This past weekend we kicked off the College Fishing season with Placing 5th out of 40 teams at the National Guard College Fishing Regional Qualifier at Bull Shoals Lake. The finish earned our Bass Club 1,000 dollars and our school another 1,000 as well as a birth to the National Guard College Fishing Regional Championship.We only weighed in two keepers that edged out the 6th place team by .01lbs. I don’t know whether to say that we were lucky or unlucky because our motor blew up after just 2 and a half hours of fishing which left us unable to run our pattern. I believe that we could have caught a couple more keepers if we had gotten to fish another 3 hours. We spent the last 3 hours of the day getting towed back to K Dock Marina. I am almost certain we could have won the tournament.

Who knows the amount of time we put into this tournament with our map study and finding out as much information as possible about how the lake fishes. We had a game plan going into the tournament that we would concentrate on some channel swing banks in the back of the creeks that have been known to be productive over the last couple of years. As a matter of fact the fishing reports that we saw up to the week before the tournament talked of some nice bags of fish coming from these areas.

Last week, however, we read that the bite had been dying off in the areas that we wanted to fish and we noticed by watching the weather that the wind had switched directions with the warming trend. The areas that we wanted to fish were getting hit with wind when they were producing and when the conditions started to change so did the bite. Reflecting on what was happening and looking at the weather the last couple of days leading up to the tournament we decided that we would look for cuts and secondary points that were getting the most sunshine and getting hit with the SE wind.

Out the gate we ran to a creek to fish a secondary point and found that there was already about 10 boats back in the creek but nobody was keying in on the secondary point with the channel swing that we wanted to fish. We pulled up on the point and got off to a great start as Mike was able to put keeper number one in the boat in about our first 10 minutes of fishing on a wiggle wart. I hooked up with what I though was a fish on the end of a long cast but it came off. It felt pretty solid but I don’t know if it was stick or what because it wasn’t swimming at all. We didn’t get a bite for a couple of minutes so It was then that we decided to make the move on down lake to fish some bluff points and cuts that had been getting hit with sunshine and wind the last couple of days. We pulled up on the first cut and Mike again hooked up with a fish that stayed down. It started heading out to deeper water and all of a sudden his line went slack. We thought the fish was probably at least 4lbs but we never saw it. It could have been a walleye but what are the chances of that happening? I was convinced at this point to put the stickbait down and from then on we were pretty much both cranking.

It’s smart sometimes to fish different baits until the fish tell you otherwise when you are fishing team tournaments. We pulled up on another bluff point and at this point we were both power fishing. I was able to put a nice15 and a quarter inch kentucky in the boat that had some shoulders on it. The fish jumped on my shad rap. It was getting to be about 10:30 am and we were about 2 and a half hours into the day. Mike had caught a handfull of shorts and I had gone through a short to get to my keeper.

That is when we tried to run to another point and we couldn’t get the motor to start. It wouldn’t turn over. Our observer tried to diagnose the problem. We tried switching up batteries and jump starting it with the trolling motor but couldn’t get anything to happen. Apparently the throttle was acting a little funny as we were running down the lake in the morning so perhaps something had gone wrong there. We were about 20 miles from takeoff with about 3 hours of fishing to spare to get back to the ramp at 2pm. We hit the trolling motor on high and desperately limped our way down the bank until we found some competitors around the corner who hadn’t gotten a single bite all day.

We were very fortunate that they agreed to help us out and tow us back towards the marina. Moving at a steady pace of 6 mph our day was over. As the time wore on we had to transfer our fish to the other boat and make the run back towards the dock. We had no idea that our 2 fish would get us in 5th place. We though it would take around 15 to 18lbs to get first and about 12lbs to make the top 5 cut. While we are very fortunate to end up in fifth it’s frusterating to know that we might have been able to have had a big day if it wasn’t for our boat troubles. That’s how the cookie crumbles I guess. It’s on to the next one which will be at Lake of the Ozarks March 20th. We are hoping to put on a show! Until next time keep it reel!

Thursday I had the day off classes and I was fortunate to get out on Thomas Hill with local angler Tony Lain. It was a great day to be on the water. We had air temps in the mid to upper 30’s with not a whole lot of wind with plenty of sunshine.

When we put the boat in we found water temps in the hot water arm to be 51 to 52 degrees. We were able to put a couple of bass in the boat fairly early into the day. The fish were keying in on shallow wood on points and hitting our jigs flipped in the bushes in 1 to 2 feet of water.

We spent some of the day running down the lake to put some hours on a new Suzuki motor. The water on the mainlake was pretty cold when you got away from the hot water arm. It was as cold as 37 degrees.

