Another Typical Bridgeport

Well we fished tournament #2 of the season at Lake Bridgeport. This was my first district tournament since the boat motor went kaput! Luckily I drew my good friend Mr Dean. The morning started off kinda bad, I left the house around 0445 for the hour and 15 minute drive. My neighbor fished the district and his wife was sick. I sent him a text message the night before asking him if he was staying home. He replied with a simple no. When I woke up in the morning I was sure that I had asked him if he was going and I remember his reply was a no. I got in the truck and started it up and took off for Lake Bridgeport. When I got there I was immediatley informed that I had left Chris at the house. I thought for sure he was staying home! About 15 minutes after I got there Chris pulled in and said that he heard me start the truck and leave, he was on his carport tying on some lures when I left him. Talk about feeling bad, I felt horrible that I left him and he had to waste his gas to drive there too.

Once we started fishing it was steady all day long. We caught a lot of fish all day and at any other lake it would have been a great day. I caught a huge catfish on the 2nd cast of the day. Not what I was looking for, but fun still. Even though we caught a boat load of fish, between the two of us only two fish were weighed at the weigh in and those belonged to Mr Dean. Lake Bridgeport has a slot limit from 14 to 18 inches for largemouth. Spots and Smallmouth have to be the Texas standard of 14 inches. Every single fish that I caught was in the slot limit and had to be released. When you have to release a 17 3/4 inch largemouth that weighs in around 3 or 4 pounds during a bass fishing tournament, it will frustrate you to no end. The only good thing about Lake Bridgeport is that you can weigh 12 inch to 14 inch fish. That tends to keep the weights down, in fact it was a 5 fish limit that weighed 7 pounds to win. 2nd place had the big bass that was 5 pounds and he had a 2 fish limit that went for 6 pounds.

Even with being able to weigh in 12 inch fish I couldn't manage to catch a 12 or 13 inch fish. All of my fish were in the slot or just under the 12 minimum. I really have a dislike for Lake Bridgeport, but it tends to draw a crowd, except this trip. We only had 12 anglers for this tournament due to some conflicting buddy tournaments.

The good thing about going as a non-boater on a lake that I really do not like, is the fact that I saw parts of the lake and was shown some things that I would have never known existed. So next time, when the boat is fixed or I get a new one, I have more spots available to check out. Mr Dean and I fish the same style and fish a lot of the same looking water. You never quit learning when you are fishing and he did some things that I would have never thought to try in certain situations.

Our next tournament is on Lake Graham on 7 Nov. I love to fish Graham and have two second place finishes in three tournaments there. Unfotunatley I will not be able to fish Graham unless we can find a babysitter. My oldest daughter has a Veterans Day parade to march in along with the wife. Last year it was so cold out that day, that this year we are not going to take my youngest out there and put her through that. So I will more than likely be staying home with my two year old playing with her. She loves cars and watching fishing and boats on TV and college football so I think that we will be OK. Ya'll have a great and Happy Halloween and Thanksgiving. Hopefully after the December tournament I can report some good news from Lake Amon Carter which is a lake that I have never fished before. Take it easy!