Saturday, March 29, 2008

Beginners Luck!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: All day Friday and Saturday
Weather: mid 70's, slight breeze, clear skies
Water Temp: 51-58
Who Went: Wayne, Me

I got a phone call on Wednesday night from Wayne Crowder, a Professional Bass Fisherman, who I met through boat shows, Sportsman's expos, and the fact that he is sponsored by Tracker Boats, which I now own. He was in a bind with his team partner backing out on him at the last minute for a Bass Federation Tournament down in Lake Powell. He asked me on short notice if I could help him out and take his partners place. I thought about it for two seconds and told him I would be crazy to turn him down on an opportunity like this, but I would have to run it through the wife! It was a lot of money and I just had to make sure! Luckily, I have the greatest wife in the world and she was really excited for me to get this opportunity! I called Wayne back and told him it was a go! He told me to be ready to leave by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. I was sleepless all night waiting for my wake up call, and by five o'clock we were on the road. Wayne had been up all night getting his boat wrapped by one of his sponsors, Sportsman's Warehouse, so he tossed me the keys and said your driving and I'm sleeping! He didn't sleep a wink! We talked all the way down about bass fishing techniques and different lures and tactics! When we finally got there we went straight to the lake and launched to get in as much pre-fishing as possible. This is Wayne showing off his new wrap.
We ran way up north towards Farley's Canyon to see if we could find some water temperatures in the high 50's. The water is muddier up there and soaks up the sun a little better making it warmer. We fished Farley's Canyon and a few other spots only getting a few hits! We did find a boulder field that had 58 degree water and we figured this might be a good place to fish first thing in the morning! We ran to many different places all day long, checking water temps and fishing them for a short amount of time. We only landed two fish all day, and we had to head back for the pre-tournament orientation and sign up meeting at 5 o'clock! We were planning on fishing two tournaments on Saturday. One was through the Bass Federation and the other an Angler Choice tournament. You could use the same 5 fish total for each tournament. After only catching 2 fish during pre-fishing, Wayne decided we should only enter the Bass Federation tournament! We went out to the truck and for the next 3 hours rigged all our poles and gear and got the boat ready to go for morning! We woke up early the next morning and the launch ramp was already filled with tournament boats. The tournament director checked our live wells and other safety gear to make sure we were ready to launch. Everything checked out and we headed down and got on the water. When it was time to go the tournament director got on the mega phone and called out every boats number one by one. We were number 25. As he called them out the guys would floor it and head to there favorite spot! They called our number and we were off! Wayne's Z-9 Nitro with a 250 hp Pro XS Mercury Optimax had us going just under 70 miles an hour all the way to our spot we found the night before. When we got there, the water temps had dropped to 51 degrees! This was a little more than we were expecting but we fished through it anyway. I had one good hit but that was it. We ran around the corner back towards Good Hope Bay and found some good looking boulder fields but the temps were still around 51 degrees. We figured we better run through it just to see if anything was holding there. 5 minutes in, I had on our first fish, and my very first tournament fish with this Largemouth Bass weighing in at two pounds! It wasn't huge but we were on the board!After starting us off we continued to catch one here and there through this long stretch of boulders and by the time we got to the end we had our 5 fish limit! Nothing over two pounds, but I was happy, thinking to myself, at least we didn't get skunked! Once we had our limit we tried a little cove by Good Hope Bay that has produced big fish for Wayne in the past. Not even a bite! We decided we better give it one more run through the boulder field that produced our limit! Good Choice! Half way down Wayne landed a 3 pound bass and we swapped it out for our smallest. Soon after, I landed a 4 pound bass and we traded him out with a small one!
Not to long after that, Wayne caught a 4.2 pound bass! Now we were in business! Wayne ended up putting another 3 pounder in the boat and I added a 2.5 pounder! Now I was getting excited! We made the run back to Bullfrog and still had one hour to burn so we headed to the very back of Bullfrog Bay to see if we could improve on our 2.5 pound fish. I landed 1 small Largemouth, a dinky Smallmouth (only one of the trip), and a couple crappie, but that was all we caught! It was time to head to the weigh in! When we pulled in, you could see everyone putting fish into their weigh in bags. I saw a guy throw a monster into his bag and my confidence went down a little! That fish ended up being the big fish of both tournaments at 5.8 pounds! We were one of the last to weigh in, and when we started pulling out our fish there were lots of oos and ahs! This got me pretty excited! I watched the scale like a hawk and it finally settled at a weight of 14.86 pounds. I looked at the tournament director waiting for him to speak. He yelled out, we have a new leader with Crowder and Duncan. I was going nuts inside, but tried to stay cool on the outside. After a few more teams weighed in it was official. We took First Place! I got some pics of me and Wayne holding our two 4 pound fish and then we let them go to be caught again someday!

