Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Well, I guess its official, Im actually going to fish a tournament the 6th of May. So, you may say! Well, I havnt fished a Bass tournament in over 20 years so this is a big deal for me. I met a nice young man that is all gung ho and he asked me to be his partner in the tournament so I thought it over and with a little push from the wife, Im in, mailed off the entry fee yesterday. Its on my home lake, it will also be right in the middle of the spawn and it will take 20-30#s to win it. Wife is gone this week-end and he is coming over to prefish for two days. The preasure is on!

 

[brownies]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Started out this month with a 70 boat field. Our 18.30 was good enough for 9th (I've never caught fish like that before either...partner and myself caught at least 50 fish.)<br /> Things been getting worse from there.<br />The next week with a small club tourny 10 boats I scrounged a 13.05 for 2nd.<br />Later that week short fish only.<br />Weekend again with a $1k guaranteed 1st showed up less than 10 boats (due to three other tourneys...oops on the part of that tourny planner....everybody had 5 fish limit except me. 11lbs won the $1,000. I had 3 fish/8lbs and took big bass (almost enough to cover my entry fee).<br /> Using Senko's/Flukes/Frogs and probably should have stuck with one of those rather than switching back and forth.<br /><br /> Took my yearly trip with a guide on a "big bass heaven" lake right after that last tournament. He was telling me that he fished a tourny on his lake same weekend and out of a 32 boat field (local guys), only 15 fish were weighed. Said he didn't even catch a keeper. (he told me this as we were leaving the ramp...lol)<br /> The day started out rough. Couple hours in and nothing. Then things started picking up a bit.<br /> I didn't quite convert him to Senko's, but, it was headed that direction when he wacky rigged a different color worm and started showing me how it was done. At least we did catch quite a few fish.

 

[cwilt]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

LD<br /> are you going to fish the beds? did a tourney about a month ago and just fished traditionally. ended up with 15 lbs. i thought i had enough to at least place. i got my but handed to me at weigh-in. some guy fished only beds all day long and won with 35 lbs. i guess when green is involved, morals are thrown overboard!!!!!

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Originally posted by cwilt:<br /> LD<br /> are you going to fish the beds?

I have no problem fishing beds unless the lake is a small lake and this isnt the case. The spawn isnt in full swing yet here, yes there are fish in the shallows, and yes, there is fanning going on. This lake has primarilly a mud bottom so when the beds are being fanned, the banks are very muddy so sight fishing is a bit difficult! I will be fishing 1-12 feet of water in all the places that I know to be very heavy spawning areas. Jigs and splitshot rigging!

 

[KCLOST]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Elaborate on the splitshot Lube... If you may!!!!<br /><br />I have my variation of that, but what is yours???

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

We been doing this here out west for a long time, but it is just a small #1 or 2 wide gape worm hook with a small curl tal worm or grub with a small split shot about 18-24" above the bait crimped on the line. I have found some pointed crimp on worm weights that I use because they come through the weeds better. You pretty much just swim it along slowly keeping it just off the bottom. Its a great spawning season bait because you can work the bank from 1' on out to 10'. So you target the spawning and the transition fish.

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Hope you do good LD,The bass should be full swing in your neck of the woods with the new moon this weekend,hope the big sows are in your sights After this weekend its about to wrap up the spawn here.<br /> Got beat again last night 2nd place again.had 9 keepers all 12 1/2" long still could'nt find any big fish caught them all on a carolina rig in 8' to 17' water.mostly deeper.

 

[KCLOST]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Lube, you and I are more alike than I thought.<br /><br />That split shot your talking about is basically a bullet weight that is split correct? I use that same set-up... Works well.

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

What size line ya'll throwing that on?and what size weight?im going to try it here,nobody that i know of throws it,may just give me the edge i need for some bigger fish.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Originally posted by KCLOST:<br /> Lube, you and I are more alike than I thought.<br /><br />

Now thats a scarey thought!

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Originally posted by Ron G:<br /> What size line ya'll throwing that on?and what size weight?

8# Pline. About 1/8-1/4 oz. with a medium 6' spinning outfit. Like I said before, your goal is to reel slowly and just keep in contact with the bottom. I use several types of baits, but for some reason a 4-6" very slim curltail worm seems to work the best. (Dont use "Fat" worms), 3-4" grubs and 6" ribbon tails are good too. Transparent worms when the water is very clear, and solid black, purple or pumpkin if you have some color. You want to use a wide gap hook, (not too big), as you want the keel action of the hook hanging down to keep the worm from spinning, also the hooks with the worm holder screws or wires seem to do best for me.

