Well our 3rd tournament of the year is in the books. I will get to that in a minute. Unfortunatley the economy or something has hurt our turn out. Some folks that I have talked to that fish our deal pretty regularly have decided to start fishing a team tournament. I do understand why, our entry fees for an individual draw format both boaters and non-boaters is $70 per person. A lot of the team tournaments here are $70-100 per team. Each team member splits the cost and its cheaper. They also tend to have a larger turnout due to the split entry fees and the payout is larger. I understand that also. However you also must split any winnings with your partner. If those same individuals would fish with us, we too would have a larger turnout and the payout would be larger also, that you wouldn't have to split with a partner. Now ABA sets our entry fees, and there is no indication that they will be lowered. But.....and I do mean but, while fishing the ABA tournaments there is a very unique and a larger payout farther down the line. This year the top angler from each district via points has the chance to fish against the other top anglers in the national districts for a chance to win a brand new Triton boat valued at over $50,000. Plus you can fish in the national championship for a first prize of again a brand new Triton boat valued at over $55,000. There are no local team tournaments around here that allow you to get to that point here. But enough about that lets gget to the fishing at Lake Graham.
We had a big cold front move through on Saturday that brought colder temps and high winds. We were post frontal conditions come Sunday morning with a launch air temp of about 24 degrees. The water temps were in the upper forties in the morning and moved into the 52 degree range by noon. It was a beautiful day once the sun started to come out. It ended up around 66 degrees. The fishing was rough for almost everyone, there were no limits brought in and 6 pounds won. The fish were spread out and the keepers were hard to come by. I managed to catch my first keeper around 8AM. I thought that it was going to be a good day. My next bite came at noon. It was a nice 2 1/2 pounder that felt like a snag when he hit. I almost didn't know that there was a fish there, I thought I was hung up. I did manage to catch about 9 or 10 fish total on the day but managed only 3 keepers. In Texas that is a 14 inch minimum. The rest of the fish I caught were in the 13 1/2 inch range, but nothing very big. Big bass on the day was 3.60, the big bite just was not there. I did manage a 2nd place finish. Hopefully the next one on Lake Arrowhead on 7 March will get me that first ABA win.
It was a pretty good day none the less even with the small turnout. I think that our next tournament may have a larger turnout. We have a few folks come out for that one any time we are on Lake Arrowhead and they won't fish any of the other ones. This year we are fishing Lake Arrowhead 3 times and the 2 day championship is there as well. I like fishing Arrowhead mainly because it is only like 8 miles from my house so I get to sleep in for an extra hour. Well I hope that everyone is doing well and having some good fishing trips. It won't be long now and things will really pick up. Yall have a good one! Until next time!!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Boat is fixed
First I want to start out by thanking Progressive insurance. Even though the repair on my boat didn't cost what I thought it may cost, those guys made the whole process simple. Even when I cancelled the claim, they siad if it still aint right just let em know and they will open it back up. Thanks progressive.
Secondly I want to give a shout out to Larry's Marine (www.larrysmarine.com) particularly to Rodney the service manager. Not only were they quick in diagnosing the problem, but in getting it fixed and doing it for less than what was quoted. Including the day I dropped the boat off, it was fixed and back at my house within 5 working days. You guys over there rock!
So, since I had the boat fixed it only made sense to get it back out on the water. Plus I wanted to make sure it was all working before the Graham tournament next week. Well the weather here has been awesome the past few days. We have had highs in the mid to upper 70s. A guy I work with was out on the lake last weekend and said that in about 45 minutes he caught 20 fish that averaged about 4-5 pounds. Well the day I picked the boat up we had a huge rain storm come through. It was the same storm that spawned those tornadoes up in Oklahoma City. Well the next couple of days were pretty nice so on Thursday I went to the lake to run the boat. Well the boat shifts and runs like a champ. The surface temp on the water is sitting right around 54 degrees or so. The water was churned up a little bit from the heavy rain that we had. The wife had only given me like an hour or so to go run the boat so I didn't get to do much fishing (darn backlash) since I only had a rod or two in the boat. But I was really happy to see that the motor worked great.
