fender66
Well-known member
About three weeks ago, I fished a tournament with my youngest daughter Andi. This is the third tourney we've fished together this year and she's by far my favorite fishing partner.
The tournament was on Sat/Sun for 6 hours each day. There were 19 boats entered, (2 man teams).
We drove down on Thursday night so we could camp that night and get up early to be on the water at first light to pre-fish and come up with a game plan for fishing the actual tournament. The lake we fished is one that I've only fished a couple times before and it's still only once last year, and once the year before......so I don't have a lot of experience on this water.
Friday's pre-fish went pretty well. We ended up catching fish for most of the day. There is a 10 inch limit on this water so finding keepers isn't that tough if the fish are biting. After 10+ hours of looking for our "honey holes" on Friday.....we figured we were ready.
Saturday...first day of the Tourney.....we took off to our first spot and right away I lost a fish on the way back to the boat. I was fishing a black/blue jig (one of my favorites). I was able to boat one fish from spot 1 before we left. Spot 2, didn't even produce a bite. Quite the disappointment because that was one of our best spots. Spot 3 did bring us a couple more fish. By the end of the day, we weighed in 5 fish total. 4 for me and 1 for Andi. This put us in 8th place out of 19 boats. We aren't out of it...but we need a REALLY good day for day 2.
Sunday...we had the same game plan. On spot 1, again, I lost 2 fish on the way back to the boat fishing that same jig. I thinned out the weed guard by removing half of it and finally was able to put a fish in the boat. Then...Andi caught one with a trick worm. I decided to also throw a baby brush hog on a shaky head hook and got another fish in the boat immediately. Three fish in the live well and we're heading out to spot 2. Throwing the same 2 rigs (jig and brush hog)....the fish were ON! From that point on, I couldn't do anything wrong. The brush hog was a really HOT bait. We put 4 more in the boat on spot 2. Spot 3 produce another 2 or 3. By the third hour of the day, we had 10 fish in the boat and were fishing for the big kickers. In Missouri, during July and August, you are not allowed to cull fish. The reasoning is that they don't want fish staying in the livewells for long periods during the HOT months unless you are going to keep them. Legally, we are allowed 6 fish each, but only allowed to weigh 5 each at the scale. So...the hunt for the kickers were on. We each were allowed 1. Andi was able to catch one that was over 2 lb but I couldn't catch anything big enough to be a kicker but did keep catching them just to throw them back.
At the scales, we weighed our 10 fish (first time Andi has limited during a tournament) for a total of 11.22lb. We were able to move from 8th place to finish in SECOND PLACE! Did I mention that my daughter is my favorite fishing partner? =D> =D>
Here's a few pics.
The tournament was on Sat/Sun for 6 hours each day. There were 19 boats entered, (2 man teams).
We drove down on Thursday night so we could camp that night and get up early to be on the water at first light to pre-fish and come up with a game plan for fishing the actual tournament. The lake we fished is one that I've only fished a couple times before and it's still only once last year, and once the year before......so I don't have a lot of experience on this water.
Friday's pre-fish went pretty well. We ended up catching fish for most of the day. There is a 10 inch limit on this water so finding keepers isn't that tough if the fish are biting. After 10+ hours of looking for our "honey holes" on Friday.....we figured we were ready.
Saturday...first day of the Tourney.....we took off to our first spot and right away I lost a fish on the way back to the boat. I was fishing a black/blue jig (one of my favorites). I was able to boat one fish from spot 1 before we left. Spot 2, didn't even produce a bite. Quite the disappointment because that was one of our best spots. Spot 3 did bring us a couple more fish. By the end of the day, we weighed in 5 fish total. 4 for me and 1 for Andi. This put us in 8th place out of 19 boats. We aren't out of it...but we need a REALLY good day for day 2.
Sunday...we had the same game plan. On spot 1, again, I lost 2 fish on the way back to the boat fishing that same jig. I thinned out the weed guard by removing half of it and finally was able to put a fish in the boat. Then...Andi caught one with a trick worm. I decided to also throw a baby brush hog on a shaky head hook and got another fish in the boat immediately. Three fish in the live well and we're heading out to spot 2. Throwing the same 2 rigs (jig and brush hog)....the fish were ON! From that point on, I couldn't do anything wrong. The brush hog was a really HOT bait. We put 4 more in the boat on spot 2. Spot 3 produce another 2 or 3. By the third hour of the day, we had 10 fish in the boat and were fishing for the big kickers. In Missouri, during July and August, you are not allowed to cull fish. The reasoning is that they don't want fish staying in the livewells for long periods during the HOT months unless you are going to keep them. Legally, we are allowed 6 fish each, but only allowed to weigh 5 each at the scale. So...the hunt for the kickers were on. We each were allowed 1. Andi was able to catch one that was over 2 lb but I couldn't catch anything big enough to be a kicker but did keep catching them just to throw them back.
At the scales, we weighed our 10 fish (first time Andi has limited during a tournament) for a total of 11.22lb. We were able to move from 8th place to finish in SECOND PLACE! Did I mention that my daughter is my favorite fishing partner? =D> =D>
Here's a few pics.
