The BASS CAST

Since I did not make the cut I slept in this morning till 6:00.  I then stayed in bed for a while and watched a movie, Pink Panther.

After that we went out for lunch and then head back to the convention center to walk around the Fun Zone.  I actually worked the Yamaha booth a little bit for David Ittern.

I talked a lot with David about fishing and sponsorships and he shed a lot of light on a few things that I did not realize.

We watched the weigh-ins and I wished I was up on the stage doing it instead of sitting in the audience.

After the crownings we headed back to the room to get ready for the awards ceremony.  We had a nice meal and picked up my trophy and check.

The only thing that really did not go well is my name.  It was butchered so many times this week.  I was called Fred, Greg and even Chad one time. 

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• A. Circuit: BFL
• B. Location: BFL All-American Lake Hamilton
• C. Conditions: Hot sunny windy in morning calm in afternoon AT 90 WT 78
• D. Patterns: Finesse
• E. Results: 2 fish 1 dead for 1-12 after the penalty Total 6 fish 5-10 for 26th place and $1850
• F. Hindsight:
• G. Extra:

Day 2 was clear and sunny with winds blowing 10-15 in the morning and then dying down in the afternoon.  The day again was a look for the top water bite only to not find any and then start with the finesse.  My first hook up ended up in favor of the fish as I broke the line by setting the hook a little to hard in the wind.

The next fish hit on the outside break of a point on a drop shot from CCL.  It absolutely engulfed the finesse worm and  I knew that it would not make the trip.  And when you have fish that only weigh 10 to 12 ounces an 8 ounce penalty is huge.

The nest fish came off the back of a wind blown shoal on the same CCL smokeberry finesse worm.

But that was pretty much the day except for setting the hook about 100 times on the peck peck of small fish. 

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• A. Circuit: BFL
• B. Location: BFL All-American Lake Hamilton
• C. Conditions: Cloudy overcast till 1:30 then sunny. slight to brisk wind AT 80 WT 74 Water mostly clear to slightly stained
• D. Patterns: Finesse on drops and breaks in 8 to 20 feet
• E. Results: 4 fish 3-14 pounds 21st place day one
• F. Hindsight:
• G. Extra:

I got up around 4:00 as usual on a tourny day.  I had all the rods that I wanted rigged and ready for the day.  Of course Cache Custom Lures were on every rod.  When I throw plastic it's a CCL that's on my hook.

We started in the same place as the day before with pretty much the same conditions in the morning.  Overcast and a slight breeze.  But the fish were not responding today.  I threw the Trigger shad and then followed with the Trigger Worm on a shaky head.

As soon as I realized that the top water was not going to pan out I pretty much just threw the shaky head and drop shot the rest of the day.

My first fish came on the shaky head with a CCL Real Nightcrawler Trigger Worm.  It went a whole 12 1/4.  The next two fish came from the drop shot with a CCL finesse worm in Smokeberry color.  My last fish came on a CCL Trigger Shad.

The day was very active even though there were only 4 boated.  The local panfish were aggressive so throwing the small lures kept me setting the hook most of the day. 

I did break a hook on the drop shot which probably cost me another keeper and during the schooling action I had one more hook up but it came unbuttoned before the boat. 

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• A. Circuit: BFL
• B. Location: Lake Hamilton
• C. Conditions: Cloudy slight wind AT 75 WT 75-78 water slightly stained to dirty
• D. Patterns: finesse worms no power fishing
• E. Results:
• F. Hindsight:
• G. Extra:

Today we started fairly close to the ramp and worked some top waters and Trigger Shad.  We had a few fish come up but nothing big.  That was the story of the day "nothing big"

I had around 50 hits over the entire day set the hook on a few and they were either just under or just over 12 inches.  I am certain that a lot of them were panfish or small spots.

I worked my shaky head with a Cache Custom Lures Trigger worm in the secret color for the majority of the fish but also threw a Poor Boys Silly Bunny for a few.  

