Homer Sloan Derby

[Bill Babler]

Beautiful day on the water with good buddy Phil Stone.  We didn’t win but simply filled the boat with fish. 

Phil said it was the perfect guide trip, lots of bites and catches, just not the right ones. 

Jig, swimbait and spoon  for us. 

Winners had 17.44 pounds and said they caught them all on a jig shallow up the Kings River. Said they tried top water and really didn’t have anything till 11 am. 

Derby had a 1.5 hour fog delay and that messed up the topwater to an extent, however you can throw it all day if you chose that path.

Surface temps were 73 at the start and 76.5 at 4 pm.  Calm blue bird and sunny.

Lake was totally full of pleasure and wake boats, especially from Campbell Point to Viola on the Kings.  Lots of 3’ to 4 footers rolling out there yesterday at the mouth of the Kings.  They’re still out there guys on pretty weekends  

Great event with 55 boats so they made some money for the chamber. 

Steak Dinner was donated by Chris of Central Crossings Marine and Harter House. 

Becky and I won 2 gift certificates in the curtesy raffle drawing after dinner. She won $100.00 donated by Campbell Point Marina and I won $25.00 donated by Jug and Plug.  

No snide remarks on my winning ticket please. 🤪🤪🤪





 

[Quillback]

Thanks for the write-up!

[m&m]

Sounds like a good time. 17.44 lbs this time of year is pretty good. 
Mike

[Zulu]

Thanks for the info. I didn’t make it down to donate💰 this year, maybe next year. 😂

[Bill Babler]

17.44 is a TOTAL MONSTER BAG in any event this time of the year.  There would have been MLF  teams not put together that kind of weight. 

Guys that won it up the Kings had a fish roll on a plopper and miss it. Threw a jig back at it and caught it and then stayed with the jig. 
3.86 was their big, so a bunch of solid 3 pounders. 
 

This tournament is the longest running fishing event in Missouri and ran in a family fun day safety manner. 

Win, lose or draw, you win in fishing this event. It’s just plain fun. Hope some of you all consider it next year. 

It is a team derby for safety reasons, two fishermen in the boat, no solo anglers. 

At one point Phil and I caught 5 fish on 5 consecutive cast that all 5 measured 14 15/16th. Inches. Line burners that just would not touch.  Crazy, but so fun. 

Didn’t matter as they wouldn’t have been close to 17 pounds. Those boys had a day. 

Good Luck

 

 

[waterpossum]

Those fish have been genetically programmed to stop growing 1/16" short of 15". That has to be true because I've put in 60 years trying to disprove it.

[Champ188]

Sounds like the fall dock-pitching bite is on up the KIngs. Funny (and brief) story ... Got that bite going one year in the old Champion owners derby. Was catching em up to 4 pounds pretty regular couple of days before the derby. Went to bed the night before the first day feeling crappy and woke up coughing, blowing yellow/green snot and feeling awful. Didn't say anything to Donna coz I wanted to fish but by 10 AM I had 102 fever and chills. Kept clanging my jig off dock supports, boats, etc., .and that's not like me ... among my few talents is pitching a jig on docks. Still scraped up 14 pounds and could've done better. By weigh-in I was too sick to cart them to the scales so Donna did the honors and we were in the top 5. Went back to our cabin at Schooner and couldn't hide my sickness anymore. She stuck a thermometer in my mouth and that was it ... we were headed home the next morning. Good thing we did ... turned out I had pneumonia. Took a month to get over it and lost my voice for 6 weeks.

Oh well, what might have been! 

[aarchdale@coresleep.com]

 

1 hour ago, Champ188 said:

Sounds like the fall dock-pitching bite is on up the KIngs. Funny (and brief) story ... Got that bite going one year in the old Champion owners derby. Was catching em up to 4 pounds pretty regular couple of days before the derby. Went to bed the night before the first day feeling crappy and woke up coughing, blowing yellow/green snot and feeling awful. Didn't say anything to Donna coz I wanted to fish but by 10 AM I had 102 fever and chills. Kept clanging my jig off dock supports, boats, etc., .and that's not like me ... among my few talents is pitching a jig on docks. Still scraped up 14 pounds and could've done better. By weigh-in I was too sick to cart them to the scales so Donna did the honors and we were in the top 5. Went back to our cabin at Schooner and couldn't hide my sickness anymore. She stuck a thermometer in my mouth and that was it ... we were headed home the next morning. Good thing we did ... turned out I had pneumonia. Took a month to get over it and lost my voice for 6 weeks.

Oh well, what might have been! 

I plan on going up that way Sunday for the USA Bassin. Havent been in a few weeks and thats the wrong side of the lake for me but looking forward to it

[Quillback]

1 hour ago, aarchdale@coresleep.com said:

 

I plan on going up that way Sunday for the USA Bassin. Havent been in a few weeks and thats the wrong side of the lake for me but looking forward to it

You may have company.