Twin Rivers Bassmasters Fish Off Results

The weather cooled off for us this weekend. On Saturday the warmest part of the day was when we arrived to the lake. The wind picked up early. We fished several different areas and I stuck to a roboworm most of the day. The fish were somewhat active at the beginning of the day and I was able to pick up about 1 keeper every hour and a half. Then it got slow.

It started to Drizzle and the temperature dropped more. The fish stopped co-operating. Finally, I started deadsticking the worm. I would cast it and let it sit on the bottom next to the bank for 30 - 40 seconds then real it in and cast to the next spot. I picked up my last 2 fish towards the end of the tournament doing that.

I was in 2nd place after the first day with my 5 fish.

The next morning was cold. We started out the tournament at 46 degrees and it ended at 52. It was raining most of the day and blowing all day 10-15 mph with gusts of 25. It must have been gusting all day.

Fishing was tough on a good lake. There were close to 100 boats going out of the ramp we were going to start at, so we switched ramps. We started out a little later than that tournamnet and squeezed between boats to fish our first spot.

I was casting a buzzbait to start but it was too windy so I switched to a storm swimbait in chartreuse. I had 1 bass chase it so I cast out a similar colored roboworm and caught it. It was a little short. I cast the swimbait some more and had a nice hit. When I got it to the boat it was a nice white bass.

We worked quite a few more areas with no luck. We hit grass, shoreline, rocks, wood, and even a nice ledge with a drop shot and a carolina rig but couldn't get a keeper. I had 3 short fish by 2:30 and no keepers.

With 1 hour left I switched to a purple D.C. finesse worm. I cast next to a lay down and my rod loaded up. I set the hook and pulled in my first keeper. The wind was blowing us down the bank pretty fast so Ken turned the boat around to go back over the three laydowns that were next to each other.

We made it back to the laydown I had caught my first keeper on and I cast back to it. My rod loaded up again and I had my second keeper. The fish were tight to the laydowns. We hurried and fished a few more laydowns in similar types of water. Laydowns next to deep water. We didn't have any luck.

My 2 fish were enough combined with the weight of the first day to keep me in 3rd place. I got 3rd place fish off money plus 3rd place tournament money. It was about as much as I won for 1st place and big bass at another club tournament so I was happy. I wish I had figured out a pattern earlier in the day to win the tournament but just being able to place after my 2nd day was a blessing.

On the way home we decided to take a different route back home to avoid a stop light and traffic in Washington Courthouse. I had thought I came in on highway 50 the first time. I was wrong. Highway 50 took us through Cincinnati and cost us an hour on the way home. I'm sure the guys in the club will have a good laugh on that one.

Pleasant Hill Club Tournament

Our final club tournament before the fish off was this Sunday. There were 6 of us in contention of winning 20% of the fish off money for being weekend angler series points leader. I was 1 point back from the leader and had to take a top 3 in order to tie and a top 2 to move ahead if none of the others got a higher place than me or a top 3.

The morning started out great. It was overcast and cool with a little rain coming down. Giant smallmouth were slamming shad on the surface all around us. The forecast said overcast all day. How could it get any better.

Twenty minutes later the fish stopped hitting the surface and we had not figured out how to catch a single one. One of those behemoth smallmouth would have been a tournament breaker and there were tons of them. It was frustrating but we couldn't get them to hit topwater, crankbaits, worms, spoons or anything we threw.

We moved a little and I caught a barely keeper smallmouth next to a grass bed on a twister tail and jig head. I caught another short smallmouth the next cast and thought we were onto something. We worked for another half hour without a bite, then decided to move.

We went to the shallow end of the lake and I caught a largemouth pretty quickly off a rocky shoreline. A little ways down from there I caught another largemouth. Then the sun burned through our overcast day. The bite turned off again.

I missed quite a few other bites throughout the day on a 10" power worm. I would switch to something smaller and not get bit and switch back and get bit again. I would set the hook and my worm would come back all balled up on the hook without a fish. It was very frustrating. We were still having a lot of fun.

