Borish Behavior

[Bill Babler]

"Gosh and by Golly". Usually the best bunch of wellbehaved tournament fishermen we have is the annual Champion tourney, that is going on this weekend. Must not be many fish in the water, cause they sure want the ones others people are trying to catch.

I feel a kindredship with the Champion people and kind of feel like they are a bunch of 'Good ole boy locals", but this weekend they have flipped their respective kill-switches, with rude behavior, that they themselves would be the first to scream bloody murder about.

Here is the fishing report; Good largemouth are in the cedar tops, and most everyone knows it. Not all the tops, mind ya, but there are some of the right kind suspended there, waiting for grub.

I fished about 50 trees Satureday, and would have fished more, but I kept getting cut-off by Champions pulling Right Dab in front of me making throws to a few trees then buzzing off. Had it happen 3 times by 3 different Champs, on three different locations.

Did not want to fuss or argue, I just put the boat on the trailer, and went home. Never seen this kind of behavior from them before, but had a couple of guides tell me it was real cut-throat out there Saturday.

My 50 trees netted me 2 Big bites and 3 Big Blow-ups. I only fished for a couple of hours, but these cedar fish are for sure tournament winners if you are on the cedar pattern, and you have enough trees. 3.5 pound fish and up are hanging out in these tops. I believe if I fished by myself and did not have to worry about anyone else I could for sure catch several over 4 pounds in a day on this pattern. Maybe Way-Way-Way over four pounds. These are all LM.

Guides working yesterday said the bite was real tough, with fish coming from 1ft. deep to 44 ft. Bites came on everything from topwater to swimbaits to crawlers. High sky and High prussure made it hard. Got a feeling today with the clouds and wind will be quite abit better.

Had about a 1/2 dozen on the FB before I went tree climbing. Something about fishing these cedars, your cast has to be perfect, and you will only get 1 per tree. You screw up that first cast, and just as well move to the next tree. They want that topwater right thru the heart of the tree just off the trunk. Outside the limbs you might as well forget it. Hang up on a limb or hit the tree, forget it. If he is in the tree and your first cast is good, hang on. Multiple cast to the same tree, gets you Noda. Seems 1 per tree and probably 1 fish every 20 trees. Spook, fin, or other topwater tasty treat seems not to matter.

Did throw a blade on some windy cedars for about 20 minutes with no replys.

Really hurt and disapointed with the Champion boys, seems money matters more than ever now and good old fashion common sense and curtiosy is out the back door, even to the folks that fish here everyday.

Good Luck

[Whack'emGood]

Bill,

We fished Saturday too and we noticed those guys running around like chickens with their heads cut off too. It is amazing to me the amount of guys these days that don't have any sense or common courtesy anymore. Like you said though... I guess it's best just to try to not let it bother you.

I appreciate the report as always. I would have made a report myself, but we didn't catch enough to establish a pattern to report about. It was a tough day for us.

I have a question about fishing the cedars. You are talking about cedars that stand with their tops above the water surface right? And you are casting as close to the trunks as possible without hitting the wood, right? You said you are using topwaters only... Do you think these fish can be caught with any other types of lures from these trees?... maybe a jig or texas rigged plastic pitched to the trees? Also, do these fish suspend in these trees only when the sun is bright and high in the sky or are these fish going to be there at other times?

Sorry for all of the questions, but I have never fished the way you described before and would appreciate some clarification. I appreciate your time and efforts, as always.

Whack'em

[S&M]

"Gosh and by Golly". Usually the best bunch of wellbehaved tournament fishermen we have is the annual Champion tourney, that is going on this weekend. Must not be many fish in the water, cause they sure want the ones others people are trying to catch.

I feel a kindredship with the Champion people and kind of feel like they are a bunch of 'Good ole boy locals", but this weekend they have flipped their respective kill-switches, with rude behavior, that they themselves would be the first to scream bloody murder about.

Here is the fishing report; Good largemouth are in the cedar tops, and most everyone knows it. Not all the tops, mind ya, but there are some of the right kind suspended there, waiting for grub.

I fished about 50 trees Satureday, and would have fished more, but I kept getting cut-off by Champions pulling Right Dab in front of me making throws to a few trees then buzzing off. Had it happen 3 times by 3 different Champs, on three different locations.

Did not want to fuss or argue, I just put the boat on the trailer, and went home. Never seen this kind of behavior from them before, but had a couple of guides tell me it was real cut-throat out there Saturday.

My 50 trees netted me 2 Big bites and 3 Big Blow-ups. I only fished for a couple of hours, but these cedar fish are for sure tournament winners if you are on the cedar pattern, and you have enough trees. 3.5 pound fish and up are hanging out in these tops. I believe if I fished by myself and did not have to worry about anyone else I could for sure catch several over 4 pounds in a day on this pattern. Maybe Way-Way-Way over four pounds. These are all LM.

Guides working yesterday said the bite was real tough, with fish coming from 1ft. deep to 44 ft. Bites came on everything from topwater to swimbaits to crawlers. High sky and High prussure made it hard. Got a feeling today with the clouds and wind will be quite abit better.

