Old Times....

Its been awhile since I posted, laziness the biggest factor for that, sue me. The Warrior Baits tournament did not go as planned although my lil' bro and I was on some really solid fish. The story of my season so far, lost fish killed the opportunity to throw down a big bag of fish on the scale. It wasnt meant to be. My brother, once again put a nice fish in the box, just like he did at Mosquito Lake last summer. We had a fun time, I always have a blast when I get to fish with my family, whether its my dad or one of my brothers or both. We got to talking out on the boat about some of the crazy times we had as kids while fishing and I thought it might be remotely interesting to share a few stories from my childhood.

Im not going to go all in depth on some of these stories, for all I know, these stories might only be funny to me, so I am sorry in advanced if you feel like you "had to be there". Im also probably going to make this a 2 or 3 part deal as I recall new stories.

 The Bullet - There was a pond near one of the handful of houses my dad lived in while we were growing up. For whatever reason, we were only alowed to fish that pond for one summer. I think maybe someone bought the land or something, hell, maybe the landowners just didnt want some douchey kids raping their pond, cant really recall. Anyway, my step-brother and I (Heath) was fishing for whatever was biting. I was usually throwing some variety of plastic worm when I was that age. Heath was a little less evolved and was throwing some sort of rig that required a 1oz bell sinker. As you know, most anything with a 1oz bell sinker will get away from you in a hurry if youre not careful.  Well thats what happened to Heath, he heaved that rig out and it went about 30 yards up and into a tree. I have no idea what kind of line he was using but it was probably the most generic, heaviest mono you can imagine. Im guessing 25lb or more Eagle Claw economy spool. This snag is in there good, so Heath starts tugging and tugging and tugging. He is really leaning on this thing. It looked like a giant banjo string. When it finally let go, it sounded like a major league fastball. Im watching this whole deal unfold, I didnt know what was going to happen but I was pretty sure something was gonna go down. So the line breaks, but it breaks between the hook and the sinker and that sinker was making a B-line towards Heath at a speed that could only be measured with a high speed camera from Mythbusters. Can you imagine the sound it made when it hit him? You would be disapointed if you actually heard it because it wasnt as exciting as you would think but it still makes me laugh when I replay that sound. It hit him right in the bare chest and sounded something like movie punch. Left a welt on him that looked like a paintball wound and is burned into my memory as to what happens when you pull a little to hard on a snag in a tree.

The Lantern -  We spent alot of time catfishing as kids. I couldnt get enough of it. We always went at night, all summer long, seemed like every night of the week. My dad had a vintage Coleman lantern that we used for, of all things, lighting. It was old school, from the early 70s, but it worked awesome. I think he still has that old lantern somewhere. Anyway, one night, we were doing our usual thing, this time at Lake Alma in Vinton county. We were fishing off the only dock in the entire lake at the time, hell it might still be the only dock in the lake, and it was prob midnight. It was kind of spitting rain, kind of chilly, crazy windy, and we werent catching many fish. We decided to pack things up and head back to the car. Heath got up from his lawn chair and started to gather some things when a gust of wind kicked up and blew the lawn chair into the water and with it, the still lit lantern. It stayed lit, believe it or not, for about a tenth of a second. Panic ensued, mainly in part due to the fact that my dad was a hard ass and was likely to be ultra pissed about his lantern being dropped into an average at best catfishing lake. The water wasnt that deep so after gathering our witts, we shined a flashlight on the subject at hand and realized that we could hook the lantern and raise it from the depths. The next day, a 13 year old (yours truly) while dad was at work, completely disassembled the lantern, changed the fuel, put a new mantle on, lubed moving parts and re-glazed the sub-routine without anyone in a position of authority being the wiser. The thing worked like a champ, you would never know it had been drowned the night before.

I got more,  and considering how bad Ive sucked this season, these lame old stories are prob far more interesting then hearing about me losing another tournament because I cant drag a fish out of anything other then open water.

Later

S.T.P.

Breaking down the Cleveland Browns draft...

Well the draft came and went and the Browns (my lifelong headache) came away with some new talent to get us over the hump.  This is my in depth, probing, insightful breakdown of our 2012 NFL draft.



Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama - Beast

Brandon Weeden, QB, Oklahoma State - OLD

Mitchell Schwartz, RT, California - Ehhhhhh, whatever, another o-linemen

John Hughes, DT, Cincinatti - Prjected to go undrafted, Directed iconic 80s films, interesting to see how he will translate to football.

