HPBB Tournament 1.

[InEccess]

First tournament of the year for the Holiday Park Bass Busters club. We're a small B.A.S.S. affiliated club located just east of Pittsburgh in the great state of PA. The tournament was held on Crooked Creek Lake on April 1st, 2007. The water temperature was 56degrees at time of blast off, and the weather conditions was Monsoon. 8 hours of solid rain with the sun peaking out just AFTER weight in started. This is my report for what I did, how I did, and what I should've done. Follow accomplishments and failures this season located here in the fishing reports section, under the title "HPBB Tournament..." as well as my running points total for club standings.

6:30am. Blast off. My boater made a short jog across the launch bay to a gravel shore dotted with rocks. I'm fishing a red craw Bandit 200, searching for early morning agressive males. No Luck

7:30am. Working our way around a point, 2 large flat sided rocks can be seen sticking partway out of the water. After fishing the crankbait for an hour with no success, I switch to a purple and black Mann's Stone Jig with a cut off Junebug Strike King 3x crawfish. A MASSIVE largemouth ingulfs my jig while my rod is on the upswing of a hop, located at about the 12 o'clock possition. By the time I reel in the slack and set the hook, the bass dropped it, but not before giving both myself and my boater a good look at it's 24" frame. The boater makes the comment, "If I lost a fish like that, I'd be kicking myself for years to come."

8:30am. The jig got hung up on some underwater structure, but I was able to free it. Unfortunately, the sharp point of the hook broke off. I'm forced to tie on a Black and Red Mann's Stone Jig, but this time I use a Netbaits Baby Paca-Craw in the Alabama Craw color. 2 hours of fishing and still no keeper. I'm confident that I'm doing the right thing, so I'll stick with the jig in that color for the rest of the day.

9:30am. As it's "trophy bass season" here in PA, the state size limit is increased to 15inches and the limit of keepers is 3. The 14" bass I managed to boat doesn't help my score, but I hooked him in the roof of his mouth while the jig was almost completely shallowed. This tells me I'm on the right color and working the jig with the right presentation.

10:30am. First keeper of the day, a 17" 2lbs. 9oz Largemouth, strikes the jig on the fall. Again, the bass is hooked in the roof of his mouth. A health looking fish in my eyes.

11:30am Several strikes, but no hookups. There's a high crappy population on this lake, so it may be the crappie playing with the skirt, or nibbling on the claws.

12:30pm The rain picked up, and so did the bites. My boater and I hook up with keeper fish at the exact same time. This time, mine's a 15.5" Largemouth, but weights as much as the first keeper. 2lbs. 9oz.

Well, I could go on with the rest of the day, but I only had 2 keepers, 2 dinks and a missed money fish. What would I have done differently? I think I would've continued with an overhead hookset rather then drop and reel up the slack. That one fish would've bumped me from 4th place overall to 2nd place overall and netted me a cool 65 bucks. I'm definately going to need to hit the lake several more times over the summer, getting ready for the October tournament on the same lake.

If anyone cares to know what the winning weight was, it was 16lbs. 5oz on 3 fish. My boater won the day and the lunker pool with a 6lbs. 10oz. Largemouth. All he used, and all he ever uses regardless of the lake, is a green flippin' tube.

Next tournament is April 21st, on Mosquito Lake in Ohio. Look back later that evening to follow my progress within the club.
-Ian

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