Caught Me A Good Speck on a Dark Sleeper |
Tourny Champ Keith Tuma |
Conditions: 60-78℉, Cloudy with occasional light rain, 3-15mph SE
The Day:
We started on the South end of the Lake to the West of where Nate started fishing cabbage beds. We stayed in the same 150-yard or so stretch until about 11 AM. I had my limit in the first hour and forty minutes. Al put the first 3 bass in the boat. I'm pretty sure my first fish was a pike on the Big Blade Chatterbait. That Big Blade Chatter was my hot bite in the morning. I think I lost one quality bass after it buried me in the weeds. After I got my limit. I struggled to get bites from keeper bass, getting pike, and a couple of dinks. I should have thrown the Dark Sleeper as the fish Al was getting on the Craw Tube were better quality on average than my Chatterbait fish, with one or two exceptions.
We then went to 371 Bay when the wind was howling around 11AM. I got my big bass (2/15) in 371 on the Dark Sleeper on our first pass in 371, I was a bite machine with that Dark Sleeper pulling in small pike, rock bass, dink bass, and I culled up a couple of times and one nice crappie on our second pass. We went back to the starting area. The wind calmed down considerably shortly after we arrived. Nate showed up shortly after and thought we had been there the whole time. Not much was going on until I put on a Neko Rigged Dinger, which caught me 5 bass in about 15 minutes. I culled with 3 of the fish putting all, but one fish over 2lbs on my scale. I could have sworn the second to last fish I got on the Dinger was three plus when it wallowed on the surface, but it buried me in the weeds, and when I got it in, it didn't even help me. Al got us out of there to head to Merrifield Bay. I got a dink on a buzzbait and on a Dark Sleeper, along with a couple of pike in Merrifield. We fished for about 15 minutes in 371 Bay to end things, and I got a pike or two, maybe a rock bass as well. I was hoping my fish would go 14 lbs, and indeed they did, right on the nose.
We then went to 371 Bay when the wind was howling around 11AM. I got my big bass (2/15) in 371 on the Dark Sleeper on our first pass in 371, I was a bite machine with that Dark Sleeper pulling in small pike, rock bass, dink bass, and I culled up a couple of times and one nice crappie on our second pass. We went back to the starting area. The wind calmed down considerably shortly after we arrived. Nate showed up shortly after and thought we had been there the whole time. Not much was going on until I put on a Neko Rigged Dinger, which caught me 5 bass in about 15 minutes. I culled with 3 of the fish putting all, but one fish over 2lbs on my scale. I could have sworn the second to last fish I got on the Dinger was three plus when it wallowed on the surface, but it buried me in the weeds, and when I got it in, it didn't even help me. Al got us out of there to head to Merrifield Bay. I got a dink on a buzzbait and on a Dark Sleeper, along with a couple of pike in Merrifield. We fished for about 15 minutes in 371 Bay to end things, and I got a pike or two, maybe a rock bass as well. I was hoping my fish would go 14 lbs, and indeed they did, right on the nose.
18Bass 16Pike 3Rock 1Crip
Results: My fish weighed a respectable 14lbs, but on this day that was only good enough for 13th Place. The winner was Snatcher Tuma with 18/05; Second Place went to Snatcher Dennis with 17/01 and Lunker (4/08), which edged out Snatcher Fields who also had 17/01. Everybody caught a limit today and the average bag was 14.94lbs.
My Thoughts: Should have gone to the Dark Sleeper at the first stop. A couple of lost fish cost me in this one I think.
Grade: B
Sure 13th Place out of 17 Anglers is C-/D+ territory, but I was just ounces behind my boater on a day when Co-anglers got stomped on and I was only one quality cull away from a Top 10.
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