Momentum, Baby.

Well I’m keeping the momentum rolling, and it’s picking up speed!  Before I get into the details about my win this past weekend at the Media Bass tournament on Lake Austin, let’s get caught up to speed on other tournaments I’ve fished since the last blog post and the momentum that’s been building.

Media Bass – Lake LBJ – 19 Jan 2013:  4th place finish in the money.  This was a good one that I followed up the Big Sandy club tournament with.  Pre-fishing went great as I established a solid pattern with a few good areas.  Lipless crankbait fished over shallow grass.  If that sounds familiar, it’s because that’s how I was catching some of my fish at Lake Bastrop in the Big Sandy tournament.  I think I may be developing a lipless crankbait addiction.  Although 4th place and cutting a check is respectable, I actually walked away feeling pretty upset.  Pre-fishing had gone so well, and the win was within my grasp.  Early on in the day, I hooked into a solid 5-6lber at the end of a long cast.  It jumped clean out of the water, buried back down into the grass, and pulled loose.  I mentally shook it off and continued to fish hard.  Got a decent limit in the boat, and kept at it trying to upgrade.  With about 15 minutes to spare, I had a strong feeling to make a run to a spot I hadn’t fished yet, but just knew my winning fish was there.  Sure enough, I hooked into a solid 4lber that would’ve upgraded my weight by at least a couple of pounds.  Carefully fought it to the boat, and it made one last jump boat-side, throwing the crankbait.  Again, decent finish, but was pretty upset at not getting the win.

Big Sandy Creek Bass Club – Lake LBJ – 09 Feb 2013:  When I pre-fished for this, I checked the area where I’d been catching the lipless crankbait fish, and sure enough… they were still there.  Tournament day, we went in there, caught a few decent fish, but that was about it.  It seemed like the spot was starting to die out, so I made the decision to run some new water with the cranks.  We caught a few more decent keepers here and there, but nothing phenomenal.  Towards the end of the day, both me and my partner were each halfway to our limits when I decided we needed to go back to our original spot and try to grind out limits.  My partner quickly boated another keeper giving him 4 fish, and I still had 3.  I soon boated another to put me at 4, and with the clock ticking down, put the trolling motor on high to get to “the juice” on the spot.  No fish there.  With minutes to spare, I turned around to fire a cast behind me, and stuck #5 for a small limit around 10lbs I think it was.  I was stoked to have a limit and wanted to give my partner a chance to get his fifth fish, but he urged me that we needed to leave for weigh-in.  I told him, naw, we’ve got a few more minutes.  Well, after about 3 casts, and doing some quick math in my head, I realized we really did need to book it to weigh-in.  I honestly don’t remember what place we ended up in, I think it was just the middle of the pack, but I was just stoked to boat a limit on what was a fairly tough day for us.  So I chalked it up as good momentum.

Media Bass – Lake Austin – 16 Feb 2012 – THE WIN: First of all, I gotta say, pre-fishing wasn’t that spectacular.  I spent two mornings pre-fishing during the week beforehand with pretty limited results.  I had some ideas about what I needed to do to catch fish, and I knew some areas that were holding good fish, but the fish had been acting very unpredictable and tough to pattern.  I hadn’t really come up with a game plan until the night before the tournament.  I was going to make a somewhat risky move and start on a spot I hadn’t fished all year.  I knew I needed roughly 20lbs to win, and none of the areas I’d found during pre-fish, I felt could produce 20lbs.  This other spot though, I knew if the fish were there, 20lbs or at least a good start towards it, was very possible.  I also knew that it was a fairly popular spot, and I might not get there first.  I determined a back up plan that if that spot was occupied, I’d continue up the lake to a long, shallow, dock-filled shoreline that I’d found pre-fishing that I’d seen a lot of good sized bass on cruising the grass lines.  I figured I’d just start at one end, put the t-motor on high, and start covering water with a (you guessed it) lipless crankbait trying to pick off some active fish.

