Masters Weekend....TOUGH!

[Seth]

We fished the Masters Saturday hoping to repeat last years performance and failed miserably. We boated 13 fish on tournament day for 5.5lbs which still put us in 10th place (if I counted correctly) out of around 50 boats. To say it was tough was an understatement. Many of us hadn't seen fishing that tough for as long as we could remember. Our room mate @Toby from MO and his son ended up getting the win and kept our crews placement streak alive. His Boswell partner Chris and his son stay with us as well and I believe they finished 7th with 6.5# but they only had 6 fish to weigh in.

I think over the course of four days, we only managed to boat 42 trout. We usually can put that many in the boat in a single day with ease. We hit everything I knew between the Landing and Fall Creek and never could find any concentration of biting fish. You'd catch one here and there and that was about it. My partner did hook a few good ones the day before the tourney. Two that came off were easily over 20" and the one he did manage to land was a rainbow that was 20" on the dot. The other two that came off very visibly larger. The only two decent fish I caught were a rainbow in the 2# range on tourney day and a 19.25" brown just above Point Royale Sunday morning before we peeled out.

Hopefully I'm a little bit more prepared for in two weeks when RAW rolls around because I was absolutely lost this past weekend!

Thanks to Lilleys Crew for the great pictures as always! Definitely go check the rest of them out on Facebook if you have an account.

[Ryan Miloshewski]

I never understand why you guys fish prior to the tourneys. It always ends up screwing you over. Figure if you don't catch one of those 20+ inchers on Thurs/Fri they'll be more likely to eat a bait on Saturday. I mean the fish are going to be where they are going to be and you know how to fish for them in virtually all water situations, so why shoot yourselves in the foot? Not like fishing on a lake you guys have never fished before and trying to figure out a pattern. 

[JestersHK]

Crazy to see that board half empty with a bunch of names that usually put up some nice bags.  I think you described it as brutal and that fits.  I saw your brownie pic come through on my phone and got excited then bam! Just short lol.   I'm gonna buy you a gig and snorkel if you don't get it done this year haha.

Although I'm never happy to miss fishing or seeing the gang this one just didn't work out for me as I lost 2 partners to coming down with covid... and some mis planning on my part lol

I will be at RAW no matter what, if all my partners get sick or bail I'll just weigh 4 fish haha

Ryan as for fishing the day before I think it's more about us just wanting to fish, and driving 4 hours down and 4 hours back just to fish for 8 hours can be a drag.   I def fish better the day before and after like most everyone else.  @fmcbrandonhad a dandy bow boated on Friday which would of bumped them up for sure on tourney day.  I think he said they weighed 5 fish...

Hope to see you all soon at RAW

[Seth]

54 minutes ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

I never understand why you guys fish prior to the tourneys. It always ends up screwing you over. Figure if you don't catch one of those 20+ inchers on Thurs/Fri they'll be more likely to eat a bait on Saturday. I mean the fish are going to be where they are going to be and you know how to fish for them in virtually all water situations, so why shoot yourselves in the foot? Not like fishing on a lake you guys have never fished before and trying to figure out a pattern. 

There are way too many fish in Taney to worry about sore lipping anything. Those areas get the crap beat out of them nonstop all the time anyways. There are no secrets. Hooking those big fish before a tourney isn't what I'm concerned with anyways but they are a happy bonus. My goal is to fish all of the areas I know and try to figure out which ones are producing the best average size. I started fishing these tourneys in 2017 and we've been in the money over 50% of the time and I attribute that to being able to put together solid limits. Last year was the first time we actually got kicker bites to go with along with our ability to catch a good solid limit and we finished 1st, 4th (out of 90 boats) and 1st. Conditions stayed the same for all three tourneys and we were able to pin point three areas that were holding solid fish but not nearly the same numbers as other areas of the lake and it paid off big. It was an all day grind, but we'd manage to put 8 of the right ones in the boat. Most of the people fishing around us would start running around like chickens with their heads cut off after a few hours of slow fishing.

Once I figure out a spot has good fish while prefishing, I stop beating on them and fish other areas. The "spot within a spot" theory usually comes in to play for us on Taney. I may not be near as good at catching those big ones like you or several others I know but I typically make a pretty good showing on tourney day.

I may have figured a little something out this past weekend to use in two weeks at the RAW tournament so we'll see how it goes. The fishing was so bad that I'm not positive it is even really something I can rely on as there really wasn't a lot to go off of due to the sheer lack of fish boated. Dad and I will have fun trying though!

[Ryan Miloshewski]

Makes sense @Seth and @JestersHK. You definitely know how to fish the tourneys way more than me. Just wonder how much everyone fishing (which won't change) influences the day of the tournament. I know a few of the guides say after those tournaments it takes a day or so for the fish to 'get back to normal.' Pressure definitely plays a role at times on Taney, that I know.

I still see you can't top the 20-inch mark on a brownie lol. If you were playing horseshoes, you'd be unstoppable!

[Seth]

2 hours ago, Ryan Miloshewski said:

I still see you can't top the 20-inch mark on a brownie lol. If you were playing horseshoes, you'd be unstoppable!

True freaking story! 😭🥴

[JestersHK]

2 hours ago, Seth said:

True freaking story! 😭🥴

I'm pretty sure it's beyond comical and will take divine intervention at this point!   We need something more powerful than the peanut m&m ritual to overcome this dark curse upon you brother.  

There no super bowl for raw this year so I think a full night of chasing sea monsters is in order for you.  We're gonna make it happen. 

 

[gotmuddy]

You tried everything?  Did you try....a wiggle wart???🤪

[Seth]

50 minutes ago, gotmuddy said:

You tried everything?  Did you try....a wiggle wart???🤪

I didn't even bring a rod to throw them on, but I wish I had. Dragging jerkbaits produced several good fish for anglers.

[Seth]

9 hours ago, JestersHK said:

There no super bowl for raw this year so I think a full night of chasing sea monsters is in order for you.  We're gonna make it happen. 

It will likely have to wait till the Elfrink. Dad comes down with me for RAW and he likes to come back Saturday after the tourney, but that is usually because of the super bowl. I'm going to try and convince him to come down Thursday and leave Sunday, but it will depend on his work schedule.