Big Sandy Creek Bass Club – Lake LBJ – 09 Feb 2013:<\/strong> \u00a0When 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. \u00a0Tournament day, we went in there, caught a few decent fish, but that was about it. \u00a0It seemed like the spot was starting to die out, so I made the decision to run some new water with the cranks. \u00a0We caught a few more decent keepers here and there, but nothing phenomenal. \u00a0Towards 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. \u00a0My partner quickly boated another keeper giving him 4 fish, and I still had 3. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0No fish there. \u00a0With 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. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I told him, naw, we’ve got a few more minutes. \u00a0Well, after about 3 casts, and doing some quick math in my head, I realized we really did need to book it to weigh-in. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0So I chalked it up as good momentum.<\/p>\n Media Bass – Lake Austin – 16 Feb 2012 – THE WIN:\u00a0<\/strong>First of all, I gotta say, pre-fishing wasn’t that spectacular. \u00a0I spent two mornings pre-fishing during the week beforehand with pretty limited results. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I hadn’t really come up with a game plan until the night before the tournament. \u00a0I was going to make a somewhat risky move and start on a spot I hadn’t fished all year. \u00a0I knew I needed roughly 20lbs to win, and none of the areas I’d found during pre-fish, I felt could produce 20lbs. \u00a0This other spot though, I knew if the fish were there, 20lbs or at least a good start towards it, was very possible. \u00a0I also knew that it was a fairly popular spot, and I might not get there first. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I 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.<\/p>\n At blast-off I started running up the lake to my pre-determined starting spot. \u00a0As I approached, sure enough, there was a boat sitting right on top of it already. \u00a0However, 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. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0After about 5 minutes, I’d gone past several docks, and was just about to put down the lipless to pick up something else. \u00a0I made a cast and thought, ya, as soon as I retrieve this, I’m picking up my chatterbait. \u00a0Surprise! \u00a0Keeper #1 jumped on the crankbait. \u00a0A decent 2lber. \u00a0I guess I’m stickin’ with the lipless for a bit.<\/p>\n As I continued to fish I could see a handful of boats fishing within eyesight; some on my same bank. \u00a0One of them had leapfrogged me and had started several docks away from me and started fishing towards the same direction I was headed. \u00a0Whatever. \u00a0He gave me plenty of space. \u00a0Soon another boat jumped in between me and the other boat a long ways ahead of me. \u00a0However as he fished, he headed in my direction. \u00a0Whatever I guess. \u00a0I knew there were 2 other tournaments going on that day and things could get tight. \u00a0No bother. \u00a0As we neared each other, I let him and his partner take the inside track, and I fished around them. \u00a0As we crossed in front of a dock, we exchanged comments about the fishing and how unbelievably cold it was that morning. \u00a0Oh yeah, it was FREEZING. \u00a0I had ice on my boat seats. \u00a0I began fishing the water they’d just gone over. \u00a0As they made it one dock away from me, I stick a fish on the lipless. \u00a0Oh boy. \u00a0This is a GOODUN’. \u00a0I fought the fish carefully walking it around the whole boat probably 4 or 5 times while it jumped a few times near the boat. \u00a0She finally tired and I slid her in the net while the boat I’d just passed looked on. \u00a0Good fish. \u00a04+ pounder. \u00a0“Hey what tournament are you in?” yelled one of the guys in the other boat.<\/p>\n “Media Bass,” I shouted back.<\/p>\n “Good, that means you’re not in the same tournament as us!” chuckled the guy in the front of the boat.<\/p>\n As I was pulling the fish out of the net and unhooking it, he yelled again, “Hey, what’d that fish come on?”<\/p>\n Really? I thought to myself. \u00a0Did he just ask that? \u00a0I mean, I understand we’re not fishing the same tournament, but you’re fishing over the SAME water that I may fish over again. