Congrats on a great tourament!
JK

Finally, a good tournament

Group: rec.outdoors.fishing.bass Date: Mon, Oct 4, 2004, 12:42am (CDT+5)
From: (RGarri7470)
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

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