Today I got the opportunity to fish the Vandalia Sportfishing and Conservations Buddy Tournament out on Vandalia Lake with Josh Bracamontes. We took 2nd place in the tournament out of 15 boats. We blasted off at 7am and headed down the lake. We started working a series of all familiar points with a variety of baits. Josh was working a buzzbait while I was mixing in a sweet beaver, square bill crank, and a spinnerbait. A big fish swirled under Joshes buzzbait and I picked up the beaver and pitched it back up where the fish had missed and I jacked a 3 pounder in the first 10 minutes of fishing. We continued on down the bank and I jacked another 2 and a half pound fish on the beaver. We were pretty stoaked to have 2 keepers in the boat right off the bat. Josh continued to work the buzzbait and was also starting to flip and pitch. We worked our way down our stretch and we both were thinking that maybe an adjustment was needed…something a little slower on top because they were not eating the buzzbait. I had tied on a black frog at this point and we came around another point throwing the frog and I jacked another 3lber. The fish had just sucked it in and took off.  It was great to have 3 fish in the livewell in just 30 minutes of fishing. Vandalia is a lake where a lot of times you’ve got to hit the majic stretch in order to do well. So far it was looking like we had made the right move to start. Josh had picked up the sweet beaver and had gone to work flipping again. It wasn’t that long before he set the hook into his first keeper about a 2 and a half pounder. We had been expecting rain and the clouds and the rain finally arrived. We made a short run to another area that has been productive in the past and I put keeper number 5 in the livewell. Just a keeper. The rain made the fish a little more willing to come up. We worked on down the bank and I caught another keeper on a buzzbait. This fish wasn’t going to help our efforts. Coming up on a point…Josh had picked up the crankbait and whacked a solid fish that went about 3 pounds. It was great to be culling by 10 am The rain subsided so we made another run to a wooded cove and Josh caught his last keeper on a buzzbait. Having 5 nice fish in the boat we tried bouncing around the lake fishing as many areas where we’ve caught kickers in the past. At this point we either had to get rid of those 2lbers or get one around 5. We fished our tails off but were unable to get any bigger fish before the 2pm weigh in. We thought we had around 11 pounds or so but when we went to weigh our fish they were a lot bigger than I had remembered. The fish dropped the scales to 13.72lbs which gave us second place. First place was 14.02 lbs. We were so close to winning that it is hard to stomach. Lots of other limits were weighed in with 4 or 5 around the 12 to 11  pound mark. There was over 100 pounds of bass caught in the tournament. Not bad for just a 15 boat tournament. It was a great day of fishing for almost everyone. Here’s a look at the gear I was using
7 foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS C0-Matrix rod, 80 pound braid, buzzbait, Frog, 7.1 Bait Cast reel.
7 Foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Ultra XL rod, 80 pound braid, beaver 7.1
7 Foot Airrus Cranking Stick 65 pound braid, 6.3 reel. Crankbait and spinnerbait.
I think one of the most interesting questions you can ask a fisherman is how they got into the sport of fishing. Unlike a lot of anglers I don’t come from a fishing family. No one else in my family fishes. My grandpa used to be an avid golfer and when I was about 3 years old he used to take me to the golf course to watch people play golf.