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0A jerkbait? \u00a0No, if he starts throwing a jerkbait, that may trigger those fish just like the lipless crank… “Uhhhhh, a swim jig!!!” I yelled back. \u00a0Lame answer. \u00a0I’m sure he still knew I was lying. \u00a0I clearly wasn’t throwing a swim jig. \u00a0Whatever, he can go ahead and know I’m lying. \u00a0What makes him think I’m actually gonna tell him what I was throwing when he’s fishing the same water as me? \u00a0Ha! \u00a0Sorry bro, if you’re reading this right now, I was throwing a lipless crankbait. \u00a0I just had to “play the game” a bit and throw you a decoy. \u00a0No hard feelings. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I quickly tossed the fish in the ‘well and continued fishing. \u00a0A 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!* \u00a0FISH ON! \u00a0About 20ft down from where I hooked the last one. \u00a0Another chunk. \u00a0Again, 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. \u00a0They didn’t say anything this time. \u00a0Ya, they’re probably hurt because I lied to them about the swim jig. \u00a0Ha! \u00a0Oh well. \u00a0I slip this one into the livewell, and keep fishing. \u00a0I’m still fishing the same 100ft stretch of grass in between 2 docks. \u00a0It doesn’t take long…FISH ON! \u00a0This one is a little smaller, but still a good keeper probably close to 3lbs. \u00a0I try to fight it out into open water when she buries down in some deep grass. \u00a0Crapola. \u00a0All right, steady pressure, take it easy, nice slow pull…aaaaaaaaaand, she’s out. \u00a0Whew. \u00a0Number 4 makes it into the net and it’s about 7:45 AM. \u00a0Good freakin’ start.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0Suddenly, I noticed it… whaaaaaat? \u00a0I left the stock hooks on this bait and didn’t add extra split rings?! \u00a0One of the stock trebles was getting bent badly out of shape from the last few fish. \u00a0 \u00a0I was suddenly extremely grateful the last few fish all made it into the boat. \u00a0I decided I needed to take a few minutes to modify my bait with extra split rings and new hooks. \u00a0However, since my hands were nearly frozen solid, the intricate task with tiny pieces and tools took much longer than it should have. \u00a0Finally, I got the hooks replaced and added an extra split ring to each hook.<\/p>\n I began fishing the 100ft stretch between the two docks again, but nothing. \u00a0Dang. \u00a0I missed out on the feeding window on this stretch after taking so long to replace those trebles. \u00a0That’s ok, I just need one more bite. \u00a0I’m sure it’ll happen pretty quick here if I just keep chuggin’ along down these docks. \u00a0Thirty 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. \u00a0As I reached the very end of the grass flat… Fish #5, Baby. \u00a0It wasn’t a donkey by any means, but an obvious keeper. \u00a0Limited by 8:30. \u00a0Time to start upgrading.<\/p>\n I figured I’d go try fishing the 100ft stretch again to see if I could get them fired up again at all. \u00a0Threw the lipless and a t-rigged GrandeBass Rattlesnake… nothing. \u00a0I continued down the shoreline in the opposite direction this time fishing some more scattered grass. \u00a0Still nothing. \u00a0By now the sun was up pretty good and I figured the lipless bite might be dying. \u00a0I figured it was time to start hitting specific docks with a senko to try and upgrade my catch. \u00a0I peered across the lake to a creek opening that had been hit by at least 5 other boats already that morning. \u00a0Leading into the creek, were 3 docks spaced fairly far apart that were calling my name. \u00a0I didn’t notice any of those 5 boats fish those docks very hard; my big one must be waiting under one of those docks.<\/p>\n I ran over there and stopped short of the docks a ways to fish a grass line leading up to the creek mouth. \u00a0I boated a small keeper again on the lipless, but knew that he was no where near making my team and dumped him back. \u00a0It was then that I realized I needed to go through my fish and put a cull tag on the smallest one. \u00a0I took a few minutes and weighed a couple of the fish to find the smallest one: 1 lb 10 oz. \u00a0I clipped on the cull tag and got back to fishing. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0On my 3rd cast under the dock, it felt heavy, and I set the hook. \u00a0It didn’t move. \u00a0Then there was the head shake. \u00a0Solid fish. \u00a0As I cranked her out from under the dock into the sunlight, I caught sight of her and knew this one would help me upgrade. \u00a0After a brief battle, she tired and she made it into the net. \u00a0Looked to be about a 5lber. \u00a0Nice upgrade.