darrencombs

Nitro sorry this got off a little topic. Have a great time and enjoy every minute out there with the kids. Whether you catch a fish or not we are blessed. My kids (son and daughter) participate in the high school fishing and it is one of the few sports they can compete together. Three years ago my son had a tumor in his head and was on the operating table for ten and half hours at the children's hospital in St. Louis. I am a grown man, but that day I prayed and I ASKED for help to the power above to heel my son. So I do ask for help. If my son wants to be a pro someday or anything else he will have my support. I cherish every day with them. Nitro I fish the James quit a bit. The weather will predict what they will fish with. If you get out (no fog delay) try a top water whopper plopper, buzz bait or spook. I found some success early here recently with these baits. If there is wind a spinner bait has caught a few. I even caught some on a square bill. If there is no wind might go to shakey head with a green pumpkin trick worm or a half ounce jig. I usually fish them around the ledges or drop offs. They will fish from 15' to about 25' dragging them. Right now fish may be in one spot and in an hour be moved. Keep a bait in the water and open mind and fish the conditions. Have a great time and I truly hope your kids catch the biggest fish of the tournament. I will be down there and I will be in a dark silver Nitro Z-8. Come say hi and introduce me to the kids with you. Thanks and my God bless all. Darren Combs

My son and I were fishing yesterday evening in the cape fair area. He saw a bait floating and noticed it had a long line attached to it. Pulling up the line there was a rod and reel attached. If anyone lost a rod and reel near cape fair get with me. Tell me what type of rod and brand of reel and I would love to get it back to you. You should also know what bait was on it when lost, it was a good one! I'm assuming it might have blown out of the boat when running. Hope everyone catches a big one.

Thanks Dave. We just had a very fortunate and blessed day on the water. We've all had those days where nothing can absolutely go right and then there are those that go almost perfect. My partner likes to fish the state park area. We did start the tournament there with out a bite. I did hear that some had good luck in the discolor water. We did make a little run to water I'm a little more familiar with. We were fishing out of his boat and he wanted me to run the trolling motor because he didn't know the area. I was hoping for a nice relaxing day from the back of the boat. I know that some will want more specific details. I will give as much as I can, but my partner has the CPA this weekend at TR. The fish came in about 20' of water. They were all caught on a bait like a jig, or worm that was in contact with the bottom. The first cast my partner made he caught the five pounder. His 7.02 was the fourth keeper of the day. He ended up kicking their teeth in from the back of the boat. I told him keep catching them I will set here eat my potato chips, drink a Pepsi and net your fish. Some people try to out fish each other even in a team tournament. I could careless who put the five in the boat. We ended up catching 9 keepers in total. We didn't catch a lot of fish total maybe 20. I am a spot fisherman. I might fish just a rock, stump, ledge, one log etc. I can't hardly make myself just start going down a bank casting. I figure if I have several little "confident" spots and hit most I have better chance than spending time going down a whole bank. You have to understand that I have spent hours upon hours fishing those whole banks to find that sweet 10 foot stretch, or that log, ledge or what ever it might be. The fish did come from steeper banks with rocks. You don't under stand how hard it is to write this and give good detail, but not get criticized for not enough. Trust me, I'm on here daily and see some of the post. I fish a few tournaments, but now days I just take my son to his tournaments. I consider myself as a recreational fisherman. Champ188 to ease your mind not a single fish was caught on a bed. Truthfully, I think they have all spawned. Where, I don't know. I haven't seen many beds in my area all year. I kinda think maybe some spawned a little deeper this year. That's just my opinion. I have little cabin in the James river arm so I spend a lot of time there. So if you and see a dark gray Nitro Z8 with a 16 old boy up front and an old man sitting in the back stop and say Hi. My son Dalton and Darren Combs. As always hope the next time you go fishing you catch the biggest fish of your life and take a kid fishing.

