Bass Cat Owners Invitational 2016

[Ham]

Today was Day One. Johnny and I are boat #183 out of 390 or so. They did flights of 80 boats released single file with a 15 minute gap between flights. We will leave a little later tomorrow morning.

made a long rough ride up to Big Creek. Our first keeper was a really nice Largemouth Bass. Our second keeper was a squeaker Smallie. We added another no doubter  LMB and then finished with a stout Smallie. I had a Smallie that was just short and lost a potential keeper near the boat. We used Big Boy baits, but lots of little fish got in the way. We had around 40 fish. We had a handful of spots that would be legal keepers, but not in this tournament.

We are sitting in 69 th after Day One. We are planning on swinging for the fences and putting  all our eggs in the Big Bass Basket. That is realistically our only chance to cash a check now. We may drop in the standings some because of it. 

Fishing is tougher than I imagined. The lake is crowded and running your boat in that is a beat down. Stay away from BSL tomorrow. Come back after the Bass Masters are done. 

Trying to have fun with the stress. Not getting much sleep. Tomorrow's another Day.

 

[mixermarkb]

Congrats on a solid showing so far, and good luck tomorrow! 

[Ketchup]

Good luck Ham.  Can only amagine the waves from traffic with those events on that lake. 

[Quillback]

Wow, I did not realize that tourney had so many boats.  Sounds like you guys found some solid fishing, good luck tomorrow.

[Fish24/7]

and the winners are ???

[Ham]

1 hour ago, Fish24/7 said:

and the winners are ???

NOT US! Winning weight was 36 lbs or so. The winners ran North of Tucker Hollow and back up creeks. They had very little company and fish that had not been beat to death. Good move on their part. I knew those fish were there. I just wasn't willing to run an hour plus each way on a 7 hour fishing day. 

we spent more than half our day running specific areas and looking for BIG Largemouth Bass. We came up Snake Eyes. At some point, I bailed on this plan because I based solely on vanity did not want a zero. We ran to some little stretches I like in the Oakland area and open a can of whupass on short fish. I think we lost a probable keeper that slung a jerk bait. We lost a couple of possible squeakers at boat side. Somehow on our 5 hours of sleep and the rush at the boat launch left Jihnny's wonderful net in my truck. Both those fish would have easily been netted. You can tell the guys that almost never fish tournaments.

i did get a 16 and a smidge inch LMB that weighed 2.43 (I think). I'll have to look at our total later and our final finishing spot. It wasn't for lack of desire or effort, but being a tournament novice and questionable decision making that goes along with that a high finish was never in the cards.

my boat ran great. The sailing was a little smoother and at one point I was skimming along at 71.3. thats about as fast as I need to go and much higher rate of RPMs and fuel consumption than I normally fool with. 

I had a good time. I appreciate the efforts that BassCat Boats goes thru to put this party on for us. I appreciate CajunAngler fishing this with me.

I'm going to bed now. Back at work bright and early tomorrow. 

[mixermarkb]

Good Job!

As a derby newb myself, it really does come down to good decision making and good preparation. I really enjoy fishing them, and I'll keep at it, because you only get better by doing.

You guys had a solid bag day one. One more keeper and you would have been right in the thick of things, and wouldn't have tried to gamble on big fish to catch up on day two. As it sits though, you had a good plan and it just didn't work out. Hard to predict what that much fishing pressure does to the fish. You guys still did well though.

[Mitch f]

You run the risk Ham traveling one hour for sure, but those guys happend to guess right today. It's hard not to second guess yourself in a tournament.

[mixermarkb]

Pretty much every derby I know of on Bull has been won way up the white river arm this year. There are too many big LMB in the lake to win a derby with smallies, and I think the LMB in the Theodosia, Spring Creek, Gooley and Big Creek arms get pounded at a lot more because of better lake acess to those areas. It's a serious commitment to get to Tucker Hollow and above by either land or water- and I think the relative lack of fishing pressure helps.

Idk, I may have to run over there while I'm down and see what I see. I haven't been farther than Shoal Creek in a couple of years. 

[ericangler]

in this tourny fishing above lead hill made since very few competitors up above  there but the short day hurt us on day one had 4 that went 10.10 lost 5 keepers two really nice ones felt like i was pressing all day was in 86th after day one. day two no pressure same locations had 14 keeps best five 14.64 clawed our way up to 23rd with 24.74 never seen another cat fishing in the area all day it was nice nothing like the norfork oi's. but day ones gonna haunt me for awhile!