Every year, I participate in two bass fishing contests with friends/family.  The first one is in a week.

 

We fish as teams of 2 against each other for 4 hours and then do a weigh in.  Usually we have 2 or 3 teams, this year we have 3.

 

The losing team has to buy lunch and beers for the winning team.  Bragging rights are on the line.  So without further adieu...

 

Well unfortunately my hot streak ended today.  Not only did it end, it ended with a THUD.  My partner and I couldn't even fill out a limit, and 2 of our bass were rats.  Whole lot of things went poorly for us from fish jumping off, lines breaking, and I even had one flip out of the boat when I was trying to put it in the live well.

 

The other two teams had a battle for first though.  One team won by 0.04 pounds.  Big fish was a 4.10 pounder my Father caught (photo).

 

Sadly, the beer was pretty skunky tasting afterwards.  It was served up with a piece of humble pie.

 

I will have a chance to redeem myself at the end of September.

 

 

I'll root for ya! Must be getting pretty close to the next one. Shake a minner for me!

@Bazoo

 

Round 2 is in 10 days. I’ll be pre fishing ahead of it too.

One week from today is the 2nd derby of the season.  It's the exact same format as the one in August, just on a different lake.  The teams also get mixed up a little differently too.

 

August version was a complete disaster.  My worst effort and result in years.  I was on a heater for 5 straight events so that couldn't continue forever.  It really came to a crashing halt.

 

Fishing hours are from 8 -12, followed by a weigh in, and lunch/beers afterwards.  I intend to pre fish on Saturday morning.

 

I don't participate in any real, organized bass tournaments so these friendly derbies are my competition for the season.

 

Last year, my partner and I had four medium sized fish in our live well and at 11:15am we went to a different spot.  He said to me "we need to replace at least two of those fish with bigger versions otherwise we gonna lose."  10 minutes later, that's exactly what we did.  And we won by less than a pound.

That sounds super fun.

 

Good luck!

Derby 2.0 in the morning. I went pre fishing yesterday for 4 hours and it was tough.

 

I did find two minimal patterns in 2 different areas so I at least have concepts of a plan lol

Thoughts of a plan are better than no plan. Good luck!

13 hours ago, gim said:

Derby 2.0 in the morning. I went pre fishing yesterday for 4 hours and it was tough.

 

I did find two minimal patterns in 2 different areas so I at least have concepts of a plan lol

 

Do you have heat up there?

 

High 80's down here all week.

 

This is getting ridiculous.

^ Mid to upper 80s through Friday anyway....ya, October starts Wednesday and we're getting July weather.

It's in the 80s here. Miserable.

Well the bite was extremely difficult and we only weighed in 3 legal bass, but the other team only brought in one.

 

Cold beer and free lunch tasted real good afterwords!
 

Bite was awful. It’s been poor for weeks, so it followed a similar pattern today. Only way to get bit was to drag plastics through weeds very slow.

 

Its miserably hot here all week. 80-90 degrees everyday and no rain in sight. Feels like July out there again. I miss fall.

That’s weird, our fish have all of a sudden started biting very well. Granted, no natural lakes here, so maybe just a different ballgame

 

but you still won! 

1 hour ago, TnRiver46 said:

That’s weird, our fish have all of a sudden started biting very well. Granted, no natural lakes here, so maybe just a different ballgame

 

but you still won! 

It’s been such a grind the last few weeks here. Unseasonably warm temps for late September.

 

Until we get some real fall weather I don’t see it improving either.

Glad you got'em!

I absolutely love that idea of a small bass fishing competition between friends and family. That definitely gives some bragging rights around the holidays along with some new gear, gift ideas for gift exchanges. 😜

There is an annual ongoing work contest that I participate in every year and we did the awards for 2025 yesterday during a luncheon.

Unfortunately I came in 2nd place, again. I lost to the same person who beat me last year too, with the same species of fish. So the traveling trophy will not be in my work station this year, and it will remain where it has been the past year.

I entered a 20 1/4 inch smallmouth which scored about 101% and I still lost by 6 points! The winner entered a 15 inch crappie which scored about 107% here.

I may need a new strategy moving forward. Apparently 20 inch brownies are not good enough.

20 inch Brownies are killer every where. Congrats on that