I ended up catching another short smallmouth off a point in the deeper part of the lake while Mike was taking a just barely short largemouth off his hook. Again we thought we were onto something but cast away at that point without any success. It became overcast again and a breeze picked up. Conditions seemed favorable for an afternoon bite.

We decided to try our original spot again for 30 minutes then burned the last hour in the shallow end of the lake. Mike had a huge blowup on a buzzbait coming over a log. It sounded like a toilet flushing. I missed a few more solid bites.

It just wasn't my day. I weighed in 3 fish for 3.38 pounds good enough for 4th in the club. Andy took a third with 4 fish and won the WAS points lead and 20% of the fish off money. It was awesome that the last tournament was so close that 6 of us had a shot at it. Andy has been with the club for 20 years and I can't think of anybody more deserving.

We vote on the fish off lakes Sept 30th. I'm torn on the lake I will vote for. We have fished some lakes that would be great that time of the year. The only lake I really don't have a chance at is Lake Erie. You need a lot of experience there to do good, I think. On top of that, I'm scared of the lake in my boat. The waves from the other boats alone are enough to scare me. If it gets windy I think I would stay ashore and concede my season. If it's an inland lake I think we all have an equal opportunity.

Rocky Fork Gargantuan Bass!

Mapquest showed a 1 1/2 hour drive to the ramp the next morning. That's how I decided when to wake up. It takes 15 minutes for me to get ready, 15 minutes to get the boat out of the garage and hooked up and 10 minutes to fill up with gas on the way out of town.

We didn't make it out to prefish or camp as it was supposed to rain Saturday and had been a little chilly at night. If the boys were just a little older we'd have went anyway.

I didn't sleep much the night before and still I had a hard time falling asleep.

Two nights before I had a dream that I was fishing this tournament and had a chance to win it but needed to catch one more bass. In the dream the fishing was tough and the guys in the club were on the bank talking. I needed to keep fishing to have a chance to win and I felt that if I kept putting my lures in the right areas I would eventually pull out the fish I needed to win.

I woke up to my 2nd alarm. The one that lets me know if I sleep any longer I will be pushing it too close.

A couple hours later I was at the ramp. There were a lot of boats and it was apparent there was another big tournament going on at the same time out of the same ramp. I walked through the parking lot looking for another club member but didn't see anybody. Did I have the wrong date. Maybe they put in early since the other tournament was there. I decided to wait until the other tournament got their boats put in before I put my boat in since I was putting the boat in by myself. It doesn't take me long anymore, but they were just about finished.

I got the boat in the water and made it to the other tournaments check in boat as they finished calling boat numbers. I asked if another tournament had left from there. He said they had went to another ramp right before I got to the ramp.

I boated towards the other dock and saw the clubs boats just taking off. I spotted the tournament director and went to talk to him. He asked if I could trailer the fish over to the other ramp. I said I could boat to their ramp and weigh the fish then head back to the other ramp.

I caught 2 fish pretty quickly in the back of a cove. They were just barely short. It hurt throwing them back. I moved out a little deeper and caught my first keeper in the middle of the cove. That felt a little odd. I caught him on the retrieve from a dock and figured maybe he followed it. The last 2 years all of my bass here have been caught off the shoreline or around structure.

I left the area to check out some more of the lake. The other end of the lake had a lot more boats working the shoreline. I stopped and tried 2 areas. The first looked good but had no grass. The fish I had caught before were close to grass. I moved across the lake and tried a second area. There was sparse grass and I had a couple fish hit then had a good one on that came unbuttoned about half way in. He would have been a keeper.

The wind was coming up and making it hard to keep boat position so I decided to go back to my original cove and work it again. I started out near a large grass bed and cast out into it. I got bit and set the hook. The fish felt decent and I ran to the back of the boat to get the net. I got her up close to the boat and got the net ready. Then she dove down. I was pretty sure it was a bass but started thinking it might be a catfish the way it kept diving. My drag was a little tight. She wouldn't have broken my line, but the hook could pull free, so I was adjusting it while I was holding the net and stripping line out of the spool with my hand with the net.