<\/p>\n As I fished the next two docks leading into the creek, I saw several bass cruising the outside grassline leading into the creek. \u00a0They all appeared to be smaller 1-2lb keepers, but saw one that looked around 3. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0They were sitting right on top of the grassline where I’d seen the cruisers. \u00a0Dang. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0They screwed that up.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0I asked, “Well, have ya’ll been slammin’ ’em?”<\/p>\n Looking a little dejected they replied, “Nope! \u00a0Pretty slow for us. \u00a0And you?”<\/p>\n “Eh, it’s been all right. \u00a0I’ve caught some decent ones.”<\/p>\n “We saw a bunch of cruisers right here at the mouth of the creek.”<\/p>\n “The ones right on that outside grassline right there right?”<\/p>\n “Yeah, there’s a bunch out there just outside the creek, but there’s probably nothing in the creek huh?”<\/p>\n Hmmmm, I thought… should I? \u00a0Yeah, 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. \u00a0Hopefully I didn’t suck it dry on ya’ll. \u00a0I didn’t see much left, but I’ll bet ya’ll can get a few more.”<\/p>\n “Damn!” said the guy on the back deck in disbelief.<\/p>\n Again, if you guys are reading this right now… sorry, just playin’ the game. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n I spent probably 10 minutes messing around at the mouth, but never did see the bigger cruiser I saw earlier. \u00a0None of them were worth my time, so I moved on. \u00a0Around the corner from where I caught the 5lber, were two more docks. \u00a0Picking up the Kinami Flash again, I got back to skipping. \u00a0These were pretty shallow docks. \u00a0Only 3ft of water at the end. \u00a0The type of docks most guys pass up because they think they’re two shallow since they can see the bottom clearly. \u00a0Friends, it’s never too shallow for a bass. \u00a0On my second skip, once again, I felt that heavy sensation and felt a fish slowly swimming to the side. \u00a0As I set the hook, I knew it was another good one. \u00a0As she came out into the sunlight shaking her head… Oh yeah, another upgrade for sure. \u00a0She soon found her way into the net and into the boat as well. \u00a0This one looked about 4lbs. \u00a0At 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. \u00a0Dang, I knew that they’d seen where I’d caught that fish up in that skinny water under the dock. \u00a0Wait 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. \u00a0Of course.<\/p>\n 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. \u00a0Now it was getting hard to tell which was the smallest. \u00a0That’s a good problem to have… at least when you’ve got a livewell full of 3+ pounders. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0I began weighing all the fish and narrowed it down. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Pretty close call, but I tossed the first one overboard. \u00a0Doing 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). \u00a0I figured, 3×4 is 12, plus another 5 is 17. \u00a0I’ve probably got about 17lbs. \u00a0I don’t think that’s enough to win. \u00a0I NEED a BIG one… 6 plus at least.<\/p>\n At this point it was about 10:45-11 AM. \u00a0I continued to fish a couple more docks, but just wasn’t liking ’em and felt I needed to move. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Isolated shallow docks are great for a few reasons. \u00a01) \u00a0They get passed up by everyone else. \u00a0Most guys won’t go through the effort of traveling over a big flat or stopping just to fish ONE dock. \u00a0They like to fish a row of docks. \u00a02) \u00a0They concentrate the fish. \u00a0When 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. \u00a0So far, the two docks I’d caught the fish under, fit fairly well into this category.