MLF Phoenix Series Rookie Diary: Event 4

Background: I decided to fish the MLF Phoenix Series (BFL) this year for two reasons. The first, I'm an older guy and this is a bucket list item. Second, it's good PR for my hotel. My hotel has provided me limited sponsorship for the events. Also, some of you know I have the Fishing with the GM events at my property, and this year I asked for donations from bait companies and in return one of the things I do to promote them is have their logos on my tournament jersey. I'm an average recreational angler with very little club tournament experience and with that I have no expectations entering these tournaments. I'm in them to have fun and for the hotel PR.

Event 3: Lake Sinclair

Lake Sinclair is another lake in my backyard and connects to Lake Oconee at the Wallace Dam. With only a 20 minute drive to the ramp I'm not spending money on a hotel room, travel, and boarding my dog for a few days. So already it's a win for me. Oddly enough, until today I had never fished Sinclair.

I talked with my boater a few minutes the night before the vent, and his strategy was to fish shallow water and beat the banks all day. THAT is a strategy I like because it gives me an opportunity to catch fish - something I will elaborate on later. The day started off overcast, and oddly enough despite no rain in the forecast we ran into some light showers off and on during the day.

We were in the second flight, and after a quick jaunt we hit a creek channel. My boater and I both happened to start off throwing buzzbaits, but since this was a wider creek channel and we were both fishing the same bank after 3 or 4 casts I picked up another rod with an underspin and a Keitech. That paid off right away and I landed a small keeper within just a few casts.

About an hour later my boater landed a small one, and a little while later he landed a second small keeper. We fished grass lines and skipped docks for a while but found no takers. It was still cloudy out, but we started fishing the wooded shorelines and skipping under trees and bushes. I got a nice strike on another underspin, set the hook, and reeled down as I felt the bass start to come up. Sure enough it breached and spit the hook. Dang! It looked to be 2 - 2.5 pounds.

My boater caught his 3rd fish as we moved on and fished some more grass lines between docks and I landed another small keeper on a trick worm. Then things got weird for me. My trick worm was green pumpkin with a chartreuse tip, and fish kept grabbing the tip of the worm but not hitting the hook. I'd reel in and feel the fish on the line, see my rod dip and the line move, and when the fish got near the boat they'd let go. I'd reel in and the hook was still texposed. This happened four times. It reminded me of the Spongebob episode where Spongebob and Patrick would ride the hooks and then jump off. I don't count these as fish I lost (i.e. I screwed up), since they were never hooked. They might have been bluegills anyway, although I felt some weight on two of them.

I lost another one at the boat that threw the hook and that one was definitely less than two pounds, but still a keeper. Meanwhile, my boater landed a nice 5 pounder for his 4th fish of the day.

For the last two hours, the sun came out and we weren't catching anything, try as we might. I ended up with just two fish and just over two pounds and my boater ended with four fish and just over 9 pounds. Still, it was a good day. I had lanes to fish all day, and I really should have had four fish but I blew it on two of them. Only two co0anglers broke 10 pound (13 and 10). The winning boater finished with an even 20 pounds.

After four events I'm sitting 73rd out of 244 co-anglers, and with one event to go I'm only 107 points out of qualifying for the regions. That's more than doable. But even if I fall short, by entering all five events in my region I will fish a special event to try and qualify for the regional championship at Lake Norman.

Bonus Event: Lake Hartwell

A few weeks ago I enter the MLF event at Lake Hartwell even though it was outside of my region. The points I gain there did not apply to my division, so I was in it for the experience. Plus, Hartwell is a great largemouth bass fishery.

Unfortunately, my boater wanted to fish off shore for spotted bass.

His strategy was to fish offshore in 20-30 foot deep water, exploring brush piles with his LiveScope and throwing a shaky head. That leaves me throwing blind off the side or the back of the boat having zero idea if there is any type of structure out there.

He can throw a shaky head directly in front of him and properly work the bait as he moves in on the brush pile. Me? I can't throw a shaky head or drop shot off the side of the boat because it just drags and I can't work it. So I would throw a lipless crank to try and cover water, but mostly I threw a Carolina Rig with a long leader so I could pull it forward and then let it sit for just a little bit as the boat moved.

But that didn't work well because my boater kept either turning over my line or casting on top of my line all day long. All. Day. Long. This happened every time he noticed a fish where I was fishing. It got to the point where I almost had him take me back to the dock. I caught one 2.5 pounder and even then he cast right on top of me. Oh yeah - he didn't treat the live well and when we got back my fish was dead and I was penalized a quarter pound.

The other thing is we kept moving all day. I mean really moving. He'd pull up to a spot, take two or three casts and stare at his Live Scope, then we'd be off to the next spot. All. Day. Long. Back and forth to almost all of the same brush piles.

The rules state that the boater has to give the co-angler a chance to fish, and this bordered on shutting me out all day. While I think it was a mistake to fish off shore for spotted bass, I have no problem deferring to the boater. I was all set for shaky heads and drop shots just in case, but that was ridiculous.

The bottom line is that if you're a co-angler and your boater wants to fish deep water with his Live Scope, yo may be in for a long, unproductive day. That being said, what I should have done is asked him if he had side scan on the console unit. That might have allowed me to find some other structure. But chances are he would end up steaming over my line or pulling off to the next spot when I figured out where to cast.

The next even in my region is not until August on Lake Lanier. But I'm thinking about heading to Neely Henry Lake in Alabama in June then to Lake Keowee in South Carolina in early August. If I do happen to qualify for the regional championship at Lake Norman set for October, I may fish the Lake Norman tournament in September.

Today's results weren't good, but it was a good day. After the Hartwell debacle, it was nice to have real opportunities to catch fish again.