Now I have the boat fully loaded and ready to go. So of course a cold front moves through last night. The temp is only about 33 degrees or so out right now. My wife and kids went to visit friends in Missouri this weekend and we have nasty cold weather come through. I am planning to head down to Lake Graham on Monday weather its cold or not to check it out. I haven't been there in about a year and the last time I was i goose egged. I am taking a buddy of mine down there for the first time. My usual fishing partner has moved on to do his year in Korea. When he rotates back stateside he will be in SOuth Carolina. In the mean time I need to find a new partner for the Wednesday night tournaments coming up in a couple of months.
Well yall take it easy and talk to you soon. I will let you know how the Graham tournament turns out. I hope to come out of there still hanging on to that slight lead in AOY points. It is currently at a 1 point lead, but Bob grew up on Graham so he may school me! Talk to you later.
Ren
Secondly I want to give a shout out to Larry's Marine (www.larrysmarine.com) particularly to Rodney the service manager. Not only were they quick in diagnosing the problem, but in getting it fixed and doing it for less than what was quoted. Including the day I dropped the boat off, it was fixed and back at my house within 5 working days. You guys over there rock!
So, since I had the boat fixed it only made sense to get it back out on the water. Plus I wanted to make sure it was all working before the Graham tournament next week. Well the weather here has been awesome the past few days. We have had highs in the mid to upper 70s. A guy I work with was out on the lake last weekend and said that in about 45 minutes he caught 20 fish that averaged about 4-5 pounds. Well the day I picked the boat up we had a huge rain storm come through. It was the same storm that spawned those tornadoes up in Oklahoma City. Well the next couple of days were pretty nice so on Thursday I went to the lake to run the boat. Well the boat shifts and runs like a champ. The surface temp on the water is sitting right around 54 degrees or so. The water was churned up a little bit from the heavy rain that we had. The wife had only given me like an hour or so to go run the boat so I didn't get to do much fishing (darn backlash) since I only had a rod or two in the boat. But I was really happy to see that the motor worked great.
Now I have the boat fully loaded and ready to go. So of course a cold front moves through last night. The temp is only about 33 degrees or so out right now. My wife and kids went to visit friends in Missouri this weekend and we have nasty cold weather come through. I am planning to head down to Lake Graham on Monday weather its cold or not to check it out. I haven't been there in about a year and the last time I was i goose egged. I am taking a buddy of mine down there for the first time. My usual fishing partner has moved on to do his year in Korea. When he rotates back stateside he will be in SOuth Carolina. In the mean time I need to find a new partner for the Wednesday night tournaments coming up in a couple of months.
Well yall take it easy and talk to you soon. I will let you know how the Graham tournament turns out. I hope to come out of there still hanging on to that slight lead in AOY points. It is currently at a 1 point lead, but Bob grew up on Graham so he may school me! Talk to you later.
Ren
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
I am sooo glad that I have full coverage insurance
Wow, what a weekend I had this past weekend. It was really nice weather, so I decided that I would take the boat out on Sunday for a little bit. I had fished for a couple of hours and was going to move from one spot over to another across the lake. I fired the big motor up and off I went. All of a sudden I felt a jolt and heard a big thum and the motor dies. I had hit something submurged in the water and killed the motor. I hit the key and the motor fired right back up but would not go into forward gear. Great!! I am about a 5 minute run at 50 MPH from the ramp. If I had to troll back I would still probably be making my way across the lake. I kept messing with it and finally got it to go into gear, so I ran back to the ramp and parked it and went to get the truck. When I got the trailer back down the ramp, the boat would not go into gear, so I had to ratchet it up onto the trailer. Got it up and looked at the prop and one of the blades on the stainless prop is bent.
I got back home and started researching lower units and realized that it was going to cost me between 700 and 2000 bucks for a rebuilt or a new lower unit. So now I am racking my brain trying to figure out how to cut some cost and do some of the work myself. I got to work and asked a guy that I consider my fishing mentor if he had ever removed a lower unit. He asked what happened and I told him and he said, "Reney, have you talked to your insurance about it yet?" Then it dawned on me, I have full coverage on the boat, they may cover that. So I called up Progressive and told them what happened and they told me it was covered and asked me when and where I was going to take it. I took the boat to Larry's Marine here in Wichita Falls and dropped it off.
