This tournament was an excellent lesson on humility and patience.
On Saturday, the weather was very warm and calm...virtually no wind blowing all day.
The smallies were cruising all over the place. There were many times throughout the day where my partner and new WBC member -Jerry Beatty would come upon an area to fish and see "big" smallmouth cruising all over the place....shallow or deep-they were there. You couldn't help but get excited to see so many fish. The biggest problem however for me was getting them to bite.
I applaud all of the people who figured out this puzzle because I certainly didn't on the first day. I tried topwaters, reaction baits- (spinnerbaits,jerkbaits and rattle traps), dropshots, jigs (grubs and tubes) and carolina rigs with no success. I certainly however didn't have a problem catching non tournament fish- a 5lb trout,, 3 pikeminnow- ( 2 on topwater) and a small kokanee but bass were elusive. I did finally get myself to slooooooow really down and start deadsticking a senko the last hour of the day. I ended up scratching out a 2.7 smallie but it was simply too little too late. The conditions completely changed on Sunday where it was overcast and windy which eliminated much of the sight fishing.
I think what was the most interesting and revealing to me was what Mark Brown said after the tournament on explaining his winning pattern to everyone. Mark really went to great lengths to discuss the levels of Stealth on catching his fish...hopefully he can share this information at a future club meeting. Great job Mark Brown-Green (inside joke)
I would also like to congratulate the Beeman's for going 2nd and 5th out of the same boat...very impressive. One more important detail you all should know is that
Rocky Sr. ended up winning the AOY race! He really deserved it especially after not being able to fish almost the entire month of August....Great job Rocky!
Thanks Terry for another smoothly run tournament...well done sir!
Good luck to everyone this weeekend at Lake WA for the team tournament.