At blast-off I started running up the lake to my pre-determined starting spot.  As I approached, sure enough, there was a boat sitting right on top of it already.  However, since I had made the decision to fish there on kind of a whim, I wasn’t too worried about it and didn’t even slow down as I continued on to my back-up plan.  As I pulled up to Plan B, I picked up my Ghost Shad colored Academy H2O lipless crankbait, cranked the trolling motor up a bit, and started firing away towards the grasslines where I’d seen fish cruising during the previous week.  After about 5 minutes, I’d gone past several docks, and was just about to put down the lipless to pick up something else.  I made a cast and thought, ya, as soon as I retrieve this, I’m picking up my chatterbait.  Surprise!  Keeper #1 jumped on the crankbait.  A decent 2lber.  I guess I’m stickin’ with the lipless for a bit.

As I continued to fish I could see a handful of boats fishing within eyesight; some on my same bank.  One of them had leapfrogged me and had started several docks away from me and started fishing towards the same direction I was headed.  Whatever.  He gave me plenty of space.  Soon another boat jumped in between me and the other boat a long ways ahead of me.  However as he fished, he headed in my direction.  Whatever I guess.  I knew there were 2 other tournaments going on that day and things could get tight.  No bother.  As we neared each other, I let him and his partner take the inside track, and I fished around them.  As we crossed in front of a dock, we exchanged comments about the fishing and how unbelievably cold it was that morning.  Oh yeah, it was FREEZING.  I had ice on my boat seats.  I began fishing the water they’d just gone over.  As they made it one dock away from me, I stick a fish on the lipless.  Oh boy.  This is a GOODUN’.  I fought the fish carefully walking it around the whole boat probably 4 or 5 times while it jumped a few times near the boat.  She finally tired and I slid her in the net while the boat I’d just passed looked on.  Good fish.  4+ pounder.  “Hey what tournament are you in?” yelled one of the guys in the other boat.

“Media Bass,” I shouted back.

“Good, that means you’re not in the same tournament as us!” chuckled the guy in the front of the boat.

As I was pulling the fish out of the net and unhooking it, he yelled again, “Hey, what’d that fish come on?”

Really? I thought to myself.  Did he just ask that?  I mean, I understand we’re not fishing the same tournament, but you’re fishing over the SAME water that I may fish over again.  I paused for a moment… if I say t-rig, he’ll know I’m lying, cause I’m clearly casting and retrieving a bait rapidly.  A jerkbait?  No, if he starts throwing a jerkbait, that may trigger those fish just like the lipless crank… “Uhhhhh, a swim jig!!!” I yelled back.  Lame answer.  I’m sure he still knew I was lying.  I clearly wasn’t throwing a swim jig.  Whatever, he can go ahead and know I’m lying.  What makes him think I’m actually gonna tell him what I was throwing when he’s fishing the same water as me?  Ha!  Sorry bro, if you’re reading this right now, I was throwing a lipless crankbait.  I just had to “play the game” a bit and throw you a decoy.  No hard feelings.  🙂

I quickly tossed the fish in the ‘well and continued fishing.  A few casts later, I’m in the groove of the rattle trap… *reel, reel, reel, grass, RIP, flutter… reel, reel, reel, grass, RIP, flutter…THUNK!*  FISH ON!  About 20ft down from where I hooked the last one.  Another chunk.  Again, I take it easy, walk her around the boat several times, and she gets slid into the net while the guys in the other boat look on.  They didn’t say anything this time.  Ya, they’re probably hurt because I lied to them about the swim jig.  Ha!  Oh well.  I slip this one into the livewell, and keep fishing.  I’m still fishing the same 100ft stretch of grass in between 2 docks.  It doesn’t take long…FISH ON!  This one is a little smaller, but still a good keeper probably close to 3lbs.  I try to fight it out into open water when she buries down in some deep grass.  Crapola.  All right, steady pressure, take it easy, nice slow pull…aaaaaaaaaand, she’s out.  Whew.  Number 4 makes it into the net and it’s about 7:45 AM.  Good freakin’ start.

