Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Cory Gordon:BFL #2 on Sam Rayburn
Well fans, computer is cooperating for the moment so i'll try to squeeze the Rayburn story in real quick! So Mike Pharr and I roomed together and practiced together over on Sam Rayburn. We fished north of the bridge in a few spots and found some quality fish up close to the bushes but not in them yet. So we ran around to some places close by and duplicated the pattern for two days. Shaking off or catching some 25 to 30 fish a day. On Friday he and I joked about the odds of us drawing each other out for the tournament and I told him that I had only seen that happen twice since 2003. Got to the meeting and low and behold we drew each other! LOL Well we went back to the lodge and put a game plan together. Our plan was to go north of bridge to our big fish spot and we thought it would be a good chance that some bigger fish might move up! Got there and did what we had been doing for two days prior and only had a fish a piece by 11:30. So we decided to go to our 2nd hole which had a lot of fish, but wasn't sure on the size there. Went there and did the same thing with the same result. So we then started fishing in the thick stuff of the bushes with not much better results. At 1pm I had two fish and Mike had 3. While there we saw a fish chase shad out in the middle of this pocket that had a ditch going thru it. Mike put on a swim bait and thru it out there. Second cast hung a two lber. Then had three bites right after that, but didn't boat em! I thought to myself, if they will hit that out there they should eat my crankbait that I had caught a few on the first day of practice! Picked it up and started burning it thru grass and within 30 minutes I feeled my limit with 2lbers. Mike filled his shortly after that on his swim bait, but with a lil better fish. Then the volt meter started beeping for the cranking battery getting low. We decided to check it with our lifejackets on and nothing. Then we started trying to find someone to hopefully give us a jump. Lesson learned: Always have jumper cables in your boat. With 45 minutes til check in time and a 20 min run. We found a crappie boat and tried to jump from it after failing to jump from trolling motor batteries. Crappie boat wouldn't do the trick, so we found a big Skeeter boat. After 15 minutes of trying there nothing. So I said well, I'll at least try to call the director and let him know our status and see what happens. Tried his phone and mine, no signal. Then I remembered I brought my work phone with verizon service. Tried it and had a signal. As I'm talking to the director, the grace of God we had a miracle and the motor finally cranked. Hung up and ran 70mph all the way back and checked in with one minute to spare. All this happened just when we finally figured em out and were beginning to catch better fish! We lost a good 30 minutes of fishing time, but still managed to get in and weigh out limits of fish. I scratched out a 13th place finish and a small check with 9lbs. even and Mike weighed in 9.12lbs for a respectable finish and keeping him in the hunt for the points and regional cut at the end of the year. Prior to the start of the day, we thought the lake was still rising and would play into our hand, but found out that in fact it was dropping fast and that was the reason I'm sure the fish pulled out! Ultimately it was like night and day fishing from two days of practice to tournament day, just like most times is the case. With that said we kept our heads down and grinded it out and listened to the fish and finally figured it out, even though a lil late; but just in time to fill a limit and make a good finish! Lots of fun and learned lots. Mike Pharr is a great fisherman and I look forward to fishing with him many more times in the future! Keep your head down and listen to the fish! Good Luck out there! Business is about to pick up in the days to come!
Monday, March 8, 2010
On(the)Line? (Brett Darmody)
A calm east wind stales our drift as we lazily maneuver the deck of the white Triton mothership along a stretch of some 250 linear miles of lily pad laced Army Corp of Engineered canal that is Everglades Holiday Park. Pitching jigs and creatures and chucking frogs at pad points, Maiden Cane stalks and the infrequent overhangs and lay downs are how this dark morning unfolds with a dreadful addition.
An irresponsible individual angler;
A common practice while fishing these locales are to directly pitch to single pad,cane or sawgrass stalks which appear to move contrarily to their surroundings. Always on the lookout we spot a great deal of movement ahead, certainly a large fish. As we near, the movement increases in frequency and becomes erratic. Surely upon reaching we are astonished to find what is no fish at all but the most majestic and envisioned birds of the Florida Everglades, The mighty Great Blue Heron. Its right wing(what was left of the outer portion of it) completely entangled many times over in 50 or 65lb test braided fishing line stretching many yards in either direction to a near-by tree and a maze of sawgrass.
