Sunday, March 22, 2015

Clearwater Tournament

July 13, 2014; Well today is the Renegade Bassers Club Tournament on Clearwater in Stearns Count.  I am fishing alone today as it is one of the tournament I do not have a non-boater.  The day was perfect, the weather was idea for my game plan on this lake.  Historically I’ve been successful fishing senko’s and frogs.  With almost no clouds in the ski the day was ripe for fishing in the pads, reeds and under docks so I was ready to go.

When launch started it got even better since no one was heading toward my starting spot and the excitement was building.  When I launched I turned left watching everyone else turn right and it was game on.  It only took me a couple of mins to get to my starting spot that is on the North Shore of Clearwater which is a very large patch that covers 10 acres and I was ready to slam’em.  There was almost no wind at all and most of the area was like glass so I started fishing a buzz bait to see if I could wake up some fish just waiting for something to make some noise on the surface.  Well after about 15 mins it was clear that the bass had no interest in my buzz bait so I decided to start flipping a Black Neon with Chartreuse tail senko into the reeds and would see movement in the reeds near my senko but no takers so I switched to a June Bug color senko still nothing and I was starting get get discouraged since I’d been fishing for about an hour and still did not have a bite.

Well after about 2-1/2 hours of throwing a number of different colors of senkos and tubes with the same result, nothing.  Since the sun was no high enough yet I wasn’t sure if the Frog bite would be on yet in the pads but I figured what did I have to loose.  I started throwing a Frog in the pads in hopes that maybe the fish we in the mood for nice big frog.  No so much, I casted my frog for about a ½ hour in a number of patches of pads I was near.  Not a single blowup and it was now 9:00am and I still didn’t have a fish.

It was time to go to my tried and true backup plan of some docks.  There was a row of about a dozen docks near me that had some boat lifts with boats on them lifted out of the water so I thought I would give it a try since nothing else seemed to be working.

Well on the first dock I finally caught a bass but it was a 10 inch fish which wasn’t going into the box but it was at least a fish and I was able to remember what a Bass looked like.  I continued down the shoreline and caught another 8 inch bass but that was it, 2 fish and both too small to measure.  It was now 10:30am, 4-1/2 hours into the tournament and I didn’t have a fish in the box.  All I kept thinking was I going to have another E/W Rush and end up no having a limit or at this point.

At 11:00am with only 3 hours to go and no fish in the livewell I decided to go try another row of docks since I at least had determined the fish under the docks would at least bite and if I couldn’t find any keepers I at least could get some bites. 

Well I started fishing the docks and came upon a dock that had a pontoon that was beached and the back end of the boat was only in about 2 feet of water and I skipped under it and no sooner did it hit the water my line jumped and I set the hook on a 3.5 lb Largemouth and I was shocked I had a fish to put into my livewell and it was nice fish.  I continued to fish the row of docks with very little luck, a 9, 10, 11 inch fish but then I camp upon another dock that had a pontoon that was not on a boat lift it was just tied up to the dock in the water.  I skipped under it and low and behold I pulled a 2.5 pounder out from under the pontoon and the wheels in my head started turning.  I scanned the shoreline for Pontoons that were either beached or in the water next to the docks.  I determined that the difference between the normal docks and boat lifts and these pontoons were that it was pitch dark under the pontoons that were touching the water and there instead of just some shade from the dock or boat lift.  I put my trolling motor on high and started hitting only pontoons in the water and I would catch a fish under each one of them, some keepers and some too small but every one of them had at least one fish under it.

Once I finished this stretch of docks I started riding around the lake looking specifically for pontoons touch the water and I find a shoreline with only or two pontoons but I would catch a fish under each one of them.  I had filled my limit and culled a number of them but I was racing against the clock since by the time I figured out this pattern I only had a couple hours to fish and I had to race around looking for the right place on a shoreline to fish but I was now having fun since I was catching fish.

Time for weigh in and I felt good since I had figure out a good pattern and I had decent fish.  Not sure if I had enough to place high but at least I was not coming in short.

As tournament director I have to weigh in everyone else’s fish and I weigh last.  As each fisherman weighed in it was clear that I wasn’t the only one the struggled as some guys didn’t have limits and some blanked.  I was feeling really good since I know I had between 12 & 13 lbs and so far only a couple guys had broke the 10 lb mark until Nick Madison weighed in and Nick had 13.76 lbs which I knew was more than I had but I was still sitting good for being in the top 5.  After weighing everyone in it was time for me to weigh in last and I pulled my fish out of my livewell one a time with everyone watching seeing I had figured out where they were.

I ended up weighing 12.79 lbs which was good enough for 2nd place which felt good considering I didn’t catch the first keeper until after 11:00am.  The day proved to me that Mike Iaconelli’s chant of “Never Give Up” was very true and I didn’t give up and I was able to find fish and the right fish.

Catch ya next time and remember “Just Fish”

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