While unhooking this fish, I was thinking to myself, well, it looks like the double split ring trick along with those KVD trebles are paying off as I haven’t lost any fish yet.  Suddenly, I noticed it… whaaaaaat?  I left the stock hooks on this bait and didn’t add extra split rings?!  One of the stock trebles was getting bent badly out of shape from the last few fish.    I was suddenly extremely grateful the last few fish all made it into the boat.  I decided I needed to take a few minutes to modify my bait with extra split rings and new hooks.  However, since my hands were nearly frozen solid, the intricate task with tiny pieces and tools took much longer than it should have.  Finally, I got the hooks replaced and added an extra split ring to each hook.

I began fishing the 100ft stretch between the two docks again, but nothing.  Dang.  I missed out on the feeding window on this stretch after taking so long to replace those trebles.  That’s ok, I just need one more bite.  I’m sure it’ll happen pretty quick here if I just keep chuggin’ along down these docks.  Thirty minutes later and nearing the end of the shallow grass flat 15 docks later, I began wondering if the lipless bite was over for the day as the sun was beginning to peak over the tall trees.  As I reached the very end of the grass flat… Fish #5, Baby.  It wasn’t a donkey by any means, but an obvious keeper.  Limited by 8:30.  Time to start upgrading.

I figured I’d go try fishing the 100ft stretch again to see if I could get them fired up again at all.  Threw the lipless and a t-rigged GrandeBass Rattlesnake… nothing.  I continued down the shoreline in the opposite direction this time fishing some more scattered grass.  Still nothing.  By now the sun was up pretty good and I figured the lipless bite might be dying.  I figured it was time to start hitting specific docks with a senko to try and upgrade my catch.  I peered across the lake to a creek opening that had been hit by at least 5 other boats already that morning.  Leading into the creek, were 3 docks spaced fairly far apart that were calling my name.  I didn’t notice any of those 5 boats fish those docks very hard; my big one must be waiting under one of those docks.

I ran over there and stopped short of the docks a ways to fish a grass line leading up to the creek mouth.  I boated a small keeper again on the lipless, but knew that he was no where near making my team and dumped him back.  It was then that I realized I needed to go through my fish and put a cull tag on the smallest one.  I took a few minutes and weighed a couple of the fish to find the smallest one: 1 lb 10 oz.  I clipped on the cull tag and got back to fishing.  As I approached the first dock at the mouth of the creek, I picked up my dock-skipping rod with a weightless t-rigged Kinami Flash (basically a senko) in black/red swirl and fired off a cast getting it to the very back of the darkest reaches of the dock.  On my 3rd cast under the dock, it felt heavy, and I set the hook.  It didn’t move.  Then there was the head shake.  Solid fish.  As I cranked her out from under the dock into the sunlight, I caught sight of her and knew this one would help me upgrade.  After a brief battle, she tired and she made it into the net.  Looked to be about a 5lber.  Nice upgrade.

As I fished the next two docks leading into the creek, I saw several bass cruising the outside grassline leading into the creek.  They all appeared to be smaller 1-2lb keepers, but saw one that looked around 3.  I made a few pitches to them to no avail, but didn’t really bother because I knew none of them would help me much at this point.  I didn’t catch anything on those other 2 docks, but decided I’d better go back into the creek just to make sure there wasn’t a big one on a bed or something in there that the other boats had missed.  I fished back in there fairly quick and spent about 15 minutes with the kinami flash and a trick worm, but there obviously wasn’t much going on in there just yet.  As I fished my way back out, I noticed another boat already fishing at the mouth of the creek near the dock where I’d caught the 5lber.  They were sitting right on top of the grassline where I’d seen the cruisers.  Dang.  I was hoping to let that sit for a bit while I was in the creek, then hopefully make some longer casts to it to try and catch the 3lber I saw cruising.  They screwed that up.

They began coming into the creek as I was headed out, and as we crossed paths, there was the usual conversation of two boats crossing paths.  I asked, “Well, have ya’ll been slammin’ ’em?”

Looking a little dejected they replied, “Nope!  Pretty slow for us.  And you?”

