Well this is a new adventure for me and something that MrB has been nice enough to let me venture off into. As many of you know I fish many, many days a year. Most of my fishing time is devoted toward pre-fishing and fishing bass tournaments. All though we do manage to put our fair share of crappie in the freezer.
I mainly fish with my brother in law Marty, and my best friend (since we were like 2yrs old) Travis. I have fished tournaments with Marty for several years and he is the one that got me in to the sport. Travis and I have just been fortunate to purchase a boat and will begin fishing tournaments together this year. I have been bass fishing seriously since 1994 and tournament fishing since 1996. I have always been fortunate to fish with guys that are top notch anglers and have learned a lot from them. This year with fishing with Travis will be a new obstacle to cross as this is the first time that we will be fishing by ourselves. Making or not making the right decisions, picking the right tournaments to fish and figuring out the fish. It will definitely add a new dimension to the game, but one I am whole heartedly looking forward to.
So please join me as I journal to you our fishing season. Hopefully you will be able to laugh right along with us as we bounce up and down the tournament circuit. Watch us grown and learn as fisherman, and hopefully there will be something in here along the way to help you all out on your day on the lake in the future.
7/25/2008 Indian Creek Lake Poosey CA 192 acres
Weather 85 degree temps with morning showers and T-storms with cloud cover burning off by 11:00am
This had been a little trip that I and my brother in law Marty had been wanting to make for some time. The day had final came when our schedules would allow for a little fun fishing trip to a new lake.
The day started at 0400 hrs in the pouring down rain and quite an impressive lighting show. We loaded Marty’s 2005 Charger boat with our gear for the day and headed up the road for the hour or so trip to Chillicothe. The rain followed us all the way to the lake but fortunately the lighting show ceased just about the time we hit the ramp, so no delay was seen in the start of the day.
We started off the morning about 0530 hrs fishing white Lucky Strike buzz baits around standing timber and lay downs in 8-10 ft of water. The early morning top water bite was pretty consistent today but only yielded short fish in the 10-14’’ range.
As the day moved on and the rained stopped falling around 10:00 we moved to deeper points 15-23’ with standing timber and began flipping 10’’ power worms to the timber. This proved to be quite effective and yielded tons of fish for us again most of the fish we were catching were in the 10-14’’ range. We were begging to become frustrated with the size of the fish we were catching and decided we would spend some time on the electronics and see if we could find some deeper structure to fish in the hopes that it would yield some bigger fish.
We fished several humps and drops out on the ends of points, and deep channel ledges. Most of these were 20+’ deep. We fished these again with the 10’’ power worm on a ½ oz sinker and a Carolina rig with a 7” ring worm. Once again we were able to get on fish and quite honestly a lot of fish, but once again they were all in the 10-14’’ range.
As the day progressed and the skies got higher me moved to several main lake cuts that were 8-15’ deep and loaded with matted grass and duck weed. I began throwing a June bug colored horny toad up on the mats, while Marty continued to flip the edges with the 10’’ worm. There were most defiantly schools of fish utilizing the matted cover for shade from the heat of the day and we were finally able to pick up a few nicer fish in the 1 1/2lb -2lb range. But as it goes with frog fishing there were as many missed fish and fish actually hooked.
After a long very productive day on the water it was time to call it quits and head back home for my nieces 1st birthday party.
First impressions of the lake are positive. The MDC has in place a 12-15 slot limit on the lake which with time should help to produce and nice population of larger bass. I am also convinced that there is a healthy population of larger fish in the lake now; we just had issues getting the little ones to leave our lures alone long enough to catch the big ones. I honestly believe that this lake would be an awesome place to take a youth and teach them how to bass fish. We caught fish on many different presentations, and easily caught 50+ fish. The MDC and the city of Chillicothe have a very nice fishery.
7/30/2008 The New (to us) Boat. Grindstone reservoir Cameron, MO 208 acres
80 degree temps and solid cloud cover.
Several weeks ago we found “the” boat. Not a new boat by any means, but a boat in good shape and at an affordable price, the last part being on the top of the list. The boat is a 1989 Stratos 289DC with a 175 hp Johnson. After a few weeks of getting all of the title issues worked out, we had all paper work and the boat in hand. WooHoo.