Finally, I got the fish to the surface and I went into shock upon seeing the size. It seemed like 3 minutes getting the net out to her. In reality it was probably the quickest I've ever moved but it seemed like forever.

It was definitely the biggest fish I've caught in Ohio. I worked down the bank a few casts and had another hit. I got the fish to the side of the boat and it dove down. I lifted the rod tip and had the net ready to go in the water as soon as the bass showed himself. Instead the hook came flying up out of the water. Upon inspection the hook was straightened. It was another big bass. Definitely would have been a keeper. That's 2 keepers missed for the day. I felt I was doing the big bass injustice by not getting the other 2 fish in.

I tied on a different hook and went to work down the bank. The sun came out from behind the clouds that had been there all morning and the bite shut down.

I worked the whole huge grass bed with no success then decided to work the other shorelines around there. Shad were surfacing and I saw fish below them but could not get bit. I finally sat in the middle of a cove and tried everything I had that mimicked a shad. I wish I would have had a silver spoon with me. I think that would have been the ticket. I finally got my 3rd fish in the boat with a twister tail fishing like I would for white bass. I kept changing up the bait. There were so many fish chasing the shad that if I could just get the right bait I would make a killing.

I tied on a shad blue worm wacky style and pulled it slowly through the middle of the cove and had a hit. I got him in the boat and it was just over 12 inches so he went into the live well. That would be my last fish of the day. I got back to the ramp just on time. I saw Jason from the club was there and knew with seeing the shad being busted that he had figured it out. He's good like that. I just hoped my big bass would save the day and hold my 4 fish over a 5 fish limit.

At weigh in I had 8 pounds even. Jason had 7.85 pounds and Tim, Jason's partner for the day had 7.9 pounds. I held and have my first win! I also got big bass for the day with 4.7 pounds.

We have one more club tournament before the fish off at Pleasant Hill. There is a lot on the line if I can win it and take over on Weekend Angler Series Points. I will just go fishing and try to figure the fish out like I did the last 2 tournaments. It feels good to be doing as good as I am against this caliber of fishermen.

Griggs club tourney

Our lake for this weekends tournament was Griggs Reservoir in Columbus. It was nice to be able to get up a little later for a tournament. I still did not sleep last night. I have been pumped for this tournament since we prefished it last Sunday. The fish were biting the way I like to catch them and we had caught a couple large for around here sized bass.

This morning we started out where Gene and I had picked up the 2 decent bass last week. I was using a green finesse worm whacky rigged as we had used last week. I would twitch it along the bottom. All I could get this morning was bluegill though and I had a ton of them hitting. I did have one tiny bass to the boat on a beatle spin but it fell off as I was lifting it in.

Scott went out with me again and he brought in the first keeper smallmouth of the day on a crankbait.

Later in the morning I started switching up colors on my whacky rig to see if I could get the right match for the day. I had 2 purple cabelas 4 inch finesse worms left. I had a couple hits and lost them right away. I had some 4 inch cabelas brand senko style in a similar purple so I gave them a try. I cast it into a bunch of sticks next to a log and had a hit. I set the hook and had my first keeper bass. We fished that shoreline for a while longer with no success so we decided to move down the lake a ways to another stretch of shoreline I had luck on last week.

I cast under a willow tree and caught a squeeker largemouth, just enough to keep. Then about 100 yards down the shoreline I hooked into a smallmouth. Both were on the purple with gold glitter senko style baits.

I caught all 3 fish between 11:15 and 12:30. We fished for a while longer with no bites then I feel a fish and set the hook. This fish was a fighter. I had it up close to the boat and it took a dive. As it did the hook pulled free and I lost it.

Christina, Leo, Gavin, and Gene showed up to the weigh in. I ended up with 3 fish for 3.15 pounds good enough for 2nd place and a little cash for the pocket.

First place had 3 fish for almost 4 pounds. He also had a big fish break him off.

It was a tough day. We seem to hit a lot of those in our club tournaments. A lake will be on fire 2 weeks before we hit it. I can't complain though. I had a game plan and used it to catch the 3 fish I could get. It feels good to finally place in the money at one of these club tournaments.

