busy and I didn't even have time to tie on what I was going to use in the tournament.

We ended up letting the wind blow us down the bankline then we would motor back and try again. I had done that in my dad's boat in high school since he did not have a trolling motor on his boat. We were not able to fish spots very well and once again we did not catch any bass.

There were only a handfull of people who caught over 1 bass and several that did not catch any. The top place the week before did not catch any either.

I have been very dissapointed. I'm very competitive and am taking it pretty hard not even getting to weigh in a fish yet. It is very discouraging. I am second guessing all of my tactics and fishing knowledge wondering if I even have a clue what I'm doing.

I just want to catch a bass. It's been 3 weeks since I've even caught one. I watch informational fishing shows, read fishing magazines, and articles. I just need to get out and find them. I am going to spend some extra time on the water this week. I will be fishing after work Wednesday, have the tournament Thursday, then I'm off Friday for some unpaid time off so I will be fishing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This last weekend was kind of short. I spent 36 hours traveling. It took 16 hours on the way to Kansas on Friday. We had a wedding on Saturday and on Sunday it took 20 hours to get home. I didn't feel like being back in the car yet so we made a lot of stops on the way home. We got back to Columbus at 4 in the morning and I had to work a few hours after that. I was tired yesterday.

I got a good night of sleep after watching Quantum of Solice and feel a ton better today. I am going to mow when I get home tonight. After that I will either play with my fishing gear or go to a buddy's house to have a couple of drinks for his birthday. I really want to organize a small box of tackle with what I want to use this week. I have a lot of tackle that I take along in case I might use it but I want to make a box of what I will use and try and leave the rest at home. I need to get some confidence in some of my lures.

I'm still excited about the rest of the season. I thought we would start out better. Now we just have to work harder to get the fish. Not being able to go fishing last weekend killed me. I need to know that I can catch them. It is only a 3 hour tournament but that is plenty of time to catch a couple even if we don't get all 5.

I think we have tried to fish each spot too long. We need to try different spots until we find the fish. Part of the problem has been not having everything ready. This week I will be ready. My batteries are charged, my poles will be rigged after tonight. My tackle will be organized and ready to be tied on. I will pre rig some Carolina rigs. Time seems to be a major key that is affecting us on the water and more prep work will help so we can spend the time that we have locating and catching fish.

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.

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."

Mizike's Birthday

Today is Mizike's birthday. We went out to Buffalo Wild Wings last night to celebrate. We had a few beers some wings and played some trivia. It was his idea. He couldn't go out tonight since he has to get up early in the morning for a company meeting. I was the bad guy last night and made us come home at 10:00 since I had to be to work this morning.

Tonight I am going to get things ready for our first Thursday night tournament starting tomorrow evening. It is called TNT series for Thursday night tournament series. It will last for 20 weeks alternating between Alum Creek and O'Shaunessey.

It's not a great time to start a series. Both of my boats need to be in a shop. I got the pontoon out this weekend but it has some new problems. Whenever I throttle past half way it acts like it is running out of gas and goes back down to idle speed and sometimes dies. I called the mechanic today and they said it might be something that happened when they replaced some of the parts or tuned it up. I hope they are able to get it running right soon. This will be my 4th trip to the shop this year. I have 2 boats and both of them live there.

The pontoon will at least float and get us across the water until the Nitro is finished. It will be slow, but we can still fish the tournament. It's supposed to be high winds and a thunder storm tomorrow evening. I hope there is a good turnout.

I can't wait to get my Nitro back. I've only had it out once but it is definately nice fishing out of that boat. I have quite a bit to get ready this evening. I have to get our alternate to sign a form, get my fishing gear together, get Mizike a birthday cake, cook up some crappie and fried potatoes, and find my insurance paperwork for the boats so I have that with me tomorrow. I also have to call to see where the launch site for the tournament will be. I have been e-mailing Team Bass Xtreeme to find out information since it is not posted on their web site but have not had any responses in the last 2 months.

I kind of feel like it's one thing after another trying to keep me from getting to these tournaments. I want to fish them but I have to do it under poor poor circumstances. It's as if I am not supposed to be doing this and I think if all the signs are pointing to no then I shouldn't. On the other side, maybe I'm being tested to see how bad I really want this. I've jumped through hoop after hoop just to be able to compete in one tournament so far. I had to use a boat that hadn't even been tested out yet pulled with a truck that's tires were about to fall off. I had no fish finder and had problems with the motor, the wind was blowing hard, it was extreemly cold.

I'm not going to give up, but I sure wish that I didn't have equipment problems so I could concentrate on catching fish. I'm sure we will have everything up to par soon enough. The Blazer is already running better.