At the end of the day we made the trip up the hot water ditch and Tony caught a better largemouth on a jig and I caught a couple of small hybrids on Smack Tackle’s Flitterbait in the Gizzard Gray pattern. The water up the ditch was 57 degrees but it was a little muddier than usual. They were running a lot of water and the current was pretty quick. I was surprised that in heading up the ditch we couldn’t hook up with some bigger hybrids.

The past couple of years that I’ve gotten out on Thomas Hill those 3 to 4lb hybrids would be up in the canal and you could just murder them. Seems like the hybrids were either not there or were really inactive. There were a couple of boats out on the lake and I don’t think we saw anyone else catch a fish all day.

While the fishing wasn’t on fire at least I got to throw a couple of new AiRRUS rods, test out a couple of new baits, and get some fishing in before I leave for the FLW National Guard College Fishing tournament on Bull Shoals which is now only two weeks away.

Here’s a couple of tips that will save you some money and keep you out on the water!

Buy in Bulk
When it comes to purchasing baits it is best to buy those that you know you will use the most in bulk. This goes for fishing line as well. You can save a lot of money over the course of the year if you get everything that you think you are going to need before you get to the water. Most of us have our favorite baits and colors because it is what works for us. Spend some time shopping around and you can get some good deals. It’s not fun having to look for something you need when you only have so much time to get the sleep you need so that you can perform to the best of your ability the next day on the water.

Fix It Up
Often skirts on jigs, spinnerbaits, and our buzzbaits can get mangled after a days worth of fishing. One way that you can save a lot of money on these baits is to invest in a skirt making tool like the Naked Bait Company Skirt Expander. The Skirt Expander allows me to build my skirts to my exact specifications a lot cheaper than buying replacement skirts. I’m a lot more confident when I’m fishing a skirt design that I have confidence in than something I find on the shelf that isn’t exactly what I want. The skirt expander also makes it really easy to make slight modifications to stock skirts as well to get an edge. The Skirt Expander is a great investment. I’ve had one for three years now and who knows how many skirts I’ve made with it, probably over a thousand, and it keeps on ticking.

Skip the Convenience Stores and Fast Food
It’s really easy to get a drink or something to snack on when you make the stop to pump some gas on your way to the lake. At these convenience stores you end up spending a lot more for these items than if you make the run to the grocery store the night before you head out. If you spend as much time on the road as I do these little stops can really add up to a lot of money. Make sure you pick up a case of water, a loaf of bread, and some peanut butter and jelly and you’ll be good to go. If you want to add a little variety take some fruit with you in a cooler. Dodging fast food will keep you energized and feeling good.

Invest In Quality
When it comes to making purchases on tackle be sure to invest in quality products whether it be your rods,reels, line,or baits.

When it comes to purchasing rods make sure that you get the best that you can afford. AiRRUS rods has an excellent rod that is right at the $100 dollar mark. It’s the Co-Matrix 457. I fished this rod extremely hard last year in almost all of my tournaments and it did not let me down. I am very hard on equipment because to me it’s nothing but a tool to get the fish in the boat. I frequently boat flipped 4 and 5 pound bass with this rod and it never broke. The cork handle on the rod didn’t show signs of wear and the guides held up to a years worth of abuse of braided line. The value in these rods is incredible because they are well made and they don’t break the bank.

For reels make sure that you get the best that you can afford as well. I’ve had really good luck with the Abu Garcia Revos. Some of them I’ve had for over 4 years now and they still cast and retrieve my baits like the day that I bought them. I’ve thrown some reels that were on the cheap and only got a couple of months of use out of them because I broke the drags, the bearings, one reel I broke the reel seat off.

When it comes to baits make sure that you invest in quality. One of the places that you first start to see break down in lesser baits is the components that they are made with. A lot of baits out there don’t come with the best hooks and they need to be replaced and their paint finishes wear off quickly making them less productive. One of the worst things you can have in a jig is a hook that can’t stand up to abuse. Omega Custom Tackle uses quality components in all their baits. Omega’s baits have quality hooks, skirts, and finishes on the heads. They are also made in the USA.
Map Study
Doing some planing at home on the computer can give you an idea of where to start before you get to the lake. You will know what areas you want to take a look at. You won’t waste time running to areas that don’t have what you are looking for and you will save a lot of gas money. One of the best ways to save money when you go prefishing for a tournament is to trailer your boat to different parts of the lake that you plan on checking out. Let’s face it our tow vehicles get a lot better gas millage than our boats outboards.