After the tournament I took Leo, Gene and his girlfriend back out to fish some more. Leo schooled us on fishing and brought in the only bass of the evening. He was reeling in and felt a fish. He yells out, "It's a sweet bass!!" We had been fishing for panfish. He got it in and sure enough it was a "sweet bass". I guess I'm going to have to get used to being outfished by my kids. He's just 4 though, I thought I'd have a little longer.

Clear Fork Tournament

This Sunday we fished a Twin Rivers Bassmasters club tournament at Clear Lake. It was a pleasant change from most of the lakes that we fish as the lake had a lot of vegetation.

The weights were down this weekend for a couple of reasons. The water clarity is not as well as it was a couple weeks ago. Also, there were 2 club tournaments going out on the same day. The Columbus Bassmasters were out there as well.

This was the first time I had fished the lake, but have heard good things about it. I didn't prefish it as it is over an hour and a half from the house.

At the start of the day I did not know where to fish. I was going to fish along the South bank near the boat ramp or around the islands. We drew 2nd to last boat out and the other club had taken off by the time we got started so the South bank and islands were covered with boats.

We went North and found a nice spot that dropped to 9 foot close to shore. It had grass and lily pads. Everything looked good. I made a mistake and went to shore. I am out of practice fishing vegetation. The fish even showed themselves a lot out deep. There were quite a few closer to shore as well but the larger fish were deeper.

We worked topwater for a while with no success and I changed to rubber. About an hour after I started working the shoreline I decided to head out in the middle of a cove to try for the suspended bass that kept working the surface. Dave pulled a 2 1/2 pounder out pretty quickly. As soon as he did the fish quit working the surface and we didn't get another bite there.

We moved to the South shore and I picked up a 1 3/4 pounder pretty quick followed by a 12 1/2 incher. I had caught a few more shorts in the process. As soon as I caught the 12 1/2 incher the bite died considerably.

The rest of the day I pulled out an occasional short fish. Finally around 1:00 I landed another 12 1/2 incher. That would be the last keeper for us.

At the weigh in we heard that most of the boats had their limits by 9:00 and barely caught fish the rest of the day as well. If I was to go back again next week I am sure I could get a quick limit and have a shot.

My 3 fish weighed 3.53 pounds. I finished near the bottom. First place had over 7 pounds and second and third had over 6 pounds.

I will prefish Griggs for our upcoming club tournament. I have to have a few productive spots figured out or I risk not catching a fish. The fish here seem to only feed for a couple hours in the morning. After that it is nearly impossible to catch a keeper.

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.

C.J. Brown Club Tournament

We had our C.J. Brown Reservoir club tournament on Sunday. There is just 1 word I can think of for the fishing there this week. Tough.

I thought that with the late afternoon bite I had there 2 weeks ago that fishing there early in the morning would be awesome. The bass had a different thought.

I fished hard and finally at noon, 6 hours after the start of the tournament I boated my first keeper. There had been 3 shorts that came earlier in the day. I did miss one decent largemouth early in the morning. He probably would have put me in the money.

One of the short fish I brought in had an s-shape'd body. I'm not sure what happened to him but he was definately deformed.



The keeper came after I had fanned a bank with a red eye shad. I was trying to get a reaction strike or make a bass mad. Then I moved in with a finesse worm and he bit. He measured over 12 1/2 inches but was only .89 pounds, long and skinny. I think I got him to bite by disturbing him then moving in with a slower bait.

I finished 6 out of 9. Three of the club members did not catch a bass. First place had 3 keepers and 2nd place had 2. One of the guys with one fish caught his in the last few minutes before the end of the tournament.

Deer Creek Club Tournament 4/23/10

I got home from the Grand Lake tournament Saturday evening. There was a lot to do around the house in preperation for the weeks vacation so I got the camping gear ready and mowed the front yard. It was late by the time I got to bed.

I rolled out of bed early again for the second day to get the boat hooked up for the Deer Creek tournament. I had Dave Merriman from the club going out with me. Gene is also going to try to join the club so he fished as a guest with Ken and rode to the lake with us.