I have no high horse or velvet robes but I do have a soap box and I'm going to use it as the vehicle for my feelings. Try as we do, WE are all guilty from time to time of an inch here or two inches there that don't quite make the waste bin. This however was a minimum of a half of a spool of this flexible flesh and feather saw.
-We Get Involved.-
Ordinarily I understand that there are circumstances where an anglers age or lack of experience could lead to an accidental irretrievable cast or the creatures' flight path found itself in harms way BUT the severity of the lines 65lb characteristics and our location (25 miles from civilization) suggest an adult and a knowledgeable angler(OR NOT). What circumstances lead to the disposal of an entire spool of this weapon in this manner?
"Ohhh duh, huh huh" Bloop, into the water the line goes.
A controlled drift finds us a couple of feet away from this horrified bird.
(and that's just the sight of me) Expecting an all out battle with this brave hunter we adorn the deck with a net pole, 2 pairs of pliers, a pair of scissors and a game plan. The bird seems more relieved and exhausted than upset as we free him from the cabled torture device by holding his face away from the work with the net pole and clipping the line at various points to unravel it. We share a moment with the bird, he looks at the two of us as it seems to understand now that we are not going to further accost him. He hobbles to a solid footing and tends to his wounds and sorts his feathers. Surely a fortunate turn of events which inexplicably found us able to be this Master of Flights saving grace.
"Tread Lightly"
"Leave it like you found it"
"Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute"
Choose your cliche' it doesn't matter. Pick up after yourselves and keep our resources clean and clear, our animals safe. Recycle where applicable and lessen your impact.
I step down from my soap box:
Brett Darmody
Bass 2.0
President of the Everglades Bass Masters of South Florida
An irresponsible individual angler;
A common practice while fishing these locales are to directly pitch to single pad,cane or sawgrass stalks which appear to move contrarily to their surroundings. Always on the lookout we spot a great deal of movement ahead, certainly a large fish. As we near, the movement increases in frequency and becomes erratic. Surely upon reaching we are astonished to find what is no fish at all but the most majestic and envisioned birds of the Florida Everglades, The mighty Great Blue Heron. Its right wing(what was left of the outer portion of it) completely entangled many times over in 50 or 65lb test braided fishing line stretching many yards in either direction to a near-by tree and a maze of sawgrass.
I have no high horse or velvet robes but I do have a soap box and I'm going to use it as the vehicle for my feelings. Try as we do, WE are all guilty from time to time of an inch here or two inches there that don't quite make the waste bin. This however was a minimum of a half of a spool of this flexible flesh and feather saw.
-We Get Involved.-
Ordinarily I understand that there are circumstances where an anglers age or lack of experience could lead to an accidental irretrievable cast or the creatures' flight path found itself in harms way BUT the severity of the lines 65lb characteristics and our location (25 miles from civilization) suggest an adult and a knowledgeable angler(OR NOT). What circumstances lead to the disposal of an entire spool of this weapon in this manner?
"Ohhh duh, huh huh" Bloop, into the water the line goes.
A controlled drift finds us a couple of feet away from this horrified bird.
(and that's just the sight of me) Expecting an all out battle with this brave hunter we adorn the deck with a net pole, 2 pairs of pliers, a pair of scissors and a game plan. The bird seems more relieved and exhausted than upset as we free him from the cabled torture device by holding his face away from the work with the net pole and clipping the line at various points to unravel it. We share a moment with the bird, he looks at the two of us as it seems to understand now that we are not going to further accost him. He hobbles to a solid footing and tends to his wounds and sorts his feathers. Surely a fortunate turn of events which inexplicably found us able to be this Master of Flights saving grace.
"Tread Lightly"
"Leave it like you found it"
"Give a Hoot, Don't Pollute"
Choose your cliche' it doesn't matter. Pick up after yourselves and keep our resources clean and clear, our animals safe. Recycle where applicable and lessen your impact.
I step down from my soap box:
Brett Darmody
Bass 2.0
President of the Everglades Bass Masters of South Florida
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
The Real Deal about the FLW(by Dustin King)
FLW and Its' Benefit's
Introduction
Everyday thousands of tournament anglers back their boats down a boat ramp and load up their equipment to head out in
search of Largemouth Bass and other species of fish. These people are able to enjoy fishing due to certain programs such as FLW
also know as Forrest L. Wood. FLW is a bass fishing organization designed for people that compete in tournaments. FLW also
helps in many other ways such as restoring waterways, helping fight water pollution, and promoting wildlife fishery restoration.
