10/29 tournament

[lund1]

I have a love/hate relationship with tournament fishing....I've never really done it before the Mafia series and I'm adjusting to the experience. Instead of my usual pre-fish mild anxiety about terminal tackle...bait...battery charges...boat readiness...clothing for the elements...cooler stocking ( this is the BW )....I'm all wound up days in advance and making endless lists of must do's. Weird. Checked the bait tank over and over and over.....

I caught nice bait on Friday...nothing truly Mongolish...but nice bait just the same.

After much debate with Lund2 between J hooks and Circle hooks ( I'm a circle hook guy)...we changed all our rigs to J's. Lund2 says " Dad...you gotta swing for the fences..."
On the water at 4:30AM for some reason only known to Lund2....he was determined to catch more bait.....we motored out and sat in the fog/cold in one of Gator's spots....( I learned more about striper fishing after having Gator on my boat a couple times then I care to admit....I'm not talking about "spots''....)

First fish hit hard on a float at 7:15...I completely missed it...reeling down 3 times on a J hook....Lund2 was totally understanding. All he said was " that was probably the big fish winner"...no big deal. We had blow ups and pull backs but couldn't put a fish in the boat. Finally caught 29'' off a float ( redemption??) around 11AM and we were rejuvenated. Fished hard for another 4 hours and put a 28" in the boat for a total of 57". Can't believe we didn't win..........

I was bushed after 11 hours on the water and made the call to skip the weigh in...that's a long drive from Union Hall to the bridge.....sorry we didn't get a chance to meet and greet.

[Shadslinger]

That's funny yall had that debate. I only use circles on downlines but seem like I tend to miss fish on floats and free lines because I'm usually paying less attention to them watching boards. So I convinced myself to rig up with circles on those. Sure enough that's what caught my one 27". I heard something and turn around and there it was. Freeline rod bowed up peeling drag. I'm not convinced on circles for boards yet though. Shoulda came on up. Would of been nice to meet yall. Our paths crossed literally on the water yesterday but I didn't know it was yall until texting #2 last night.

[seajay]

Pleasure meeting you Friday while out catching bait. I use octopus hooks on my boards and circle hooks on down lines. I hear you on being whipped. It was a long day Saturday. I slept good that night , lol.

[Yam]

Lund1, I love your reports! They seem to speak for me.

I hope that doesn't scare you!