Congratulations @Bluebasser86 on AOY! I definitely enjoyed reading the accounts of your season. Good luck in the TOC

7 hours ago, Bluebasser86 said:

Another fisherman made a good run and ended up with 80.25", I had 77", but my second place was good enough to claim the AOY for the club in my first season and if felt really good to do it in such a dramatic way on a tough lake. 

Way to go, man. AOY is great for any club.

I'd say a new title is in order for @Bluebasser86 for the remainder of the year, well done! 

Got out today for a few hours. Boated 6 bass, 2 dinks on a Spinnerbait and 4 on a punch rig double wide beaver with 2 of those decent that weighed 4-12 and 3-6.

Congrats on AOY @Bluebasser86! I always enjoy your tourney summaries.

This little smallie kept the skunk away this afternoon. 

With the help of my partner, I got a little time on the boat.

Well worth the pain

 

It’s been too long since I’ve went fishing!

Finally got the dink curse off my back this morning. Took the boat out to get a few hrs in before the weather hit. Some wind but fairly dry. I landed this little piggy so it was a worthwhile trip. Fished the drop-shot with a BPS sexy shad 4.5 tri-color worm. On the way out saw a bunch of hens.

On 8/31/2021 at 3:58 AM, Bluebasser86 said:

My last regular season tournament for my kayak club was this past Saturday. I was sitting in first for the AOY race and was hoping to stay there. I prefished the lake Friday and did not do well. I'd caught nothing much bigger than 15" and it was a struggle to get the few bites I was getting, so when guys started guessing it would take mid to high 80 inches to win, I was pretty concerned. From what I could tell about the lake, there was a lot of "dead water", and only a few areas that seemed to have signs of life. Not a great thing on a 400 acre lake when there was going to be 20 kayaks fishing but it told me I needed to pick a spot and milk it for all it was worth. I had one cove that was the size of about half a football field that was the only place I'd had multiple bites, so that's where I opted to start.

 

Tournament morning, I was launching and talking with the other anglers and one of the other guys said he was starting in the same cove, which I assumed I wouldn't be alone on such a small lake. So we sat in the dark and swapped our strategies, what we were using, and told some fishing stories waiting for it to be time to start fishing. No other kayakers showed up in the cove and we agreed on where we were each going to start and wished each other luck when 6:15 came around. My first fish of the morning was a catfish on a Berkley J Walker, not a good start. As we were crossing paths in the back of the cove, I caught my first bass of the morning on a homemade EWG Ned head and a Mister Twister Poc It Phenom worm. Not big but on the board.

Right when I started fishing behind where the other guy had been, I caught an 11.5" bass on a dropshot Zoom Z Drop. Then I broke one off on a deep tree on the drop shot, something I hadn't done the rest of the time. A few minutes later I caught a 12 incher on a Rage Bug. Right about that time, I got cut off about 20 yards in front of me by a bass boat that parked and started fishing a rock drop off. I watched them catch 2 nice ones while I was working a group of stumps. I caught a tiny 10" bass on the Phenom worm, and then an even tinier 9" bass on a Berkley Frittside. I had a limit, albeit a tiny one, it had me in 5th that early in the morning and I felt like the fishing was going to be as tough for everyone as it had been for me. I worked back through the cove, missed a couple on a jig, lost one on the jig, before the boat left so I went to try the rocks. Nothing on the drop, but I fired the J Walker across them and caught a 13.25" bass.

There was a major point with some big stumps and a drop that fish kept blowing up on at the mouth of the cove. I was near them once when it happened and fired the J Walker through them. Had a very solid fish explode on the bait and just knock it way up in the air. The ramp wasn't far from the cove I was fishing and I wanted to make some changes to my gear so I pedaled over. I noticed one patch of weeds off the bank a ways and cast my J Walker at them but the wind pushed my bait over into the weeds. When I ripped it through, a big boil came up under it but the fish didn't hook up. After seeing that, one of the changes I made was tying on a spinnerbait. After I swapped out some rods and baits, I went back to the patch of grass and caught a 15.75" fish on the spinnerbait that looked like a 5 pounder compared to all the dinks I'd been catching. 

I pedaled back to the cove and started catching dink after dink, like 10-11 inchers. I'd switched from the Rage Bug to a Menace to get more bites. It was working, but I wasn't getting any size still. With 3 other kayaks and 2 boats in that little cove, I finally hit my breaking point and wandered around the point towards the ramp again. Flipping a shallow laydown that had been fished dozens of times already, I stuck another 15.75" fish on the Menace.

With an hour to go, that fish pulled me into 6th place, but just 1.5" from first and a small fish of 12.75" to cull, I felt I had a real shot. I decided to make the short run to the bigger wood filled cove that I'd had some bites in during prefishing. I quickly missed one on the spinnerbait in some grass, then lost 2 in a row on the Menace. It didn't look like it was going to happen for me. I fished one side of the cove and was coming down the other side when I almost bumped into another competitor I didn't know was there, so I went back across and fished the same side I'd already fished. 20 minutes left, I switched from the Menace back to the tiny Phenom worm, cast next to a tree and a fish was on it instantly. It had me around the tree, with 8lb leader, jumping like crazy, never thought I'd touch that fish. I got so lucky, one to get the bite and two for that fish to ever hit the net, but in the waning moments of the tournament, I put a 17.75" fish on the board, the second largest of the day.