I hadn't fished the the big bass tournament now for a couple years. I decided to this year and I would say even with all the people and more wind than I wanted I truely enjoyed it. The staff was awesome at the weighing in. I plan to make this a yearly event. I fished the lower end of the James both days. The first morning about 15 minutes into it I caught my first fish which ended up weighing 5.53. I caught the fish about 50 yards from a main lake point going back into a pocket. The fish came in about 12 foot of water. I was using a three arm rig, which I guess is similiar to a Swim N' Frenzy. I make my own and I got the idea from the fellow who did pretty good at a tournament here at TR a few years back using a similiar type. I was using 1/8 heads with Keitech 3.5 Electric Shad on them. I fish this style more like a spinner bait rather a typical A-Rig. I hooked one other fish on it and just didn't seal the deal with that fish. Never saw it, but it felt good. I used a megabass during the rest of the time and caught a few but nothing of size. I thought the water color in this area was great and the water temp was little warm for maybe the a-rig. However, just being out there to enjoy Gods beauty is worth it everytime. I heard several turkeys, saw some eagles and I'm sitting here excited about being able to go down and enjoy it all again this weekend. Good luck to everyone and I hope you catch the biggest fish of your life and as always take a kid fishing.

Great report Cody. Enjoy every minute of it they grow up way to fast.

I am Dalton's father and I posted some of the details on the Table Rock forum and didn't know Dave put it over on the Stockton one as well. I first have to say I'm a pretty proud papa. Both of the these young men are freshman. They caught 25 keepers in the two day tournament. The first day they caught 16 but all we small and the same size. They had 8# and some change the first day. The second day started a lot slower and only caught three keeps by 10 o'clock. My son picked up a magnum finesse worm and threw it out. He missed one on the first cast and being a father I said you don't want to miss those. Well the very next cast he said there his is and set the hook. I could by the hook set that it was a good fish. It came out of the water and we all three started yelling. His partner netted the big girl and the celebration started. She weighed 6.50. They caught five more keepers after this fish to give them a total weigh of 13.20 for the day. A total of 21.99 for the two days. They barely edged out the second place team by .12 ounces. Pretty darn close. They fished the Ned rig most of the time with either a Canadian Crawl or dirt color. They used between the 1/8 and 3/16 head and yes we use Dave's jig heads. However, if he started getting bites on the rig he would through out a finesse trick worm or the magnum finesse worm. He found rather that shaking or hopping the shakey head they wanted it more drug on the bottom. Shakey head sizes were 3/16 or 1/4 on the magnum worm. We fished from Mutton Creek to the Dam area. He found most fish on rounded points or what I call do nothing points. We just couldn't find them on the steeper or bluff end points. Maybe we weren't out far enough. He set the boat in 20 'to 25' foot of water. The big girl was probably in about 10'. I sat in the boat Saturday for 9 hours and Sunday for 8. 17 hours of sitting in a boat and not fishing gets pretty darn tough, but to see him catch that big was well worth it. Dalton has fished in 5 HS tournament this year and has placed 1st, 3rd, 4th, 23rd, 26th. Most of these tournaments have 90 plus boats. The Teen Anglers is a great circuit for these young anglers. Don't we all wish they would have had this when we were in school. He has earned $6500 dollars this year in college scholarship which was split between him and his partners.

Thank you Dave for getting the pics uploaded for me. Champ I appreciate your kind words. I have to start by saying I'm a very proud dad. Secondly I want to thank Randy Conlon for putting together Teen Angler Circuit for these high school fisherman. Also to LEW'S for all their commitment in sponsoring the event. The event was last weekend at Stockton Lake. My son and his partner caught 16 keepers the first day but all were about the same size weighing in at 8# and some change. Sunday they started kinda slow and they finally caught on keeper then caught two more by ten o'clock. My son picked up a 1/4 ounce shakey head with a magnum finesse trick worm and made a cast. He got a bite and missed it on the hook set. We were talking about the bite and he threw it back out and said well there's another bite. As he set the hook and when I say set the hook my son gets his money worth when he jerks. I could tell by the load on the rod that it was a good one. The fish came up and we got a look at it. You could probably hear all three of us screaming at this point. His partner got her netted and the celebration started. That fished weighed 6.50. They caught 5 more keepers after this fish. Their weigh was 13.20 for a total of 21.99 for two days. They bairly beat out a great team from Republic Gill and Durr by (.12). Pretty close! They caught a ton of walleye and drum over the weekend. They caught 25 keeps in two days. They caught over half on the Ned rig using Dave's head. Going between Canadian Crawl and Dirt color. Using 1/8 but more on a 3/16 due to the wind. My son also threw a finesse trick worm on a 3/16 shakey head. He would throw it out and more drag it rather than shaking it. We fished from Mutton Creek to the dam. We fished what I would call do nothing points. They would be more round rather than a bluff end. However there needs to be some deeper water close. Main lake points seemed better. We would set the boat in 25' of water. They would start every point with the Ned to get bit then when fish were locate they would throw a bigger worm. It seemed they would have to fish several points to find one with fish. My son is a freshman and the memories from this weekend were priceless. However, setting in a boat for 17 hours and not be able to fish is kinda tough ,but I would do it again this weekend to spend time with him. Thanks to all and I'm ready for another OAF get together.

