Smith Lake May 10-17-2010
Pre-fished with pro from GA on Monday, lake was about 2.5 feet high, water temp 71 and we put in the upper end of Ryan Creek. I had a couple of bites on buzzbait, and he caught one keeper on a small top water plug. Had the action and size of a small skitter pop. We tried different stuff and the bite was slow, it started raining and we stopped about 1 pm.
Tuesday. Put in the next creek arm down in Ryan Creek. Started out with top water, this creek also had stain in the back of it, He did have a pattern on deep flats and flat points on a DD22 crank bait banging the bottom getting a reaction bite. We were catching a few fish on docks fishing a sinko.
Wednesday put in at the dam and ran up Ryan creek, and fished some for schoolers and had a slow day. My boater knew what he was going to do so we called it a day at lunch.
During practice, I had some things I wanted to try and get out of my mind, big spook during practice (a small bait worked best). A fly trailer behind a spook, killed the action. And last of all a buzzbait bite, threw and only caught small fish. I tried several different brands of Fluorocarbon on a spinning reel. I like P-Line on my bait casters, but it is too stiff for a spinning rod. I tried the #8 Vicious Fluorocarbon (Did not Like), #8 Berkley Fluorocarbon and # 8 Seaguar Invizx. The Seaguar InVizx worked the best for me, the last day I went down to #6, just because I could not find any #8 in the stores. I also, used a braid with a 4-6 foot leader of fluorocarbon, worked well as long as you retied the knot between the 2 lines every couple of hours.
Thursday, was paired up with a Mike from GA. We went up a creek on the west side of the lake about 10 miles. He was throwing Spook top water around docks. I was throwing the wacky sinko, under docks. He caught a short spot that was going around the dock. I threw the sinko under the boat slip and was letting it sink. He had moved the boat to the end of the dock and I could not see where I had thrown and my line was on the corner of the dock. I started reeling it in and heard a blowup on my sinko. By the time I stopped reeling the sinko had come around the corner of the dock and was about 12 feet from the boat. As it started to sink, a big spot came out and looked at it, flared her gills and my sink disappeared. I let her run a few feet and set the hook, after a few minutes of pulling drag on my 8 pound test, the boater netted her and she was in the boat. She was close to 4 pounds. We fished about 10 more docks and the boater caught some short fish and had several blowups on his spook. I did not get any more bites. We went across the lake and started throwing a shaky head worm, and I caught my second keeper. I had 2 keepers by 8:30 am and thought I could get a limit of 3 by the 2:15 weigh- n time. From this same point we caught 3 spots that were 14 7/8 and 3 that were 14 to 14 1/2 but no more that we 15 inches. The rest of the day we moved from place to place, if we did not get bit in 4 or 5 casts we would move. We caught a lot of fish that were 14 to 14 7/8 inches but could not find any additional 15 inch keepers. I had 2 fish that weighed 5-9 and was 6th place after the first day. I was using a 6 inch Robo worm in Aaron magic color on a 3/16 head.
I talked to my second day partner from FL and he said we would start on some schooling fish and then he would be sight fishing the rest of the day in less than 5 feet of water. Not exactly what I was hoping for. We were in flight 9 and check in time was at 4:00, so it was a long day. We started on a main lake point and have a few bites on top water and no keepers. We fished 2 main points for 5-10 minutes each then went to the back of the pockets for the next 9 hours. The guy had the trolling motor on a high speed and was about 10 feet from the bank on and off the motor. After watching the boater for a few hours and doing what I could to catch a fish, I think he was trying to spook the fish that were on beds to the bank to locate them in the low light conditions. As the sun got higher, he did slow down some. The only thing I could come in contact with the bottom was a 1 oz Carolina rig, and did catch a few short fish. While looking he was throwing a Pop R to any brush and mainly fishing the very back of pockets, if there were several pockets in the back, he would go to high after looking in the pocket to get to the next. He did catch one large mouth on the Pop R, he had drifted into a pocket and there were a school of shad between the boat and bank about 10 foot form me, I was looking at them. He threw the Pop R in the middle of them and a keeper large mouth came through them and ate the pop R. I was sitting there thinking, why did I not do that, they were closer to me than the guy in the front. After lunch, he started going back to where he had seen fish in the morning, 1 bass guarding fry, 2 on the bed. The bass guarding fry was gone and he went to the one on the bed. He hooks the male bass and it comes off at the boat. He left it alone about an hour and came back. After about 30 minutes and 10-12 misses, he lands the bass and it was ¼ inch short. He went to other fish on the bed, and did catch 2 keeper off the bed. All I can say it was a long day. There were only a few spawning fish on the lake and he knew where they were. I did learn more about bed fishing and hoped if I made the top 30, I did not draw him again. He weighed his in and we both made the top 30. I was in 25th place and he finished around 20th. While waiting on the weigh-in to finish up, I told my wife that I might be good to finish 31st and go home, I hate to fish with someone who is sight fishing in a tournament as a non boater. And I did not want to do it again. The boater is one of the best sight fisherman there is and I did learn a few things on how he locates bass. And I do realize that he did what was needed to make the top 30, it was just hard on his non boaters.
Day 3 I was paired with one of the top lady fisherman in the world and she was fishing points with a jig and a shaky head. She was in 14th and I was in 25th .This sounded a lot better and I thought I could catch a keeper or two. We started out on schooling fish with top water, and they were no schoolers. Water was slick and no bait visible, after a while I switched to a jig and caught one that was 14 7/8 and she had 2 small non keepers on a shaky head worm. We fished several more areas and could only catch small fish. All morning the water was slick and fishing got so slow that we could not even catch any small fish. Around 11 am the wind started to put some ripples on the water, and we started catching small fish again. I had 2 more that were between 14 and 14 7/8, but neither of us had a keeper. With the sun up, we started fishing shady banks and I skipped my worm under a deep dock and something thumped it on the way down. I set the hook and knew it was a big fish; it took about 10 yards of line on the first run. Pam heard the drag and came with the net and I asked if there were rock fish in the lake. She said yes, I told her it was either a 6-8 pound spot or a rock fish. It came to the top and she said I don't know what it is, but it is big. I got a look at it and told her to go back to fishing, A few minutes later I landed an 18-25 pound Rock Bass-Striper. I did catch a few more short fish and it was time to go in. We both fished hard all day and ended up with zero. This was my first time fishing with a Lady angler, other that my wife or sister and I was impressed with her fishing abilities. The lake has dropped about 2.5 feet since Monday, and clearing up and to hear that Andy and the no boater winner caught some on a buzz bait, hurt me bad. I threw it a lot during practice and the 2nd day, and only caught small fish on it. It crossed my mind a few times the last day, but I did not give up on the worm, jig and sinko. During practice, I threw a buzzbait with a steady retrieve and the people that I talked to that caught fish on a buzz bait fished fast or an erratic retrieve. Not sure about the two winners but would like to know.
Congratulations to Andy Montgomery and Robert Dice on their wins as boater and non-boater!
I did get to see the Hummingbird in Pro from GA boat and Lowrence side scan, Pam had the Lowrence and it was turned on all day where I could see it. I have been looking at the Hummingbird and now I like both.