Had about a 1/2 dozen on the FB before I went tree climbing. Something about fishing these cedars, your cast has to be perfect, and you will only get 1 per tree. You screw up that first cast, and just as well move to the next tree. They want that topwater right thru the heart of the tree just off the trunk. Outside the limbs you might as well forget it. Hang up on a limb or hit the tree, forget it. If he is in the tree and your first cast is good, hang on. Multiple cast to the same tree, gets you Noda. Seems 1 per tree and probably 1 fish every 20 trees. Spook, fin, or other topwater tasty treat seems not to matter.

Did throw a blade on some windy cedars for about 20 minutes with no replys.

Really hurt and disapointed with the Champion boys, seems money matters more than ever now and good old fashion common sense and curtiosy is out the back door, even to the folks that fish here everyday.

Good Luck

I take offense to your thread. You have a lot of nerve grouping people together due to the boat they own. Your thread could cause some problems for Champion boat owners since some whackos out there would think they are doing the world a service by getting even with a Champion boat owner.

Edit your thread and remove Champion boat owners Mr Babler, the brand of boat didn't cause your problems.

[crappiefisherman]

Bring me some popcorn Honey, its about to start!!!!!!!!!

[redbud]

Thanks for the info on fish hanging out in the cedars. Is this a lake wide pattern ? I did not fish the Rock this weekend because I knew there would be excessive rudeness on the water. In many ways tournament fishing has been a double edge sword. Good and bad for fishing. If you look at the rules for the Champion tourney the is a section on sportsmanship,In my opinion these rules are self explanatory,sort of a golden rule. The actions of some of these anglers is not sporting at all,from prefishing to last cast,to rudeness at the launch.By the way I own a 04 Champion 196 and I dont fear any retribution from any other anglers because I am not one of the rude and borish people . It is a huge lake a lot of water. when I am on one of my spots and this happens to me I let them have the spot, after I make a lot of rackett maybe even turn the stereo on.I cant remember any of the knuckle heads catching any thing on my spots.

[Champ188]

By gosh, Bill is right. I'm a Champion owner myself and fished the tournament. On Sunday morning, I had two guys who were WAY old enough to know better pull up and start fishing the same blasted boat dock that my wife and I were fishing. The SAME DOCK! I'd hate to think how bad it might've been if we'd actually been fishing for a boat instead of $5,000 cash.

Bill's thread did not personally attack Champion boat owners as a whole. He simply pointed out the truth about some of the boneheads who happened to be fishing out of Champs this weekend. They'd be the same if fishing from a Ranger, Triton, Stratos or anything else.

Sad that common courtesy seems to go out the window so fast these days when a few dollars are dangled in front of folks.

Bill's also right about the cedar tree pattern. My wife and I had enough fish on Sunday to finish much higher than we did and possibly win the tournament. We simply didn't put them in the boat.

[Bill Babler]

Champ188 is Right ON. Nothing derogitory at all about the boats, only the "Numbskulls" that were acting like idiots this last weekend, and if you are one of them, You Know Who You Are.

Probably have fished this lake for almost as long as anyone out there, and have owned two Champions, and with God's Blessings, will own another really soon.

Everyone knows my best buddy Bill Beck owns one, along with Buster, Jim Thompson, and Jason. Regional Sales Manager is also one of my good friends Greg Wood. This could have been any tournament, but it wasn't. It was the Champion Owner's Tournament. Boats are easy to reconize and have two fisherman. My three nutheads and 188's guys were not the only ones to pull goofy stuff this weekend, there were others as well. Reports from up the James to Eagle Rock were out there about the tournament guys.

Chris Tetrick's dad even had a couple of guys pull in on him and tell him they were in the tournament and wanted to fish the point he was on. This was very proper of them, but come on! This is a big lake, when you start asking recreational fisherman to move so you can fish a point for a tourny, its going too far. Chris's dad is a great guy and he gave up his point for them, but I don't believe I would have.

The trouble was, they were all in Champion Boats this time.

These guys know better than this, for the most part they are some of the best fisherman we have here and also the most curtious. With money on the line this weekend and the fishing as poor as it was, it just got a little out of hand.

This is how I see it, and I will change or delete nothing. I am on the water doing my best 300 days a year through every tournament out there and this is what happened this weekend.

[denjac]

That would never happen in a Charger tournamnet! LMAO! The post didnt imply that all Champ owners were rude, just that Bill had problems with the group and it happened to be a Champ tournament.

[Whack'emGood]

I take offense to your thread. You have a lot of nerve grouping people together due to the boat they own. Your thread could cause some problems for Champion boat owners since some whackos out there would think they are doing the world a service by getting even with a Champion boat owner.

Edit your thread and remove Champion boat owners Mr Babler, the brand of boat didn't cause your problems.

He wasn't saying that all guys who have Champion Boats are bad... he was talking about those particular fishermen who cut him off and acted rudely. They just happened to be fishing in the "Champion Boat Owners Tourney" the other day-- therefore, they happened to be Champion Owners and members of that organization. I think you missed the point.

Whack'em

[Phil Lilley]

The people who run this tournament, or any tournament for that matter, should lecture their people before the tournament and tell them their behavior bleeds over to the reputation towards the tournament, all tournaments and, in this case, Champion boat owners themselves.

I give that lecture at all my tournaments and I lay it on thick.

There's nothing wrong with Bill's post.