So I went ahead and fished the 2nd tourney of the South Regional on Lake Amistad again.

My results were a little better but still not what I should be catching. The main reason for the low weights is I am not getting anytime to prefish. The day before the regional tourneys - The Bass Champs tournament series is on the lake and I cannot compete with 200 to 300 boats being launched. That leaves no room for me to park my truck and trailer and that also leaves me with way to much work to just get on the water so I can prefish.

Anyway, back to the real story

At 6am, Sunday morning I started idling towards some coves in Devils river. The start of the fishing day begins at 7am and by then I was sitting in the cove where I wanted to start. I was thinking that the shallower coves right next to the main lake would be most productive since the water temps where still in the upper 50's. It wasn't till around 10am that I hooked up with my first bass.I caught it on a Tx-rigged Watermelon-red Lizard, it weighed around 2.5lbs. The back of the coves weren't producing so I moved out to the main lake. I had plenty of small bass chasing my baits and I caught a couple of bass but they were all to small. At that time I was throwing a crawdad colored rattletrap.

Around 12:30pm I decided to head to a area where there is a deep trough (50foot) that rises to 15 foot of water rather quickly. Between 1pm and 2:30 I caught my 2nd, 3rd and 4th bass all around 2lbs each and all of them on the Tx rigged lizard.

If would of made this area my first stop I would of never left and a limit of bass would of been no problem.

Well, anyway I wound up in 38th place, 1 bass shy of 20th place.

I will be able to prefish a couple of the upcoming tournaments where my weight and placement will be a lot better. Next tourney is Choke Canyon, March 16th.

Talk at ya then,

David

 

Well, I am back from yet another Regional Tournament that was held on Choke Canyon Reservior.

The weather for the day called for winds to be in the 20 mph range, but as it turned out it was nothing of the sorts. Calm wind prevailed for most of the day.

The fishing went really well despite almost getting run over by some ding-bat who had so many lights on the front of his duck hunting boat - he couldn't see where he was going. I can repeat the nice words I yelled at him as he going by me. I also had a fellow competitor come flying by me within 40 to 50 yards and then a few minutes later the same guy cut me off on a bank I was running. I was very happy to catch a couple and I also had a few words for him to but it was more about Sportsmanship.

Since I haven't been able to prefish any of the tournaments so far, I went to spot where I knew I would probably be able to catch a limit by days end, even though I was really hopeing to do that as soon as possible.

My first bass came on a Pro-rattletrap and with-in about 30 minutes my 2nd came on a Tx-rigged lizard. Around 10am I moved back to my starting point and hooked up with another bass, this time on a crankbait. I now had 3 in the boat all of them weighing around 21/2 lbs.

I then made a quick run to check on another area, but by 12noon I was once again back where I started from.

I then hooked into a 15lb to 18lb fresh water drum and the fight was on. Fortunetly it came off at the boat. That was one ugly looking fish.

In the next 2 hours I caught 3 more bass off the point I was staying on and I did get my 5 bass limit but there size where all in the 21/2 lb range.

As it turned out I ended up in 22nd place with 13.09lbs and as usual If I would of had just one kicker fish in the 5lb range I would of pulled a top 10 and a small paycheck.

I am in 19th place so far threw 3 tourneys - all I need to do to qualify for the Championship tourney is to stay in the top 25 if I want to fish out of my boat.

Talk at everyone later,

Dave

P.S. - I will be prefishing Canyon Lake and I will do better in the standings if Mother nature can leave me alone.

 

Hey everyone - I finally was able to prefish a upcoming tournament- Yea!

I can't say it put me in the Top 10 or anything like that but it did help me put a limit in the boat by 8:30 that morning and for Canyon Lake that in itself is a big accomplishment.

First of all the Director moved the ramp location for everyone so instead of just shooting across the lake to my first stop I had to idle about 4 miles to get there.

I started at a area that had a nice long point with plenty of submerged trees next to the shoreline. I caught my 5 bass limit on a Tx-Rigged Baby Brushhog (Watermelon Candy) and a LA Shad shallow running Bandit crankbait.

I basically stayed with the same thing all day long. Looking back on the situation I should of bumped up to bigger baits once I had a limit.

From 8:30 on If I would of put a 3 or 4lb bass in the boat I would of brought a check home.

As it turned out as in my previous tourneys all I needed to place in the top 10 was a kicker fish, but so far this year I have not been able to manage that.

I ended up with 7.88lbs and that was good enough for 20th place. I was about a 1lb and 1/2 away from placing in the top 10.

I am in 13th place for the first 4 tournaments, but I will be falling back a ways as I will not be fishing the 5th stop (Falcon Lake).

Talk at ya later,

David Stewart