So every year I like to make a fantasy tournament schedule of sorts for the club that I am fishing in that year. The past few years, I’ve been fishing with Big Sandy Creek Bass Club. I’ve really enjoyed fishing with them so far, and I’m sure I will continue to. Anyways, the reason I make this “fantasy schedule” is because like many clubs, we regularly vote in the lakes that we will be fishing each month. At the beginning of the year, I like to try and map out what lakes I would like to see the club fish each month, so then I know what lake it is I’m going to nominate at the club meetings. Rarely do I get to see my nominated lake voted in, but I still always try. 🙂
I take a few things into consideration when trying to decide what lake I’d like to see voted in for a particular month. The number one consideration though, is driving distance from my home. With it being a club, obviously there aren’t huge cash pay-outs for winning these tournaments. Therefore, it’s difficult for me to justify the cost of making a 3+ hour trip to a lake when I’m probably not even going to recoup my expenses even if I win. For club tournaments, I like to stay close to home. So with that in mind, all of my nominations are for lakes that are within an hour and fifteen minutes from my home (according to Google Maps).
I wanted to take the time to share with ya’ll what my fantasy club tournament schedule is for this year and explain a little bit about why I chose each of the lakes I did for the months that I did. Let’s get started:
January – Fayette County: So this lake isn’t my fantasy pick, but rather, it’s the lake that has already been voted in for the month. I wasn’t able to attend the last meeting, so I didn’t get a chance to nominate anything. However, it’s still a good pick for January because it is a power plant lake. That means, a source of nice warm water even in the middle of the coldest month of the year. Which also means, potential for some awesome winter-time bass action. Heck, sometimes on power plant lakes you can even get into an awesome topwater bite in sub-freezing temps. So while this lake may or may not have been what I would’ve chosen for January, it’s already on the schedule. So it’s on my schedule for January, too. 🙂
February – Bastrop: This is another power plant lake during what is usually a fairly chilly month. Many of our area lakes near Austin typically start seeing fish going into a pre-spawn pattern near mid to late February. That means, on a power plant lake like Bastrop, we could potentially already start seeing fish on beds in February. I’ve never had a chance to fish Bastrop in February, and I just think it’d be cool to maybe get on a bed-fishing pattern while I’m bundled up in cold weather gear and the fish are nice and warm in their bath water. To me, it just sounds like a possibly unusual enough situation to make for a fun day.
March – Austin: This is my heavy-hitter tournament for the year. You’ve got to have at least one tournament in the schedule that provides an opportunity to see some ridiculously large bags weighed in. Lake Austin being the star of the show around here when it comes to big bass lakes deserves the right to take the March slot. March is when we typically see the most fish moving up to spawn and they’re often the biggest ones in the lake. However, you still have a fair number of fish in an active pre-spawn phase as well. Sight-fishing will probably be somewhat limited now due to the lake being much murkier with the lack of grass (thanks grass carp!), however I chose this one simply for it’s potential to still see some huge bags.
April – LBJ: Sight-fishing. I figure we need to have at least one tournament where sight-fishing is a definite possibility to be the primary tactic used to win the tournament. Many of the fish may have already spawned in March, but there will still be a lot of fish on beds in April, I’m sure. I figure LBJ has the best sight-fishing potential right now. It’s got some really great grass growth going on right now, lots of shallow backwaters where spawning takes place, and clean enough water to have a good view. Sight-fishing may not be my strong suit, but I’d love an opportunity to hone that skill.
May – Marble Falls: I’ve never been to Marble Falls! I understand it’s a pretty small lake, but so is Inks, and we’ve had club tournaments there before. I figure May is a good month to visit a new lake. With it being a transitional period from spring to summer, you’ll see fish in all sorts of phases and predicting a pattern for this one is almost impossible. I picked this one as my “wild card” tournament for the year.
