First Tourney is upon me

[macgyver]

Well tommorrow is the big day 8) I have the first tourney of my soon to be illustrious career LOL ;D Anyway I will be setting up all my rods tonight in the hotel room, and trying to get SOME sleep. I'm really pumped about it, and look forward to learning a lot. However the weather conditions aren't gonna be too great. Today they have rain, and high of 63 degrees, and tommorrow high of 57 degrees, low 37 degrees with rain in the am, mostly cloudy with winds in the 10-20 mph range. Good news is everyone else has the same conditions. This is a river/creek where the tourney is held, so high water rising is probably what we will see, with plenty of muddy water, is my best guess. I leave late afternoon to head down there. I will post how I did after the tourney.

Lizards

[OKie]

Cool man. I hope you win!!!!

[bearpaw]

Sounds typical of our tournaments.

[bassmistress]

That is tight, your first ournament. I can't wait till I have may first tournament, though it probably wont be for a long time since I can't catch any bass. ;D.

Any way GOOD LUCK!!

-BASSINFREAK#1-

[DDmay87]

Good luck man, I remember my first tournament, I was a nervous wreck. Then I remembered that this is what I do for fun, I didnt place but I had a great time. After all thats what its all about. Right?

One thing I do before any tournament is retie all of my tackle and oil my reels up real good.

GOOD LUCK, KNOCK EM DEAD!

[Bassin_Dude]

hopefully you will have a good birthday tourny! hope you get that b-day bass. i will be fishin on my b-day tommorrow as well. i will catch some for you and me both. hope you do the same for me ;D anyways, good luck, and tear em up.

[TheBassMan]

Hey, good luck Lizards!!....What body of water are you fishing?

[Rich]

Make me proud, grasshopper ;D.

[nb122679]

Lizards,

I know you are gone already, but good luck.

[Rob Mak]

bassman 10-20 mph winds? nah more like 20-30 mph winds is our tournys...



zooker

[bronzebackguy]

i had my first tourney two weeks ago and the guy i ended up fishing with was awesome, he taught me stuff i would have never thought, i ended up placing 4th out of 32 and got some nice stuff, but good luck and keep that line tight

[basstard]

good luck

[Rob Mak]

i would have paid to watch lizard go through his tackle the night before. so just how did you thin out your 300 rods to a bare handful?-i am guessing enny, meany, and moe-


zooker

[macgyver]

Thanks for all the great wishes, and yes zooker I was up till 1am trying to downsize. Got up at 330 am When I got to the boaters boat he looked and said so that's downsized huh ??? Anyway I had a great learning experience, and had a poor tourney. I just got done sending a reply to Art Ferguson, about fishing up in Michigan and told him all about the tourney, so intead of retyping it all here's the results of the first tourney. The first part is talking about the finishing up of my Florida trip.

Yes we went back to the monkey box on sunday, and it was dirtier, and the wind was horrible, especially in my small aluminum boat. We basically had to anchor, and I had to fan cast from there, while my dad, and brother fished with shiners again. They caught several(not lots) and I had one to the boat, and it decided to throw the hook at me LOL. Anyway's we went to Rodman on monday, after sunday night record cold(just my luck), and we also had my borther in law with us. We get to Rodman to find out they don't have anywhere to rent a boat. I had asked my dad about it the night before, but he said there shouldn't be any problems getting a boat on Monday(yeah right) So we went to another lake right by it. I went out in my boat fishing artificails, and they went out in the rental fishing shiners. Couldn't find any water deeper than 9 feet max, but 95% was 3-4 feet deep. I got a bump on a spinnerbait, and a bump on a Zellamander and that was it for 7 hours of fishing. They each caught 1 fish, 2 bass and a pike LOL. So we headed home on tuesday. I was a little disappointed, but was glad to fish with you, and my family. So I had a good time, just wish the fishing was better. I fished in the BFL tourney on saturday on the Ohio river. I was lucky enough to get a partner who had fished this river for 43 years. The weather was overcast, high of 55 degrees, and the water was dropping. He took me into a cove, and he caught 6 bass, with 4 being keepers for a total of 6lbs11ozs. I got one bite the whole day, and caught it, the problem was it was a crappie. I actually used the technique you showed me, but used a zipper worm, due to the muddy conditions. I did however learn several things.