Travis Benjamin, WR, Miami University Florida - Burner

James Micheal Johnson, LB, Nevada - 3 names,  what else matters?

Ryan Miller, G, Colorado - 6'7''?   youre too tall to play guard dude...

Emanual Acho, LB, Texas - At least he looks like a linebacker

Billy Winn, DT, Boise State - guarenteed to have at least one winn, unless he gets cut of course,  then we might be stretching it..
.
Trevin Wade, CB, Arizona - economics major...

Brad Smelley, TE/FB, Alabama - Heckert admits mistake with Vickers/Marecic, drafts new fullback.  I likee.....

Federation Nation...

Well,   my first B.A.S.S. Federation Nation tournament is in the annals of history (sarcastic) and Ive noticed a trend about my game. It seems as if I am getting more consistency but other, newer problems have emerged and I think there is a relationship between the two.

First off,  I finshed 9th out of like 50 or 60 guys which isnt bad but isnt great either. I had slightly more then 8lbs, which again, isnt terrible but isnt great either. Buckeye Lake is pretty much fishing heavy lately, it took 15lbs to win there on saturday in a team tournament and as much of a sewage hole that place is in the summer, the bass are usually extremely healthy, easy to catch, and usually slightly obese, especially the smaller fish (they binge eat like a bulimic teenager).  But here we are again,  I had my chances. I hooked up with 3 really quality fish that I just couldnt muscle out of where they were, which was behind/underneath a dock. If each of those would have been 2lbs, I would have upgraded to around 11 lbs and that would have put me in contention as it took 12 to win.  Bad luck?  I have been a strong proponent against using "luck" as an excuse because in my eyes there is little, if any luck involved but christ, Ive had alot of trouble landing fish lately.

Heres where I think there is a connection between the loss of fish and the improvement in consistency.

A- Ive been hooking alot more fish, so just that alone gives you more opportunity to lose fish. The sheer numbers involved by themself simply gives a guy more chances to screw up.

B - I think this is the most significant factor. The more and more time I spend on the water, the more efficient I get at putting a bait where it needs to be. Where does it need to be? Usually in the gnarliest spots in the area but that comes with a price. If now, you are able to skip a jig 10 feet up under a dock, past 3 or 4 posts, and you know a bass is in there, guess what? You hook up and suddenly that fish becomes much more difficult to extract. Where as before, you get that jig 4 feet up under the dock, you dont get bit, you dont lose (or catch) a fish and its on to the next dock.

Yall see what Im getting at?  Im getting worse because Im getting better. That makes stupid sense but its true. Im getting more opportunities to get it done, Im just not capitalizing. And in the end, I would rather have hooked that fish and lost it then to never have hooked her at all. At least you get to dance for a few seconds.  You cant be great unless you put yourself in a position to have an opportunity.

I have to think its like anything else,  If you keep working to improve, it will get better. Everyone loses fish, Everyone has a sob story about blah blah blah, you just have to fight through it. I lost those fish yesterday before I boated my second fish of the day so I had all day to rebound and really, if I just could have got one more bite for a good bookend fish I would have been set. I had a nice kicker in the bag (3.5) one more of those and that tournament would have went better.


A few notes about fishing boat docks in shallow water on crappy weather days. The weather was terrible, if your counting thats 2 days in a row with NNE heavy winds and a cold front during tournaments. Those are pretty much the worst conditions and if you dont slow down you wont catch a damn thing. The problem is that the wind usually does its best to keep you from fishing slow. Thats where Power Poles excell. Yesterday, I would nose in between two docks, put the power poles down and disect both the docks, then move to the next set of two.  The wind become a non factor and fishing slowly become far easier. If you got a bassboat and you dont have Power Poles, you are missing out.


On a personal note, I dont really know any of those guys in the federation aside from maybe two guys, Todd Thompson, Eddie Levin but I met some nice people despite keeping to myself for the most part. One dude introduced himself to me, said he followed me, here, on this blog.  Thanks alot bro, people like you are why I havent quit writing this thing.

On to the next one...

