The last our our club's night tournaments for the year.  33 hours over a month on three lakes.  While I love night fishing, 11 hours a night is a bit much.

Anywho, Ft Pat isn't exactly a destination fishery.  850 acres, tons of pleasure boat traffic.  I fished there back in the spring, only got bit once and it was a carp.

Planned on fishing Friday night and spending the morning in my camper, but a pulled back muscle put a stop to that.  Nearly OD'ed on ibuprofen Saturday trying to get my back into shape.

Got out the door late, barely got launched in time.  If not for TheBeast, I would have sunk my boat thanks to forgetting to put the plug in.

I blast off 2nd from last, but I let everyone go on since my boat is tiny and doesn't handle big wakes all that well.  Hit my first spot, at least two other club boats in there.  I spent about 4 hours running that one bank, got a few bites but nothing else.

TheBeast calls, hasn't had any luck either.  Run down the lake and meet him, then we head down towards the dam.  Start getting a few more bites, but again, nothing.  Then TheBeast hooks up on a decent smallie and then a nice chunk largemouth.  After a couple of hours, we split up again.

I go to a secret spot that a friend told me about.  Again, a few bites, but nothing.  Boat drifts a bit while I'm talking to my wife.  Decide to fish the water in front of me.  Discover a little sumpin' sumpin' on the bottom (being purposely discrete since I can't reveal my spot to TheBeast) while fishing a spinnerbait.  Second cast into that spot, BAM!  FISH ON!

I horse it to the surface, see that it is a huge fish.  I keep pressure on the fish, grab my net (fishing alone) and get ready to land the big *****.  Almost have her in the net, she shakes her head one more time, throws the spinnerbait in the boat and swims off.

:'( :'( :'(

Fish was at least 5 lbs.

I spent about another hour there, had about an hour left.  Friend calls, he gives me another spot to try.  d**n near sink my boat taking off thanks to either a floating dock or a pallet.  Get to the spot, start throwing a buzzbait.  Barely keeping it on the surface at first.  After about 10 minutes of that with no action, I start speeding my retrieve up.  First cast I get a swirl.  Working the bank pretty fast, I come to the launch ramp.  Throw the buzzer up on the bank, start ripping it back.  WHAMMY!  FISH ON!!

It starts taking drag, so I know it is a big fish.  Grab the net, get it in the water, then fish takes off again.  Made three runs at the boat before I could get it in the net.  Up and into the boat and I'm staring at a pig smallie.  Lipped it, hook just fell out of it's jaw.  Barely hooked.

Spent the next 45 minutes working the remaining bank, got a couple more light bites.  But at least I didn't skunk out.

3.41 lbs was a good reward for the night.  TheBeast ended up with 6.1 and finished fourth.  His pig LM weighed 3.89 and got him $70 for big fish.

Amazing that I spent 11 hours on the water, caught one fish, and can't wait to get back on the water.  That after fishing Douglas two weeks ago, catching a ton of fish, and then just not having any desire to get on the water.

So here are the fish.  First, TheBeast's big fish.

And my pig smallie.

Later Sunday, TheBeast and I fished our Dinkmaster Trail tournament.  He got big fish honors for that one as well with this monster.

Hard core Bassin' Mr. B!

Dan

Man those smallies are great looking fish. So, how did your back feel after the tourney?

Don't worry I will find that secret spot, I have an idea of the general locationa and besides the lake ain't that big.  

Thanks again for the heads up to go to the dam, wish I had gone back down there for the last couple of hours.

You're going to have to do a lot of searching...

And dodge my bullets.  I'll pull the AR out of the rod locker!  8-)

lol nice job

That's alright, Alan showed me a secret spot on Douglas that I didn't see anyone else on all night down there but it had fish on it, we just couldn't get them to bite. Almost guarantee if I had use what you did we would have both limited.

I wish the ABA night tournaments were 11 hours long.  We only get from 8 until two or so.  Nice smallie!

Great report. Did you have that last fish you posted mounted?