I talked to the guys at Larry's today and they told me that they talked to the adjustor and he wants them to tear it down before they will work up the estimate. I have been told that I should have the boat back in time for the next tournament on February 22nd at Lake Graham. I really hope to have it back by the weekend before so I can get a little practice in first. I haven't been to Graham in about a year.
I am really glad that I had full coverage insurance on the boat. if there is anyone out there that is not sure on whether to have insurance or not, it is worth it when you need it. So just like your car, keep that boat insured!! Well until next time ya'll have a good one! GO DALE JR!!!
I got back home and started researching lower units and realized that it was going to cost me between 700 and 2000 bucks for a rebuilt or a new lower unit. So now I am racking my brain trying to figure out how to cut some cost and do some of the work myself. I got to work and asked a guy that I consider my fishing mentor if he had ever removed a lower unit. He asked what happened and I told him and he said, "Reney, have you talked to your insurance about it yet?" Then it dawned on me, I have full coverage on the boat, they may cover that. So I called up Progressive and told them what happened and they told me it was covered and asked me when and where I was going to take it. I took the boat to Larry's Marine here in Wichita Falls and dropped it off.
I talked to the guys at Larry's today and they told me that they talked to the adjustor and he wants them to tear it down before they will work up the estimate. I have been told that I should have the boat back in time for the next tournament on February 22nd at Lake Graham. I really hope to have it back by the weekend before so I can get a little practice in first. I haven't been to Graham in about a year.
I am really glad that I had full coverage insurance on the boat. if there is anyone out there that is not sure on whether to have insurance or not, it is worth it when you need it. So just like your car, keep that boat insured!! Well until next time ya'll have a good one! GO DALE JR!!!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Fianlly Got back on the water
Well last week I finally got back on the water for the first time in about 2 months. I played hooky from work after lunch last Friday and headed to the lake. My best friend is leaving for a year in Korea next week so we went fishing before he has to leave.
The weather was beautiful, it was sunny and air temp was about 68 degrees. The water was murky and the surface temp was about 45 degrees. The wind was out of the south at about 15MPH sustained with gusts up to 25 MPH at times. All in all it wasn't too bad. The boat fired right up and we took off across the water to one of the many spots on Arrowhead that has held fish in the past. We had the entire lake to ourselves as there was not another boat on the water that day.
The first few casts were rough. It seems that if you take a couple of months off of fishing you get a little rusty. We started out throwing Rattle Traps in about 8 feet of water. Now that 8 feet of water is normally about 15 or 16 feet of water. The lake is way down and I think it is only about 65% capacity right now. After throwing the Trap for a little bit and getting nothing I tied on a jig and started dreagging a jig for a little bit. That got me nothing, so we moved.
We moved to another spot that I haven't fished in a while and started dragging the jig with nothing taking. I went back to the rattle trap and almost immediatley got bit. Now I haven't set the hook on anything in about 2 months so naturally I missed him. Well I kept throwing the Rattle trap and got a few more bites. Even was hooked up with a decent bass and never got to set the hook on him. I had just ripped the bait up out of some grass and my rod tip was at about 11 or 12 oclock when he hit it and i started realing. He darted back for the brush before decideing that he didn't want that in his mouth anymore and spitting it out.
Long story short, we spent a few hours on the water, got a few bites, but didn't catch anything and still had a blast!! Well, yall have a good one and I will talk to you soon.
The weather was beautiful, it was sunny and air temp was about 68 degrees. The water was murky and the surface temp was about 45 degrees. The wind was out of the south at about 15MPH sustained with gusts up to 25 MPH at times. All in all it wasn't too bad. The boat fired right up and we took off across the water to one of the many spots on Arrowhead that has held fish in the past. We had the entire lake to ourselves as there was not another boat on the water that day.