Like a couple of kids on Christmas morning as soon as we had the boat hooked to the truck we just had to dump it on the water and try her out. We only had a few hours in the evening to give her an official first voyage, but it just had to be done.
Grindstone reservoir is close to the house and would allow us to give the once over and see how she fishes with a limited amount of time and would also keep us off of any big water in case she gave us any issues that needed worked out.
At the ramp, plug in, trailer ties undone, motor trimmed up, I believe she is ready to set float for the first time. Backed her into the water, and test one done it FLOATED!!!! (Just kidding but is sure nice it did not sink). The big motored fired on the first try and idled real well. This is a no wake lake so there would be no getting it up on plane today. So down the check list we go. Electronics work, live wells work, trolling motor works, bilge pump works, and aerators work, so far so good. We decided enough with all this idol checking things out it is time to fish.
We headed toward the west end of the lake and began fishing visible cover along main lake points and banks. With in a matter of a few minuets a nice solid 2 1/2lb keeper bass fell to a burtons bait and tackle spinner bait. Maiden voyage maiden fish out of the way I believe she will catch fish and be a productive boat in the future. Only another short fish was caught tonight and like I said earlier time was short, but we got her on the water and she fished and worked real nice. I can’t wait to see what comes of having our own boat in the near future.
As mentioned previously Travis and I have secured this boat to fish out of. It is no where near a new boat, but seems to be in good working order and was just gone over at Savannah marine prior to us getting the boat. We will be venturing in to fishing tournaments by ourselves real soon. We both have an extensive background in tournament fishing but it has always been with someone else in someone else’s boat fishing there fish, there way. There are no words to express the excitement we have to put or knowledge of fish to the test on our own.
7/31/2008 Smithville Lake Burtons bait and Tackle Thursday night tournament series 6-9 pm
86 degrees partly could with light winds out of the SSW. 1st Tournament.
Travis works for himself and was some how able to talk the “boss” into letting him quit a little early today. We headed for the lake and put in at the little Platte marina (take off site for the tournament). We idled out of the no wake zone trimmed her in and throttled down. The Johnson sang and the ol’ boat jumped right up on plane. Trimmed it up and took it for a nice long boat ride around the lake. The motor seems to run real nice. We ran to a few spots on the lake and checked out some spots that looked promising to fish in the tournament tonight. We headed in to the marina in time for live well checks, and boat number drawing.
We drew boat #26 not anywhere near the top of the flight but at least we weren’t the last boat to leave either. As our number was called and the tournament director made a comment about beginners luck we were out of the marina and on plane to the first spot of our first tourney together.
We ran a few minuets up the camp branch arm of the lake to a good looking main lake point. The point runs out into about 15’ of water and has a good amount of grass on it. As luck would have it the trolling motor no sooner hit the water and a dang cable broke on it. ARRRGHHHH!!!!! No trolling motor tonight. We tried for several minuets to fix it with no avail. We decided that the best course of action was to just try and drift across some main lake points and see if we could not manage a fish or two. The recreational boat traffic, and wind on the lake kept pushing us up on the points and made fishing them extremely tough. We did manage a couple nice white bass (wrong species) and a real nice channel cat on a spinner bait. But no largemouth bass tonight.
Needless to say the stellar start to this did not happen as we had planned, but we had fun and learned a little along the way. No stunning last minuet heroics or big sack of fish to weigh tonight, but hey that is bass fishing. Maybe we will get the bad luck out of the way early.
The tournament had (if I remember correctly) 31 boats and weighed in 21 fish. A nice 4 fish sack weighing 11lbs 13oz won the tournament and a beautiful 6lb hawg took big bass.
8/1/2008 Boat repair night
We were able to diagnosis the trolling motor issue as being a broken cable bracket. This turned out to be an easy fix and we had the boat water ready in an hour of so. Travis decided he would put it on the water Saturday morning to make sure the fix held, while I attended a bow hunter’s education instructor course.
During lunch break Travis called and the fix held. Mozingo Lake here we come.