“Eh, it’s been all right.  I’ve caught some decent ones.”

“We saw a bunch of cruisers right here at the mouth of the creek.”

“The ones right on that outside grassline right there right?”

“Yeah, there’s a bunch out there just outside the creek, but there’s probably nothing in the creek huh?”

Hmmmm, I thought… should I?  Yeah, I’ll play the game and mess with ’em… I looked side to side as if to make sure no one else was listening, and I quietly told them, “Shoot, man, I probably just pulled 25lbs out of this creek.  Hopefully I didn’t suck it dry on ya’ll.  I didn’t see much left, but I’ll bet ya’ll can get a few more.”

“Damn!” said the guy on the back deck in disbelief.

Again, if you guys are reading this right now… sorry, just playin’ the game.  I was tryin’ to get ya’ll to stay back in there a while so I could maybe catch one of those bigger cruisers at the mouth.  🙂

I spent probably 10 minutes messing around at the mouth, but never did see the bigger cruiser I saw earlier.  None of them were worth my time, so I moved on.  Around the corner from where I caught the 5lber, were two more docks.  Picking up the Kinami Flash again, I got back to skipping.  These were pretty shallow docks.  Only 3ft of water at the end.  The type of docks most guys pass up because they think they’re two shallow since they can see the bottom clearly.  Friends, it’s never too shallow for a bass.  On my second skip, once again, I felt that heavy sensation and felt a fish slowly swimming to the side.  As I set the hook, I knew it was another good one.  As she came out into the sunlight shaking her head… Oh yeah, another upgrade for sure.  She soon found her way into the net and into the boat as well.  This one looked about 4lbs.  At this point, I suddenly became aware of my surroundings and looked up to see a couple in a bass boat about 80 ft away backed off the shoreline fishing the deeper grass.  Dang, I knew that they’d seen where I’d caught that fish up in that skinny water under the dock.  Wait for it I thought… sure enough, as I was unhooking my fish, I saw the gentleman up front reach down to turn up his trolling motor, and they motored straight up tight to the shoreline and the docks ahead of me.  Of course.

I also realized at this point that I didn’t have any cull tags on any of my fish and I needed to take some time to cull.  Now it was getting hard to tell which was the smallest.  That’s a good problem to have… at least when you’ve got a livewell full of 3+ pounders.  🙂  I began weighing all the fish and narrowed it down.  I had one that was bouncing back and forth between 2-13 and 2-14, and another one bouncing back and forth between 2-14 and 2-15.  Pretty close call, but I tossed the first one overboard.  Doing some quick math in my head I thought, well, I’ve pretty much got a bunch of 3s and one at 4-10 (that was the one I estimated at 5lbs).  I figured, 3×4 is 12, plus another 5 is 17.  I’ve probably got about 17lbs.  I don’t think that’s enough to win.  I NEED a BIG one… 6 plus at least.

At this point it was about 10:45-11 AM.  I continued to fish a couple more docks, but just wasn’t liking ’em and felt I needed to move.  I decided to fish a pattern that had been pretty successful for me in the past… fish shallow isolated docks that are on or very near spawning locations.  Isolated shallow docks are great for a few reasons.  1)  They get passed up by everyone else.  Most guys won’t go through the effort of traveling over a big flat or stopping just to fish ONE dock.  They like to fish a row of docks.  2)  They concentrate the fish.  When you’ve got ONE dock that’s the ONLY piece of cover around on a big grass flat, you can bet the biggest fish on the flat is going to take over and make that dock his home.  So far, the two docks I’d caught the fish under, fit fairly well into this category.

