4/9 crazy weather tournament report
Apr 11, 2016 11:52:44 GMT -5
BentRod, mwardncsu, and 6 more like this
Post by seajay on Apr 11, 2016 11:52:44 GMT -5
Weather: 25-35 mph winds with 40 mph gusts , snow squalls, sunshine,cold , more wind ( kept expecting ToTo and Dorothy to blow by, LOL )
Bait : mix of 5"-6" gizzards and 9"-15" gizzards
Technique: freelined planers and a couple of down rods ( never produced )
Friday : Arrived to the lake and launched boat around 2:30 to go on a bait mission. Hit the back of a lower blackwater creek and found bait in 1-3 foot of water in the mud. Plenty of small gizzards but the big ones were harder to find. About 6:00 my buddy Don and I headed up towards the bridge stopping by R22's to dump our small gizzards and about 8 nicer ones off in his bait cage. Then we headed to captain quarters to meet my wife who was bringing Carson down to meet us since he had school all day. After picking him up we went to register and then had dinner at Jake's place before heading back down the lake to call it a night.
Saturday : Woke up Carson and Don at 4:45 to get ready and was on the boat by 5:30 headed up the lake to R22's to grab our bait. Loaded our tank with our bait and then topped it off with 8-12 more nice gizzards courtesy of R22 ( thanks man ). We left his dock about 6:10 headed up past the bridge. Didn't really have a game plan but wanted to look for a place that would be protected from the wind considering the forecast. I decided to pull into a creek that I had heard was holding a good amount of bait and check it out. As we were heading towards the back we were marking a few fish so we turned around and started setting out our spread around 6:40 . As soon as we had 6 planers out one went down! We got it in the boat and as Don and I were trying to get it measured I heard a reel just screaming off drag and turned around and Carson was at the back of the boat hooked up! Got the first fish measured at 26.5" and released it and then went to help Carson get his fish in which turned out to be our biggest at 31.25". Talk about a exciting first 15 minutes of fishing! We were feeling blessed to have 2 fish before 7:00. Here is a pic of Carson afterwards at 7:00 sitting up on point watching the sonar for more, lol!
Afterwards I called R22 to tell him we were on fish. About 20 minutes later we noticed the bait tank pump not running properly and no air bubbles either. Well after about 15 minutes and freezing cold hands I determined the pump was shot. R22 was in the creek by then and had a pump I tried but i could not get it to work with my setup. I figured we were gonna lose our bait if we didn't do something quick. Called captains quarters and talked to Hawk and he said he had the pump I needed . we packed it up and made the run back down river and started wiring in new pump. Ended up blowing a fuse to my dash and luckily Hawk had them as well because I was out of that size. After about 20 minutes we were back in business. That tank was aerating better than it had in I dont know how long. Should have replaced it long ago. when we pulled out of there it was down right treacherous in the main channel so we ran back to the same creek and setup again about 9:15. It seemed pretty sheltered form the howling winds and although we were not marking as many fish but plenty of bait and a few scattered fish we decided to stay there the rest of the day and see if we could pull out a few more. Turned out to be a good call. Right after we finished eating lunch about 12:10 we had another board go down.This one turned out to be 28"
About 1:30 we had another one peeling which turned out to be our 2nd biggest at 29.25"
At 2:45 we had our 5th fish to the boat that was 28.5" this is when out token card blew out the boat ,lol . we ended up tangling everything we had up and decided to cut the whole mess off all the lines and call it a day wind whipped and cold and head for the check in.
I feel very blessed for the day of fishing I had out there with my son on a day most sane people would have stayed home, lol. We learned alot
and hopefully he learned not to give up when the elements are stacked against you.
I would like to give a big thanks to R22 , with out him I feel certain we would not have placed as well as we did. I must say I have watched his Journey into the world of striper fishing and with hard work and dedication he has become a heck of a bait catching machine and good fisherman.
We ended up finishing 5th place and Carson finished 2nd in youth division. Jason's son Matt ended up given Carson his rod and reel he won for 1st place which makes me about tear up typing this. I was very touched by this and Carson was as well. Jason you are doing it right my friend and looks like your boys are following right along in their fathers foot steps.
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Big thanks to The Striper Mafia crew and all the others behind the scenes that had a hand in putting on the best striper tournament SML has seen. It was a pleasure to meet and fish with such a good group of fisherman that share the same passion I do. Congrats to Squidhound for their 2nd first place finish and Team of the year. Congrats to Team Lawrence and all the others as well. We are looking forward to the next series . Tight Lines !