FLW volunteers, and tournament fishermen give us all a chance to enjoy the water from fishing and hunting to just getting out and
having fun on a recreational boat ride.
The History of FLW and Forrest L. Wood
Forrest L. Wood was born in 1932 and raised in Flippin, Arkansas. As he grew up he loved the outdoors because his
father served as a full time game warden and he learned a lot from him. One of his first jobs was helping build Bull Shoals Dam with
his father.
On April 21, 1951 Woods married Nina Kirkland and they had four daughters. Forrest began selling cattle early in their
marriage but soon had to stop due to the drop in cattle prices and had to get a new job. Due to hard economic times Forrest had
to move to Missouri but eventually had the opportunity to move back to Arkansas to start fishing guide service on Bull Shoals
Lake, the White River, Buffalo River, and Crooked Creek. He became well known throughout the region as a top fishing guide.
Soon he began building boats known as Ranger boats named after the Army and Texas Rangers. His boats began to gain lots
of attention and by 1971 he had sold well over 1200. In 1971 Ranger boat factory had a massive fire destroying all the boats but
60 which Forrest salvaged off a deck in the burnt building. Shockingly, Ranger boats was back in operation in just 40 days! That
year Forrest L. Wood qualified for the biggest bass tournament of that time the "Bassmasters Classic". Next year the Ranger boat
was announced as " The Official Bassmaster Classic Boat" this lasted until 2000.
Even after selling Ranger boats in 1987 Forrest L. Wood was still an idol in the fishing industry and known as the "Father
of the Modern Bass Boat". Operation Bass a small unknown tournament fishing organization was purchased by Irwin L. Jacobs on
July 24,1996 and he renamed it "FLW" after the now famous ex owner of Ranger Boats. This was the beginning steps to change
competitive fishing forever. Jacobs wanted his organization to be a complete tournament trail to promote fishing for all levels. He
wanted to give the normal weekend anglers the opportunity to move up through the ranks in his tournament trails and have the
opportunity to fish at the pro level so many have dreamed about. FLW celebrated its' 10th anniversary in 2005 by increasing
payouts in tournaments to unheard of levels in competitive bass fishing.In 2007 Scott Suggs from Bryant,Arkansas won the Forrest
L. Wood Cup which was worth total prize money of $1million dollars making this the largest payout ever in bass fishing
tournament history.
Present Day FLW
FLW is the largest tournament fishing organization now hosting over 230 fishing tournaments in one year with total payouts
well over $33 million dollars throughout the year. These tournaments include the first saltwater sport fishing tournament trails
known as the "Kingfish Tour" and the "Redfish Tour". This organization also is the new leader in fantasy sports know as "FLW
Fantasy Fishing" where fans of FLW fishing series get to pick anglers to be on their fantasy team. The winner of these fantasy
tournaments will win checks $100,000, $200,000, and $500,000, depending on which event they win! These payouts are the
highest in any fantasy sports league.At the end of the FLW bass fishing season top anglers get to compete in the biggest bass
tournament in the fishing industry know as the "Forrest L. Wood Cup" the winner of the event will win a 1st place prize of $1
million dollars and become known throughout the fishing industry. A win in this tournament can take a once unknown "rookie"
angler and instantly turn them into a fishing star making him or her and instant millionaire. In 2007, the Forrest L. Wood Cup was
broadcast into more than 509million homes making it one of the most watched sporting events ever.
