Upcoming FLW BFL Buckeye Tournament Ohio River

Tomorrow will be our 3rd FLW BFL Buckeye tournament of the year. We are taking off out of Maysville, KY on the Ohio River. The last 3 tournaments will be on the Ohio River.

From what I have heard and read, it will be tough fishing. There should be a decent early morning bite. Possibly topwater and crankbait in the morning with slower action in the later morning and afternoon.

My confidence is high that I will catch some fish. It seems that I can catch fish almost anywhere with a finesse setup. My hookup ratio has gone up greatly in the last few weeks with a finesse setup. I was thinking that it was the hook that I was using but it was all in my hook set.

I was scared of setting a smaller hook as I wasn't sure if it would grab or pull free. At first I would reel fast to make the hookset or give a half hearted attempt. Now I set the hook just like i was setting the hook with a 3/0, doubling the rod over on the hookset. The more I have fished with the smaller hook I have realized that it gives a much better hookset and is harder to remove once it is set.

I hear the Ohio River is a good place for spinnerbaits as well. I love fishing spinnerbaits. Hopefully I can dial up a spinnerbait bite at some point tomorrow.

Grand Lake St. Marys Algae Bloom

I had heard earlier in the season that Grand Lake St. Marys was experiencing an algae bloom. One of the guys at work had bought a camper and was thinking of parking it there but had not because of the algae bloom.

I had heard of algae blooms at lakes in Kansas but didn't realize it could shut down a fishery. I just read in the Dayton Daily news that the Ohio EPA has banned all human contact with the lake water poisoned by the toxin-spewing cyanobacteria, a blue green algae. The Ohio EPA has banned swimming, boating or eating fish from the lake.

The reports that I am reading say runoff from the entire watershed is causing the problem. A key culprit is the winter application of manure on frozen ground that washes out with snow melt.

They are estimating that it could take decades to restore the lake to its natural state. If they could reduce nitrogen and phosphorous from entering the lake now, in 10 years it could be a nicer place.

From reports at work, the smell is horrible around the lake.

I had finished in 4th place at the FLW BFL tournament there earlier this year and at that time it was a wonderful lake. A lot of the lake is set up for tourism. I hate to see any of our public waterways hurting like this.

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.

Wilson Lake Kansas and Lake of the Ozarks vacation

I didn't fall of the edge of earth but I was right next to it the last week. Cell phone service didn't reach where we were camping and I was unplugged from any computer usage for over a week.

We camped with my in-laws for several days at Wilson lake in Kansas and toward the end of the week celebrated Mizike's bachelor party at a lake house on Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.

Wilson is an excellent bass fishery. I would have loved to have a boat but bank fishing was phenomenal. I caught tons of smallmouth bass with some big largemouth mixed in. I had a 5-6 pound largemouth come out of the water and shake my lure loose at one point.





The lake reminds me of what I would think lake Meade would look like on a smaller level. There were huge canyons with rock face walls and steep drop offs. There were also areas that were shallower near the bank line with grass, willows and shrubs coming up out of the water.

I didn't get to do a lot of fishing as I was spending time with family but the time that I got was awesome.

My nephew Peyton and I spent some time down below the spillway fishing for catfish and anything that would bite as well. We caught tons of fish down there along with some decent sized catfish. I had a snapping turtle hit my plastic worm as I drug it across his face and had a fun fight with him until the hook finally slipped out. Peyton broke off on a big fish that he couldn't get to the surface or slow down. I did the same thing then lost an 8 to 10 pounder as I was lifting it up the cement wall. Peyton caught a good sized catfish and we got a picture of him with it. The next day he had a 5 - 6 pounder that he brought back to camp in a cooler but we didn't get a picture of that one.





Leo had fun climbing in the trees and swimming with his cousins. Gavin was scared of the water. He had fallen into the deep end of a pool a couple weeks before and was deathly scared of getting close to the water of seeing us out in it. By the end of the week he was back to his daring self running and wading in the water up to his chest.

Leo and Gavin filled cups with rolly polly's and were playing with any bug they could find. Everybody played volleyball, kickball and baseball throughout the week. Peyton, Anton, and David helped me put on a fireworks show on the 4th of July.