After letting our fish go we loaded up the boat and headed to the ceremony meeting at the Defiance Lodge. They gave us a nice plaque for winning, along with a 600 dollar check!

This is where the story goes from living a dream and back to reality! They called out the winner for the Anglers Choice tournament and handed him a 1700 dollar check with a total weight of 14.31 pounds! Ouch! We would have won that tournament too! Then we get out to our truck and decide that after winning we might as well just hit the road and surprise our wives by coming home early! Wayne's truck wouldn't start! We call the local mechanic and he spent the rest of the night trying to get it to start! We finally gave up and slept on it. We woke up at 7:30 and headed back down to the lake to meet the mechanic. He was already there and had his truck up and going. We jumped in and headed home! What an unbelievable trip that I will never forget! One thing I did learn is that you have to be very wealthy to support a habit like this! I had a blast, but I don't think it's something I could afford to pursue anytime soon! Hopefully someday! I was hoping to get a few more pics of such a memorable event, but Wayne was a little more into catching fish than worrying about snapping any photos!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Waiting For Warm Weather!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 11:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Weather: clear, windy, 50's
Who Went: Me
Knowing that March is the toughest month of the year to find fish in any quantity (my opinion), I thought I would load up the float tube and head to Utah Lake in search of some quality fish, like an early Walleye or a big Kitty Cat. I got a late start and didn't get to the lake until 10:30 a.m. When I got there and looked out at the water, I could see white caps forming from the wind! This is not exactly tubing weather so I went for plan B. They have not let the gates go from Utah Lake into the Jordan River yet so i put on my waders (muddy), and walked the shoreline hoping to find something that would bite! I started catching Largemouth right off the rip, but they were all small.I also caught a decent sized Green Sunfish that slammed my black with blue sparkled, Gary Yammamoto, curly tailed jig.I tried switching colors and sizes trying to entice a possible walleye or bigger bass but it didn't happen! I did catch this small mud cat on a jig which was kind of different, but it happens once in a while! Come on warm weather!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

If It's Not Broken. Don't Fix It!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Weather: Cloudy, high 30's
Who Went: John, Me
With our successful pike trip last week, and no better options for this week, we went back to Redmond Lake. It was almost exactly the same story only this time I was off my game! I probably had seven or eight hits but only landed 3. John got off the skunk list and landed 1. He also missed a few hits. We got there earlier this week but the weather was much colder and we didn't start getting hits until the weather warmed a little. One thing I learned is that you have to make sure that the pike have totally taken the anchovy before you set the hook! I kept missing them when they would just drag my bobber around but not take it under! It took a lot of patience. I know four fish doesn't sound like a successful trip, but when your going after pike, four is not a bad day.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

A First For Dunc

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Weather: clear, low 50's no wind
Who Went: John, Me
After winning $110 dollars in poker from Cari's family last night, I finally had enough gas money to go to Redmond Reservoir. Redmond is a small reservoir south of Gunnison. I have always wanted to go there because it holds a specific type of fish that I have yet to catch, a Northern Pike! I called John to see if he would join me and he said yes, so we were on our way. I have never been there so when we arrived we just pointed to an area and said, "okay looks good." I put on an anchovy 3 feet underneath a big bobber on one pole, and an anchovy with a sinker on the other. I tossed them out and now it was a waiting game! Wondering if we made a bad choice on the spot we chose, John's pole went flying off the bank and darn near into the lake! He grabbed it and jerked, but the pike bit right threw his line, and was gone! Soon after, I had a taker and the fight was on! I had my first ever pike right to the shore and then snap! I lost him. Oh Man was I upset! I rigged again and threw back out. Suddenly, I had a pole launcher, and I mean completely airborne, my pole flew in the air four feet before it hit the ground! These pike hit like freight trains! I was able to land this one, and it was now official, my first Northern Pike! The action didn't stop either, I caught five pike with the biggest at 27 inches! John didn't have as much luck today but a lot of it was him helping to land mine and missing hits. I caught them both under the bobber as well as on the bottom, and I never thought that pike fishing could be as fast as this was. We only fished for 3 hours and between the two of us we had at least 12 hits. This is definitely a lake I will be returning to. It was a lot of fun!

