Slow Fishing, but Persistence Paid Off

[WIGuide]

After severe storms pushed through the area Friday afternoon/evening I knew it was going to be a tough day to fish on Saturday. The weatherman was calling for clear skies, light north winds, and heat pushing the mercury into the 90's. I don't skip a chance to get on the water though, and my dad and I were excited to defend out titles in a multi species big fish tournament on a lake not too far away. The previous year I had landed the biggest bass of the day, and my dad had brought in a winning northern pike. The tournament consists of 5 categories of fish, and the 8 hour day is divided in two. The biggest 3 fish of each species weighed in for each half wins a small amount of money.  

The morning started off pretty slow with a few small fish landed, but my dad did manage to hook into one in the 17 inch range. It was about an hour and a half in and we were coming up to a spot I broke a big one off in a tournament a few years before. For nostalgia sake I tossed my jumbo frog up there and after a few short twitches a big one rolled on it. I just got a glimpse of the side, but I knew it was big enough it would have a chance to place. I managed to wrestle it out of the pads, but there was a wall of slop between me and the fish and it managed to get some traction and bury itself in there where it got enough leverage to pull free. It was disappointing for sure, but I knew there was still plenty of time left. From there we bounced around to a few decent places without much action other than some bass coming up to feed for about 30 seconds. We pulled up on a main lake point and I caught a short one pretty quick. It was a promising looking spot, but we went all the way out on the point without a bite. We were almost at the tip when we were considering moving on, but decided to fish to the last little bit before we were off to our next spot. I'm glad we did, because within 3 casts I had one bump and miss before it came back and hammered my crankbait. When we got it in the boat I knew I had a chance to win some money. It was just a hare over 18" and weighed in at 3 lbs 15 oz. It ended up being good enough for 1st place for the second half of the day and was the biggest bass weighed in that day overall. It just goes to show, don't let a lost fish get you down, just keep plugging away. Dad's just barely missed out on 3rd at a just a hare under 3 lbs which was unfortunate, but all in all we still had fun despite the slow fishing and scorching temps. 

[buzzed bait]

nice 1st place fish there!

[WIGuide]

6 minutes ago, buzzed bait said:

nice 1st place fish there!

Thanks

[A-Jay]

Nicely Done ~

Congrats

A-Jay

[WIGuide]

7 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Nicely Done ~

Congrats

A-Jay

Thanks A-Jay! Have you been putting any pigs into the new Lund lately?

[A-Jay]

Just now, WIGuide said:

Thanks A-Jay! Have you been putting any pigs into the new Lund lately?

I'm certainly trying . .  and I'm getting a few here & there.  Had some smallies in the wind this morning.

A-Jay

[fishinfiend]

great job!

[soflabasser]

Congratulations on winning first place!

[BassB8Caster]

Good job! Persistence does usually pay off.