First real tournament against some really good sticks

[Nitrofreak]

5 hours ago, "hamma" said:

As long as you gave 100% thats all you can do. Experience in such situations will provide you with all the insight you need for future refference. Hind sight after any tourney, will bring up alot of could of/should of's, but, dont let them hinder your thoughts. Instead,.. use them as a learning tool, work on eliminating them, and future tournies will not only go smoother, but with better results as well.

 You weighed in some fish when others didnt?,... ^5,... at least you didnt come in skunked, or worse, allowed pressure to get in the way resulting in a skunking. Having fun,.. meeting new people, and gaining some experience. Is what I'd call a win anyday, maybe without a paycheck, but can one really put a price on that?

 Good job Nitro!

I believe I gave it all I had buddy, I feel as if I did, I believe that resulted in the offers presented to me, like you, I feel like that part of the day was worth more than anything else.

thanks for everything Hamma !!! 

3 hours ago, Logan S said:

I wanted to fish that one too, but too many schedule conflicts .

Anna can get really small with that many boats and the cutoffs can get frustrating...For some reason that kind of stuff happens more frequently on Anna, which sucks.  Shouldn't have to deal with that kind of stuff, but it's part of fishing there in bigger tournaments unfortunately.  

You'll get em in the next event .  

I overheard one conversation that a team was having where one of the anglers actually told a non tournament angler to move because of the investment he had made, wouldn't put it past anyone to be truth the way some of them handled themselves.

Truly great event you missed out on but I hope to meet up with ya someday and say Howdy !!

Thanks Logan !!!  You fishing the Veterans tournament on the 11th there ?

[Logan S]

10 minutes ago, Nitrofreak said:

I overheard one conversation that a team was having where one of the anglers actually told a non tournament angler to move because of the investment he had made, wouldn't put it past anyone to be truth the way some of them handled themselves.

Truly great event you missed out on but I hope to meet up with ya someday and say Howdy !!

Thanks Logan !!!  You fishing the Veterans tournament on the 11th there ?

I've had some interesting encounters on Anna for sure.  My last tournament there I had a guy jump me so badly that I actually called him out on it, which I never do...Karma go the best of him though, he lost a fish and I caught a nice one from behind him so it worked out OK for me .  

I plan on making that AA tournament next year...I fished a tournament there the weekend before and then had other commitments keep me off the water this past weekend.  I won't be at the veterans day tournament though, daughters birthday so I'll be home.  That one will be tough for me to make most years, but I do want to fish it with my dad one day since he's a veteran...Was actually supposed to fish it last year, but my daughter was born a few days early .   

[Nitrofreak]

5 hours ago, Logan S said:

I've had some interesting encounters on Anna for sure.  My last tournament there I had a guy jump me so badly that I actually called him out on it, which I never do...Karma go the best of him though, he lost a fish and I caught a nice one from behind him so it worked out OK for me .  

I plan on making that AA tournament next year...I fished a tournament there the weekend before and then had other commitments keep me off the water this past weekend.  I won't be at the veterans day tournament though, daughters birthday so I'll be home.  That one will be tough for me to make most years, but I do want to fish it with my dad one day since he's a veteran...Was actually supposed to fish it last year, but my daughter was born a few days early .   

Hey congrats man !!! 

I hope you get the opportunity to get your dad out as much as possible my friend.

Please pass along my sincere thanks for his service to this great nation of ours !!!

 

[WTnPuddleJumper]

Just remember that everything changes come tournament day.  Most of the areas you had to yourself during pre fish outings will be frequented by fellow boaters.  When that happens, and it will, watch what they are throwing.  You may have to make a bait change or presentation change when fishing "dirty water".  I love coming in behind someone and sacking a fish they missed.  Being its your home lake, during the offseason take some Christmas trees and sink them in some of your favored areas,  Just drop one tree in a couple of different points, drops, or flats.  Don't make them massive so most anglers will not give them a 2nd look when charting them.  If each of your "private" structures produce one keeper fish, then it will be worth the while.  Good Luck and Have Fun!!!!

[Nitrofreak]

15 hours ago, WTnPuddleJumper said:

Just remember that everything changes come tournament day.  Most of the areas you had to yourself during pre fish outings will be frequented by fellow boaters.  When that happens, and it will, watch what they are throwing.  You may have to make a bait change or presentation change when fishing "dirty water".  I love coming in behind someone and sacking a fish they missed.  Being its your home lake, during the offseason take some Christmas trees and sink them in some of your favored areas,  Just drop one tree in a couple of different points, drops, or flats.  Don't make them massive so most anglers will not give them a 2nd look when charting them.  If each of your "private" structures produce one keeper fish, then it will be worth the while.  Good Luck and Have Fun!!!!

Just a tad late there puddle jumper LOL !! 

I finished 83rd, weighed in a whopping 1.8 lbs wwwoooohhhhhoooo ! ?

