russ010
Well-known member
So far, August has been pretty good considering the temps we've been having. Tiffany has been out of town a lot, so I've logged in a few more hours on the water.
These first pics are with merkywaters.. needless to say, this was at Lathem and he schooled me.. the bait he was using was putting them in the boat 2:1. This day we caught 17 fish, all weighing in a little over 18lbs. Our best 5 wen't about 8lbs.
A week or so later, Tyler and I made it out to Yahoola to prefish for yesterday's tournament. We fished 2 nights this past week, and the first night was on fire. My 4th cast brought in a fish at 4lbs..
then tyler caught my fish's bait.
We ended up catching a few more, then around 10:30pm, Tyler landed this nice 4lb pig. Blood is all over the side, and it's was all coming from 1 gill being hooked. The water temp here was around 87*, and I think the fish were even hotter. You could put your hand in these big boy's mouths and it was like they were breathing fire... unreal. Our best 5 went over 10lbs
I also went out with MerkyWaters again to prefish for another tournament I was fishing with him for his club last night (yea that's right - 2 tournaments in one day: BANG tx - 6am-1pm, SWAT tx - 5pm-12am.. more on that later). So we were hurting for some good fish, and just trying everything. I hear Merk talking up front (as he usually does) saying something about "I wonder if they'll hit... anyways, next thing I know, I hear him say "you might wanna get the net" real calmly. I didn't even hear him set the hook. He finally gets it in, and Merky correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was a little over 3lbs. I was skunked for the first time this night in a long time..
That last trip was Thursday night.. I decided not to fish Friday night because I thought I might wanna get some sleep. I haven't slept much since Tiffany has been gone - I've been fishing every night.. getting in bed around 2am and getting up at 6am to go to work. Well, I got in bed early Friday night (1am..) and the alarm clock goes off at 3:30am. Get up and head to Yahoola, arriving at 5am. We get all the boats in the water and we're off. Get to my spot at 6:15am. Start off with a Pop-r, and coudln't see a thing so I changed to something to make some noise. The only thing I had tied on was a crank bait, so I said ah what the hell.. I've got 15 min before the sun comes up so I'll just throw it. 1st cast brought in a 2.8lb'r. Wow I thought.. 4 casts later I get another one over 1lbs. I caught another one sometime between 6:30 and 830am. Something was wrong I was thinking - I was throwing everything I had been using previously, then it hit me. The bass where chasing shad, and I had shad in the floor of my boat and livewell. I put on one of the biggest medium divers I could find and went to a ditch channel lined with underwater trees. 1st cast, thought I had caught one of the tops of the trees... until it started running. I thought it was a good fish so I let it play out a little bit. About 3 minutes later, and me deciding to send my curado off to get the drag fixed, I managed to land a nice'un - 6lbs 11oz. Total for the tournament for me that day was 10.76lbs (I finally win a tx and have a bag over 10lbs) and this one weighed in at 6.53lbs. My scales in the boat had my total limit of 4 fish weighing 11lbs 8oz. Amazing what weight they lost from morning to afternoon. All fish caught today were released - and they were all like they were on crack (Ice, frozen ice packs and Please Release Me). You can see results at HERE.
So I leave this tournament, drive an hour back home, unhook the boat, grab new gear for a new lake, grab a MDew and hit the road. Get to Merky's house about 45min later.. It's 4pm and we're on the way to Carters to fish from 5pm -12am. I'm having an off night - the crank bait bite has died for me, and I caught 2 about an hour into the tournament, but only 1 of those barely being a keeper (and merrick culled him later that night..). Unfortunately we didn't do as well, and we fished a lot of open water instead of beating the banks. Our 5 fish weighed in a little over 4lbs, and the winning sack had over 12lbs - and they had 2 nice kicker fish.
I ended up getting home around 3am, showered and jumped in bed at 3:30am. I woke up at 12pm (and I would have slept longer if Tyler hadn't woke me up with a phone call - which I don't even really remember talking to you). But my arms feel like they are about to fall off from cranking for nearly 12 hours straight. I could barely hold my reels in my left hand by the end of last night - and now my shoulders are stiff as a bored - is this what it's like when you get old?!? Sorry for the long post!