Why I Care About FLW
When I was 12 years old I fished my very first bass tournament. This was something that I will never forget and it instilled
in me a love for competitive fishing that has turned me into the person I am today. At the end of my first tournament I won $750
and realized that I could do what I love, which was fish, and earn money doing so. This was just a local tournament but I knew that
eventually I would fish in bigger tournaments such as FLW and B.A.S.S trails. Now that I am 20, I currently fish for a living and
thanks to FLW I have the opportunity to do what I love and get paid for it. FLW has turned what was once just a "weekend
getaway" into something guy's and girl's can earn money doing and give us all a chance to chase our dreams. Thanks to FLW we
now have tournaments aired on TV's and computers all across the country can watch our weigh-in live, this gives us a stage to
promote ourselves as well as companies that sponsor us. I currently have several sponsors such as Go2Bait Company, and Secret
Weapon Lures, thanks to FLW, I can now get their products on a national level. FLW also started the first collegiate fishing trial. I
am currently a member of Jacksonville State Universities fishing team and have the opportunity to travel all across the south
representing our school on a national level. I just recently returned from fishing Lake Okeechobee in south Florida where we
finished 23rd and beat colleges such as University of Tennessee, South Carolina, and University of North Alabama and will be
traveling to south Georgia in May to fish Lake Seminole and represent our college there as well. I personally believe this is a great
way to promote our school and recruit new students!
How FLW Help's You and Why You Should Care
Have you ever went to the river or lake on a hot summer day and decided to take a swim or go on a boat ride? If so you
have more than likely benefited from FLW and the money it raises from tournament anglers like myself. Every year FLW donates
money to help promote waterways and preserve aquatic wildlife through groups such as Fish America Foundation. Without funds
from organizations such as FLW our waters could become so polluted that I may no longer be able to fish and other people like
yourself and your family may not be able to get out and enjoy a nice relaxing swim or boat ride. FLW also mandates a "catch and
release" program for every tournament and has an impressive 98% of fish caught in tournaments released back into the water
unharmed. FLW stands firmly next to its' organizational motto which is "Leaving communities in better shape than we found it".
FLW staff and volunteers like myself often attend functions at schools and in communities to donate our time and efforts to
educate the younger generation of people on the importance of keeping our waters clean so that everyone can enjoy them for
many years to come. FLW staff also make regular trips to hospitals such as Children's Hospital in order to boost the moral of sick
and handicap children in the communities. FLW is fully devoted on helping the community and providing opportunity to
disadvantaged and handicap children in the inner-city in order to instill in them a love for the outdoors and keep them from making
choices that could harm their life in the future. FLW staff and volunteers want to make sure every child leaves with the same love
for the outdoors that we have.
How To Support FLW
There are many ways a person can support FLW. Doing things such as paying yearly membership fees to join FLW gives
the organization the funds it needs to help promote and fund all the programs it takes part in. Also, once you join you can become
a volunteer to go out into your local community to educate the population on the organization and teach everyone how to keep our
waterways poluation free,where we all can enjoy the benefits of our natural habitat. Even if you are not a tournament fisherman or
fisherwoman I would greatly recommend you taking part in all FLW has to offer if you enjoy any type of outside activity that
involves the use of our waterways. People like yourself helping with funds makes sure that us and our future are able to enjoy
everything mother nature has to offer for many years to come. Also, the benefits of knowing you are helping with a great cause and
teaching less fortunate kids about nature and helping them focus their energy on things that will help them and not harm them in the
future is more rewarding than I can even begin to explain.
Summary
FLW is a top notch organization in which everyone that loves the great outdoors can benefit from. Everyone from the
person taking their children out tubing on a hot summer day ,to the professional angler traveling thousands of miles a year to fish
bass tournaments will benefit from the work FLW and its' partner programs do. If you spend any time at all on the water I would
greatly recommend that you join FLW and help out in keeping our waterways pollution free and our aquatic habitat healthy and
unharmed. FLW will do all they can to make sure we have tournaments to fish as anglers and anyone else has clean water they can
enjoy during the hot summer days, but they can only do this by using money from our FLW memberships to provide financial
support for the corporation and all of the programs it supports such as the Fish America Foundation.
Introduction
Everyday thousands of tournament anglers back their boats down a boat ramp and load up their equipment to head out in
search of Largemouth Bass and other species of fish. These people are able to enjoy fishing due to certain programs such as FLW
also know as Forrest L. Wood. FLW is a bass fishing organization designed for people that compete in tournaments. FLW also
helps in many other ways such as restoring waterways, helping fight water pollution, and promoting wildlife fishery restoration.
FLW volunteers, and tournament fishermen give us all a chance to enjoy the water from fishing and hunting to just getting out and
having fun on a recreational boat ride.
The History of FLW and Forrest L. Wood
Forrest L. Wood was born in 1932 and raised in Flippin, Arkansas. As he grew up he loved the outdoors because his
father served as a full time game warden and he learned a lot from him. One of his first jobs was helping build Bull Shoals Dam with
his father.
