Son's Creek 4/9 Bass Fishing

[Fishin4Fun]

Fished a kayak fishing tournament yesterday in the MO-Yak Open Series.  This was our first tournament of the year.  Thanks to everyone on this forum board and a few that offered me some pointers I was able to take 2nd place.  Our tournament was a road runner style tournament, so we met at the state park east boat ramp and then we were able to drive to anywhere within the Core of Engineers boundaries on the lake.

Myself, my son and a friend decided to head to Son's Creek branch to try our luck (thanks to some friendly help).  We were on the water by 7:15 am with air temps of 38 degrees and water temps of 56 degrees.  It was mighty cold on the feet to begin the day!  Once we got out on the water and the sun was finally up we started to warm up.  

I found a point right off the bat that started to produce some fish, so I stayed in that area most of the day.  There were a lot of bass in the 11" to 14.5" range to be caught.  My largest for the day was a 14 3/4" large mouth.  I did catch 2 15+" whites.  Too bad they didn't count.  Unlike other tournaments that go off weight, we go off length.  We are able to count our 5 best fish for length.  We do CPR (Catch, Photo, Release) so all fish are immediately returned to the water.

My son and I tried a Rock Crawler, Ned rig, Carolina rigged super fluke, Carolina rigged lizard, underspin, swimbait, a texas rigged bubble gum trick work and a wacky rig.  My son caught a large crappie on the swimbait and then all 4 of his bass on the texas rigged bubble gum trick worm.  I caught the two whites and around 6 of my bass on a PB&J Ned rig, but my larger bass all came on a wacky rigged KVD Ocho watermelon green with red flake.  None of the hits were hard on any bait.  They were light hits with just a subtle tap or on the wacky rig it was light thump and then loaded up.

I found that most of the hits came in 6 to 10 feet of water on points or back in small cuts around submerged timber.  By 2pm the water temps were between 58 and 60 degrees, depending on where I was at.  I still think the bass are pre-spawn and staging.  The smaller bass were caught closer to shore with the larger ones being a little deeper, in the 8 to 10 foot range.  I have included a couple pictures of my day on the water.  It was a good day overall, just nothing of great size.  Hopefully, this report helps someone out there as much as all the help on this forum helped me.

If you are interested in learning more about kayak fishing and our tournament series please visit our website at http://showmekayakfishing.org.

Good Luck and Good Fishing!

Fishin4Fun

[dprice]

Father  son time     Real nice sir 

[Flatbottom Boy]

Awesome! A couple questions, do the floats you have strapped onto your rods remain on while in use or do you take them off? If they stay on how does that affect your sensitivity? And that measuring devise looks like it has some curviture to kinda craddle the fish? I bet that works good. Or is that just the angle of the photo? 

[Kramr]

Congrats on 2nd place. Awesome!

[Fishin4Fun]

dprice, Father/Son time is the best!  Love getting out with my boys.  This was my son's first tournament and I loved having him with me.  Hopefully many more to come.

Flatbottom, I leave the floats on.  I haven't had any problems with them affecting the sensitivity of the rod.  The only think you have to make sure of is that the velcro straps loose end is away from your line or it will catch on it.  Not a big problem, but worth it knowing that my rod has a chance to be saved if I go over or drop it in.  Luckily I haven't had that issue yet, but I know guys who have.  Some guys don't like them, but I rather be safe than sorry.

Secondly, the measuring device is a Hawg Trough and it does have some curvature to it.  It makes it nice for getting the fish to lay in it nicely.  You can buy them from Eric at Ozarks Extreme Outdoors on Indian Point at Table Rock Lake.  He ships to if you need it shipped.  Let me know if you have any other questions.

Thanks Kramr!