We got there and put in just in time for blast off. I was tired all day but thought I would have a good shot since it was my regular lake. We started out in one of my favorite spots but the water had risen quite a bit and was chocolate milk colored. I caught a couple shorts and a crappie or 2.

I made the decision to fish a different spot towards the dam to see if we could find some cleaner water. Dave hooked up with a good bass in the first cove fishing with a tube. I caught more shorts and crappie.

We worked the bank thouroughly and couldn't get another keeper by mid day. We decided to move around and try some other spots. The fish were not co-operating. It seems that if you miss the early bite on that lake it is hard to catch fish.

I wanted to try the river so we boated back there. The water was horribly colored and was way high. There was about a half hour left and I knew a good steep rock bank close to the ramp that we could work for the last half hour.

We got there and the trolling motor batteries were getting low. We were still able to work the bank and Dave ended up pulling in a 2.5 lber off a crankbait. It was flopping and jumping all the way in. With about 5 minutes left we headed back to check in.

From the talk on the water it was a tough day for most. There were a couple guys that said they had a good day.

At weigh in Andy had 3 fish and there were 2 other guys that said they did good. I thought back to the day before and knew that Dave's 2 fish could outweigh 3 smaller fish and he might have a shot at big fish. At the conclusion of weigh in he won with 4.7 pounds and had big fish. I didn't weigh in a fish for the second straight club tournament but was happy I could get Dave on winning fish.

Camping and Knox Lake Club Tournament

The weather was perfect on Friday and I was able to get off a half hour early to get the camping supplies ready and the boat hooked up before Christina got home with the kids.

She got her and the kids cloths ready and we were on the road by 6:30. The campground we were staying was on Kokosing lake about 5 miles from Knox lake where my tournament would be on Sunday.

We got to the lake a little after 8:00. Kimber, Leo and I set up the camp while Christina ran to town for groceries and supplies. The campsite we picked up was on the water so I had Christina pick up some chicken livers so Leo and I could catfish Friday night.

Christina and Kimber went to bed early with Gavin. Leo and I sat on the shore of the lake near the fire and watched our catfish poles until 1:00 AM. I caught one tiny catfish and set the hook on another that I was going to let Leo reel in but he got off while Leo was slowly reeling him in. I let Leo listen to the small catfish while I was unhooking him then I put him in a minnow bucket for Leo to play with while we were fishing.

Leo finally got tired and wanted to go to bed. I sent him to the tent while I cleaned up camp. I dumped the catfish out. The next morning I was up by 5:00 AM. I hadn't slept hardly at all with Gavin trying to crawl underneath me all night.

The first thing I did was set up all my poles with bass rigs. I was going to try a lot of different presentations to figure out the bass. I started out in front of camp. The first thing I tried was a wacky rigged drop shot worm on a 1/16 oz regular jig head. I cast it out and let it sit then lifted the rod tip. As I did the worm would vibrate on it's way up. I caught a 13 inch bass right away. Then I caught a decent 10" crappie that I put in the minnow bucket.

I walked down the shore a little ways to really shallow water with a tree trunk sticking out. I cast to it and lifted the worm. I let it sit on bottom for about 15 seconds when my line started darting off to the side. With a good hook set the fish was on. I could tell that it was a decent fish and I had to run along the bank to keep up with him as he was swimming away. As the battle concluded I lifted the biggest bass I have caught in Ohio out of the water. It was 16 1/2 to 17 inches and was thick.



I woke everybody else in the tent up because I wanted a picture. Kimber came out and snapped a picture of the bass. Leo ended up getting up as well. The first thing he did was go to check on the catfish that we had in the minnow bucket. He opened up the lid. His eyes got big and he yelled out, "It grew". The crappie was quite a bit bigger than the catfish we had caught the night before. I'm glad I had something in there for him. He would have been disappointed to see an empty bucket.

He started fishing first thing when he got up as well. I had already rigged his pole with a crappie set up.

About 10:00 the kids Christina and Kimber went to play at the playground. I was itching to try Knox lake with their 18" length limit. I had already caught a good limit off Kokosing by 8:00 in the morning and hoped the pattern would work for Knox.

