First tourney of the year was a toughy

[SpokaneSlayer]

Fished in my bass club's first tourney of the year this past weekend and it was tough.

Day 1:
The weather was nice, clear and not to windy.  Started off with a short run to a cove.  Threw cranks for a bit without a strike so I switched to drop shotting a Zoom 4" finesse worm in smokin' shad color in 30 feet of water.  Hooked and landed a 1.5 lb smallie.  Not a big fish but things were going better than the previous weekend's pre-fishing.  Made a couple more runs without a strike.  to show how tough the fishing was, after weighing in I was sitting in 8th.  My partner didn't get anything.

Day 2:

The weather was drastically different, windy and rain off and on.  Made the run to the same cove I caught my fish at.  Went straight to drop shotting.  Nothing.  Tried a lipless crank.  Nothing.  After about an hour and a half, trouble started.  The trolling motor quit.  After about 30 minutes of working on it on the water, we ran back to the ramp to get the boat out and continue working on it.  No joy.  Day was over for us.

Pretty disappointed with day 2.  I ended up in 14th out of 38 anglers, which I don't think was that bad all things considered.  1 or 2 more fish and I would've cracked top 10.  We're already making plans for the next tournament next month. 
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[Black Plague]

so...maybe i missed this...but where were you fishing again???... yeah, its still pretty early and the barometer has been going up and down and the weather changing and on the rivers the water level dropped like 7 feet over the last few weeks....good work on the fish, ...so far on roosevelt i have seen a smallie caught every time I went out...not always by me though...nothing big...about like you said in the 1.5 lb range

[SpokaneSlayer]

Sorry, I was on Roosevelt.  We launched out of Crescent Bay.  Winning bag was 27 lbs but the guy ran all the way up to the Spokane Arm.  Water temp was around 40 to 42.  We did find some water that was 43-45, but it didn't produce.  I heard temps up in the Spokane were 47. 

[Black Plague]

yeah, that's what I would have done...about 4 Miles up past porcupine bay... that's where we caught some...what were the fish relating to...were they on rocky-sandy flats...or on trees and other structure? ...shallow or deep... we caught them in 35 feet and in 25 feet but that was 3 weeks ago

[SpokaneSlayer]

I don't really know what they were doing on the arm.  Mine was in 32 ft right on a ledge that jumped up to 20 feet pretty fast.  I was just letting my drop shot sit there.  I wasn't even doing anything, just letting what ever the boat was doing give the action.  I wasn't even sure it was a bite, but as they say, hooksets are free.  I reeled down a bit and felt a little weight to I gave him the business.

[Dustin07]

are you fishing the potholes open tourney april 17th/18th? I can't find any details on it. I've never tourney fished, and will be there the 2 days prior most likely so plenty of opportunity to pre-fish....

[BLKBEARKLR]

are you fishing the potholes open tourney april 17th/18th? I can't find any details on it. I've never tourney fished, and will be there the 2 days prior most likely so plenty of opportunity to pre-fish....

There is a tournie there from ABA on the 24th and 25th that i know of. If it is a tournament you might want to check the rules on prefishing alot of the tournaments you cannot prefish the entire week prior.


Joe

[Dustin07]

i can't find ANY info on it ANYWHERE except that it exists!

04/17/2010 04/18/2010 Potholes Bass Club Bass Open
http://wdfw.wa.gov/fish/contests/2010contests.htm

its listed on the mardonresort.com site under events too, but with no details. so I have no idea of costs, or even if anyone can still enter. I've never done a tourney before, not sure I'm even tourney material, lol... but I figured hey if i'm already there .....

[SpokaneSlayer]

are you fishing the potholes open tourney april 17th/18th? I can't find any details on it. I've never tourney fished, and will be there the 2 days prior most likely so plenty of opportunity to pre-fish....

I'm not fishing that one.  It's by invitation only hosted by the Potholes Bass Club and from what I've read it's pretty tough to get in to.  I'm fishing a club tourney on the 24th and 25th down on Lake Bryan.

[Dustin07]

yeah I just got an email back from Mardon and it's completely full, she said it fills up in 3 days typically, 120 boats on the water.

[SpokaneSlayer]

If you want to start fishing tournaments, check to see if there is a local bass club.  They're fun, won't break the bank, and you get some good experience.

[Dustin07]

yeah I've been talking to some local guys a bit. my schedule is hectic. As my buddy put it "if you play softball, then thats what you do, you play softball", LOL. So yes, I play softball. We've already had 3 tourneys this year, one this weekend, and our first league (of three) starts on april 12th... I'm going to school full time too. (so I guess my point was I'm not sure if I have enough in my to commit to a club just yet, maybe next year when I'm done with school).

[bowhunterforever]

Do you guys have any more tournaments on roosevelt this spring or summer?

[MtnMuley]

There's a NWBASS tourney there this year August 14.