Bait : mix of 5"-6" gizzards and 9"-15" gizzards
Technique: freelined planers and a couple of down rods ( never produced )
Friday : Arrived to the lake and launched boat around 2:30 to go on a bait mission. Hit the back of a lower blackwater creek and found bait in 1-3 foot of water in the mud. Plenty of small gizzards but the big ones were harder to find. About 6:00 my buddy Don and I headed up towards the bridge stopping by R22's to dump our small gizzards and about 8 nicer ones off in his bait cage. Then we headed to captain quarters to meet my wife who was bringing Carson down to meet us since he had school all day. After picking him up we went to register and then had dinner at Jake's place before heading back down the lake to call it a night.
Saturday : Woke up Carson and Don at 4:45 to get ready and was on the boat by 5:30 headed up the lake to R22's to grab our bait. Loaded our tank with our bait and then topped it off with 8-12 more nice gizzards courtesy of R22 ( thanks man ). We left his dock about 6:10 headed up past the bridge. Didn't really have a game plan but wanted to look for a place that would be protected from the wind considering the forecast. I decided to pull into a creek that I had heard was holding a good amount of bait and check it out. As we were heading towards the back we were marking a few fish so we turned around and started setting out our spread around 6:40 . As soon as we had 6 planers out one went down! We got it in the boat and as Don and I were trying to get it measured I heard a reel just screaming off drag and turned around and Carson was at the back of the boat hooked up! Got the first fish measured at 26.5" and released it and then went to help Carson get his fish in which turned out to be our biggest at 31.25". Talk about a exciting first 15 minutes of fishing! We were feeling blessed to have 2 fish before 7:00. Here is a pic of Carson afterwards at 7:00 sitting up on point watching the sonar for more, lol!
Afterwards I called R22 to tell him we were on fish. About 20 minutes later we noticed the bait tank pump not running properly and no air bubbles either. Well after about 15 minutes and freezing cold hands I determined the pump was shot. R22 was in the creek by then and had a pump I tried but i could not get it to work with my setup. I figured we were gonna lose our bait if we didn't do something quick. Called captains quarters and talked to Hawk and he said he had the pump I needed . we packed it up and made the run back down river and started wiring in new pump. Ended up blowing a fuse to my dash and luckily Hawk had them as well because I was out of that size. After about 20 minutes we were back in business. That tank was aerating better than it had in I dont know how long. Should have replaced it long ago. when we pulled out of there it was down right treacherous in the main channel so we ran back to the same creek and setup again about 9:15. It seemed pretty sheltered form the howling winds and although we were not marking as many fish but plenty of bait and a few scattered fish we decided to stay there the rest of the day and see if we could pull out a few more. Turned out to be a good call. Right after we finished eating lunch about 12:10 we had another board go down.This one turned out to be 28"
About 1:30 we had another one peeling which turned out to be our 2nd biggest at 29.25"
At 2:45 we had our 5th fish to the boat that was 28.5" this is when out token card blew out the boat ,lol . we ended up tangling everything we had up and decided to cut the whole mess off all the lines and call it a day wind whipped and cold and head for the check in.
I feel very blessed for the day of fishing I had out there with my son on a day most sane people would have stayed home, lol. We learned alot
and hopefully he learned not to give up when the elements are stacked against you.
I would like to give a big thanks to R22 , with out him I feel certain we would not have placed as well as we did. I must say I have watched his Journey into the world of striper fishing and with hard work and dedication he has become a heck of a bait catching machine and good fisherman.
We ended up finishing 5th place and Carson finished 2nd in youth division. Jason's son Matt ended up given Carson his rod and reel he won for 1st place which makes me about tear up typing this. I was very touched by this and Carson was as well. Jason you are doing it right my friend and looks like your boys are following right along in their fathers foot steps.
[/URL
Big thanks to The Striper Mafia crew and all the others behind the scenes that had a hand in putting on the best striper tournament SML has seen. It was a pleasure to meet and fish with such a good group of fisherman that share the same passion I do. Congrats to Squidhound for their 2nd first place finish and Team of the year. Congrats to Team Lawrence and all the others as well. We are looking forward to the next series . Tight Lines !
Come on now - you know you did - you deserve to like it as well 