1. I may need a helmet riding with some of these guys at 70+mph LOL
2. All of the guys pretty much pitch and filp all the wood, and that's without a doubt my weekest suit. So I will be concentrating on that technique more than anything. No one has ever really shown me the technique or taught me, so I'll be trying to get it down asap(going out tommorrow to practice it)
3. Fish what I believe to be the pattern regardless of what my boater is doing. I thought that the fish would be pulling back away from the shore, due to the water dropping, and the guy who won the tourney fished that exact pattern and came in with 10lbs 12ozs. He fished senko's in the channels. He however did travel 80 miles one way to fish the spot he was in.
4. My personally favorite and best way for me to catch fish(weightless plastics) is gonna be completely useless in a tourney since these guys keep flying around. So the weightless approach just won't work, unless I want to ski my plastics.
5. I have SO MUCH to learn to be competetive in these types of tourneys as a back boater.


I don't know the exact count yet, but there was 151 boats, and probaly 2/3 of the field didn't catch a fish. Most of those who did catch a fish only caught one. All of the upper tier guys know each other well, and obviously fish alot of the same places. I kinda felt out of place, since my boater never once introduced me to anyone. He was a good guy. I asked how I did after the tourney and all he said to me was, you need to learn to pitch and flip. I said any suggestions, and he said keep your arm in, and use your wrist. So again I know I need to learn it, but that really didn't help me at all. So off to work I go learning the pitching and flippin technique on my own, just like everything else I guess. Anyways it was defintely a learning experience, and I got one step closer to becoming a decent angler. As for when to come up and see you, it will probably be sometime after mid July at the earliest. I got some irons in the fire here with work, so it will take awhile to get them sorted out. I will make a big effort to come up and see you this year however, is there a better time than not with you tourney schedule? And one last question, why is it everyone here in Indiana thinks Ranger boats it the greatest thing since sliced bread? I realize they are good boats, but probably 95% of the field was using them. Probably because the Regional rep is here and goes to all of the tourney's and his brother is one of the top guys, I guess he was fishng the FLW but went broke, and had to get a job. Anyway I look forward to coming up, especially since it's not a 22 hour drive LOL.


Lizards

[jglassguy]

WTG!
at least ya got one under yer belt
that sounds just like river fishing, i went for years getting skunked and then it turns around for ya
I was in a 2 day tournie about 50 miles east of tanners and it rained all f/n weeked, had one 13 inch fish and got 26th out of 300..

[bassmania25]

Lizards, i have fished over 75 tourneys and i still dont sleep well the night before, I remember my first pro am, at lake Havasu AZ, I drew a couple local gurus but it was flippin and pitchin time, of which i was not then or now an expert, but I have learned over the years and i can do it and make it work for me. Its hard to fish behind anyone really good especially flippin because he wont leave you a hole. I learned to drag a worm or throw a spinnerbait at the edges as he flips. Now i am the boater (first year) I let my partners up front when i am bed fishing and point out holes for them to flip in to. I want my partners to catch fish its a shared weight , it only benefits me to let them fish their strong points. Many pro ams are one by the pro by the participation and catch of there partners. I remember many times that i outfished my boater on day one and got a crappy draw on day two, and my partner from day one followed my pattern and cashed some big checks. thats why i turned to the boater side and decided to venture out on my own. This is the first year fishing a team series and we have a darn good chance of winning it, its just the beginning for me, so i hope anyway. Spend the time as a non boater and consider it a cheap on the water bass class, I learned a lot from some of my pros, and a lot of it was how not to fish. Glad you got through your first one, I'll be lookin for you in the standings. Scott R

[Worm_King]

Lizards,

I went out on Sunday and all I could do was hope you were doing better than me with the weather conditions. Â*I got skunked too and it's not like the bass have very many places to hide on the ponds I fish. Â*I fell into the same trap though of not going with my first instinct and trying to impose my will on the bass. Â*Unfortunately the Force wasn't with me.

[basstard]

i went on sunday it was relly windy :'( i got 1 but at least i got 1

[IL.bassin36]

You'll get'em next time Lizards! Gotta keep a positive attitude ;D

[macgyver]

[quote author=HoosierAngler link=board=MessBoards;num=1114792452;start=0#18 date=05/03/05 at 15:21:58]You'll get'em next time Lizards! Gotta keep a positive attitude ;D[/quote]


Just remember that when I kick everyones butt at Patoka ;D

Lizards