Another fisherman made a good run and ended up with 80.25", I had 77", but my second place was good enough to claim the AOY for the club in my first season and if felt really good to do it in such a dramatic way on a tough lake. 

GREAT JOB!! Sounds like a blast!

1 hour ago, Biglittle8 said:

Finally got the dink curse off my back this morning. Took the boat out to get a few hrs in before the weather hit. Some wind but fairly dry. I landed this little piggy so it was a worthwhile trip. Fished the drop-shot with a BPS sexy shad 4.5 tri-color worm. On the way out saw a bunch of hens.

Nice pics. ?

Not a lot special from me today a couple of small fish. The special part is that these are my first spoon fish that I can recall lol. I tried plastics first and got nothing out came the spoon. I have been wanting to try one again, been talking to a co worker and he was talking about spoons. That gave me a idea or should I say the bait monkey lol. The spoon was a 2/5oz daredevil clicker in copper I swapped the stock hook out to a berkley fusion feathered treble in size 4 white chartreuse. I tried to use a slow retrieve not that easy on a 8.1 ratio reel but I got it down, no hits. Then I tried jigging it still nothing, next was to twitch it like a jerk bait bingo ! First one came on the 5th twitch I varied it up nothing for a while. I was getting ready to leave and decided to burn it, I knew it would spin and not have the right action but figured why not. A fish swirled on it but missed the copper finish with the clicker blades out to the side caused a decent flash. Threw back to the bank with the sun on it where the fish missed it and twitched it once again boom fish. The last one was around 14 inches or so measured my arm and rod when I got home lol. I enjoyed learning a new technique now to work on perfecting it, that could take a while. I was surprised it worked in water that dirty maybe six inches visibility if you’re lucky.

Post frontal day with strong NE breezes, but continued with my ongoing Zman project, good for 14 more bass including this one better fish.

 

59 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Post frontal day with strong NE breezes, but continued with my ongoing Zman project, good for 14 more bass including this one better fish.

 

Man you've been on a Ned rig mission!

3 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

Man you've been on a Ned rig mission!

 

I usually catch about a thousand bass a year on them in some form or fashion, give or take. Been throwing it for ~10 years, so I’ve got most of the nuances down 

7 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

I usually catch about a thousand bass a year on them in some form or fashion, give or take. Been throwing it for ~10 years, so I’ve got most of the nuances down 

I'm still learning...I've only been throwing it a couple years. Thinking of expanding to more than just the TRDs..trying to decide what baits to add to the Ned line up.

1 hour ago, Team9nine said:

Post frontal day with strong NE breezes, but continued with my ongoing Zman project, good for 14 more bass including this one better fish.

 

 

2 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

I'm still learning...I've only been throwing it a couple years. Thinking of expanding to more than just the TRDs..trying to decide what baits to add to the Ned line up.

It takes a man many years of experience to slay bass while wearing a crappie shirt like @Team9nine!! You are  well on your way @DitchPanda

15 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

 

It takes a man many years of experience to slay bass while wearing a crappie shirt like @Team9nine!! You are  well on your way @DitchPanda

 

You should see me slay crappie in my bass shirts. It’s rather impressive ?

Just now, Team9nine said:

 

You should see me slay crappie in my bass shirts. It’s rather impressive ?

Total mind bender 

23 minutes ago, DitchPanda said:

I'm still learning...I've only been throwing it a couple years. Thinking of expanding to more than just the TRDs..trying to decide what baits to add to the Ned line up.

 

You don’t need a ton of different ones, but should play around in the beginning to see what each does and how well a particular style works on your waters. I check new versions out, but routinely only stock and throw about 5 or 6 styles that will do most everything I need.

3 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

Total mind bender 

 

The best way to learn open water/deep water bass fishing in many places is by starting with crappie. I used to only fish them after tourney season ended, but once I stopped tourney fishing, I’ve been able to fish them year round. I’ve caught over 3200 so far this year already. Shooting for 5k by Dec 31 ?

A few decent bass today on a shaky head and 5.5" Grande Airtail worm (Daiwa Alphas SV105/Kistler KLX).

 

 

15 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

You don’t need a ton of different ones, but should play around in the beginning to see what each does and how well a particular style works on your waters. I check new versions out, but routinely only stock and throw about 5 or 6 styles that will do most everything I need.

 

The best way to learn open water/deep water bass fishing in many places is by starting with crappie. I used to only fish them after tourney season ended, but once I stopped tourney fishing, I’ve been able to fish them year round. I’ve caught over 3200 so far this year already. Shooting for 5k by Dec 31 ?

So besides the TRD what are a few must haves in your opinion?

18 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

 

You don’t need a ton of different ones, but should play around in the beginning to see what each does and how well a particular style works on your waters. I check new versions out, but routinely only stock and throw about 5 or 6 styles that will do most everything I need.

 

The best way to learn open water/deep water bass fishing in many places is by starting with crappie. I used to only fish them after tourney season ended, but once I stopped tourney fishing, I’ve been able to fish them year round. I’ve caught over 3200 so far this year already. Shooting for 5k by Dec 31 ?

That is awesome ! 

Had to try out my new Okuma ITX despite working way too much OT the last few days so I stopped after work yesterday to make a few cast. Caught 2 warmouth and 3 bass. One bass had someone else's worm hook protruding from it's gills.

The water in this creek was really clear and I got to sight fish this one. 

 

That ITX, 

I thought you had some kind of crazy double hook rig for a second. lol

 

Were you able to remove the other hook, or was it still stuck?