This weekend I will be fishing in a big bass/pickerel tournament. Largest fish wins. The lake is 66 acres. There are usually 20-30 people in the tournament. I attached a lake map. The water level is down 1 foot, and I am not sure how accurate the map is. Water clarity is also down to less than 2 feet. lots of weeds this year. I think they they treated the lake, because of the low water level, clarity, and sudden lack of weeds. There is just enough weeds that jigs and bottom baits won't work. Lots of the anglers fish live bait, but I usually stick to my lures. I am willing to use live bait however. I am a finesse guy, I am good with paddle tail swimbaits and neko rigs. That is mostly my plan. I will also have a swim jig and flip bait tied on. Tourney is 7am-11am. I will see if i can find an early morning tw bite the day before, with out hooks. Then ill move offshore with the paddle tail and go finesse as the sun comes up, i have limited time to find the fish. ANY HELP IS AWESOME TAHNKS!

BCW lake map.pdf

I would fish some kind of Texas rigged plastic - All Day.

Perhaps a 4 or 5 inch Senko rigged either weightless or with an 1/8 ounce lead bullet weight - not pegged.

Or the same rig with a Rage Craw, Rage Bug or Rage Tail Menace.

I'd also use spinning gear with a braid mainline and a 8-10 foot 10 lb mono leader.

Good Luck

A-Jay

Are you saying live bait is allowed during tourney? If so I would think that is the ticket to getting biggest fish. 

Anyway what about a frog early? Big bass are known to eat them. I would also use a lot of plastics( brushhogs and finesse worms) maybe throw a rattletrap to search and if there in the weeds I like a bladed jig with a paddle tail trailer too

Live bait you say ~ Does this count?

Guess it would depend on what one was fishing for . .

Certainly takes nose hooking up a notch.

A-Jay

 

11 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Live bait you say ~ Does this count?

Guess it would depend on what one was fishing for . .

Certainly takes nose hooking up a notch.

A-Jay