On April 21, 1951 Woods married Nina Kirkland and they had four daughters. Forrest began selling cattle early in their
marriage but soon had to stop due to the drop in cattle prices and had to get a new job. Due to hard economic times Forrest had
to move to Missouri but eventually had the opportunity to move back to Arkansas to start fishing guide service on Bull Shoals
Lake, the White River, Buffalo River, and Crooked Creek. He became well known throughout the region as a top fishing guide.
Soon he began building boats known as Ranger boats named after the Army and Texas Rangers. His boats began to gain lots
of attention and by 1971 he had sold well over 1200. In 1971 Ranger boat factory had a massive fire destroying all the boats but
60 which Forrest salvaged off a deck in the burnt building. Shockingly, Ranger boats was back in operation in just 40 days! That
year Forrest L. Wood qualified for the biggest bass tournament of that time the "Bassmasters Classic". Next year the Ranger boat
was announced as " The Official Bassmaster Classic Boat" this lasted until 2000.
Even after selling Ranger boats in 1987 Forrest L. Wood was still an idol in the fishing industry and known as the "Father
of the Modern Bass Boat". Operation Bass a small unknown tournament fishing organization was purchased by Irwin L. Jacobs on
July 24,1996 and he renamed it "FLW" after the now famous ex owner of Ranger Boats. This was the beginning steps to change
competitive fishing forever. Jacobs wanted his organization to be a complete tournament trail to promote fishing for all levels. He
wanted to give the normal weekend anglers the opportunity to move up through the ranks in his tournament trails and have the
opportunity to fish at the pro level so many have dreamed about. FLW celebrated its' 10th anniversary in 2005 by increasing
payouts in tournaments to unheard of levels in competitive bass fishing.In 2007 Scott Suggs from Bryant,Arkansas won the Forrest
L. Wood Cup which was worth total prize money of $1million dollars making this the largest payout ever in bass fishing
tournament history.
Present Day FLW
FLW is the largest tournament fishing organization now hosting over 230 fishing tournaments in one year with total payouts
well over $33 million dollars throughout the year. These tournaments include the first saltwater sport fishing tournament trails
known as the "Kingfish Tour" and the "Redfish Tour". This organization also is the new leader in fantasy sports know as "FLW
Fantasy Fishing" where fans of FLW fishing series get to pick anglers to be on their fantasy team. The winner of these fantasy
tournaments will win checks $100,000, $200,000, and $500,000, depending on which event they win! These payouts are the
highest in any fantasy sports league.At the end of the FLW bass fishing season top anglers get to compete in the biggest bass
tournament in the fishing industry know as the "Forrest L. Wood Cup" the winner of the event will win a 1st place prize of $1
million dollars and become known throughout the fishing industry. A win in this tournament can take a once unknown "rookie"
angler and instantly turn them into a fishing star making him or her and instant millionaire. In 2007, the Forrest L. Wood Cup was
broadcast into more than 509million homes making it one of the most watched sporting events ever.
Why I Care About FLW
When I was 12 years old I fished my very first bass tournament. This was something that I will never forget and it instilled
in me a love for competitive fishing that has turned me into the person I am today. At the end of my first tournament I won $750
and realized that I could do what I love, which was fish, and earn money doing so. This was just a local tournament but I knew that
eventually I would fish in bigger tournaments such as FLW and B.A.S.S trails. Now that I am 20, I currently fish for a living and
thanks to FLW I have the opportunity to do what I love and get paid for it. FLW has turned what was once just a "weekend
getaway" into something guy's and girl's can earn money doing and give us all a chance to chase our dreams. Thanks to FLW we
now have tournaments aired on TV's and computers all across the country can watch our weigh-in live, this gives us a stage to
promote ourselves as well as companies that sponsor us. I currently have several sponsors such as Go2Bait Company, and Secret
Weapon Lures, thanks to FLW, I can now get their products on a national level. FLW also started the first collegiate fishing trial. I
am currently a member of Jacksonville State Universities fishing team and have the opportunity to travel all across the south
representing our school on a national level. I just recently returned from fishing Lake Okeechobee in south Florida where we
finished 23rd and beat colleges such as University of Tennessee, South Carolina, and University of North Alabama and will be
traveling to south Georgia in May to fish Lake Seminole and represent our college there as well. I personally believe this is a great
way to promote our school and recruit new students!