We covered a lot of water and found fish everywhere.  It will be a game of ounces unless the sunny weather the rest of the week has a major effect on the fish. 

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We packed up everything and started the 5 hour trip to Hot Springs Arkansas.  We planned on hitting the road at 8:00 so we got up at 6:00 and started getting everything set.  I needed to get the camper ready so all we had to do was hook up and move to the next camp when we get back.

So I pulled the satellite and sewer lines, put away all the patio items.  This took us to 7:00 or so.  Then I still had to empty my boat and place it all in the truck.  This is quite a process my boat is loaded so I had to empty all the boxes and place them in the back seat of the truck.  After we got all that in then all our clothes and other items went on top of that.

The drive was uneventful and it took about 5 hours.  We made it to the hotel and loaded everything onto a luggage cart and up to our room.  

Registration was at 4:00 and I was the first one through the line.  We had boat orientation and the tournament pairings.  I pulled boat 10 with Jesse from Jasper GA.

We will be riding in the Coppertone boat for the next 2 days.

After dinner we went back to the room and I worked on my tackle to get it ready for practice tomorrow. 

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Today was a relax and catch up on stuff kind of day.  The plans were to get ready to take the trip to the BFL All-American.

We were watching a movie and a storm suddenly came up and we watched as it tore the awning off the camper.  Not much we could do, if I tried to roll it up I know as soon as I would untie the straps it would just take off.

So we called a repair guy and he stopped by to take a look and said he could get it fixed before we left next week. 

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I launched out of JP Coleman this morning.  I am not use to so many people on the water.  The holiday weekend traffic was horrible.  I  am so use to fishing the week with maybe 3 boats on the water.

I hit some fish right of the bat on a c-rig. No real big ones but quality.

I worked a few more areas but the traffic was so bad.  Boats running all over the place just making fishing not as pleasant as I have gotten accustomed to. 

I believe I did find a pattern of crankin'  wish I would have thought about it earlier. 

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Today I went out of Natchez Trace Parkway ramp.  A nice facility with a shallow ramp.

Tis is the holiday weekend so the boat traffic was substantial.  The current was almost off completely the slight wind we had actually drifted you up lake.  I have figured out a thing or two, if the current is gone go shallow.  The deep bite is so dependent on current. You can fish the humps and points for hours with no action to speak of hoping and waiting for them to turn on for a quick 30 minutes of action.  I will not be planning that for the tourny.

I did follow my hunches and went shallow for a while and hit any wood that was not connected to the bank.  The fish were there and not bad size wise.

I will hunt the grass and find some fish tomorrow maybe even work some marinas. 

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I launched out of McFarland this morning.  I headed up to the dam and worked what I had hoped was a sweet spot from the other day, but no takers.  Today there was probably the same amount of current but no wind coming in the opposite direction.  So I will note this and work the area if the same conditions apply.

I went down lake from there and stopped at 7 mile island.  As I worked the tip, a big school started busting along the edge.  I rushed  over and threw my Sammy in there.  I watched 2 monster stripers follow me bait to the boat and quickly pulled my $15 dollar lure from the danger.

I then worked many humps, shell beds, shoals, mud islands, rock piles and so forth hitting a few fish here and there but finding an area with short weeds on the hump that should have some pretty good fish in a few weeks 

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I launched up in Wilson today to see how that lake would pan out.  First place I hit was the tailrace area of the Wheeler Dam.  They were pulling a lot of water.  But I did not get a bite.  This area is 3 times as deep as the Wilson area and I think my presentation are better suited to the shallower one.

I then worked a series of bluffs and found a school of small fish.  Maybe one keeper in the bunch.

I worked Town creek next and did not find much in that area.  I then moved deep and I like fishing deep but it is so hard to cover water and work deep so the process is pretty slow.

After working a few deep areas with limited success I noticed some main lake grass and decided to throw a frog and wham wham wham.  The are is pretty small and I had 5 keepers pretty quick and a bunch of blow ups.

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