Great job Ronnie!

Warren
--
http://www.warrenwolk.com/
http://www.tri-statebassmasters.com
2004 NJ B.A.S.S. Federation State Champions



"RGarri7470" wrote in message
...
Fifteen members of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished our September
tournament at West Point last weekend -9/25&26. The two day tournament was
scheduled last January and we had no idea two hurricanes would dump water
into
the lake just before the tournament and another one headed this way would
make
us fight strong winds both days.

The lake from Wehadkee Creek upstream was muddy and the mud moved further
down
the lake each day. Some of the creeks near the dam were fairly clear and
that
is where most people headed to fish.

Even under bad conditions we had one of our best tournaments in years.
There
were 17 limits of five bass brought to the scales and most people reported
catching many more than five keepers. Almost all the bass were spotted
bass and
not very big, but they were fun to catch.

Kwong Yu continued his wining ways at West Point, taking first place and
big
fish. His ten bass weighing 19.44 pounds was first and he weighed in a
4.58
pound largemouth for the big fish award. I landed 10 weighing 16.08 pounds
for
second, James Pilgrim, Jr. had 9 at 15.44 pounds for third and Jimmy
Waddle
took 4th with 10 weighing 15.24 pounds.

We started at 7:00 Saturday morning and my partner Ronnie Long and I
headed to
a rocky point. We landed five keeper bass and lost two more before 7:30,
then
it slowed way down I managed to land four more and cull my limit and
Ronnie
ended up with three keepers.

When we got to the point that morning there was a boat sitting on it so I
went
around to the back side. After a few minutes I heard the other boat leave,
so I
put the trolling motor on high and headed that way throwing a spinnerbait.
As
we rounded the point I landed a keeper spot, then a couple of casts later
got a
second one. About that time Ronnie got a keeper spot on a spinnerbait.

When I went around the point I turned and picked up a crawfish Deep Little
N
crankbait. I fished it going back and landed a bigger spot on this pass -
one
of my two biggest fish. On the next pass I threw a different crankbait, a
shad
colored Fat Free Shad, and landed my biggest fish of the day, a 2.2 pound
largemouth.

That was it until 10:30 when I landed a 13 inch bass and put it in the
livewell. After making two casts I remembered it was a largemouth - and
largemouth have to be 14 inches long at West Point. I had been putting 13
inch
spots in the livewell and did not think. Had to dig around and find the
largemouth and let it go.

It took another hour to finally land a keeper spot - about 13 inches long.
I
also landed a 3 pound cat on my big crankbait. Thought I had a good bass!
Ronnie landed two more keepers during the day, one good spot that hit a
crankbait and a small spot that hit a worm.

Just before weigh-in we stopped on a old roadbed near the launch site and
I
landed two more keeper spots but neither were big enough to cull what I
had.

The next morning Ronnie could not fish so I was alone. I headed to that
same
point and made a lot of cast. At 8:30 I had not caught a keeper bass. Then
a
small keeper spot hit my spinnerbait. After that I backed out to deeper
water
and ended up catching 12 keepers on Carolina rigged worms, including two
largemouth.

At one point I made five casts to a brushpile in about 15 feet of water.
The
first cast produced a 4 inch pumpkinseed, next cast a throwback spot, then
three keeper spots in a row. Just before having to head in I cast out to
a
brushpile in 16 feet of water and landed my two biggest of the day, a 16
inch
largemouth and a 15 inch spot. I had five spots over 14 inches long and
two
largemouth over 14 inches, as well as the other keeper spots over 12
inches.
Most of them hit Carolina rigged black/red flake Trick worms.

We weighed in a total of 110 keeper bass weighing 155 pounds in this
tournament. Of those 110 keepers, 91 were spotted bass. It sure was nice
hitting the lake right for a change!

Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com