04 April USA Bassin' report / recap

[BrockLee]

Pomme de Terre - Hermitage State Park Area

Water temp 46-54

Clarity - Clear by the dam/ dingy further up Lindley arm

Nathan Wesley / Brock Schuld

This morning I got up, checked the temperature and shuddered. We hooked up the frost laden TR20 and headed down the road to Pomme de Terre. We took our time and soon realized that we didn’t know exactly what boat ramp we were looking for and when I check the website on my phone I discovered that the launch time was 7:00am and not 7:30am… So after a phone call and a little luck we arrived with about 15 minutes to take the cover off, launch the boat and get our gear on. By gear I mean Under Armour long johns, face masks, Bass Pro 100mph gear, the whole nine. We launched out of the Hermitage State Park and shot straight down the Lindley. I think we might have been the only boat out of the ten boats that went that direction. We found ourselves in some pea soup thick fog and had to throttle back a bit but got to the fishing spot within a few minutes. I grabbed my new favorite rod, a jerkbait rod and tossed a Lucky Craft 115 towards the bank. Repeat. Repeat. Bam! I had a small keeper in the livewell within 10 minutes of the start of the Tournament. We continued along this path and this pattern and by 9:00 exactly Wes and I had five keepers in the box. Wow. This was our seventh tournament ever and honestly the first time we ever had five fish to weigh! We didn’t even care that they were all around 1.5lbs. We had five fish! Then of course I caught my obligatory drum early on in the day and swore I had a monster bass on the end of my line and when I saw it, I contemplated cutting my line before Wes could see it...but I let him enjoy that big beautiful sucker and me cussing it as it slimed my gloves and everything I own. After that, knowing we had our box full with “weighable” fish, we were able to concentrate on every nook and cranny after that and ended up culling all our fish about three times apiece thanks to an excellent crankbait bite that developed after the sun warmed the water to about 52 degrees. Cranking them silly looking Wiggle Warts might just be what I was made to do! I worked them up front and Wes steadily stuck them with the Spro Mcstick jerkbait off the back of the boat. Around one point I got hung up….well I thought I was and I reached up and popped my line to get my Wiggle Wart freed and the line tugged back at me! I reeled up good size 4.6lb and was absolutely ecstatic! As we made our way in and out of a few coves we noticed that the fish weren’t really coming out of the coves but rather on the mouths. We might pull a dink here or there out of the backs, but our better quality fish were on the small points off the main lake. So we stuck to them and it treated us right. After spending seven hours on that part of the lake, we moved down by the dam to see if we could pull a nice fish off the rip rap. I caught a decent little fish on a Megabass 110+1 in some deep, deep water, but it was not as big as our smallest. We ended up catching 34 bass and only three didn’t measure. So we headed back the the weigh in and weighed our fish. The winner weighed a little over 25 lbs! The same two guys that won it two weeks ago pulled out another insane sack! Then they announced 3rd place at 13lbs and some change…. but wait… that means… YES. Wes and I finished 2nd with 15.49 lbs and actually made a couple dollars today! Man, we were so excited it was silly because we have never placed ever!

We had a plan this morning, stuck to it, and caught fish. It was the one of the best days fishing I have ever had. Everything came together.

Jerkbaits, wiggle warts, and be thorough! Right now it is on boys!

[jmes]

Congrats

It's a great day when everything comes together

[Ketchup]

Another great report guys. I was on the Pomme river side all day, and caught several nice fish. You boys are hooked now. Keep it up.

[Jbrant]

Great Report!!!

[rondo]

Your reports are a great read. Congrats on your 2nd place finish.

[Codywskeeter1521]

Awesome report and great job

[Hammer time]

Congratulations on putting a plan together and executing. Great report and 2nd place finish. Thanks for posting and pics!