I recently joined a fishing club near where I live called the Tar River Bassmasters. I had my first tournament ever with them Yesterday (8-30) and I had a great time.

We went up to a boat ramp in a town called Washington here in eastern NC and set out at about 6 to fish the Tar River. It wasn't a huge tourney, just 10 people total, but still the first of hopefully many for me.

Due to a lack of rain, it turned out to be very salty where we started so me and my partner decided to head up river, as did many other boats. The water definitely got a little less salty and thankfully wasn't too murky either. Many of us were worried that 3 days of rain might churn up the water too much.

Heading up the river, we stopped at various ditches and small creeks joining the river. At one ditch, I threw out one of my favorite lures lately (Rage Tail Shad) and it turned out to be a great idea. As I ran it over some lily pads, right around the end near the boat, a big one hit it hard. Actually scared me a little. First fish of the day for me. Got it into the boat and it was a big one. I was thrilled.

We wandered up the river more, fishing structure, ditches, creeks, and even a pond that formed outside the river. Through out the day me and my partner caught many fish. Sadly my partner only picked up two small keepers and even with many bass I couldn't get one to measure more than 13 3/4 inches. I wanted to stretch that one and see if I could get that last 1/4 inch out of him, but threw him back.

Overall it was a fun day. The morning was cool and cloudy and it really didnt heat up till the last few hours of the tourney. At 3 we pulled in and weighed in. The fishing was pretty rough and I actually made it in 2nd place with one fish. The big guy weighing 4lbs 12ounces.  The winner had 5lbs 3ounces.  If I had just had one more keeper! But I still picked up big fish for the day. Pretty good for my first outing, if I do say so myself. Like I said, it was a lot of fun, and as long as I can keep some extra money on the side I think it will be the first of many tourney's to come.

Here is a pic of the big fish.

Well you will get them!!! Don't worry you will have a win under your belt in no time!!!

Great job Movarus, sounded like an exciting time to me....keep it up

Big O  

Congratulations!  The Tar River is a beautiful river.

Congrats on your 2nd place, thats a good fishery on the Tar. I prefer the Roanoke and seem to do better in tournaments there. We fish tournaments all winter on the Roanoke so if you would like to join us just e=mail me.