How FLW Help's You and Why You Should Care
Have you ever went to the river or lake on a hot summer day and decided to take a swim or go on a boat ride? If so you
have more than likely benefited from FLW and the money it raises from tournament anglers like myself. Every year FLW donates
money to help promote waterways and preserve aquatic wildlife through groups such as Fish America Foundation. Without funds
from organizations such as FLW our waters could become so polluted that I may no longer be able to fish and other people like
yourself and your family may not be able to get out and enjoy a nice relaxing swim or boat ride. FLW also mandates a "catch and
release" program for every tournament and has an impressive 98% of fish caught in tournaments released back into the water
unharmed. FLW stands firmly next to its' organizational motto which is "Leaving communities in better shape than we found it".
FLW staff and volunteers like myself often attend functions at schools and in communities to donate our time and efforts to
educate the younger generation of people on the importance of keeping our waters clean so that everyone can enjoy them for
many years to come. FLW staff also make regular trips to hospitals such as Children's Hospital in order to boost the moral of sick
and handicap children in the communities. FLW is fully devoted on helping the community and providing opportunity to
disadvantaged and handicap children in the inner-city in order to instill in them a love for the outdoors and keep them from making
choices that could harm their life in the future. FLW staff and volunteers want to make sure every child leaves with the same love
for the outdoors that we have.
How To Support FLW
There are many ways a person can support FLW. Doing things such as paying yearly membership fees to join FLW gives
the organization the funds it needs to help promote and fund all the programs it takes part in. Also, once you join you can become
a volunteer to go out into your local community to educate the population on the organization and teach everyone how to keep our
waterways poluation free,where we all can enjoy the benefits of our natural habitat. Even if you are not a tournament fisherman or
fisherwoman I would greatly recommend you taking part in all FLW has to offer if you enjoy any type of outside activity that
involves the use of our waterways. People like yourself helping with funds makes sure that us and our future are able to enjoy
everything mother nature has to offer for many years to come. Also, the benefits of knowing you are helping with a great cause and
teaching less fortunate kids about nature and helping them focus their energy on things that will help them and not harm them in the
future is more rewarding than I can even begin to explain.
Summary
FLW is a top notch organization in which everyone that loves the great outdoors can benefit from. Everyone from the
person taking their children out tubing on a hot summer day ,to the professional angler traveling thousands of miles a year to fish
bass tournaments will benefit from the work FLW and its' partner programs do. If you spend any time at all on the water I would
greatly recommend that you join FLW and help out in keeping our waterways pollution free and our aquatic habitat healthy and
unharmed. FLW will do all they can to make sure we have tournaments to fish as anglers and anyone else has clean water they can
enjoy during the hot summer days, but they can only do this by using money from our FLW memberships to provide financial
support for the corporation and all of the programs it supports such as the Fish America Foundation.
Bass Weekend Series Crash and Burn - Mark Lamb
Hello Bass fishing fans. After a few days of stewing over my 1st Bass Weekend Series of the year, I thought I would share with you when things do not work out.
I just finished up fishing Lake Wylie for my 1st major tournament of the year. I pretty much fish 12 months out of the year and use club events to keep me tuned into what the fish are doing. As most parts of the country has experienced, we have had a pretty brutal winter here in the southeast. Don't get me wrong, we do have the ocassional snow, but as I type this blog we are getting our 3rd or 4th. I mean this is NC, where it can be in the teens at night and spike up to 60 degrees in a 3 day pattern. But not this year.
The lakes around here have been at full pool or above since the fall. With the cold temps and wet winter, it has left our lakes in the high 30's and low 40's and very stained. Since the majority of our lakes are all largemouth, this has made the bite extremely slow. However, due to some lakes with warm water discharges, I have been able to stay on the water and keep the bites coming. Slow, but still getting bit. Now off to Wylie at the NC/SC border.
