DAY ONE
My draw was Jason Borofka. it was a slow morning and after two hours, we still had no fish. it seemed like we could feel the pressure building. When my pro got his first fish, it was small; but it relieved some of the tension and he felt the bite was just starting. We started getting fish, one here and one there; but never a lot in one place. They were scattered everywhere and in different depths.
i noticed the bite was softer than during pre fish; but it was still on. i caught mostly smaller fish with my baits. i caught one that culled a fish earlier in the day; but it ended up being culled about 48 minutes later by my pro’s reaction bite fish. We weighed in a little over 20 lbs.
at the end of the day, i decided i should have changed to a creature bait, or swimbait sometime during the day; but i got stuck in my pre fish methods and kept fishing what worked then.
DAY TWO
day 2, ashley Mayhew and i caught about 18 lbs early in the morning and then we culled through out the rest of the morning for a total of 25 and change! Since we caught our 18 lbs early, the tension was out of the boat and my Pro offered to teach me to fish swimbaits! i was extatic! after netting 4 of ashley’s fish, i then had the confidence to throw the swimbait all day in search for the bigger fish to cull our smallest. Since i didn’t know much about swimbait fishing, i have always shied away from fishing them unless nothing else was working; however, i always wanted to learn. i listened intently and absorbed everything like a sponge, and can you believe it, my 1st Clear lake swmimbait fish was 6 1/2 lbs! HolY HaWG! Now, i cannot divulge everything he taught me about swimbait fishing, since it has taken him years to perfect his techniques, and he has a few tournaments coming up...but i can tell you we fished grass off shore and we were using 6”-8” swimbaits and we were imitating the hitch. after the tournament, it was quite interesting to find out that over 90 % of tourneys (year round) are won on swimbaits up at Clear lake! it’s not a seasonal pattern like i thought. i’m assuming it could be that way on most lakes, however; i’m sure the retrieve, depth and structure would change depending on the conditions. This is piquing my interest, i’m now looking towards testing this out on other waters this coming season.
Issue 4 October 2011
There were lulls during the fishing day; but still we would periodically catch a fish. Mostly, the bass bit on reaction baits. i only got three or four fish on a dropshot using a MM roboworm and a custom, hand pour made for me by Geoff Peterson.
AWARDS
at the awards ceremony i learned i came in at 7th place with 45.63 and cashed a check. This launched me into a tie for 2nd place in the overall points standings. it was a great tournament and i owe much success to my pros Jason Borofka and ashley Mayhew. i feel next time that i come to Clear lake i will have a wider range of things to throw and i will definitely be able to utilize a swimbait. i think i will have more in my arsenal to be able to change as the Clear lake conditions dictate.
Catching a great swimbait fish was one of the things that i had on my list of things i would like to do in life. i haven’t completed my list yet; but since i got to check off the first thing i wrote, i think now i will concentrate on the next thing and go shark fishing. See you on the water!
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