Bass Cat Owners Invitational 2016

[Ham]

IF They do another one on BSL, the boats on the upper lake will have more company for sure. I ran further than I normally do as it was, but that would be a long expensive run. 

The water is so rough from rebound wakes you can't really run fully wide out until the crowd starts to thin out. I would love to know what the time to travel to Leadhill was for most people that made that run. IF I make that run though, I'm going past Tucker Hollow. In for a penny, in for a pound. 

250 Horses does a lot for you, but they have to be fed. I started out with 52 gallons and I used about 35 gallons or so. I normally use about 7 gallons on a full day fishing trip. 

[Ketchup]

Those big horses like to be fed, Ham. The cost of owning one starts the day it's purchased. Been there but love my fuel bill with the 115, but man, I just can't get that throttle pushed down far enough, EVER.  The need for speed rings true. 

[Ham]

6 minutes ago, Ketchup said:

Those big horses like to be fed, Ham. The cost of owning one starts the day it's purchased. Been there but love my fuel bill with the 115, but man, I just can't get that throttle pushed down far enough, EVER.  The need for speed rings true. 

The fuel bill for my 250 is normally about the same as it was for my 130. I'm really happy with the fuel costs on the Pro XS 250 HP. Oddly enough, I ran a little higher rpms on the 130 getting to the 50 mph cruising speed I like.

[Fish24/7]

....bass fishing pressure on Bull??? yes lot's of boats but there's more than enough shoreline and bass for everybody. Even when there's 300+ boats. Then there's all that untapped potential out in open water. Can run as far away from people as wanted, but still gotta catch the bass when I get there.  Always wondered why some people run 40+ miles the other direction from take off or any other time just to catch bass when they drove over a million getting there. idk, I know some people know sections of the lake better than other areas so that has to be one reason.Sometimes it pays off. Sometimes it's run a long way for nothing. The lake has equal potential from one end to the other. When one area gets a few wins some think they need to fish there too because they believe they have too, or they tell me they ain't biting nowhere else, or other areas of the lake are fished too hard etc.

  There's a lot of boats out there fishing this time of year but not many are catching the bigger size bass so those bass aren't getting much pressure at all. Saw a lot of 0's in the T results and the conditions were ideal both days for fishing shallow,mid,or deep.. Almost every cat I saw Fri/Sat was parked right on top of the bass they were fishing for, and casting to within inches of the shoreline. As soon as one boat would leave another  come in fish the same way and  this went on both days..Yes some bass were caught that way. Some of the guys who made the top 15 said their fish were near to the shoreline, but not really on it.  I rely heavily on electronics to consistently catch bass. Without a depth/fish finder I'd be lost on Bull. She was a tough nut to crack.  

[brian c]

The reasons for making the long run are numerous, the winners are from the harrison area so they primarily fish that part of the lake. Im sure they practiced up there and likely had a strong pattern in that area. Confidence in fishing especially a tournament can be a major factor. Fishing a area you've had success in can be huge. 

Another major factor this time of year with a lake the size of bullshoals is different parts of the lake can be further along or further behind in the spawning process.  If you.looked at the fished weighed by those further up the river I'd say a larger number of those fish are post spawn. I fished this tournament and practiced from music to pontiac. I was on a decent pattern of quality fish but they were all prespawn fish. They moved and I wasn't able to make that adjustment. My opinion is that Mid lake and the lower end fish are just now replay starting to get on beds. There were lots of good fish on beds around lakeview marina even new beds from Thursday night thru Saturday. 

Water clarity can be a major factor why you run as well. No doubt fish in stained water are easier to catch than gin clear water on the lower end. Stained water also can warm up more on sunny days compared to clear water . 

Keep in mind in a tournament you don't get to go when you want to or when the bite is "on". You don't have the luxury of waiting on fish to "turn on". You have to get it done in a certain time window so if you have an area that is holding active fish with ideal conditions to increase your odds of getting bit you better go. 

I contemplated making the run , thought about practice up there but decide to try and figure something out closer. Didn't work out for me. 

I know of one boat that ran all the way to Forsyth the caught a pretty good sack day 2 . Again mainly a confidence thing ....they knew there were fish there that they felt they could get in the boat within the time window they had to work with.

Several other considerations in making long runs but those, I feel are the major factors for this derby.

 

[Ham]

I just wasn't willing to drop a couple hundred bucks on fuel/oil at a chance to do well. I had a real strong fishing day up that way and think I could have caught a limit up there, but you have to get it done in 4 hours of fishing time. 

I had another area in Big Creek that I had confidence in. For whatever reason we were only able to get two keepers out of it. I don't know if we would have been better off staying there and grinding on them until a few more bit. I still believe a real decent bag of fish was swimming around ignoring me in my area.

[Bluff-Bassin]

I have no doubt there are winning fish for a large derby like this in every creek, bay, etc on this lake. However the weights and tourney feedback doesn't lie and it seems almost every major derby I've followed in the last year has been won up the river(aside from rumors of the musics playing in a couple winter bassothons). Either the boys that call that area home are just better sticks than the rest or there is something to it. Could just be a variety of factors. Like fish247 was saying perhaps the stained water is more conducive to the shallow fish which are traditionally easier to catch as opposed to the clearer waters of the lower lake where the fish are deeper and roam more. My knowledge of the upper river is limited but I would think the additional current would help position the fish on structure as opposed to the lower lake fish which are more nomadic due to lack of current. I see the same 5 or 6 names in the top ten of almost all these derbies. They've clearly got something figured out. 

[Fish24/7]

 thanks Brian for explaining this to where I can better understand. I've asked some people about it before a long time ago but they didn't seem to want to share with me exactly why they made those really long runs. 
 I had a hard time trying to figure it out  because water temps, clarity, phase of spawn, confidence areas ,long runs and such don't determine where I'll be bass fishing on BS. The way I learned how to bass fish here has one major factor that determines locations and all those other things take a back seat to it. Like mentioned before if I didn't have sonar I'd be lost. 

[Sprint21fter]

It takes 40 minutes going 69mph to the mouth of elbow creek, we caught 4 keepers for 12.79.  Had been fishing down there the past 4 weekends with 8-9 keepers each trip with a couple of 4+ lbers each time.  We were on prespawn crankbaits fish that had been biting from 11-400. Afternoon bite, we had to weigh in at 140 and 240.  We caught all our fish at 1130-200 and left them biting we couldn't figure out anything in the mornings and that is what hurt us.  Had a blast though. The lake is fishing great in my opinion and it will show this week too.  

[Fish24/7]

dude, no offense but I wouldn't even get in the boat with you if you told me for the next 40 minutes we'll be doing 70mph ,lol

thanks for sharing your experience!