So here is the back drop.  My buddy Billy Harris and I both qualified for the Bassmaster Weekend Series National Championships on Clarks Hill through our  respective divisions.  If you have read both of our blogs and forums, we both contribute a bit of trash talking and good natured ribbing to each other.  After all, that is what good fishing buddies are for

My travel plans to Clarks Hill involved flying to Nashville where Billy lives, we were then going to drive to Hartwell for some fun/pre-practice fishing out of his boat on Saturday.  Then of course we would practice on our own on Clarks Hill before the tournament on Sunday – Tuesday.  Billy being the competitive spirit he is, he set the bet in which we would take out best 5 fish by weight for Saturday on Hartwell.  I set the prize at the winner gets a bait of choice out of the others boat/tackle box.  Not a big prize, but there is a certain amount of humiliation of having another angler rummaging through your stuff.  We also copied that bet over to the highest finisher in the actual tournament.
So when it was all said & done, there were two baits on the line.

Bet #1 – Hartwell
It was a tough day for us.  I offered up a $1 bet on first bass, which it only took me about 10-15 casts to catch this runt of a spotted or shoal bass pictured here.  Billy still owes me that dollar
 

Throughout the day, we each caught a handful of small spots, but none of them were 12″ so we did not weigh them.  Finally with about midday, I set the hook on a fish with a little resistance.  I caught a 2.2lb chunky spotted bass under a dock in about 18ft of water on trusty 3/8oz Green Pumpkin Brown Tru-Tungsten Jig.  Billy caught a few spots after that on a chrome blue lipless crank, but none of them measured.  It was not exactly a slug fest, but a win is a win one the water.

Bet #2 – Clarks Hill Tournament
Billy & I both had a few things going in practice, we both felt decent about putting together a solid tournament.  After day 1, I had two small fish for 2.61lbs and Billy had 3 fish for 3.89lbs, so I was about 44 places behind him & 1.28lbs in weight, pretty small deficit to make up over two days, but Billy was already talking trash & telling me how southern bass were so much smarter and harder to catch.  Day 2 I only got one fish, but it was decent, 2.88lbs.  Billy brought in 2 fish for 2.26lbs.  So even though he more fish, they were runts and I pretty much cut the deficit in half.  Rich 3 fish = 5.49lbs  Billy 5 fish = 6.15lbs, Billy holds on to a .66lbs lead.  Billy continued to talk trash.

Day 3, it did not take me long to boat a 2lb fish, which I knew it meant that I was probably even at worst and every fish would be big in our side bet as well as making a push in the tournament.  As you may of read, I ended up having a really good day.  I saw Billy walking back from the tanks and he said he had 4 fish, he was feeling pretty good.  I told him I had 5, but I do not think he realized that I had two pretty good ones in there.  His 4 fish weighed 6.79lbs, for a grand total of 9 fish for 12.94lbs which moved him up to 88th place.  He was feeling pretty good until he jumped on to the golf cart with me on the way to the weigh-in stage.  He peeked in my bag and knew it was all over, 5 fish for 11.47lbs, 6th biggest bag out of 222 boaters on Day 3.  My 8 fish for the tournament weighed 16.92lbs, good for 46th place. 

Here are my prizes:
Hartwell Prize

Ima Jerkbait, you can tell its a proven fish catcher, by the mangles hooks and abrasions form the bass on the sides of the bait

Clarks Hill Prize

Yellow Magic Bone Popper, one of my favorite baits, this was also the unnamed popper that Billy caught his fish so well on at Kentucky Lake earlier this year.

I chose these baits one 3 criteria:
1. Value, both of these baits retails for over $10 a piece
2. Known fish catchers, both of these baits are valued by Billy and I know he has caught them good on both of these.

Nice doing business with you Billy!!!!

So I have seen 3 or maybe 4 episodes of the World’s Greatest Fishing Show with Mark Zona.  So far, I think I like it.  Is it the greatest every, not sure about that, but it is well above average thus far.  The pictures of that 8lb smallie out of Eastern basin of Lake Eries were top notch.   I really enjoyed the last episode with Bob Cobb, I grew up watching Bassmasters back when it was on The Nashville Network, brought back memories of my dad & I watching Bassmasters in the morning together.  When Zona asked Cobb about his 3 top memorable moments, he nailed them.
1.  Bitter’s Lost Classic, where he dropped a keeper in and lost the classic by an ounce
2. Fritz Flip, where he fell in lake landing a bass
3. Nixon’s monster bass on Harris Chain in Megabucks

Well, hats off to Zone for capturing those moments on TV this past weekend, it was a great show and it was great to watch ol’ Cobb get that big smallie on that old rod!

Its refreshing to see something so pure after watching something as disgusting as what Luke Clausen did on Ultimate Match Fishing.  I hope Kelly Jordan puts a whipping on Clausen like he just did to Anthony Gagliardi

If you have a few moments, stop by my forum and take a poll on Buzz Toads….