Heartland?

[dtrs5kprs]

Heard the weights for Heartland from a friend who is back seating tomorrow and confirmed them on the website (good work to the Hearltand staff by the way, for the rapid updates). Anyone know what the going deal is? Jigs, I would guess with the water.

[dtrs5kprs]

My guy zeroed. 1 short, 1 goggleye on drop shot. Boater had 3 keepers on a blade shallow. Sort of confirmed my thoughts on the drop shot .

[motoman]

Dang, that stinks for your buddy. That's a tough one for a non-boater. If your boater is drop-shotting, what the heck else you supposed to do?

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Other techniques give you some options at least.

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I was thinking a blade bite might be around, but didn't want to embarass myself with a guess like that. Usually I'm wrong.

[dtrs5kprs]

Yeah, reminds me of why I don't fish tmts anymore. Had a good time, just not anywhere close to the right bite. Partner didn't tell him if they were over fish or bait, trees or open water. Never let him know what depth he was expecting fish at. Said when they went shallow (where all keepers came from) the boat was about 4' from the bank with almost zero casting room / angles. Not sure why people fish the am side, I guess in the name of learning a lake, but it usually does not seem to work out that way. Seems like a guide trip would be money better spent.

I'm hoping they will just run water, not open gates this round. Might give some fish a chance to adapt to the water. John said most everyone with fish was talking about jigs fairly shallow. Seems to make sense, but I'm guessing around docks and maybe the old waterline more than junk. Will find out Tues am I suppose.

[motoman]

Man, that's aweful when your partner completely shuts you out! Shameful.

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I thought about fishing the am side myself before, but like you said dtrs; why roll the dice, when you could spend that money towards a guide. I'd be afraid of getting a crappy partner.

[skeeterp]

my partner and I thought about fishing the team event on Sunday but we hadnt been on the rock in a couple of months. We ended up coming over and fished for fun in the Big M area from 6-1130. We had 23 fish, only 4 keepers. We caught ours on spook and buzzbait early, then we caught some on wiggle wart and we had shorts on a jig and a gitzit. 3 keepers on topwater and 1 keeper on the wart. The topwater fish were on bluffs and on shallow banks outside the flooded bushes. The wart fish were outside the flooded bushes......

SkeeterP

[JDH_MOangler]

I fished the Pro Am yesterday and me and my boater both blanked. We caught a few shorts in the bushes but that was about it.

This was my first Pro Am and I have no complaints. I knew going in that I was at his mercy as far as where and how we fished but I was looking at it to be more of a learning experience than anything. I got to fish parts of TRL that I had never fished before and even though he wasn't on any fish I got to watch how a pretty good angler operates during a tournament.

I would say if you're just looking to get some tournament experience, which I am, then this is a good way to go.

As far as fishing like this vs booking a guide, it cost me $110 entry fee plus I gave my boater $30 for gas and a guide will get at least $300 plus tip. I've actually booked a guide before at LOZ and got blanked in 8 hrs of fishing and that set me back $350...OUCH!

Looking forward to the next Pro Am at LOZ in Feb. I have a lot more experience and confidence on that lake so hopefully I can do a little better.

[dtrs5kprs]

Man, that's aweful when your partner completely shuts you out! Shameful.

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I thought about fishing the am side myself before, but like you said dtrs; why roll the dice, when you could spend that money towards a guide. I'd be afraid of getting a crappy partner.

Unfortunately, I hear more stories like John's than not. Have had some anglers from my local (former) club do well as back seaters, but they are usually guys who are probably on the fringe of fishing the other side. One of the reasons I stopped fishing tmts, picked one lake, and have tried to learn it as well as I can on my own and with some very wlecome local help.

[getfished]

Yeah, reminds me of why I don't fish tmts anymore. Had a good time, just not anywhere close to the right bite. Partner didn't tell him if they were over fish or bait, trees or open water. Never let him know what depth he was expecting fish at. Said when they went shallow (where all keepers came from) the boat was about 4' from the bank with almost zero casting room / angles. Not sure why people fish the am side, I guess in the name of learning a lake, but it usually does not seem to work out that way. Seems like a guide trip would be money better spent.

I'm hoping they will just run water, not open gates this round. Might give some fish a chance to adapt to the water. John said most everyone with fish was talking about jigs fairly shallow. Seems to make sense, but I'm guessing around docks and maybe the old waterline more than junk. Will find out Tues am I suppose.

I can relate to this. I have been fishing Heartland Team Series and Heartland Pro Am as an amatuer for 3 seasons now. The lessons I learned In the ProAms were really valuable. Some of them were rather unpleasant but lessons none the less. There has been more than once when the behavior of a "pro" taught me how NOT to treat others in the boat with me. Overall the majority of the Pros are incredibly genuine and authentic and the experience in the boat was nothing short of awesome. I am not fishing Pro Am this year because afer fishing with approximately 20 different Pros I have come to the conclusion that time on the water is the one element that I need most to continue improving my fishing skills. I will in the future plan to hire guide service to improve certain particular aspects of my skills or lack of them.

We tried to produce a good largemouth bite on Saturday hoping that these fish would run larger. Well we caught 26 of em but nary a one would measure. At the last minute we went to a main lake ledge that produced a smallie in the past and sure enough it produced again. We boated 2 smallies for a weight of 5.94 lbs. It was too little, too late. All in all we had a good day.

GETFISHED !!!!

[dtrs5kprs]

I am not fishing Pro Am this year because afer fishing with approximately 20 different Pros I have come to the conclusion that time on the water is the one element that I need most to continue improving my fishing skills. I will in the future plan to hire guide service to improve certain particular aspects of my skills or lack of them.

I think that is spot on. If each pro-am encounter was successful (not necessarily productive in terms of fish, just a good learning experience) it would be different. Maybe it's bad luck, but John's experiences have been mostly not good (no fish, broken down boat, no clue generally), with the exception of one day with Mike Webb about 10 years ago.