 

[brownies]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

I have lost the fish...well, anything over 15" anyway.<br />Short fish by cast was no problem, or...it may have been "the" problem.<br />Tournyament last night. Went thru a bag of flukes and thought "this is getting expensive". Switched to a frog..bulkier and maybe it would slow down the dinks. Three frogs later and I went to a buzz bait.<br /> They would hit it several times bringing it back to the boat. Still catching short fish. Tore the skirt off it.<br /> It was fun, but, didn't pay very well.....

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

IMHO, Short hits mean, (IMHO), Wrong color, too big of a bait. Bait moving too fast.<br /><br />I double up when this happens, I have a weightless worm rigged on another pole and when the fish misss the first offering, I imeadiatly cast into where the strike came from. Works a good percentage of the time. Or, use the buzz type baits to locate fish and then slow down and catch them!

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Ive been using an 1/8 buzz now for 2 years i can slow it way down or burn it.i first i thought it would catch only small fish i was way wrong.same thing happened to me at wheeler i kept switching colors till i found one they would just cruch ended up being a white and lemon color i only put it on because it was the only color i had left.they liked it why i have no idea but it worked.also i do i like LD except for a weightless worm i throw a 4 ring worm on an 1/8 oz it seems to work around here.<br /> Its alot fun catching but when you need keepers it gets frustrationg i've going threw the same i can catch little ones but the kickers keep iluding me.it is that time of the year when the little ones are ganging up.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Prefishing went great this weekend, Easily had a 20-25# six fish limit. For some reason this tournament has a six fish limit, usually its limited to five. Anyway, Ill have to bed fish to even get close to winning this thing and we located several beds with 6# plus fish on them and we got them to pick up the bait we finally decided on. Man they hate that thing in there bed! The male nine times out of ten will hit first , and then the female will stay behind and protect the nest when he is gone. If we would have stuck all the fish we found, we would have had 30#s plus but we didnt want to sting the fish we want to catch next Sat. We saw a fish that was probably 8#s, I hope she is there next week and I have no reason to think that she wont be! The lakes off limits this week to contestants.

 

[brownies]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Not short hits.<br />Short fish, tons of hits by too small of fish.<br />They would fight over it as I reeled in.<br /> Caught many many fish, enough so that I used up two bags of flukes. <br /> Gave up on that due to cost of flukes and just started having fun with a buzz bait.<br /><br /> Yesterday, I went out and tried a different area. Found some keepers using a frog (zoom horny toad). <br />Stumbled on a technique that was working pretty well also. <br />You could work the frog on top, kill it, twitch it and get not much attention from any fish.<br /> OR, you could "skip" it into the weeds on the cast and they would literally JUMP on top of it.<br /> Reminded me of a cat pouncing on it's prey.<br />They would leave the weeds, come up out of the water, and land on top of the frog about the time it stopped skipping.<br /> THAT was just a blast.<br />Well, looks like I'm set for this next tourny if this holds up a few more days. IF.....

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Big fish love them frogs.if you like the horny toad you need to try the ribbits much better i think.good luck hope the big momas bite ya.

 

[KCLOST]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

I watched a weigh in yesterday on my home lake...<br /><br />The fishing is really improving.. It looks like most of the fish were caught on spinnerbaits... The winner had just under 20 lbs (5-fish). Several other limits came in also...<br />I didn't fish the tournament but brought a few poles with me and decided to fish from the bank a little before they got in... Caught a keeper, burning a spinnerbait right beside the ramp...<br /><br />Water temp around 67 degrees, colored but not muddy water, and it was overcast with a bit of wind... I think the frog was in action on the tournament also, but nobody was really talking.<br /><br />My next tourny is this weekend, I'll let you know what happens...

 

[Ron G]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

last night was rough didnt put a keeper in the boat,we was in my partners boat started with the rig ,nothing finally i told him this things going to won real shallow,we moved up and i caught 2 short fish in less than a foot of water,must be the end of the second spawn,last week they were deep could'nt find a shallow fish this week the opposite.amazing we really messed around with the rig for to long hoping for a big one.

 

[KCLOST]

Re: Bass Tournament Results-Good or Bad!!!!

Well, what a difference a month makes...<br /><br />Fished pro-am yesterday. Didn't even land a keeper... Flipped, cranked, spinnerbaited all day, not one keeper.. Only caught four short fish, and a five pound snappin turtle that ate my jig....<br />Winners of the day, carolina rigged on the main lake points.. We were in pockets flipping cover.. Big mistatke! But it was a tough day for everyone regardless of what you were doing..