Friday, March 7, 2008

A Spring Trip!

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Weather: Clear, now wind, high 40's
Who Went: Me
With another week of warm weather, and all the lakes still with ice on them, I had to get creative. I cruised up to Thistle Creek to play with some more Brown Trout! It was really cold when I got there at 8:00 a.m. and my eyelets kept freezing up, along with my hands! It made it tough to fish! I started by throwing a copper blue fox spinner but had no luck! I went to the trusty floating worm and then started to catch fish. The second fish I caught was a nice Brown pushing probably 18 or 19 inches, it came off the hook on the shoreline so I hurried and pushed him back in so he wouldn't flop all over the bank, so no pic. I did get a pick of this guy, and he was the size of the rest I caught. I soon ran out of worms so I was off to find new
water. I decided to take a chance at Battle Creek Tributary that runs into Utah Lake.It's a little early to catch warm water species, but I was lucky enough to catch a Largemouth there last year about this time. Needless to say I did not even get a bite! I threw gulp minnows, Senkos, and an earth worm, but to no avail! I headed on up the freeway and thought of a place that I could maybe score a Largemouth. There is a spot on the Jordan River by the pump house where a warm spring runs in. Its not hard to tell its a warm spring as you can see the steam rising off the water. The flow to the Jordan River is almost completely shut off this time of year so its more of a shallow pond than a river, and believe it or not you can see right through the water (Usually the Jordan River is very muddy). When I got there I instantly saw a bass swimming along the shoreline that probably went 4 pounds. I had no idea this little hole held such large bass! I tried to hurry so I could get a picture of him but of course I just missed him. I did get a picture of a few smaller bass also hanging out along the shoreline.
I started throwing a Senko on a weighted hook with no success. I tried spinnerbaits and jigs, also with no success. I finally hooked up with my first Largemouth of the year with this whopper! I caught him on a chartreuse rooster tail. I kept throwing this rooster tail and
hooked up 3 more times with bass just like this one. I spent about two more hours hunting down the big boys and presenting them with a drop shot with a senko, but no takers. One thing I have learned is that when big bass can see you the odds of you catching them is slim to none! But it's still fun to try! Come on Ice off!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

Hobble Creek

Moon Phase:
Fishing Time: 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
weather: 50's, nice up there, very windy in the valley snowed 4 inches later that day
Who Went: Me
Its March, and the fishing starts to get tough during this month of teasing! One day it will be 65 and sunny, and the next day it will snow 5 inches! Ice fishing has died down and it has become tough to land many fish from the hard deck. The lakes are still iced over so it doesn't leave many other options. I just got a knew St. Croix Bass Rod for my birthday and was itchin to use it, so I had tofind open water to fish today. I didn't have much in mind so I figured I would sleep on it, then jump in the truck this morning and start driving til something stood out. Well, March decided to tease me cause it has been sunny and nice all week and when I woke up at 6:00 a.m. the wind was howling and a storm was brewing! I went back to bed and woke up around 8:30. The wind was still howling and I knew if I was going to fish today I had to find somewhere that the wind wouldn't effect me. The best place I could think of was Hobble Creek. Stuck between two steep mountains and many trees to block wind, it was the best option. I was right on! The wind died as soon as I started heading up the canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous up there! I threw on my waders, rigged my new pole with only a hook and a worm and began walking up stream. I soon found out that while my new bass pole had great sensitivity and was light weight and easy to handle, it is also a bass pole and is stiffer than most trout poles. It made flipping and casting a little tough for stream fishing! Many people ask me, "why do you have to have more than one pole to fish? there all the same right?" The best answer I can give them is, do you use your putter on the driving range? Each pole is designed for specific things. Bass fishing poles are not designed for stream use. I just really wanted to try my new pole out so I was willing to deal with the mis-application, and fished with it any way. Icaught 15 Brown Trout and it was a blast! It was beautiful up there and I had the whole stream all to myself! When I left and drove back into the valley the wind was crazy! It pushed me all over the road on my way home. Hobble Creek was a great choice for today's conditions!