July night tournament

"Ronnie" wrote in message
...
Saturday - July 24, 2010 - Day 177 - 29 days missed

Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament
Lake Sinclair - 6 PM to 2 AM
Water 96 degrees, air in 90s, no breeze, sunny until sundown and HOT

Started on hump where I hooked two in last tournament but nothing
there - even on depthfinder. After an hour started fishing docks in
shady coves - sun was still hot even at 7 PM.

At 8 while fishing a dock I saw brush on my depthfinder and threw a
Texas rigged Mag 2 worm in Redbug to it and got a peck, and landed a
bare 12 inch keeper. One in the livewell at 8:15.

I noticed a green and blue glow under the dock and a guy came walking
out - figured he was going to turn his lights off. Instead we started
talking - he makes and markets Hydro Glow Fishing Lights. He said
there would be lots of bass around the dock in about two hours and he
had caught a 7 pounder there two nights ago. He told me to fish it
wish worms and crankbaits. Shad were already circling the light as
soon as the sun went down.

He walked off and a few mintues later I caught my second keeper on a
jig head worm. Two at 9:00 PM. At about 9:30 he came back and we
could see a couple of bass in the light - I threw a #5 Shadrap and
caught a solid keeper. It had swallowed the crankbait. Three at
9:40. He left and I called my wife - while talking I got a hit on a
jig head, put the phone down and landed my fourth keeper at 10:00 PM

Picked the phone up and told her I was going to stay there the rest of
the night. At 11 I was wondering if I chose right. Then, at 11:20 I
got another small keeper on the jig head - a limit but two were small.

At midnight I got a hit on the jig head worm and landed one that
culled the first one I caught.

I tried two more docks - about 100 yards on either side of the one
with the Hydro Glow light. One had a bright street light hanging over
the water and I caught a bluegill on the Shadrap. There were no shad
around it. The other light had brush under it and it was very dim and
right on the water. No hits there and no shad, either.

At 1:30 I left and threw a spinnerbait on some riprap on the way to
the weigh-in but no hits.

At weigh-in Kwong had three fish - but one was a 7.17 pounder. His
9,91 pounds won. My five weighed 7.28 and was second. Third went to
Brent - the only other limit - with 6.37.. Fourth was two bass
weighing 2.29. Very tough night 7 out of 15 fishermen zeroed.

If I had a dock or tied up and fished at night, I would have one of
those lights!

I'm surprised that there were no bait fish under the "other" light. I have
canoe drifted at night with a Coleman Propane lantern and had shiners just
swarming the boat. Ask the guy with a the light to sink a plastic fish
cover of some kind at the end of his dock.