8/03/2008 Mozingo Lake Maryville, MO 1006 acres N2IT fishing “Sweat it out” tournament 0600-1400hrs
99 degrees partly cloudy before 0900 hrs clearing to mostly sunny and HOT!!! Wind SSW 5-8 mph
With the boat repaired we headed to the beautiful Mozingo Lake outside of Maryville, MO. I had not been on this lake since the first of June when I fished a tournament with my brother in law. But we decided we would go to this tournament blind hope for a good boat number draw and just try and fish our strengths and hope for the best. Knowing this lake fairly well I knew a majority of the bigger fish would be relating to deep cover and structure. I also knew that is where the majority of the guys would fish would be deep.
This morning was an early start with the alarm blaring away at 0200hrs. Up and out of bed gallons of gator aide and ice packed. Travis and the boat picked up and on the road for the hour and half drive.
We arrived at the ramp paid our entries and drew boat # 6. This was a good start to the day. Dumped the boat in the water and began the floating and waiting game for everyone to get put in and the tournament director to start the day. Finally after all the technicalities for the day were discussed, he began calling boat numbers and our day had begun.
We had decided prior to take off that we would run two coves north of the ramp and fish a main lake cove with lots of visible cover hoping for a couple good top water fish. I started off throwing a Zoom horny toad in June bug on the mats and Travis was throwing chartreuse and white buzz bait along the grass line edge. It did not take to long and I had a fish blow up on and miss the frog, and Travis had a couple short strikes on the buzz bait. We continued down the grass line and Ol’ Kermit produced the first fish of the day a short fish, but at least it broke the ice. Travis mean while missed a couple more fish and decided it was time to add a trailer hook to the buzz bait. He then managed to catch two more short fish in quick order of the grass line edge. I was unable to produce any more strikes back in the grass on the frog. I soon switched up and began throwing 3/8 oz buzz bait on the edge myself. About 15 cast into it and huge boil erupted around my buzz bait. I swung the rod tip back and after a short fight the first keeper of the day was in the box a solid 4.89 lbs bass. Good start to the day. We were unable to pick up and more fish on the top water bite.
We then moved to a main lake point in 15-18’ of water and began flipping a 10” power worm in June bug, and a Green pumpkin brush hog to standing timber and lay downs. On about the fifth pitch to a lay down I felt the worm get heavy. I swung the hook into a nice 3+lb keeper. About 5mins later Travis swung a solid 2 ½ lbs fish into the boat. Almost 10 lbs in the box and it was only pushing 8 o’clock. We continued along the north side if this point until it began to shallow up. We managed four more fish off of the side but were all short fish. We moved back on to the point its self and fished south this time. I pitched the power worm to a lay down and it stopped on the way down. I slammed the rod back and horsed a nice 4 lb fish over the log and into the boat. Only after I floundered with it at the boat and did everything I could to lose the fish. Thank god it stayed hooked and we landed it finally. We worked back though the standing timber and Travis landed a nice 17’’ fish to fill out our limit. Five fish in the boat 15mins until 10o’clock on our first big tournament I have to admit I was feeling pretty good.
We figured that we had a pretty good pattern going with most of the fish coming in between 15-20’ of water on main lake points in standing timber. We were even able to narrow it down a little more and figured out that there needed to be two more tree’s there to hold a fish. We continued to fish this pattern down the lake and caught several more fish but were unable to upgrade from our first limit.
We managed probably 20 fish total and caught 9 keepers all day long. The bite really shut down about 11o’clock as the temperatures soared. We had a good solid sack of 15.88 lbs and finished 5th one spot out of the money. The 4.89 lb fish was also 3rd big bass of the day and was also one spot of the money. Even though we were unable to come home with a check I feel that we had a very good day on the water. Confidence was built and we learned a little more about fishing together. It took over 20lbs today to cash a check and was won on a 23+ lb sack. This is very typical for Mozingo.
Turn out was lower than expected but the weather was perfect and the birds cooperated very well so overall, the hunt was a great time.......... Thanks to Montrose Archery Association of Montrose, MO we were able to provide a great hunt for those who attended........