The girls wanted to go to town. I had a bass that I was missing next to a stump in front of the camp so I stayed there a while to catch him and try my luck at fly fishing. Both failed. I cleaned the crappie and headed to Knox about 1:00 hoping I could find an afternoon pattern there.

Once I arrived at Knox I figured out that it was a totally different lake than Kokosing. It had a few similarities but there were hardly any reachable structural areas like the one I had caught most of my fish on at Kokosing. I tried a few areas and found one spot with some decent fish on it.

I drove around the lake trying to find spots to fish the next day. There is a stump field on the East side of the lake. The bank on the other side of the stump field looked like the area I had fished in Kokosing. I tried to make it there but only made it about 10 feet into the stump field before I was hitting all kinds of stumps. It took us about a half hour to get back out. The stumps were thick.

The girls and kids met with me at Knox and we went out to try some more fishing and driving around the lake. They had found a red ear slider turtle and brought it along for the kids to play with.

Leo caught a crappie off one spot casting out toward the middle of the lake. I couldn't get any more bass. Then we went to the other end of the lake. We pulled up to one spot near the end of the day and I pulled out the tiny dancer trying to catch us some crappie for a meal that night. I pulled in about 15-20 crappie all of which were small. Leo caught a couple more as well.



My skin was turning red and everybody was ready to get back to camp so we headed in for the evening.

At camp I got a hot dog fire going and we roasted hot dogs and smores. I cast out a catfish pole. Everybody scattered to the tent around 8:00 when it starting drizzling. I stayed out and was poking the fire when my pole started heading towards the lake. I grabbed it just in time and set the hook. I brought in about a 5 pound carp on chicken liver. It was almost a good fight. He fought hard for a minute then turned towards shore and tried to tangle me in a brush pile.

After that I figured I had better get some sleep since I had to be up for the tournament at 5:00 Sunday morning.

Sunday morning I woke up early and headed to Knox lake. I had heard from everybody the day before that the fishing was tough. I hoped that I had something going that they didn't since I had caught a lot of fish early on Saturday.

Ken and I drew boat number 5. He decided to try the spot that I told him I had some fish on the day before. We pulled up to the bank and 2 other boats pulled up to it at the same time. All three boats fished it and only 1 person pulled in a short fish. I guess I caught a crappie right as we were leaving.

We tried a couple more areas in some shallow water before moving to some deeper water. It was getting to mid morning and we had not been bit. We were following a deep bank and had just gotten to shallow water. Ken was going to speed fish the shallow area and started moving the boat faster. I had just cast into an area with a bunch of pipes sticking up out of the water.

I had a hit and I set the hook. My line started going the opposite direction as us. I finally got the fish to turn. As it did I got a side view of the fish. It was huge. I pulled it in a little then it started another run. I pulled to get it to turn direction again and it came unbuttoned. I was really upset as I am sure it would have been big bass for the tournament and possibly big bass for the year in our bass club. When I got the worm back to the boat the fish had hit the worm so that it doubled over and hooked itself again leaving just the point to hold the fish.

We made it down the bank a little further in some deeper water and Ken got hung up. We started to float near a lay down and I had a hit. I set the hook. The fish pulled under the lay down. I was able to change his direction and he swam past the front of the boat. I got to the front of the boat and got the bass to the surface where he rolled onto his side. I went to grab him and as I did he shook his head and spit the lure. I was a millisecond from having him in the boat. He was about 16 inches. I should have swung him into the boat.

Ken had one on a little ways down the bank in a lay down. He fought it a while and it came off. The rest of the morning was uneventful. Ken finally caught a keeper with about an hour left then another short fish and a crappie. Towards the final minutes of the tournament I had a bite. I wasn't taking any chances and had a solid hook set. It was a crappie again. He will have a headache and will swim crooked for a while with the hook set I gave him.

The first tournament of the year resulted with 0 bass for me. I am 15 points back from 1st place so it wasn't a disaster if I can consistently get fish the rest of the year. Big bass was 3.61 pounds and first place had 10.06 pounds. There were 14 of us fishing. Three had a 5 fish limit and three had 0. There was one other that had 4 fish and the rest of the group had 1 or 2.

