steverowbotham Posted July 17, 2015 Posted July 17, 2015 Last year with the baby being due in early August, I decided not to do any tournaments as it would be really hard to commit. I missed doing them, but certainly dont regret it. My wife actually went into labour at a time when I would have been fishing a tournament, so it was probably best that I wasnt.This year, I re-joined our local B.A.S.S. chapter where I got my start. I missed the first tourney due to a work commitment but was able to get out a couple weekends ago for a club tourney on Lake Couchiching. I work overnights, so I skipped a couple hours early to get to the ramp on time. Apparently, they had changed the launch location, so I had to hook the boat back up and drive another 20 mins. Anyways, we go to my best early summer spot and wasted 2 hours catching nothing but rats. Time to keep moving... It was really tough fishing for us, we couldnt put together any pattern. At noon, the boat felt heavy, so I flipped the bilge on and nothing. Reach back to pull the pump out and it was all water. Uh oh. I have an aluminum hull, so I pulled the plug and ran for 10 minutes to drain it, before putting the plug back in. It kept us fishing and we managed to put some decent fish together for a 3rd place finish, including this nice smallie below. Couchiching is one of my favourite lakes, but I really couldnt put it together. Our club has a different system, where each person in the boat keeps their biggest 4. Our individual bags go towards AOY points and our combined weight is for the tournament placing. I had 11.75lbs and my non had 11.10lbs. Not bad, not great. So I get the boat out and I'm looking for leaks. Cant see anything. Once I got home, I put the plug back in the boat and filled it up with a hose to see where it was leaking from. There was a small 1 inch crack underneath the trailer bunk which is why I couldnt see anything. A good friend of mine riveted a plate over it and got me back on the water just in time for my next tournament. Wednesday we fished Simcoe. When I got to work at 9pm that night, it was 27C (80.6F) and when I left work at 4am, it was 8C (46.4F). Crazy front had rolled in, with 45 km/h (28 mph) wind gusts on big water. I figured we would tuck into some bays and look for largies. By noon, we had 3 small largies in the livewell and decided to brave the wind and make a long run. We would have about an hour and a half to fish. It was the right move as we started crushing good sized smallies, throwing dropshots at isolated boulders and rock piles. My big 4 were over 17 lbs and I took first place and big fish with a 5.30lbs smallie. Simcoe is capable of way more than that, but under those conditions, and having spent just 3 hours bass fishing out there all year, I was happy to get what we did. 10 Quote
Super User A-Jay Posted July 17, 2015 Super User Posted July 17, 2015 Super NIce Smallies ~ And Glad you didn't Sink. Congrats A-Jay Quote
Super User HoosierHawgs Posted July 17, 2015 Super User Posted July 17, 2015 Those aware some footballs. Quote
Super User Senko lover Posted July 17, 2015 Super User Posted July 17, 2015 Fatties!! Nice work bro. Quote
Super User everythingthatswims Posted July 18, 2015 Super User Posted July 18, 2015 I think I would pee my pants if I caught a smallie shaped like that. Nice fish! Quote
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