Post by Pete on May 17, 2005 10:17:37 GMT -5
Well, we made it back home last evening. 12 hour drive later we are back home.
First off I want to thank all of you for the support that you have shown me on here. I really does mean a lot to me. However, I am sorry to say that I disappointed all of you. The original intent was to go down and fish the ESPN BASS weekend series. These tournaments take place on Sundays. However, during that same weekend there was a BFL tournament so I decided to fish it as well, since I was in the area already.
We prefished the Thursday and Friday before. I have a picture of one of the keepers that I caught. The minimum size on the Potomac is 15" until June 15th. Then it comes back down to 12". They change the length for the winter months. We found fish in this one little bay about 30 miles up river from the launch. The bay consisted of rock/concrete and grass beds all of which was close to deeper water.
This bay was pounded pretty hard over the past several weeks with multiple tournaments on the same day. Nonetheless during the BFL tournament, we (partner and I) caught 8 bass. 4 each. None of them were 15" or over. All were 14 to 14and 3/4 " in length. We didn't want to take a chance on bringing in a small fish and getting penalized for it.
So on Saturday we didn't weight in anything.
On Sunday I decided to just fish the grass beds with shallow running crankbaits and tiki-sticks. Went back up the river for about 20 miles to fish this creek that has some nice grass beds on it and about an hour into the day I get a bite. It hit hard, I thought it was a nice fish. It turned out to be a catfish. That's right, a cat fish on a crankbait. I ended up catching to on a crankbait and my partner caught a catfish on a spinnerbait. Once again, we had no fish in the boat. We caught bass just no size.
Ran to another bay where you have to go under a bridge and and then you have to get up on plane really quick or else you will not make it across the bay to a creek where once you are in the creek you can come down off of plane and you are into 3-4 foot of water. We caught no fish in that back creek so we went to leave and I was not fair enough into the creek channel and when I tried to get up on plane the boat just bogged down in the mud and weeds. Got the boat turned around and this time got the boat up on plane before getting out of the creek and was able to get across the bay without getting stuck.
Left that place for another creek and fish the mouth of the creek where it comes out onto the main river. It was 2:00 when I caught the 3 lbs 12 oz largemouth. Caught it on a doctored tiki-stick. it was a green pumpkin coloured but I dipped the tail into red dye. We had to weigh in at 3:00. We worked the creek mouth for the next 55 minutes before having to make the run back to the weigh-in.
I'm glad that I was able to weighin a fish. I received some valuable points. Points I need to qualify for the regionals in October.
The fishing is different down there than what we are accustom to up here. The water clarity was aboout 1-2 foot. The biggest thing that I learned from this past weekend is never leave fish to find fish. I was fishing in the same areas and the winner of both tournaments, it's just that I didn't stick with it long enough. Fish that were caught were caught after making anywhere from 20 to 50 casts into the same spot. Fishing slow was the key. The slower the better.
It was a really experience, one that I will never forget. I have never fished in a tournament (as a boater) that big before. Now that I have all my nervousness out of the way and I understand the way it's run. I can concentrate more on the catching fish aspect of this game. I truly is a mind game when you see all of the guys with shirts, sponsers etc. and you have nothing. I know it's got nothing to do with whether or not you can catch fish but trust me when I say to you that this more psychological than you think it is.
I will do my absolute best to improve on all aspects of my game for the next event next month on Cayuga Lake.
Pete
First off I want to thank all of you for the support that you have shown me on here. I really does mean a lot to me. However, I am sorry to say that I disappointed all of you. The original intent was to go down and fish the ESPN BASS weekend series. These tournaments take place on Sundays. However, during that same weekend there was a BFL tournament so I decided to fish it as well, since I was in the area already.
We prefished the Thursday and Friday before. I have a picture of one of the keepers that I caught. The minimum size on the Potomac is 15" until June 15th. Then it comes back down to 12". They change the length for the winter months. We found fish in this one little bay about 30 miles up river from the launch. The bay consisted of rock/concrete and grass beds all of which was close to deeper water.
This bay was pounded pretty hard over the past several weeks with multiple tournaments on the same day. Nonetheless during the BFL tournament, we (partner and I) caught 8 bass. 4 each. None of them were 15" or over. All were 14 to 14and 3/4 " in length. We didn't want to take a chance on bringing in a small fish and getting penalized for it.
So on Saturday we didn't weight in anything.
On Sunday I decided to just fish the grass beds with shallow running crankbaits and tiki-sticks. Went back up the river for about 20 miles to fish this creek that has some nice grass beds on it and about an hour into the day I get a bite. It hit hard, I thought it was a nice fish. It turned out to be a catfish. That's right, a cat fish on a crankbait. I ended up catching to on a crankbait and my partner caught a catfish on a spinnerbait. Once again, we had no fish in the boat. We caught bass just no size.
Ran to another bay where you have to go under a bridge and and then you have to get up on plane really quick or else you will not make it across the bay to a creek where once you are in the creek you can come down off of plane and you are into 3-4 foot of water. We caught no fish in that back creek so we went to leave and I was not fair enough into the creek channel and when I tried to get up on plane the boat just bogged down in the mud and weeds. Got the boat turned around and this time got the boat up on plane before getting out of the creek and was able to get across the bay without getting stuck.
Left that place for another creek and fish the mouth of the creek where it comes out onto the main river. It was 2:00 when I caught the 3 lbs 12 oz largemouth. Caught it on a doctored tiki-stick. it was a green pumpkin coloured but I dipped the tail into red dye. We had to weigh in at 3:00. We worked the creek mouth for the next 55 minutes before having to make the run back to the weigh-in.
I'm glad that I was able to weighin a fish. I received some valuable points. Points I need to qualify for the regionals in October.
The fishing is different down there than what we are accustom to up here. The water clarity was aboout 1-2 foot. The biggest thing that I learned from this past weekend is never leave fish to find fish. I was fishing in the same areas and the winner of both tournaments, it's just that I didn't stick with it long enough. Fish that were caught were caught after making anywhere from 20 to 50 casts into the same spot. Fishing slow was the key. The slower the better.
It was a really experience, one that I will never forget. I have never fished in a tournament (as a boater) that big before. Now that I have all my nervousness out of the way and I understand the way it's run. I can concentrate more on the catching fish aspect of this game. I truly is a mind game when you see all of the guys with shirts, sponsers etc. and you have nothing. I know it's got nothing to do with whether or not you can catch fish but trust me when I say to you that this more psychological than you think it is.
I will do my absolute best to improve on all aspects of my game for the next event next month on Cayuga Lake.
Pete
How could you possibly think you let us all down ,"you done us proud" ;D