Mom and Dad showed up on their way home from visiting family at Council Grove lake. We ate lunch with them and the in-laws at a restaurant in Lucas, KS and visited a place called The Garden of Eden afterward. That is one strange place. There is a huge story about it when you visit. Everything is built out of limestone or cement and everything the guy built represented his religious beliefs or his political beliefs. He built the whole place for tourism. In the mausoleum you can even view his body behind enclosed glass. I would recommend visiting if you ever near the area.






We spent the latter half of the week with Christina's Mom and Dad in a cabin at Wilson. We settled down and played cards and relaxed. One day we went wine tasting and ate at an awesome restaurant in Russell.



The week went quick and I was soon on my way to Lake of the Ozarks. We had a blast there, shooting fireworks, drinking, socializing, swimming, fishing, boating and jumping off cliffs. The place we stayed at LakeWest Rentals was a well kept nice out of the way place with a boat that you can rent while you stay at the cabin. I would have recommended it but was not happy about how some things turned out and how it cost me hundreds of dollars for small mistakes. The owner verbally treated my like I was a little kid.

We took the boat out about an hour before dark to get some evening fishing in. Mizike hooked into a large fish neer the shore that towed us out deep and around a cove not far from the cabin. He fought the fish for over a half hour until it was getting close to dark and finally started wrenching on it to try to get it to the boat eventually breaking his line.

It was getting close to dusk so we turned on the lights to the boat. The back light did not come on. We messed with it for about 10 minutes to get it to turn on and started to the cabin. We went slow for safety reasons on our way back to the cabin and as we were pulling into the cove with the cabin the owner called. He said "I noticed you are not in with the boat yet and it is dark." I told him about the fish that we were fighting and that we were getting ready to dock the boat. He said, "Well the rules say that you cannot have the boat out after dark." I assured him that we were pulling the boat in and it was just past dark.

I got some of my 400.00 deposit for the house and boat back today but he had charged me 200.00 for having the boat out after dark. I had also called him the next morning as we went to the 2 marina's he had marked on his map with the boat and both were out of gas to see what his recommendation would be. He asked us to leave 50.00 on the table for the half tank of gas we had used. He charged me a 25.00 convenience charge for filling the boat up plus 85.00 for gas and 15.00 for oil. We had the boat shut off most the time we were using it and never got more than a half mile from the house. Gas at the marina's was 3.50 on the pumps so he is saying we used 24 gallons of gas and burned through 15.00 of oil. As a boat owner and boat user for 16+years there is no way we used that much gas. Maybe 10-12 gallons max and that's an extremely huge estimate. We only had the boat for 4 hours and fished and swam out of it most of that time with the motor off.

Did we violate the rules, yes. Was he at all forgiving, not at all. We never purposely violated the rules and he charged us for every little mistake. That is why I do not recommend Lake West Rentals.

The trip home seemed like it took forever.

Just some other gripes as I feel like I am losing my mind right now with all that has happened since Sunday. Somebody hit my car at a restaurant and did not report it as we were leaving the lake. They had hit the front driver's side and I did not notice until I noticed the steering was weird and got out and looked. Once at home somebody took a shopping cart down 3 quarters of our van and put a deep scratch in the paint from the front door to the tail light. My wife deposited the money from the cabins I had collected from the others and a 50.00 bill must have stuck to another and the deposit was 50.00 less than I had sent. My cell phone bill went over by 250 minutes, I was making a lot of calls planning then had tons of work calls on vacation.

Don't feel sorry for me I am working through all that. I am just glad we had a good safe trip. The rest is money. Just don't let me catch you damaging my vehicles cuz one more time may set me off.

Practice for C.J. Brown Reservoir

Sunday, June 27th, I had a free day from tournament fishing so Gene, Leo and I went to C.J. Brown to fish the lake. I had not been there so wanted some idea of how the lake layed out.

The front half by the dam was deep and the back half is shallow. They have a lot of sandy or rocky shoreline with a lot of brush hanging over the bank above the water.

