AllDay

Hey Chris, I was mentioning to Blue that next year I am considering fishing tournaments at Stockton and he says you fish Stockton a lot. Do you fish it leisurely or do you do tournaments? if I need to start a new blog on this topic, happy to do so

What's up guys, it's been a while and yes I agree with comments on this blog about boat expense (everything related to it). Offer even if he doesn't take it, can't lose that way and it shows good faith.

When your emotions calm down, read my post again and you'll answer your question.

Matt you're in person like you are on the forum, it's humorous. I bet you'd be a fun first mate on the captain's ship.

Actually I’m glad people set PBs in a tourney (I set my PB two weeks ago on the same dam). Like in basketball, fishing the dam is like tossing up a layup – it’s a bunny shot, you’ll get something no matter what happens. With 30 mins remaining in the tourney we boated a 16” smallie at the dam’s SE corner b/c I know that area is $. I heard two gals squatted right there at the dam throwing only minnows and popped out two 16” SMB for just throwing a line out. It sure was like a Sonic drive-through: people were parked in their slots in uniform fashion! My position on a proposed dam rule is strictly theoretical and I have a neutral opinion (if anything only to be a devil’s advocate). Like in basketball, the 4 ft. semi-circle immediately below the basket is a restricted zone where the defender cannot stand in the circle and draw an offensive charge; in fact, the defender himself is fouled. The restriction is designed to maintain movement through the semi-circle; otherwise it’s first man to get position under or near the basket wins. Like in Olympic diving, gymnastics, and ice skating, the final round is scored by two variables: execution and degree of difficulty. You can score a 9 (execution) on an easy maneuver (7) and get 63 points (9 x 7) or an 8 (execution) on a difficult maneuver (9) and get 72 points where the athlete who takes more risks gets more rewards (but the reverse is also true). Just food for thought here. Melvern is truly a “lake for everyone” so that no one gets shut out; the only way you can get skunked is not throw a line in the water at all. Even then you can catch Clayton’s dead buffalo along the bank from his bow fishing exploits. It adds to the competitive spirit when strategies to get lunkers are employed in areas not along the dam. Shane and I got our first largest fish, a 16.5” LMB, not at the dam but along the rip-rap near the state park, our first stopping point at launch. We didn’t get to the dam until 1.5-2 hours into the tourney. These two fish a couple weeks ago were caught along a northern point just west of the rip-rap. The northern cove adjacent to the boat ramp launch site looks appealing to explore and as mentioned earlier, so does the west half of Melvern. In some upcoming exploratory outings on either 10/3 or 10/10 Shane and I will boldly go where some people have already gone before Who knows, if we explore enough and have confidence in these spots, we may not even fish the dam in a future razor clam classic. Live by the sword, die by the sword - I love it!

I like Chris' suggestion (after everyone left the BBQ): all fish caught along the dam doesn't count OK I'm not as strict, I'd say all fish along the dam takes 50% of the length, everywhere else gets 100%. Shane (Tritonguy) and I didn't do the dam gold rush, we stayed in the north and fished the rip-rap and some points to work in some strategy. We got a 15" and 16.5" LMB out of it. We'll be going back in a couple weeks or so to try out the western half. Here's a photo to remember the 2012 Fall Classic trip by:

Retro you sure do use old school terms. I said those things on the schoolyards in '81. See you guys tomorrow, good luck everyone!

Wachti, I'm confirming that you're bringing the burger buns? I've got over 20 patties, the tomatoes, lettuce, and onions already.

Sounds good, thanks! It'll be fairly easy to figure out who's who since I don't think many folks will be piling up on that ramp at that hour of the morning. Looks like the weather will behave with just SSW 11 mph winds. This will be fun no matter what the end result is.

Saturday is redemption man, have faith!

I've never fished the KS River before - looks like it could be interesting. So right there on 435 eh? Are the banks walkable?

Nice catches. It's been over 20 years since I've fished Lonestar. I'll put that on my list of to-fish!

This was probably decided long ago - where are we meeting again? The marina?

Here's what I propose as triton and my team name: PoleTheHoneyHole

I'm kind of hoping for a cold, grind it out day like you had and like last Saturday. Its like the football game in the sleet and snow

Now that I think about it - if we're using the honor system or taking photos of fish with the ruler, there's no reason to hold them in the live well - just catch and release. I plan to photo with ruler as evidence.

Go with green pumpkin or stay in the browns and greens. All white Dingers on a jighead also worked and landed white bass, SMB, and Spotted. I suggest keeping your plastics to 3" or less. Not to say they won't bite on 3" or larger though!

One guy was a co- The heavier set guy in the photo is my highschool friend from near Garden City visiting. The older guy is a co-worker!

No worries man, thats why you have a captain and first mate on this day - double team. For me I'm not about numbers, I'm about size. Good luck!

It was in the mid-upper 40's when we hit the waters, northern winds 10-15 mph and a mere 2 days after a cold front came through. The Ned rig dominated crank baits lakewide on that day, hands down. Go with 3" grubs and/or 3" cut ZinkerZ on jigheads.

Thanks sir and yes, please add more categories for largest walleye, white bass etc. I guarantee some of us will catch big ones in those categories and it's fun tracking those as a side show to the black bass main event!

Fished Melvern this Saturday from 9AM - 5PM. Caught 74 total including two 17" and this 18.5" fatty: Here's one 17" SMB and a nice LMB that bit almost simultaneously with the SMB: Blue/Drew, I'm glad you had a good outing in your previous post. You've got a challenger with me for the gold. Bring your A game fellas, let the games begin.

Put me down for hamburger patties (frozen)/buns w/ condiments: tomato, onions, ketchup, mustard. I won't cut the tomato and onions, I'll leave them whole to be cut on the spot. Will store these on ice. Also, can you post the tourney start/stop times and rules on this original post too? For instance, where did we land - total length? how many fish (top 5)? total weight? Just want to make sure everyone's clear.

I'm definitely going back. We started on the main lake point and decided to tackle the NE arm b/c we arrived at 6:30PM and had about an hour until nightfall. They were biting off of my white w/ sky blue backbone crank bait and my friend Walt threw a 5" green pumpkin Gulp worm and he had many bites. We landed 15 bass between 8"-12" but Walt boated a nice 3.5 lbs'er near the main point as we headed in to the NE cove: When nightfall arrived I'll have to say I've never seen so many cruising bass. In fact over 5 times the bass slammed into the boat as they chased shad. We switched over to shad colored shallow diving cranks and tossed them into areas where the bass were circling the wagons slamming the shad. We boated 6 more until we packed it up and left for the night. Very nice first outing for me at Leavenworth!!!

Thanks for the tips!