I practiced for last weeks event on Valentine's weekend without a bite. I pretty much wrote this off because of the tomato soup color of the water and recent snow fall the night before. I then practiced again the Friday before the event. Water temps were in the mid to high 40's, water clarity was stabilizing and some fish were moving. I practiced the typical Winter pattern and those techniques that did well on the lake in previous tournaments. Normally this would consist of main lake points and pockets, and secondary points and pockets at the mouth of major creek arms. Baits of choice are usually, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs and crankbaits, all looking for that suspending large mouth bite. I only had 2 bites in practice but they were a 3.5# and 4.5#. I expected a grind it out tournament, but not what I got.
Tournament day temp is 30 at blast off and expected to be in the 50s. Pretty much what it had been for 3 days. Water temps are in the high 40s and close to 50. I expect that fishing will be slow but think I can bit on some transition areas where some of the suspending fish will move up....Whatever I did on Sat. did not work. I think at one point I had 15 rods on the deck. In the end, i just never got a bite. I know I only fish this lake once a year but I felt like my skills of adapting and junk fishing my way to a few bites would have really paid off. A blow to my psyche and ego was really all I gained in the end.
Now a few days later, I am actually over it. I am looking forward more than ever to get back on the water to exact my revenge on those finiky green creatures. It also helped after I found out how difficult the bite really was. It took a little over 16#to win but the local won by throwing a T-rig chartreuse grub in open water pockets... Really? That is something that I just do not have the experience for on this body of water.. There were 57 total boats, out of that there were 5 limits, 13 zeros, 1 4 fish boat and then the remaining were 3 fish and under. Even our resident State butt kicker, David Wright only managed 1 fish...So I take this in stride and will file this one away... and not look back...
I just finished up fishing Lake Wylie for my 1st major tournament of the year. I pretty much fish 12 months out of the year and use club events to keep me tuned into what the fish are doing. As most parts of the country has experienced, we have had a pretty brutal winter here in the southeast. Don't get me wrong, we do have the ocassional snow, but as I type this blog we are getting our 3rd or 4th. I mean this is NC, where it can be in the teens at night and spike up to 60 degrees in a 3 day pattern. But not this year.
The lakes around here have been at full pool or above since the fall. With the cold temps and wet winter, it has left our lakes in the high 30's and low 40's and very stained. Since the majority of our lakes are all largemouth, this has made the bite extremely slow. However, due to some lakes with warm water discharges, I have been able to stay on the water and keep the bites coming. Slow, but still getting bit. Now off to Wylie at the NC/SC border.
I practiced for last weeks event on Valentine's weekend without a bite. I pretty much wrote this off because of the tomato soup color of the water and recent snow fall the night before. I then practiced again the Friday before the event. Water temps were in the mid to high 40's, water clarity was stabilizing and some fish were moving. I practiced the typical Winter pattern and those techniques that did well on the lake in previous tournaments. Normally this would consist of main lake points and pockets, and secondary points and pockets at the mouth of major creek arms. Baits of choice are usually, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs and crankbaits, all looking for that suspending large mouth bite. I only had 2 bites in practice but they were a 3.5# and 4.5#. I expected a grind it out tournament, but not what I got.
Tournament day temp is 30 at blast off and expected to be in the 50s. Pretty much what it had been for 3 days. Water temps are in the high 40s and close to 50. I expect that fishing will be slow but think I can bit on some transition areas where some of the suspending fish will move up....Whatever I did on Sat. did not work. I think at one point I had 15 rods on the deck. In the end, i just never got a bite. I know I only fish this lake once a year but I felt like my skills of adapting and junk fishing my way to a few bites would have really paid off. A blow to my psyche and ego was really all I gained in the end.
Now a few days later, I am actually over it. I am looking forward more than ever to get back on the water to exact my revenge on those finiky green creatures. It also helped after I found out how difficult the bite really was. It took a little over 16#to win but the local won by throwing a T-rig chartreuse grub in open water pockets... Really? That is something that I just do not have the experience for on this body of water.. There were 57 total boats, out of that there were 5 limits, 13 zeros, 1 4 fish boat and then the remaining were 3 fish and under. Even our resident State butt kicker, David Wright only managed 1 fish...So I take this in stride and will file this one away... and not look back...
Monday, March 1, 2010
1st Tournament of the Year-Dustin King
Just got in from Lake Okeechobee yesterday morning about 2:30am. Left the house at 4am Friday, drove 12hrs to chobee, fished a FLW college tournament Saturday, get in the truck and drive home....what makes a person put themself in a situation like that? I had several people ask me if "I went to the beach", "ate at some nice restuarants" ect...truth is no I didn't see the ocean and I ate food from home. Us fishermen do crazy things in order to chase our dreams of fishing for a living.
