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Post by Pete on Jul 11, 2005 12:05:16 GMT -5
hi everyone, I'm back from Clayton NY. I had a frustarting tournament to say the least. Pre fishing on Friday was alright. Nothing blazing but I found fish. My game plan was to go after smallmouth. I had about 12 lbs on Friday. Saturday, raining all day. I went to another spot and in about 15 minutes I pulled 2 smallies over the 3 pound range. I left that place and said to myself that I was coming back first thing tomorrow. To make a long story short, I ended up with 3 fish weighing 5.3 lbs. for a 75th place finish. Very disappointing. The top weights came from largemouth only. The only good news to come out of this tournament is that there were some guys that didn't weigh in anything or less than me and I jumped up 13 places in the standings. Now sitting in 65th place with 2 tournaments left. I need to have a couple of top 20 placements in both tournaments if I want to finish in the top 30 to qualify for the regionals. I have my work cut out for me. Pete
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Post by Gary on Jul 11, 2005 19:05:51 GMT -5
Pete, You and I both had rough tournaments this weekend. Ah well, that's how it goes sometimes. The St. Lawrence can be tricky. A lot of people tend to go for the smallies because you hear so much about them there, but I've found that tournaments there are usually won with the largemouth bite. I think the only chance you really have of winning with smallmouth is if you go out on the main lake. Good luck with your last two tournies. I've got two BFLs left as well, and I'm still in the top 30...hope to keep it there. Tight lines! Gary
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Post by Jeremy on Jul 12, 2005 5:44:17 GMT -5
Pete I have to say I don't agree with not fishing for smallmouth. I remember a tournament Roland Martin won with smallmouth. I'm waiting for the day I fish a tournament on the Mighty St. Lawrence. I strongly believe if you fish the main channel deep as I have for the last 5 or 6yrs you can catch them. I have found that the deep main channel fish don't move as much as the smaller slack water fish , but in saying this you really have to know your fish and there patterns. I believe this is why most tournament anglers that fish the smallmouth are such tight lipped anglers. The reason most tournaments are won with largemouth is most people are fishing them. They are also easier to pattern and to catch consistantly. I don't mean this last statement to offend anybody :-/sometimes they are all hard to catch as we have all experienced at sometime or another! In closing this, please this is only my opinion and I don't want to offend anybody. I hope I will get to test this theory next year on the Mighty St. Lawrence. Till them God Bless, Jeremy
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Post by Pete on Jul 12, 2005 6:23:38 GMT -5
HI Gary, I read your report yesterday on your site. www.garycossaboom.comThe good thing is that you are still in the top 30. Also you got to fish where you wanted to. That's saying a lot as a non-boater. By that I mean that as a non boater sometimes you end up fishing some unfamiliar waters and some unfamiliar techniques but not in your case. Keep plugging away at it, I'm sure that you will qualify. Also, you have that delema as to whether or not leave the Everstart event on Erie or go to the BFL event. Best of luck to you and I would agree with you in leaving the Everstart to try and increase you chance of qualifying for the regionals. Unless of course you are close to qualifying for the Everstart championship. Decisions, decisions decisions. Best of luck, Pete
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Post by Gary on Jul 12, 2005 11:40:12 GMT -5
Jeremy,
You are absolutely right. There is no doubt that a great smallmouth bite can be had at 1000 Islands. You are also right in that most folks fish for the largemouth because they're a bit easier to target. I think that going for smallmouth is generally a bit of a risk on this water, though, because they are a bit tougher to target. Doesn't mean that you can't win a tournament with them if you find the bite though! And though there are lots of smallies in the islands, I think the football sized ones are more readily available on the main lake. That's been my experience...
Gary
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Post by Gary on Jul 12, 2005 11:48:00 GMT -5
Pete, Yeah, I want to make the cut at the Everstart (decent money), but I certainly don't want to mess up my standings in the BFL division either. We'll see what comes of it. In the BFL's it's the top 40 that make it to the regional so if I perform halfway decent in the next two tournies I should be able to make it. There's also the deal where if you make the regional, you then have to make the top 6 cut in that to make the All-American. With Everstart, you just have to qualify in the top 40 in the points to make the Everstart Championship. You're right...decisions, decisions. If I don't make the cut though, I won't have to worry about it. I have one other similar conflict in August. Hope that works out too! And speaking of co-anglers... I can't WAIT to be a boater!!!! Have fun this weekend all. Gary PS: I was on White Lake Canada Day weekend, fished for a few hours. I caught probably 7-8 bass, couple three pounders, and a handful of small pike. The bass all came from the bay in front of fish creek on weightless, wacky-rigged senkos (chartruese and baby bass colours), and a chartreuse spinnerbait, and a chartreuse Mann's Minus 1. They were on the deep weed edge in about 6-10 feet of water.
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Post by grumpy on Jul 12, 2005 20:39:23 GMT -5
Pete & Gary best of luck to both of you the St. Lawrence can at times be a no=brainer but for the most part LM are the easier ones to predict Smallies are here to-day gone tomorrow don't forget their river smallies tournaments are won when you find them on tournament days, unpredictable as hell but then a good LM will beat smallies my opinion Keep up the good work Pete a jump of 13 places wow and you have'nt really begun to show your " stuff "
Tony G. aka Grumpy
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Post by Pete on Jul 13, 2005 11:09:44 GMT -5
Thanks Grumpy. It was my first time on that body of water and I sure did learn a lot about it. I have to fish it again in September. Hopefully, the outcome will be different. Pete
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