The first few casts were rough. It seems that if you take a couple of months off of fishing you get a little rusty. We started out throwing Rattle Traps in about 8 feet of water. Now that 8 feet of water is normally about 15 or 16 feet of water. The lake is way down and I think it is only about 65% capacity right now. After throwing the Trap for a little bit and getting nothing I tied on a jig and started dreagging a jig for a little bit. That got me nothing, so we moved.
We moved to another spot that I haven't fished in a while and started dragging the jig with nothing taking. I went back to the rattle trap and almost immediatley got bit. Now I haven't set the hook on anything in about 2 months so naturally I missed him. Well I kept throwing the Rattle trap and got a few more bites. Even was hooked up with a decent bass and never got to set the hook on him. I had just ripped the bait up out of some grass and my rod tip was at about 11 or 12 oclock when he hit it and i started realing. He darted back for the brush before decideing that he didn't want that in his mouth anymore and spitting it out.
Long story short, we spent a few hours on the water, got a few bites, but didn't catch anything and still had a blast!! Well, yall have a good one and I will talk to you soon.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Holliday season over
Well now that the holiday season is over it is finally time to relax a little bit. My life has been pretty crazy since about mid October. I am currently in Phoenix visiting my wifes family. We just returned from a 5 day cruise to Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada Mexico. Unfortunatly I didn't get the chance to go fishing in Cabo like I had wanted too. But it was fun anyway. Now I am just waiting on my flight back to Texas and a day to relax before I go back to work on Monday. I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I am hoping that the weather in Texas will cooperate with me and allow me to do a little fishing here pretty soon. I haven't had my boat in the water in about a month and a half and it is killing me! I have ordered a few things from Cabela's and Bass Pro shops and my wife just can't understand why I keep buying fishing equipment even though I haven't been fishing. I told her it is like her shoes. She keeps buying shoes even though she can only wear one pair at a time. I think that may have helped her understand.
Well, hopefully I can get back home and do some fishing tomorrow. Our district's next tournament is at Lake Graham on February 22nd. Yall should come out and fish it if you can! Hopefully I won't get skunked out there. Graham and the winter time and me do not go well together. Last year I went down and practiced in the winter and caught some nice fish. But when tournament time rolled around the next week, i didn't even get a bite! We shall see what happens and I will let you know.
Here is to hoping that you all have a great start to 2009. Have a good one!
I am hoping that the weather in Texas will cooperate with me and allow me to do a little fishing here pretty soon. I haven't had my boat in the water in about a month and a half and it is killing me! I have ordered a few things from Cabela's and Bass Pro shops and my wife just can't understand why I keep buying fishing equipment even though I haven't been fishing. I told her it is like her shoes. She keeps buying shoes even though she can only wear one pair at a time. I think that may have helped her understand.
Well, hopefully I can get back home and do some fishing tomorrow. Our district's next tournament is at Lake Graham on February 22nd. Yall should come out and fish it if you can! Hopefully I won't get skunked out there. Graham and the winter time and me do not go well together. Last year I went down and practiced in the winter and caught some nice fish. But when tournament time rolled around the next week, i didn't even get a bite! We shall see what happens and I will let you know.
Here is to hoping that you all have a great start to 2009. Have a good one!
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Don't like a slot limit
Well I didn't do so hot on Bridgeport this past weekend. I only weighed 2 fish that were 2.46lbs. Bridgeport has a slot limit for largemouth between 14 and 18 inches. With that, we can weigh 12 inch fish. Everything except the two I weighed that day was either around 11 1/2 inches or they were right in the slot around 16 or 17 inches. It is really disheartening when you have to release a 3 pound fish in the middle of a tourney because of the slot limit. Most of the guys that I talked to don't really like to fish bridegport either, but we continue to schedule it because it supposedly brings in other guys from a recently disolved district. Now i don't know about that since it brought in only 3 guys out of our district and we still had 1 less than the last tournament. I get a couple of months off now. Our next tournament isn't until Feb 22nd at Graham.
I like fishing Graham, there is no slot limit and it is a power plant lake so the fishing is pretty good there usually. I told the wife that I wasn't going to fish the Bridgeport tournament in April and she wanted that in writing! Who knows I may go back and fish it after all. I know that next year when we are doign the schedule my vote goes for anythign other than Bridgeport. We have 2 lakes that are closer than Bridgeport and there is no slot limit. We could fish Amon G Carter or Nacona and drive less and probablly have more weight.
