Late summer tournament proved challenging this weekend.
We had practiced a week before and found a consistent bite with a drop shot setup and minnow/bait fish pattern( crappie fry look ).
This consistent baitfish bite seemed to be mostly true and the same when executed during a late Friday afternoon bite. Biggest fish of the weekend came then, during that practice session the evening before day 1. 2.53lbs was the biggest we could find all weekend, with practice and tourney days combined.
Day 1 we were able to bag about 9.5lbs but we had one smallmouth that suffered too much stress during a deep catch and could not ultimately survive. Dead fish penalty. .5 lb.
Brought us to just under 9lbs for day 1. The day was surmised with a constant culling of .1-.4 lbs at a time. Every smallmouth we were catching seemed to be between that 1-1.75lb range. Frustrating, fun and a grind. A win is still in grasp though with a really good day 2.
Day 2.
Way different. The bite and feel had changed. Was it stressed fish from our clubs day 1 and a heavy previous weekend of fishing? Maybe, not sure.
We threw all sorts of setups, drop shots, jigs, Ned rigs, Carolina rigs, Texas rigs, crankbaits and top water poppers. Caught fish on all of it. The fish bait had changed from a full on feeding type on day 1 to a seemingly angry reaction bite that was hard to capitalize on. We grinded away at spots and would upgrade just slightly at each spot we would stop at. This became a tough grind and frustrating to not be able to find large mommas. We were looking for those queen kongs or bottom “B*****s” to take a bait. Couldn’t find em:/
To summarize, we caught a shload of bass, but couldnt find size or get the biggies to say yes. That’s how it goes sometimes we suppose and you have to have the thought, #justgonnafish. Never know how it might go.
Had a blast and so much fun to catch 100+ fish in a weekend.
Tight lines friends, time to plan for the next tourney. #fishinglife #fish #fishing