I did learn a great deal and your advise has a lot of what I had learned about the day, I really didn't give much thought to paying attention to what they were throwing, I pretty much focused on what I knew I had a lot of confidence in for the water conditions etc... we had that day, they could have been throwing the same thing I guess and maybe a change would have improved our chances, that's something I will defiantly keep in mind for the next time.

I did have a lot of fun making plans and rigging up in anticipation of our days event, If I had to grade myself however I wouldn't know where to begin, we were in the right areas but my approach was not stealthy enough on those stained shallow flats, I hit the trolling motor while on the lowest setting and spooked a nice group of fish, flashes everywhere and mud trails to let me know how big of a mistake I just made, things like that plagued me all day long, huge lesson right there, that's just one of the mistakes I made.

I have another coming up on Veterans Day, I'll take what I have learned and apply it in the rest of what is to come, your advise is truly appreciated and I will put it to good use in the future my friend, thank you very much for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with us, it means a lot !!!

 

 

[FishnFritz]

It was definitely crowded. We had 3 spots that my partner and I had planned out to start. Then 3 spots for mid day and 3 for the afternoon.  All 3 spots that we planned for the am had at least 2-3 boats on them. And that kinda set the rest of the day up for us.  We found ourselves fishing in spots that we didn't practice in during the week. Only saving grace to that is I'm lucky enough to fish Anna 2-3 times a week and I fish everywhere on that lake. But that didn't help us.  We lost every keeper that hit,  which was only 3 fish. If it wasn't for 11 inch fish we would of had a very long day. We managed to catch 8 of those. First 3 we put on the bump board and tossed back. The rest we didn't even bother.  The AAT is my favorite tournament of the year regardless of how me and my partner finish. I get to see everyone I've met and made friends with throughout the year. Nitro, it was nice meeting you there by the way! You did better than us. Unfortunately this year we didn't put anything on the scales.  It's always a tough but fun day. And a big big thank you to Dave and Chris at Fish Tales! And a big big thank you to Scott and Teresa for all the awesome photos and video! And thank you to everyone that helped put everything together with their time and donations! 

[Nitrofreak]

3 hours ago, FishnFritz said:

It was definitely crowded. We had 3 spots that my partner and I had planned out to start. Then 3 spots for mid day and 3 for the afternoon.  All 3 spots that we planned for the am had at least 2-3 boats on them. And that kinda set the rest of the day up for us.  We found ourselves fishing in spots that we didn't practice in during the week. Only saving grace to that is I'm lucky enough to fish Anna 2-3 times a week and I fish everywhere on that lake. But that didn't help us.  We lost every keeper that hit,  which was only 3 fish. If it wasn't for 11 inch fish we would of had a very long day. We managed to catch 8 of those. First 3 we put on the bump board and tossed back. The rest we didn't even bother.  The AAT is my favorite tournament of the year regardless of how me and my partner finish. I get to see everyone I've met and made friends with throughout the year. Nitro, it was nice meeting you there by the way! You did better than us. Unfortunately this year we didn't put anything on the scales.  It's always a tough but fun day. And a big big thank you to Dave and Chris at Fish Tales! And a big big thank you to Scott and Teresa for all the awesome photos and video! And thank you to everyone that helped put everything together with their time and donations! 

I made sure to thank everybody too before we headed back home, I thought as well how amazing it was and was truly grateful for their efforts in putting together and document a stellar tournament, well said man !!

I look forward to seeing you at the Veterans tournament on Friday !!!

[IntroC]

Well you got the first one under your belt. For me taking that step was the hard part. I remember being literally sick to my stomach with nervousness at my first tourney and it was a tiny one compared to the one you fished. The biggest plus to fishing tourneys for me was what I have learned from fishing them. It has improved my fishing tremendously. Good luck in the future!

[Nitrofreak]

22 hours ago, IntroC said:

Well you got the first one under your belt. For me taking that step was the hard part. I remember being literally sick to my stomach with nervousness at my first tourney and it was a tiny one compared to the one you fished. The biggest plus to fishing tourneys for me was what I have learned from fishing them. It has improved my fishing tremendously. Good luck in the future!

Thanks IntroC, means a lot, I too have learned so much as well, it's interesting how much things change, I was there the Sunday before and things changed so dramatically, something I was not prepared for at all.

i fished our veterans tournament and suffered once more with only a single fish, I learned a bunch more but still, it's difficult knowing we were on fish and couldn't get bit, still trying to wrap my head around that one, ended up in the last hour breaking my trolling motor rope, lost two high dollar baits, well, about 40 dollars worth, expensive loss for me LOL , ended up having my cranking battery die, swapped one of my trolling motor batteries and it wasn't strong enough either, ended up trolling back at half speed, took us an hour and 15 minutes to get back from 5 minutes away under engine power, had a lot of fun though because I was with my son-in-law, we made the best of a bad day exploring the uses of facebook live LOL !!

Best of luck in your future as well, again, many thanks and God bless !!