russ010
Well-known member
It's been a while since I've been able to get on... work is still crazy, which is a good thing. I'm getting to fish occasionally, but only tournaments.
I did fish in the Georgia state jon boat tourney this weekend. Saturday was 3 regions (2 clubs from each region), the top 6 teams from each club competed against each other, then the top 6 from that event progressed to Day 2 to face off against 12 teams from the other 2 regions...
My partner and I passed day one in 6th place by the skin of our teeth... So we now have 2 teams representing BANG in the state tourney. We didn't do too bad, especially considering we have never fished this lake before. Our other team fished it the prior weekend, but my partner and I went in totally blind with no idea what to do - EXCEPT go for broke!
And that's what we did... I threw a jig alllll day long, except for a few casts with a crankbait. But I put that sucker down after a 15-20 minute fight with a 4' long carp (seriously, it probably weighed closed to 50lbs). I snagged it in the anal fin - not a fun fight.
We were fishing a creek channel that went from about a 7' flat down to 12'. We weren't catching anything, but the guys around us were, only thing was they were all short fish because they were kicking them out of the boat as soon as they got them out of the water. That told me we were doing something wrong, because if they are catching short fish on cranks, I should be killing them on jigs....
Well, at 11am we changed spots. I changed rods/reels, decided if I'm going for broke, I need to step up from the 12# fluoro to 15# fluoro and a little heavier rod and a slower reel so I would leave it in place longer. I tied on a different jig, dipped my trailer in some potent JJs Magic and let the cast rip. I didn't have the reel set right and got a backlash. I told my partner I did that on purpose to give the fish time to smell that wonderful garlic smell and come and get my lure. Well, 20 sec later I got the backlash out, made 2 pops with the jig and tap... tap... I told my parter "watch this" and set the hook! I was NOT expecting the fish to make a run for deep water, I mean I did, but not by pulling the rods nearly out of my hands. I told him to get the net and be ready -- this was not a carp!
She ended up weighing 7.49lbs... good enough for a 3rd place finish of total weight at 9.69lbs and 2nd big fish in the tourney.
The other team from BANG ended up placing first - so we took 1st and 3rd, and will be advancing to the Southeast Regionals in April at Lake Robinson in South Carolina to face off against the best from Alabama and North Carolina. I lived 3 miles from Lake Robinson while in college, but I never fished it in a boat, only from the bank... and that was over 8 years ago.
I did fish in the Georgia state jon boat tourney this weekend. Saturday was 3 regions (2 clubs from each region), the top 6 teams from each club competed against each other, then the top 6 from that event progressed to Day 2 to face off against 12 teams from the other 2 regions...
My partner and I passed day one in 6th place by the skin of our teeth... So we now have 2 teams representing BANG in the state tourney. We didn't do too bad, especially considering we have never fished this lake before. Our other team fished it the prior weekend, but my partner and I went in totally blind with no idea what to do - EXCEPT go for broke!
And that's what we did... I threw a jig alllll day long, except for a few casts with a crankbait. But I put that sucker down after a 15-20 minute fight with a 4' long carp (seriously, it probably weighed closed to 50lbs). I snagged it in the anal fin - not a fun fight.
We were fishing a creek channel that went from about a 7' flat down to 12'. We weren't catching anything, but the guys around us were, only thing was they were all short fish because they were kicking them out of the boat as soon as they got them out of the water. That told me we were doing something wrong, because if they are catching short fish on cranks, I should be killing them on jigs....
Well, at 11am we changed spots. I changed rods/reels, decided if I'm going for broke, I need to step up from the 12# fluoro to 15# fluoro and a little heavier rod and a slower reel so I would leave it in place longer. I tied on a different jig, dipped my trailer in some potent JJs Magic and let the cast rip. I didn't have the reel set right and got a backlash. I told my partner I did that on purpose to give the fish time to smell that wonderful garlic smell and come and get my lure. Well, 20 sec later I got the backlash out, made 2 pops with the jig and tap... tap... I told my parter "watch this" and set the hook! I was NOT expecting the fish to make a run for deep water, I mean I did, but not by pulling the rods nearly out of my hands. I told him to get the net and be ready -- this was not a carp!
She ended up weighing 7.49lbs... good enough for a 3rd place finish of total weight at 9.69lbs and 2nd big fish in the tourney.
The other team from BANG ended up placing first - so we took 1st and 3rd, and will be advancing to the Southeast Regionals in April at Lake Robinson in South Carolina to face off against the best from Alabama and North Carolina. I lived 3 miles from Lake Robinson while in college, but I never fished it in a boat, only from the bank... and that was over 8 years ago.