We fished some and swam quite a bit. Mainly we were just there to have fun and get an idea of the lake. Oh, I also caught 5 bass! Three were smallmouth and 2 were largemouth. Two were easy keepers and the other 3 might have been as well.

It was extreemly windy, hot, humid and choppy from the fun boaters. I know where I will start out come tournament time this weekend. Most of my spots are main lake shoreline so I will have quite a bit to fish when all of us get our spots.

Delaware Club Tourney 6/26/10

I'm finally catching up from vacation and have tons to write about. I will have to shorten some stories or I will be on the computer for days.

First about my June 26th tournament at Delaware lake. In a previous post I mentioned that I haven't fished the lake for bass but had for crappie many times. I knew the layout of the lake and studied a few different maps to decide where to start.

I pulled into the lake and realized there must be another tournament going out. Shure enough another club tournament was going out of the other ramp in the state park. Not only that, there was a big tournament the next day with lots of people pre-fishing. The water was going to get beat up.

I pulled into my first spot, a high bank that has produced some big crappie. The drop from bank to deep water made me want to give it a shot. I started out a ways from where I wanted to end up since I was the only person to stop at this particular bank. I had a boat pull in behind me after a bit but I was able to work the whole bank area first. The first fish didn't hit the shakey MiRketti until about 8:00, then it was on! The first fish was a good keeper on a point of a small cove and on the other point of the small cove I pulled in another keeper.

I fished quickly to my main area as boats started pulling in quickly and there was a rocky area I wanted to post up on. Once there I pulled several short fish in. I cast a spinnerbait seeing if a larger bass would hit and wham, fight on. I didn't have any more luck on the spinnerbait so I kept fishing the shakey MiRketti trying to work my way through the short fish. There was no shortage of 11 - 11 3/4 inch bass. This lake is going to be great next year.

I caught over 20 bass during the tournament but only had the 3 keepers. I did try a few other areas with laydowns on the main lake and another cove that didn't seem to get as much pressure as some of the rest of the lake.

At the weigh in my fish came to 4.37 pounds after a dead fish penalty for 4th place. I had one die at the ramp while waiting for weigh in. I went through 2 bags of ice throughout the day but needed more. My boat doesn't have a recirculating livewell and the surface water was heating up quickly throughout the day. I feel really bad losing a fish, especially a keeper of that quality. Next tournament I will have rejuvenate and an aerator with lots of ice. The fish did not cost me a place but the crayfish that one of them spit out definately did. It was absolutely huge and if not spit up would have moved me into 3rd place money. It had fascinating colors and I wish I would have taken a picture of it. It had a greenish body with some oranges mixed in and the tips of its claws were blue. That is why you should dip the tips of your claws.

It was still a great club tourney. You can't beat catching 20 bass even if a majority of them are short fish. The talk at weigh in was that everybody whacked short fish.

The Thief May Be Caught!

If all goes right tonight there will be a warrant and an arrest of the man that broke out the window on the van and stole my wife's purse.

The detective working the case called the day after and said they think they know who did it. They were gathering the evidence and this evening when the store clerk returns to work they are going to do a line up and have him point out the thief.

We have gotten all the cards cancelled and have opened a new bank account since he had gotten our checks with routing and account numbers. We searched the area to see if we could find the purse. We looked in bushes and trash cans but could not find it. Christina is without a drivers license or any ID right now. She thinks with the police report and some other documentation she will be able to get her Driver's license tomorrow. With that she should be able to get everything else again.

It is a huge hassel. Don't leave anything in your cars. We should get the 106.00 back that the guy used but will still be out 200.00 for a new window, 25.00 for a driver's license, and whatever a cell phone, new purse and all the contents cost.

The guy also used a screwdriver to crack the glass so he damaged the door of the van itself. I'm not paying to fix that. The van has lost so much value already anyway from being keyed top to bottom, hitting a coyote, and hitting a deer. It's had 3 new paint jobs and it's only a 2005. I don't think the groundhog chewing up 700.00 worth of wiring on it will lower the value any more than that since we replaced all that wiring and sensors.

It will be nice to get out on the water tomorrow and not have to worry about any of this for a few hours.