I spent pretty much the rest of the day doing this.  I ran up the lake, stopping periodically at various docks to just fish ONE dock.  Don’t get me wrong, I still caught fish, but there was nothing that was helping me to upgrade.  I ran all the way up past Quinlan Park to some docks I knew of that fit perfectly into this pattern.  As I pulled up to a dock in front of the Fat Farm (AKA: Lake Austin Spa), I noticed an opening in the grass  that I was about to run over… Huh, that looks like a bed.  Suddenly, just as I came over the top of it… my heart stopped.  There was a GIANT, 10lbs, at least, sitting on a bed.  My boat drifted over the top of her and she took off.  This is it I thought… this is the one I need.  I fished the dock I intended to hoping to give the big one time to reposition.  Ten minutes later, I started pitching baits to the bed from a good distance.  I couldn’t see her, but I was hoping she was there.  After spending another 10 minutes pitching to the bed still not knowing for sure if she had returned, I went in for a closer look.  She’s not there.  But there was a 3-4lb male.  Dang.  As I contemplated trying to catch the male, I realized even if I did catch him, and he was an upgrade… it wouldn’t be by much.  I NEEDED a BIG one.  I determined to continue up the lake and stop by later to see if the female had come back yet.

Running up to more docks, they didn’t produce anything.  I ran back down to check on the big bed fish again before running back down to more docks down the lake.  I stopped a good distance away from the bed and spent another 10 minutes pitching to it.  Nothing.  I went in for a closer look… no 10lber, and no male even.  Dang.  Not worth my time.  Down the lake I go.

By now I only had about an hour remaining.  I continued stopping at a few docks, but only caught small ones.  At about 2:35, I figured I had about a 10 minute run back to the weigh-in at the 360 bridge.  I better not push it this time.  I’ve had too many tournaments now that I should’ve finished in the money in… but decided to push it to the last minute, only to have something go wrong with my boat and me not make it to weigh-in.  I guess I’ll show up 15 minutes early.

I pulled up to the 360 bridge at 2:47, beached the boat, and got checked in.  In the next few minutes, lots of guys began coming in early.  I got a little worried… guys only come in early for 2 reasons: 1) It was a long hard day and they sucked or 2) they’ve got a freakin’ good bag.  I was assuming #2.  As I was loading the boat onto the trailer, I saw guys carrying weigh-in bags to the scales.  Bag after bag only contained a couple of fish.  My hope started rising.  I saw a couple of bags with limits… but they were all small fish.  Awwww yeah.  🙂  I bagged up my fish, and headed to the scales.  Still no signs of big bags from anyone in line.  Someone asked me how much I thought I had while looking at my bag of fish… “Probably 16 or 17,” I replied.  I still didn’t think I had enough to win.  I just KNEW someone had to have a 20+lb bag somewhere.  As my fish hit the scales, the tournament director, Gordon, made his guess, “Hmmmm, 15, maybe 16 or 17lbs.”  Yeah, that’s what I was figuring… the numbers started bouncing between 12-17lbs, and then suddenly the number “19.16” showed up and stayed there.  “19.16 lbs is the official weight and takes the lead!” Gordon exclaimed.

I gave out a small shout, “YEAH!”  As I held up my fish for photos, part of me felt guilty.  I still didn’t think I’d actually had 19lbs… but I wasn’t about to argue.  🙂  After I let the fish go, I stood in the small crowd to watch the rest of the bags weighed.  19 lbs?  Is that really right?  I still didn’t feel good about it.  I remembered the weights of each fish in my head and decided to pull out my phone and do some calculations.  I added up the numbers, and as I pushed the buttons recalling the weights of each fish, I realized where my on the water math had gone wrong.  I didn’t take into consideration that my 3lbers… were all really more like 4lbers; all within a quarter of a pound of 4 lbs.  I was very relieved to see the total indeed come out to just over 19lbs.  As I was looking at my phone though, I missed the one guy weighing in that gave a good shot at the lead.  I overheard 18 something pounds announced and suddenly realized someone had come close.  After that though, there was only one other small bag weighed and that was that.

As the weigh-in concluded, places were announced, checks and plaques were presented, and more photos were taken.  I was very happy to have won, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t as stoked as I thought I’d be.  I realized why.  This is still just the beginning.  I’ve got much bigger tournament wins coming up… and soon.  I can feel ’em.  This is just one snowflake being added to the snowball rolling down the mountain.  Let’s keep it rollin’.  Momentum, Baby… momentum.