I am going to be completely honest, I had an awful tournament. I had never seen Okeechobee before and when I come through the lock and into the main water I could see land nowhere! That lake is deff the biggest body of water I have ever seen in my life! It's a lot like bass fishing in the ocean :) I started off the morning throwing a Zoom super fluke and a Go2bait product. I got a very limited amount of early morning hits around the south monkey box area and soon the morning bite was gone. I tried various other patterns, pitching jigs, rattle traps, chatterbaits ect...nothing working. Well, everything I fished of course was around 4ft deep because this is the average depth on OKeechobee. I personally am a deep water fisherman, I love throwing crankbaits, texas rig worm and things like that so I was very much out of my element.
Well after several hours of absolutely time wasting in the "skinny water" I decided to "stick with what I'm confident in". I managed to run south and get into the "rim canal" this has 12ft deep water and is more my "style". With just a couple hours left I tied on a crankbait and went to work doing my own thing. My partner caught a keeper on a spinnerbait, and I catch a short fish and lose one about 2 1/2 pounds on a lipless crankbait. After fishing for a while longer I catch a 2lbr on a Go2Bait 10in worm in Junebug color. Then we had to go weigh-in.
At the weigh-in the bite was obviously tough because a little over 11lbs won and I came in 23rd with just 3.3lbs. The moral of this blog to all of you that fish is to get you to focus on what you feel comfortable doing. I was so not use to fishing shallow and knowing what to look for that I did not feel confident. I will wonder what would have happened if I would have went to the rim canal earlier and fished my strength? If it possible that I could catch a limit of 2 1/2 pounders...VERY POSSIBLE! Always go with your strengths and fish what you feel confident doing and this will for sure help you become a more successful angler over a long period of time. Not all fish do the same thing, everybody told me to go sight fishing and fish shallow, that wasted critical hours for me. If we can learn that not all fish do the same thing at the same time and we can catch them fishing our style all year then we all will put more fish in the livewell and have heavier weights at the end of the day!
Good Luck Fishing,
Dustin King
I am going to be completely honest, I had an awful tournament. I had never seen Okeechobee before and when I come through the lock and into the main water I could see land nowhere! That lake is deff the biggest body of water I have ever seen in my life! It's a lot like bass fishing in the ocean :) I started off the morning throwing a Zoom super fluke and a Go2bait product. I got a very limited amount of early morning hits around the south monkey box area and soon the morning bite was gone. I tried various other patterns, pitching jigs, rattle traps, chatterbaits ect...nothing working. Well, everything I fished of course was around 4ft deep because this is the average depth on OKeechobee. I personally am a deep water fisherman, I love throwing crankbaits, texas rig worm and things like that so I was very much out of my element.
Well after several hours of absolutely time wasting in the "skinny water" I decided to "stick with what I'm confident in". I managed to run south and get into the "rim canal" this has 12ft deep water and is more my "style". With just a couple hours left I tied on a crankbait and went to work doing my own thing. My partner caught a keeper on a spinnerbait, and I catch a short fish and lose one about 2 1/2 pounds on a lipless crankbait. After fishing for a while longer I catch a 2lbr on a Go2Bait 10in worm in Junebug color. Then we had to go weigh-in.
At the weigh-in the bite was obviously tough because a little over 11lbs won and I came in 23rd with just 3.3lbs. The moral of this blog to all of you that fish is to get you to focus on what you feel comfortable doing. I was so not use to fishing shallow and knowing what to look for that I did not feel confident. I will wonder what would have happened if I would have went to the rim canal earlier and fished my strength? If it possible that I could catch a limit of 2 1/2 pounders...VERY POSSIBLE! Always go with your strengths and fish what you feel confident doing and this will for sure help you become a more successful angler over a long period of time. Not all fish do the same thing, everybody told me to go sight fishing and fish shallow, that wasted critical hours for me. If we can learn that not all fish do the same thing at the same time and we can catch them fishing our style all year then we all will put more fish in the livewell and have heavier weights at the end of the day!
Good Luck Fishing,
Dustin King
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