Well yesterday was my first Bass Tournament of the 2014 Season. The Bass Club I belong to the Renegade Bassers held our first tournament on Washington/Stella in Meeker County. I picked Ryan Gabrud up at 3:15am and stopped to pick Travis Schultz at around 3:35am. Ryan lives close to me and Travis was my non-boater for this tournament. We arrived a little earlier than I had expected to but it is always better to be early than rushing if your late. Put the boat in the water and beached it and waited for others to arrive. Pretty soon it was like a parade of Bass Boat Rigs arriving and launching as everyone else arrived. Once everyone was launched we all proceeded to a depth that we all could launch from and the Launch Countdown began. Travis and I were launching in 6 position for this tournament but I wasn't too worried since our starting point was only 100 yards from the launch site. Lake Washington has a large Reed patch just out from the launch that covers the size of a football field.
Once launched no sooner then my boat was on plane I took my foot off the Hot Foot and was making my first case about 30 seconds after we launched. I started throwing a Buzz Bait as a lot of the Reeds had not broke the surface yet so I thought I'd see if I could wake up the Bass laying in the weeds. Travis started throwing a Spinner Bait but after about 5 mins picked up Buzz Bait also, which was a good move since he quickly caught the first fish of the day a 2 lb Largemouth. we continued to fish the reeds and it was considerably slower then it had been the week before prefishing these reeds. We moved to the inside line between the shoreline and the reeds to see if the Bass were in shallow. I saw a dock and had a cut feel that there was a fish under it, I was right but I didn't catch it Travis did but it was only 1.5 lb Largemouth but he now had two fish in the livewell and I still didn't have a bite. We moved back to the reed patch and I started throwing a Watermelon Red Flake Leena Lures Ring Tube and very quickly I got my first bite a 2.25 lb Largemouth, whew, I was on the board. Well it didn't take long for my next fish as I caught another 2 lb Largemouth about 5 flips later. I continued to flip the reeds on the inside edge and caught my next fish about 10 mins later and it was a 3.5 lb Largemouth and I was starting to feel really good. I moved the boat into a little pocket in the reeds to see if any fish were hiding in it and I was right I caught my forth fish another 2 lb Largemouth. I was now sitting with 9.5 lbs with only four fish. Now for the hardest fish of the day my fifth one to make my limit so I can start culling. Well as always it was tough to catch the my fifth fish and I had to watch Travis start catching the fish and he caught three more 1.5 - 2 lb fish to complete is limit. I continued to flip the reeds knowing that my fifth fish was just waiting for me to throw my bait in front of them. Well after about an hour without a bite I decided to move to my second spot I wanted to fish to see if I could get my fifth fish.
My second spot was a row of docks that had been really good the week before and it didn't take long on the second dock I caught a small Largemouth (I know sounds like an oximoron) and at first I didn't think it would measure but thought I would put it on the bump board just make sure. Well it was 12-1/8" just long enough but it only weighed .93 lbs and I definitely didn't want to go into weight in with this little one but you cannot cull until you have five fish so I was good to go. The little only only lasted in my livewell for about 3 mins as I caught a 3.25 lb Largemouth on the next dock. I know had 12.75 lbs in the box and ready catch more.
Travis and I spent about 2 hours fishing a mile long stretch of docks and had to fish each dock very slow and methodically. We could throw a dozon times at the same dock from all angles and on the thirteenth cast the bass would hit. In fact on one dock I skipped my senko three times to the same spot under the dock with no luck and Travis followed me up into the same spot and hooked into a 3.86 lb fish, the biggest one for either of us all day. I ended up culling out all of my Bass with 3 lb plus Largemouth except one 2.65 lb fish.
At about 11:00am a rain storm rolled in and rained for about 15 mins and the fish seemed to shut down. Once it stopped we continued to fish docks but didn't catch anything for about an hour and after that everything we caught was smaller then the fish in our boxes.
We decided to go back and fish the reed patch near the landing to see if the area reloaded and no sooner then we arrived at around 1:00pm it started to rain again and this time it didn't let up and it rained for the remaining hour of the tournament.
At weigh in it was clear that everyone had a good day as all nineteen fisherman in our tournament caught their limit of 5 fish with a mix of both Small and Largemouth Bass. Travis ended up with approx. 12 lbs of Bass and finished in 11th Place and I ended up with just over 15 lbs and I finished in 5th place. The winner was Steve Oswald with an 18 lb plus sack of Smallmouth Bass and Big Bass for the tournament with a 4+ lb smallie. Congrats to Ozzy on his win and big bass.
All in all it was a fun day and we caught a lot of good quality fish.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our day and I'll catch you next time and remember "Just Fish"
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