1st Tournament is in the books

[carolina-rig-01]

We had our first club tournament this weekend and although it didn't exactly go as I would have liked, it still went better than I expected after pre-fishing Friday. Friday my dad and I prefished (my wife is my partner and dad fishes the club with my cousin), and pre-fishing was less than encouraging. I caught one good fish on a Rogue in about 5 feet of water on some riprap, had one fish crush a jig on a hump in about 9 feet of water and that was it for the day. There were a few places that I didn't fish Friday because I knew that I was going to hit them Saturday regardless of what I found there Friday so pre-fishing would only do me harm on those spots. Saturday Britney and I hit one of the points that I left alone on Friday and not a bite. So we pulled the ears back on the Triton and made a fairly long, cold, and exciting run across some big water to the under water hump that I got the jig bite on Friday, but nothing. It's worth noting that the places I got bit on Friday muddied up a little overnight and the water temp dropped about 2 degrees which is a big deal this time of year. So we hit a few other places I saved and left alone on Friday and still hadn't caught a fish, or for that matter had a bite. I knew a few guys in the club jacked them pretty good on Friday so I was hoping that either they wore their spots out or maybe things changed on them from the fronts rolling through. We finally figured something out but it was too late in the day. I caught a good 3.5lber on a Rogue on a secondary point in the wind that was at the mouth of two spawning coves, a few casts later I caught another keeper. We beat that are to death trying to squeeze all we could out of it but that was all she was giving us. I knew of several secondary points that were similiar in the area so we started running them. Britney lost a good solid keeper at the boat on a Powerworm. I really thought that a Powerworm this early in the year was a waste of time but that is Britney favorite bait so I thought if that's what she wants to through then let her have at it, you could imagine my suprise when she had that fish on lol. The thing we ran into was that we needed secondary points that were small chunk rock with spawning areas behind them. These points needed wind on them, needed the water be at least fairly clear, and at least 52 degrees. The problem was that the water color would change 10 times in a quarter of a mile and there was no rhyme or reason to water temp, one spot would be 48 degrees and the next cove down would be 53 degrees. Anyways if I would have figured this out on Friday then we could have spend all day Friday and also Saturday running and looking for areas that fit the bill. But we figured it out too late and ended up with our two fish. However all the guys that jacked them on Friday struggled a little more on Saturday. We missed 2nd place by 10oz, missed 3rd place by 6oz, and missed Big Bass by 4oz. Britney felt horrible about losing that fish at the boat and I kept telling her "it was fine, don't let it get you down" and "that it was all part of fishing". "It could have easily been me that lost it", and anything else I could think of telling her to make her feel better but honestly that keeper she lost hurt us bad. But that's how it goes sometimes and we still had fun, and at the end of the day I still got to spend a great day on the water with my wife. This is what I like about fishing club events, they are more geared towards having a good time and that is a nice change of pace from the big money events I fish.