<\/p>\n I spent pretty much the rest of the day doing this. \u00a0I ran up the lake, stopping periodically at various docks to just fish ONE dock. \u00a0Don’t get me wrong, I still caught fish, but there was nothing that was helping me to upgrade. \u00a0I ran all the way up past Quinlan Park to some docks I knew of that fit perfectly into this pattern. \u00a0As I pulled up to a dock in front of the Fat Farm (AKA: Lake Austin Spa), I noticed an opening in the grass \u00a0that I was about to run over… Huh, that looks like a bed. \u00a0Suddenly, just as I came over the top of it… my heart stopped. \u00a0There was a GIANT, 10lbs, at least, sitting on a bed. \u00a0My boat drifted over the top of her and she took off. \u00a0This is it I thought… this is the one I need. \u00a0I fished the dock I intended to hoping to give the big one time to reposition. \u00a0Ten minutes later, I started pitching baits to the bed from a good distance. \u00a0I couldn’t see her, but I was hoping she was there. \u00a0After spending another 10 minutes pitching to the bed still not knowing for sure if she had returned, I went in for a closer look. \u00a0She’s not there. \u00a0But there was a 3-4lb male. \u00a0Dang. \u00a0As 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. \u00a0I NEEDED a BIG one. \u00a0I determined to continue up the lake and stop by later to see if the female had come back yet.<\/p>\n Running up to more docks, they didn’t produce anything. \u00a0I ran back down to check on the big bed fish again before running back down to more docks down the lake. \u00a0I stopped a good distance away from the bed and spent another 10 minutes pitching to it. \u00a0Nothing. \u00a0I went in for a closer look… no 10lber, and no male even. \u00a0Dang. \u00a0Not worth my time. \u00a0Down the lake I go.<\/p>\n By now I only had about an hour remaining. \u00a0I continued stopping at a few docks, but only caught small ones. \u00a0At about 2:35, I figured I had about a 10 minute run back to the weigh-in at the 360 bridge. \u00a0I better not push it this time. \u00a0I’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. \u00a0I guess I’ll show up 15 minutes early.<\/p>\n I pulled up to the 360 bridge at 2:47, beached the boat, and got checked in. \u00a0In the next few minutes, lots of guys began coming in early. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I was assuming #2. \u00a0As I was loading the boat onto the trailer, I saw guys carrying weigh-in bags to the scales. \u00a0Bag after bag only contained a couple of fish. \u00a0My hope started rising. \u00a0I saw a couple of bags with limits… but they were all small fish. \u00a0Awwww yeah. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0I bagged up my fish, and headed to the scales. \u00a0Still no signs of big bags from anyone in line. \u00a0Someone asked me how much I thought I had while looking at my bag of fish… “Probably 16 or 17,” I replied. \u00a0I still didn’t think I had enough to win. \u00a0I just KNEW someone had to have a 20+lb bag somewhere. \u00a0As my fish hit the scales, the tournament director, Gordon, made his guess, “Hmmmm, 15, maybe 16 or 17lbs.” \u00a0Yeah, 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. \u00a0“19.16 lbs is the official weight and takes the lead!” Gordon exclaimed.<\/p>\n I gave out a small shout, “YEAH!” \u00a0As I held up my fish for photos, part of me felt guilty. \u00a0I still didn’t think I’d actually had 19lbs… but I wasn’t about to argue. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0After I let the fish go, I stood in the small crowd to watch the rest of the bags weighed. \u00a019 lbs? \u00a0Is that really right? \u00a0I still didn’t feel good about it. \u00a0I remembered the weights of each fish in my head and decided to pull out my phone and do some calculations. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0I didn’t take into consideration that my 3lbers… were all really more like 4lbers; all within a quarter of a pound of 4 lbs. \u00a0I was very relieved to see the total indeed come out to just over 19lbs. \u00a0As I was looking at my phone though, I missed the one guy weighing in that gave a good shot at the lead. \u00a0I overheard 18 something pounds announced and suddenly realized someone had come close. \u00a0After that though, there was only one other small bag weighed and that was that.<\/p>\n As the weigh-in concluded, places were announced, checks and plaques were presented, and more photos were taken. \u00a0I was very happy to have won, don’t get me wrong, but I wasn’t as stoked as I thought I’d be. \u00a0I realized why. \u00a0This is still just the beginning. \u00a0I’ve got much bigger tournament wins coming up… and soon. \u00a0I can feel ’em. \u00a0This is just one snowflake being added to the snowball rolling down the mountain. \u00a0Let’s keep it rollin’. \u00a0Momentum, Baby… momentum.<\/p>\n![\"First](\"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Media-Bass-300x273.jpg\")
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