We decided to have the take-off at 8am, as the fall can often be more of an afternoon bite. It was a small Gopher club tournament with 5 boats fishing as two man teams. John and I made a quick pass through the reeds while I scraped the corrosion of my battery terminals. No bites in the reeds and I finally got the main motor started.
We headed to a hump in the south end of the lake, we fished around looking for good weeds, found some, fished with jigs, soft plastics and spinnerbaits, no bites. We then headed over to some docks, on about my 5 pitch to a small patch of milfoil, I set the hook on a 2lb bass, got it up to the surface and it came unbuttoned. Tough loss, but it was early. I figured if I kept fishing my jig, we would get a solid limit by the end of the day. John then missed a bite right after that, so I figured we were on a good pattern. About 15 docks later I got a small 12.25″ fish on a 3/8oz Sunfish Tru-Tungsten Jig.
We hopped around docks and pads about halfway around the lake, I then got a good bite on a dock and broke off right away, I must have had a bad spot from fishing around docks and lifts, it was stupid not to check the line more often. Very avoidable mistake!!! It was a long time before the next bite, I felt a solid thump and I reared back and hauled water. I quickly pitched back into the lift, let it sit in there and she picked it back up, it was a 4lb’r, what a huge bite. Now its 11:30am and we got two fish, plenty of time, if the bite starts to pick up. We then hopped around the point into a little cover with some pads and docks. We came up to a great looking pontoon, I pitched in and nothing. I thought to myself, it just looks to good, so I pitched back into the pontoon and just let the jig sit in there. Sure enough it started to slide off to the side and I reared back, a solid 3 lb plus keeper. Things are definitely starting to look up, with just under 3 hours to go, we just need three more bites to have a nice limit. We keeping hopping docks, I get a bite where the fish was swimming with my jig and just had the tails and then another fish followed my jig out, could not get either one to take a follow up presentation.
Time was running out, so we hit the sail boat marine next to the access. On my first pitch I get bit and haul water, pitch right back in and rear back, got a nice keeper coming to the boat and try to swing it in, it falls off just short of the boat. What a bad break, probably should have just called for the net, but usually the 2 lb and under fish I just swing in on the jig. I then checked my hook point and it was bent over, somewhere along the line I must have hooked a boat lift and flattened it out, again another thing that could have been avoided. That was the last bite we got. All my bites came on a 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig.
We weighed 3 fish for 8.4 lbs, which was easily good for 1st and the 4.0 was big bass. Even though, we won, I did not feel good about the tournament. I think I would have felt better about landing all my bites, having a limit and known I maximized the pattern that I was on and finished down further in the standings.
On the bright side, hopefully this will be a good lesson to remember to check my line and hooks at Patoka, plus being a tough bite, will help to mentally prepare for what could be a very tough tournament in Indiana. The next morning, John and I planned to go to Crystal Lake to rinse the bad taste out of our mouths and try to catch a hog.
Tight Lines,
Rich
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