With fishing the way it was the day before I had confidence that I would go out and at least catch some fish. My next tournament will be at Grand Lake St. Mary's for a FLW BFL event on Saturday, then on Sunday at Deer Creek for a club tournament. I will catch some fish at these tournaments. I know Deer Creek pretty well after last year and I have been waiting for the Grand Lake tournament forever.

Club Meeting 2/1/10

Twin Rivers Bassmasters had their monthly meeting last night. It was an interesting meeting and there were some heated topics being debated for this years tournaments and the future of the club.

One issue was having the paper tournaments that counted for points. There are 2 paper tournaments in the clubs roster this year. The lake debated was lake Erie. The tournament is scheduled for June 5th and 6th. During that time you can only keep bass that are 18" and over.

A few of the members were arguing that paper tournament takes the fun out of the weigh in, as well as changes the actual weights of the weekend. They argued that you can catch an 18 inch fish that weighs 3 pounds or it can be a fat 18 inch fish that weighs 4 pounds. They also argued that we could have the tournament a few weeks later when the length limit drops down.

On the other side of the argument the other members said that there is an 18 inch length limit because it is one of the best times to fish that area. The bass are everywhere and will bite anything dropped at their noses. It makes for fun fishing and gives the less experienced anglers a chance to catch a lot of fish.

As a newcomer to the club I can see both points. My opinion however is that you are fishing for points to make the fish off and be the club leader at the end of the year. All of the other tournaments are weight not length tournaments. Also, if you are a decent angler you should be able to fish Lake Erie and find bass any time. We should schedule a fun trip for everybody to have fun and catch a bunch of fish at that time. If we are going to do a tournament at that time of the year we should use the length limit that is in effect at that time. Only 18"+ fish should be brought in and weighed. We don't go to lakes around here and say that any fish between 9 and 12 inches should be written on paper so that the less fortunate anglers can have a weighed in fish.

I'm not saying I won't fish the paper tournaments, I would love to get out on Erie and slay the crap out of Bass. There wouldn't be anything better, and the only way I could do that is if the club has the tournament at that time. There were members that are not rejoining this year due to the paper tournaments.

The other issue that was debated heavily is the future of the club. The main topics that were brought up were that there is not an incentive to remain a B.A.S.S. club anymore, and that there is not the camaraderie that there used to be in the club. There were quite a few members that will not be renewing their memberships this year.

All of the arguments seemed to point to one thing to me. This club is set up to fish club tournaments. There is no advancement past that as there used to be. In order to advance to any other level you must participate in the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation tournament trail or the Weekend Series. In the past camaraderie was built as the competition lead to the opportunity within the club to advance to a regional and even further. There are only a couple guys in the club that fish the Federation Nation trail and there is hardly any representation for Twin Rivers Bassmasters within B.A.S.S. besides that. Last year Twin Rivers did not compete at the State Chapter level.

One solution for that might be for the club to help with the dues and try to get some of the members to become active in the Federation Nation or Weekend series or compete attempt to get members to the State Chapter level in order to compete outside the club level. Part of my plan is that once I learn enough that I would feel confident is to fish the Federation Nation trail. I would use the club as a gateway so that I could compete, as you must be a member of a club to fish those tournaments.

The club also talked about switching to a FLW club. The other idea that was passed around was to not be affiliated with either as you have to pay dues each year and most of the guys just want to fish the club tournaments anyway.

I think the B.A.S.S. affiliation is a good drawing point for members still. I do wish the structure was different and the club tournaments counted for something more than bragging rights at the end of the year. I am joining the club to learn and fish with some guys that do well at many tournaments outside the club. I am fishing the FLW BFL series to learn but if I do well I could advance to regionals and even further.

In Twin Rivers Bassmasters, I think the clubs are for competitive fun. If you want to get serious, fish the Federation Nation or Weekend Series tournaments, the club sets up their schedule to keep those dates open. You could also fish the Opens.