Quill, Bill and to everyone that had a hand in putting the get together on I want to say Thank You. I have a place at the other end of the lake, however we drove over to meet folks from the forum. We had a great time and truthfully it gave me a chance to see that part of the lake. We are for sure in for next year as well. Thanks again to everyone.

Jim and his side kick Mark are two great guys. Good people running a great store.

Aaron Martens

My son and I fished Mike Webb's K.A.S.T. for kids tournament this weekend. What a great time we had. This is great time of year to take a kid fishing. The Take-Kid-Fishing tournament out of Cape Fair should really be good for the kidos. My son threw a grub most of the day and caught plenty of fish. With the cloud cover and wind I had to try it.....I threw a Pro blue mega bass and it landed me a 5.88. Just prior to cathcing this fish I hooked a really fat keeper kentucky. I knew I didn't have it hooked very well. When you hear stories of knocking a fish off with a net....well it happened. I could tell he was upset, but that is part of fishing. We stopped and talk about netting fish for a bit. Off course he was on me saying I should have hooked it better. At 13 years of age they know it all. lol It wasn't 15 minutes later and I hooked this girl. There's no other person I would want in my boat to net this fish. He got her netted like a pro. This is only a three fish tournament and we had little over 10 pounds with three. We fished from Joe Bald to Baxter main lake and secondary points.

Awesome count me in.

This is my first time posting anything on here and after I read a post by Phil I figured it was time. I don't know how much more I will post but thought I would try it once. I would consider myself as a recreational fisherman. I have thirteen year old son that loves fishing maybe more than me. My son and I do fish in the weekend cape fair tournaments. This weekend we had three keepers and I did happen to get lucky and catch a good one. It won the big bass at 7.10. We made a little run to baxter area. I had my son throw a A-rig all day never once did he put it down. He played quarter back for the Ozark seventh grade team last year. I hope throwing that A-rig all day he might get another 15 yards on his passes next year. The big fish came in about 35 ft of water between two large docks. The other fish were in about 15-20 ft with pole timber. I want to get to the main reason for my post. I keep talking about my boy. Like me, he is always on OAF reading the post and learning. Guys, you have a GREAT thing going here. I don't know Lilly, Babler, Champ, there are way to many names to put down. Josh, don't know you either but you helped my son catch a few crappie this weekend. I will be honest I didn't know a dang thing about crappie fishing. So thanks Josh. I'm pretty sure I was in the same area as you on Sunday. I would have personally told you thanks. I took up fishing about three years ago. I have learned in those years more about the "CODE" of fishing with the other fisherman. There are those that know you fish but don't want to talk about it. There are those that will talk about it and tell you they are catching them on a ZARA spook in december. Then there are the ones that will talk fishing and tell you what is going on or even yet not talk they want to take you fishing. I feel that is what we have with OAF. Real fisherman that like to fish and will help one another. I had a good fisherman tell me once I'm not competing against the other fisherman, I'm competing against the fish in Table Rock. I want to end by saying I'm in full favor of a OAF get together. I would like to put a face to the names that my son and I read about. Again to every fisherman on this forum thank you so much. Remember life can be short and we are so blessed to be able to par-take in something we all love FISHING. Thanks Darren and Dalton