Warrior Baits held a free tournament in which you could use Warrior Baits only last season at Mosquito Lake. It was a big hit so this year, the idea has expanded to Rocky Fork and its next month (May 5th). I will be fishing with my brother, Jarrod, and we will try to keep all this consistency going.  Rocky Fork is another one of those lakes that is considered by alot of people to be one of the best lakes in Ohio. A couple of weeks ago, it took 18lbs to win the Weekend Series tournament so we will have our work cut out for us.  The good thing is, I grew up about 20 minutes from there, the bad news, I havent fished it for years. If nothing else, it should be alot of fun.

S.T.P.

Lake Norman Re-cap...

Things didnt go quite as planned but there are some good things I can take from the tournament, I will get into that in a minute.  Alot of minor stories to tell but Im not really in the mood for all that. I stayed with a total of 8ish guys, some were very cool, some not so much but as much as I want to, Im not going to call out the "ultra douche" of our bunch and only say that the guy has some issues. I will however give a shout-out to my freinds, guys I hung out with all week this week and all week in florida. It was good times and our bunch had alot of fun despite my outcome. Luke Gritter, who has himself in contention to make the Elite Series, again, this year after another strong finish at Norman (40th), Adam Hock of Kentucky who cracked us all up with his "I just glued my fingers together" story and  Kyle Kempkers who rebounded nicely on day two with a 10lb bag which moved him up nearly 100 spots in the standings.

On to practice and the tournament....

It took me a few days but I figured out a reasonable pattern for largemouth but the bites were not plentiful although they were usually either a quality fish or a buck bass. On the other hand, the spotted bass were insanely easy to find and even easier to coax into biting but they just werent that big. You had to sort through 5 to 10 spotted bass for every keeper.  Im sure that sounds difficult but Its not, there are millions of spotted bass in Lake Norman and you can litterally catch hundreds a day. Every once in awhile you get a truly quality spotted bass (2.5lb to 3lb) so if you hit it hard and you can get a limit of spotted bass that includes two of the quality fish youve got a decent start which is generally 7.5lbs to 9lbs depending on the quality of your fish. My plan then would shift gears and I would spend the rest of the day looking for a big female that was looking to spawn. I say "spawn" with hesitation because these fish were going in all directions. We had post spawners, prespawners, and fish that were locked on to beds, so essentially, I was looking for prespawners or a random bed fish (there wasnt many  of those in the area I was in).

My plan actually worked beautifully, my execution was not beautiful in the even the slightest of manners. All along, I decided that at noon, I was done fishing for the spots regardless of weight (I was certain I would have a limit of fish by then so a big largemouth or two would be a nice supplement). At 10am, I had a limit that consisted of about 5.5 lbs (this is what im talking about, 5 fish for 5lbs was what you had to deal with, the difference would come with the quality fish). at 10:30 am I landed a 2.5lb spotted bass that pushed my bag up to 7lbs and at 11:30 disaster struck.

I whipped a shakeyhead worm up behind a dock and feel the tick, followed by a slow swim away from the dock (typical bite from a spotted bass). I set the hook and its on, spots tend to dive down instead of surface immidiately but this fish did not, it came up, did a head shake, went back down, then came up like a rocket, shot out of the water 4 feet and that was it. A three pound spotted bass lost which would have been a nearly 2lb cull. If your counting that would have put my bag at that time around 9lbs, which was exactly what I expected.

So I regroup and follow my plan. 12 oclock roles around and its time to hunt for some largemouth. I had been finding them at the backs of long narrow coves combined with a certain kind of dock. I took the time to mark EVERY dock that matched my pattern which turned out to be 26 freakin docks out of probably a 1000 in the area I was working the night before and I went to work. I knew that if I got 2 bites doing this in 4 hours that I would still have a chance to rebound because I usually got a really quality fish, it just took longer to do so.  At 2ish, I flip behind one of the docks I had marked and she hit it, came up twice and that was it. Another 3lb fish gone. For those good with the math, that would have been another nearly 2lb cull pushing my bag to around 11lbs which would have been good enough for top 15 after day one.

What a nightmare...

Day two went exactly as planned as well but I never got the bite I needed in the form a 1 big spotted bass so at 12, again, I left the spotted bass for the less plentiful but bigger largemouth with less then 6lbs. I managed to get one 3lb spawned out female that gave me a 2lb cull and put my bag at just under 8lbs.  Day two didnt consist of disaster, the fishing was much harder and I still managed to make it work, it just wasnt good enough.

The things I have learned and feel good about?