One more thing and I will get off of my soap box. Why is it that you have to have at least 20 people in order for it to be a max points tournament? In my opinion that does nothing but handicaps the folks that fish in smaller districts. Just because I fish in a district that only has 15 guys show up doesn't mean that I wouldn't do as well in a district that has 50 guys show up. Points are points and they will fall where they will. I could (not that it will ever happen) but I could win all of our scheduled tournaments with 15 guys in them, including the 2 day and would still be trailing someone who fished in a district that has 50 regulars and only had 2 wins. It just doesn't seem right to me.
Well that is my rant for this week. The entire family is trying to get over a cold. My step mother in law just left on Sunday and my Mother in law arrives for Thanksgiving on Saturday. Ya'll have a good one!!
I like fishing Graham, there is no slot limit and it is a power plant lake so the fishing is pretty good there usually. I told the wife that I wasn't going to fish the Bridgeport tournament in April and she wanted that in writing! Who knows I may go back and fish it after all. I know that next year when we are doign the schedule my vote goes for anythign other than Bridgeport. We have 2 lakes that are closer than Bridgeport and there is no slot limit. We could fish Amon G Carter or Nacona and drive less and probablly have more weight.
One more thing and I will get off of my soap box. Why is it that you have to have at least 20 people in order for it to be a max points tournament? In my opinion that does nothing but handicaps the folks that fish in smaller districts. Just because I fish in a district that only has 15 guys show up doesn't mean that I wouldn't do as well in a district that has 50 guys show up. Points are points and they will fall where they will. I could (not that it will ever happen) but I could win all of our scheduled tournaments with 15 guys in them, including the 2 day and would still be trailing someone who fished in a district that has 50 regulars and only had 2 wins. It just doesn't seem right to me.
Well that is my rant for this week. The entire family is trying to get over a cold. My step mother in law just left on Sunday and my Mother in law arrives for Thanksgiving on Saturday. Ya'll have a good one!!
Friday, November 14, 2008
getting ready for a tourney
Well I have the 2nd tournament of the 2009 season Sunday. I finished 2nd at the first one of the year, but that was on the lake that fish pretty regularly. This weekends tournament is at Lake Bridgeport in Chico Texas. I have only fished this lake 1 time last year, and struggled to find a big bite. The lake has a lot of hybrid stripers and it has spots, largemouth, and smallies in it also. It has a slot limit for the largemouth at 14 to 18 inches. So you are basically fishing for 12-13 inch fish. It is not uncommon for less than 10 pounds to win.
Lake Bridgeport has a whole lot of steep bluffs and chunk rock along the shorelines. I know that I need to find that smallmouth bite to really have a chance at any kind of weight. I am not real comfortable with that because I haven't fished for smallies in a lake in a long long time. Even when we were at Dale Hollow for the Military Team tourney we fished for Largemouth mostly because the smallies had a slot and you could only keep 2 per day per team. I plan on cranking the ledges with either a 4 inch swimbait or a chrome rattle trap and then drag a craw colored jig also. We will see what happens.
Tomorrow I have my youngest daughters first birthday party and my oldest has a veterans day parade to go to in the morning. Well, I need to get going now. Hope ya'll have a great weekend!
Lake Bridgeport has a whole lot of steep bluffs and chunk rock along the shorelines. I know that I need to find that smallmouth bite to really have a chance at any kind of weight. I am not real comfortable with that because I haven't fished for smallies in a lake in a long long time. Even when we were at Dale Hollow for the Military Team tourney we fished for Largemouth mostly because the smallies had a slot and you could only keep 2 per day per team. I plan on cranking the ledges with either a 4 inch swimbait or a chrome rattle trap and then drag a craw colored jig also. We will see what happens.
Tomorrow I have my youngest daughters first birthday party and my oldest has a veterans day parade to go to in the morning. Well, I need to get going now. Hope ya'll have a great weekend!
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