Friday Evening Tourney

I've been promising to fish a local jackpot tourney with a neighbor of mine for about a year now. I finally got around to fulfilling that commitment this weekend. The local lake has started up a jackpot tourney on Friday nights and with the Holiday I happened to have the day off. Based on my field trip that morning to 'Lake X' I was actually looking forward to fishing this one and seeing if the new 'plastic' would work on this lake. Bad news was that my neighbor's Statos had a broken trolling motor cable that hadn't been repaired yet from it's failure the previous weekend. As such, we had to fish out of the little tin rig with the 10hp engine againast the field of 'big glass'.

After registering my partner drew boat #3 from the chip can. I told him it didn't matter because we would be the last boat out. There was no way I was putting the tin can in the middle of a field of trigger happy shotgun bassers. When the starter called our number we just waved from the dock where I was tied up and chatting with another friend who was heading out for some hybrid striper fishing and another who was just getting in after bluegill fishing with his grand son. After everybody cleared out and the water settled down we fired the Merc and headed out.

First spot we pulled up to was a long point dropping off into the main basin of the lake. We started on the end of the point and worked our way around one side. My partner was throwing a jig and I had on the new plastic. Wasn't long before I felt a bite and swung on what turned out to be a nice 2.5 pound bass. This particular tourney has a 3 fish limit and all bass must be over 16" in length. First fish in and a solid keeper to boot - a good way to start. The new bait is looking impressive.

We hit a couple other spots to no avail before moving to a little drop that falls from about 9' into 16' with some trash in one particular stretch. Again the new plastic comes through after about 15 minutes on this spot with a very solid 3.5 pound bass. Two good bass in the well with just over 2 hours to go. Darkness is setting in so I decide to go shallow to see if anything is happening there yet.

I start chunking a buzzbait around rock and weed shoreline cover and start getting bite after bite on the buzzer. Problem is they are almost all small. They're not blowing up on the bait either, rather just sucking it in. This results in quite a few missed fish or fish that are lightly hooked and end up coming off. A couple appear to be pretty close to the 16" size limit but there isn't much I can do about that. They're just not hitting it well and I didn't pack any trailer hooks. What appears to be a bigger bass blasts the buzzer right at boat side as I go to lift it out of the water and short lines me. Our limit fish quickly escapes us - argh!

We move back out to deep water where we pick up a short fish or two but time is runing out. Finally with just 15 minutes to go we decide to buzz one more bank not too far from the marina. I get blasted on a rock point by a fish but it's another dink. Guess it's just not our night. Ten minutes to go and my partner is ready to call it. I say lets just work up to a dock I can see about 50 yds. ahead of me. We get to the dock, I buzz both sides of a large log I know is sitting there to no avail. I swing the nose of the boat out to get around the dock and head out. There is a small 10' opening between two boats, one tied to the dock and one just down. There is a nice little clump of weeds that edges a drop right along the bank that the pontoon boat is nearly covering. I know it's there because I shore fished the area a week ago with the little Touchdown worm and caught 7 bass from the small area. I can't hardly see a thing because it's almost midnight, but I fire one last cast to the bank and start the retrieve.

Two cranks in and a big fish explodes on the bait. I say big fish because it sounds like one of those bites where you'd swear someone threw a brick in the water. I can't actually see the fish but within seconds realize it is a nice fish by the way it is bulldogging. My partner hears the commotion as I tell him to get the net and a flashlight. I fight the fish to near the boat and we're hoping it's not a big ole' catfish. The fish finally surfaces and the light hits him - it's a nice bass!

I get the fish somewhat close and back on top and my partner does a big stretch job to get the net under him, still one hand holding the flashlight, the other the net. We get him in the boat, my partner unhooks him and pops him in the well and says "Let's go! 6 minutes to check in". Fortunately we're within a quarter mile of the marina and we make our way across the water and get checked in with a minute or so to spare. Coming across the water I can feel the old tourney competition juices firing up.

We get our weigh bag, load up with water and slip our fish into the sack. We know we've got a couple pretty solid fish and a halfway decent chance at a check. We check the board as we turn our bass over to get bumped. A little over 8.75 is leading. Ahead of us another team weighs in a solid sack at just over 10 pounds. I know we don't have that beat with our 3 fish, but can we knock off that 8.79 on the board? The guy bumping our fish says no need to check any of them on the board, they're all obviously above 16". The weigh master takes them and moves to the scale - the moment of truth. The digitals settle at 9.33. After a couple more guys weigh in the results are final. We lock up 2nd place out of the little tin machine. The winnings buy my wife and I dinner tonight and allow me to place an even larger order for more of the new plastics :)

Comments

[RS]

Your going to milk this one for all its worth, I can tell. And I'm happy to play the sucker as much as the next angler. I will wait patiently.

But... My guess is its just a bit of over-blown thaumaturgy. Just a guess...

RS

[Big Indiana Bass]

Yep, I have to get my kicks somehow since I really don't tourney fish any more. Already have a post queued for tomorrow, but I'll post the specifics on Tuesday. BTW, love those big words :) And remember, there are no secret baits, only secret bites...