I feel good that my plan was solid and that it would have worked if not for a few unfortunate incidents. I know deep down that losing those fish was not my fault, I did nothing wrong, they didnt come unbuttoned at the boat, nothing I could have done differently would have put those fish in the boat.

I feel good knowing that I managed to be consistent, catching loads of fish each day despite terrible weather (blue bird skies, high winds, nasty cold front). I also feel good knowing that I got my limit both days when alot of guys didnt, even though both my limits were small.

I also worked my ass off for those fish. I caught prob 10 to 15 keepers each day, culled numerous times and caught at least 30 to 40 short fish as well (14 inch minimum at Lake Norman).


All in all,  Im not ready to jump off a bridge like after Harris Chain, Im already preparing for Alabama and I cant wait for my next tournament.

Almost forgot the love I got in the photo gallery. The second one is of JVD, Luke Gritter, and myself. (Im on the left, Lukes on the far right, JVD in the middle, some other dude in there that I dont know) JVD and Luke are close freinds, they actually are roomates back where they live in Kalamazoo Michigan...

S.T.P.

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!....

I hope Micheal Buffer doesnt sue me for copyright infringement, If so.... Ill just change the title. Ill  be leaving Friday morning for Lake Norman, a few google searches indicated nearly 70 degree water in alot of areas, last year it was just getting into the 60s. Chances are, were gonna be dead in the middle of spawning action, with alot of fish just staging the deal, alot of fish spawned out and alot of fish doing the deed. This is some of my favorite fishing, you can work to your strengths because alot of stuff is going to be effective. Im trying to keep an open mind,  I keep reminding myself to not get locked on any one thing and stay versatile. This certainly is the type of lake and type of conditions to do just that.

One thing Im certain to try, likely to fail, and even more likely to look like a fool doing is throwing that giant behemoth, the alabama rig. For whatever reason, and I have no basis of fact for this thought, I feel like spotted bass would go nuts for an alabama rig and who knows, maybe thats what those bigger spots might be in love with. I plan on giving it a fair shake, if it works, so be it, if not, no sweat. Here it goes!!!


A few side notes - Ive been getting alot more traffic to the site, if you are visiting and you are not a "follower"  please, please for the love of mankind, click on the "follow" button. It makes me feel good AND gives me even more excuse to keep writing this nonsensicle manifesto...

When I get back, hit me up if you (reader) want to take a ride in a new Skeeter, no strings attached. If you are even remotely thinking of jumping in head first to a bassboat, heres your opp. to check out the best in the business...

Check out the tournament starting next Thursday on www.bassmaster.com and cheer me on, I need some people to "will" me to a top 10 finish. I know its possible to "will" someone to do something, I personally "willed" Mike Vick to throw 4 tds and run 2 against the Redskins a few years ago when I desperately needed a fantasy football win, so I know it can be done.

Talk Soon

S.T.P.

Crazy Winter...

Heres the deal, its actually still winter time and the water temps at buckeye lake are in the mid 60s by the middle of the day... I dont recall ever being involved with a winter of this calliber. In fact, not sure we even had a winter, more like a slightly harsh fall.  I can usually catch alot of fish throughout the month of march but it involves alot of slow work. Not this year... I took a freind of mine to buckeye lake to show him around. He is actually the father of one of my best freinds. The guy has been fishing since before I was born but he just got into tournament fishing at the club level a few years ago. His club is going to buckeye lake this year and he had never been to the lake. He asked me to show him around so I abliged and we set out. We prob caught around 10 or 12 bass total, a handful of keepers that prob would have went around 7lbs all together and if nothing else, Dan Rawlings is gonna have a few spots to work next month. Seems we are about a month ahead of schedule so his tournament might be ALOT different by then but at least he has a starting point....


S.T.P.

Springtime!!!

Short post of the year. Spring is here, thinking of heading up to Alum Creek to crack a few musky. Tis the season, water temps are rising and those toothy critters are thick on that lake. A few more weeks and Ill be heading to Lake Norman. Really excited to get down there. Wish I was leaving this week.

On a side note, my wife and I are now the proud parents of a 3 legged cat. One of our kittens got into some trouble (not sure how or where) but his leg was badly broken and will need to be amputated. I cant bring myself to put down an animal, especially such a young one so now a 3 legged cat will roam the Priest house as soon as he gets back from the vet.

S.T.P.