These first pics are with merkywaters.. needless to say, this was at Lathem and he schooled me.. the bait he was using was putting them in the boat 2:1. This day we caught 17 fish, all weighing in a little over 18lbs. Our best 5 wen't about 8lbs.
A week or so later, Tyler and I made it out to Yahoola to prefish for yesterday's tournament. We fished 2 nights this past week, and the first night was on fire. My 4th cast brought in a fish at 4lbs..
then tyler caught my fish's bait.
We ended up catching a few more, then around 10:30pm, Tyler landed this nice 4lb pig. Blood is all over the side, and it's was all coming from 1 gill being hooked. The water temp here was around 87*, and I think the fish were even hotter. You could put your hand in these big boy's mouths and it was like they were breathing fire... unreal. Our best 5 went over 10lbs
I also went out with MerkyWaters again to prefish for another tournament I was fishing with him for his club last night (yea that's right - 2 tournaments in one day: BANG tx - 6am-1pm, SWAT tx - 5pm-12am.. more on that later). So we were hurting for some good fish, and just trying everything. I hear Merk talking up front (as he usually does) saying something about "I wonder if they'll hit... anyways, next thing I know, I hear him say "you might wanna get the net" real calmly. I didn't even hear him set the hook. He finally gets it in, and Merky correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it was a little over 3lbs. I was skunked for the first time this night in a long time..
That last trip was Thursday night.. I decided not to fish Friday night because I thought I might wanna get some sleep. I haven't slept much since Tiffany has been gone - I've been fishing every night.. getting in bed around 2am and getting up at 6am to go to work. Well, I got in bed early Friday night (1am..) and the alarm clock goes off at 3:30am. Get up and head to Yahoola, arriving at 5am. We get all the boats in the water and we're off. Get to my spot at 6:15am. Start off with a Pop-r, and coudln't see a thing so I changed to something to make some noise. The only thing I had tied on was a crank bait, so I said ah what the hell.. I've got 15 min before the sun comes up so I'll just throw it. 1st cast brought in a 2.8lb'r. Wow I thought.. 4 casts later I get another one over 1lbs. I caught another one sometime between 6:30 and 830am. Something was wrong I was thinking - I was throwing everything I had been using previously, then it hit me. The bass where chasing shad, and I had shad in the floor of my boat and livewell. I put on one of the biggest medium divers I could find and went to a ditch channel lined with underwater trees. 1st cast, thought I had caught one of the tops of the trees... until it started running. I thought it was a good fish so I let it play out a little bit. About 3 minutes later, and me deciding to send my curado off to get the drag fixed, I managed to land a nice'un - 6lbs 11oz. Total for the tournament for me that day was 10.76lbs (I finally win a tx and have a bag over 10lbs) and this one weighed in at 6.53lbs. My scales in the boat had my total limit of 4 fish weighing 11lbs 8oz. Amazing what weight they lost from morning to afternoon. All fish caught today were released - and they were all like they were on crack (Ice, frozen ice packs and Please Release Me). You can see results at HERE.
So I leave this tournament, drive an hour back home, unhook the boat, grab new gear for a new lake, grab a MDew and hit the road. Get to Merky's house about 45min later.. It's 4pm and we're on the way to Carters to fish from 5pm -12am. I'm having an off night - the crank bait bite has died for me, and I caught 2 about an hour into the tournament, but only 1 of those barely being a keeper (and merrick culled him later that night..). Unfortunately we didn't do as well, and we fished a lot of open water instead of beating the banks. Our 5 fish weighed in a little over 4lbs, and the winning sack had over 12lbs - and they had 2 nice kicker fish.
I ended up getting home around 3am, showered and jumped in bed at 3:30am. I woke up at 12pm (and I would have slept longer if Tyler hadn't woke me up with a phone call - which I don't even really remember talking to you). But my arms feel like they are about to fall off from cranking for nearly 12 hours straight. I could barely hold my reels in my left hand by the end of last night - and now my shoulders are stiff as a bored - is this what it's like when you get old?!? Sorry for the long post!
...Now son You need to get some sleep...JIGGY