June – Stillhouse: During the past several years, many have referred to Stillhouse as “The Dead Sea” and for good reason. It has been notoriously tough ever since I moved here in 2008 due to a flood in 2006 that killed all of the grass. Well I’ve got news for you guys, THE GRASS IS BACK, and it’s back in a big way. I fished a Media Bass tournament there in May of this year (2014) and the grass was amazing. Lots of great hydrilla and milfoil, and some of it growing pretty deep too in about 20ft. And the fishing was GREAT. Stillhouse is looking better than I’ve ever personally seen it, and I was catching 20-50 fish a day when I pre-fished for the tournament. Nothing huge, but it was fun. When air temps start climbing here in Texas, the best lakes to fish are lakes with grass, and deep grass is awesome. Stillhouse is the place.
July – Dunlap: Another lake I’ve never been to! I know almost nothing about Dunlap. I’ve never even seen it and don’t know what it looks like. July is typically one of the toughest months to fish here in the Austin area due to the super high air temps. I figure while the fishing is tough elsewhere, take the month to explore somewhere new. So this one is another wild card. It could fish awesome, or be a total grind. I’m down for either.
August – Inks: Inks has always treated me well with a frog, and August is a great month to throw a frog in central Texas. I LOVE to throw a frog! Easily one of the funnest ways to catch ’em. Again, August is a hot month and the best places to go are places with grass. Inks has a variety of grasses with water willow, milfoil, and hydrilla.
September – Decker: Here’s another one to add to the list of places I’ve never been and know nothing about. This selection is pretty much the same rationalization as the July – Dunlap tournament. It’s hot, fishing is tough everywhere else, might as well go somewhere I’ve never been.
October – Belton: Probably my favorite time of the year to fish Belton. A lot of people struggle there this time of the year, but my confidence is sky-high on Belton in October. Typically, you’re looking at one of two patterns there in October: catching deep suspended fish in 30-60ft of water on the lower end of the lake or running upriver into the dirty stuff to flip and throw a squarebill crank. One extreme or the other. If you’re going to throw Belton into the mix (a lake that a lot of guys hate), might as well make it October.
November – Georgetown: My experience on Georgetown is super limited… limited to a few hours of walking the shorelines when I was scouting it out as a potential place to have a boy scout activity. I didn’t really have a lake I felt super awesome about putting in the November slot, so I figured another lake I didn’t really know would be a good slot for it.
December – Travis: Traditionally, the club likes to fish the power plant lakes, Bastrop and Fayette, during our two coldest winter months, December and January. However, doing this I feel like we miss out on hitting a lake where we have to fish a true winter pattern. The winter bite on Travis is actually a lot better than the summer bite on Travis. In the summer they go even deeper than they do in the winter. December on Travis we’ve got some good potential for a jig, drop-shot, or crankbait bite.
You may have noticed a couple of things about my list. First of all, I never planned the same lake twice throughout the year. Here in central Texas, we have enough lakes to be able to do that and still not have to drive much more than an hour to get to any of them. Also, I like changing things up, seeing new lakes, and fishing different bodies of water. Sticking to the same few lakes all of the time I feel like really damages me as an angler and doesn’t help me grow at all. That’s the other thing you’ll notice… a pretty big variety in the lakes I’ve chosen. I purposefully chose the lakes I did at the times I did in order to try and mix things up with the tactics that will be needed to be successful on those bodies of water. In order to earn the AOY title with this schedule, you’ll have to be able to do it all. You’ll need to be able to sight-fish, go big or go home, drop down to the finesse stuff, fish grass, fish rocks, fish docks, fish a jig, fish a crankbait, etc… you get the idea.
Anyways, there you have it. That’s my fantasy tournament schedule for BSCBC in 2015. How realistic is this? Pretty unrealistic. Har! I seem to get voted against a lot in my choice of lakes. Guys like to stick with what they’re comfortable with I guess. There are some tournaments on this schedule that play right into my confidence zone, yes, but much of the schedule is purposefully pushing me out of that comfort zone. Some of these selections will probably make for a grind of a tournament, but I really enjoy the occasional grind event. Those are the ones I usually get voted against with. Ha! How many of these will actually get voted in? I don’t know. If I get a quarter of them voted in, that will be pretty good. 🙂
Where ever we end up fishing, I’m looking forward to a fun year with BSCBC.
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