Super User everythingthatswims Posted June 11, 2017 Super User Posted June 11, 2017 Well we didn't get a big limit today but we managed to stick it out in some adverse conditions and bring in 10lbs 1oz which was good enough for 6th place! This makes our second National Championship qualification as freshmen, we will fishing in B.A.S.S.'s in August (Bemidgi Lake, MN) as well as FLW's (unannounced) next year. Not to mention that we have done it out of a 17' aluminum boat that tops out at 37mph. This week was an absolute blast! I was already a spotted bass nut, so the Coosa River was pretty much a dream location and I got to fish for a week on it! In three days of practice and three tournament days, I expect we landed between 150 and 200 spots, it was pretty insane! We caught nearly every one of them on a 1/2oz finesse jig with a zoom ultravibe speed craw as a trailer. We threw the jigs on 7' MH rods with 15lb fluorocarbon. Our pattern was to look for banks with current breaks on them, in 8-15FOW. We would drift with the current flipping the jigs to the current seams, and almost stroking them back to the boat, ripping them up about a foot or so off the bottom and letting them fall straight back down. Since the boat was also moving, you could cover a lot of water just drifting and working your jig in this manner. When we got a bite, it was almost always a school of them, and we would use the trolling motor to hold our position in the current and usually have a flurry of 3-10 bites in a few minutes before the group of fish would either disperse or shut down. Either way it was a very noticeable change from a bite on every drift through the spot to no bites at all once they were done. In practice, we would do this, but shake the fish off on our jigs and mark a waypoint on our gps. For the most part either the schools didn't move between practice and days 1 and 2, or the spots just held a lot of fish. Over the course of three days, the river dropped 5' and slowed way down, so we had to adjust to it. On day 1 we fished fairly close to the banks, the water had dropped about a foot and was still flowing hard. On day two it was down about 3' and moving slower, this eliminated about half of our spots because they either didn't have enough current on them or were too shallow. On the spots that did hold fish, we had to back off and fish deeper in the current. Any type of depth change on these spots that provided a current break on the bottom usually held fish, and just like the day before, you could have a fast and furious flurry on every group of them. We landed over 40 bass on each of the first two days, we would try to count but when you start catching them on every cast and having double hookups, things spin out of control! Today was considerably tougher, the river was now 5' lower, eliminating all of our areas, the fish simply weren't on them. We fished two deep areas that we had been finding nice schools of 17" plus spots on, but they yielded only a 13"er. We also had to start throwing a deep diving crankbait, the fish were able to roam in the slower current and were keying on shad, we saw sporadic fish on the surface chasing them. We saw one area with periodic breaking fish, and managed to fill our limit there by holding the boat in place with the trolling motor and throwing DD22's downstream and bringing them back towards the boat. After that, we headed to completely new water closer to the dam where we found stronger current and grinded it out with jigs managing to cull our way up to about 8lbs with one 13"er still in the well we needed to get rid of. This was interrupted by some drama, the boat wouldn't start when we were getting close to making the 40 minute run back to the ramp, but after some phone calls to the tournament director and then to dad, I managed to get it started. Left it idling as we fished one last stretch of bank, and I managed to cull out that little one with about a 2lb fish. If you made it this far, good job, here are some pics! If someone can figure out what is going on in this photo I would sure like to know 26 Quote
Bucky205 Posted June 11, 2017 Posted June 11, 2017 Congratulations Casey and Nolan, you guys fished a good tournament. Three of the teams in front of you were Alabama schools. It's always easier to catch fish when you know the reservoir. You guys managed to out fish a lot of Alabama teams that regularly fish Lay. It's impressive for you guys to come onto strange water and do that well. I fish Lay regularly and it can be a tough bite, it's a great day for me when we can occasionly find 10 pounds. Your write up of how you fished the event was excellent. Hats off to you guys, good Job! 2 Quote
Super User A-Jay Posted June 11, 2017 Super User Posted June 11, 2017 Well Done to you both ~ That's some solid work right there. Good Luck in the next one - Enjoyed the 'full report' Thanks for sharing. Oh, and have your rig / motor looked at, find out why it wasn't starting and fix it. You know that though. Congrats again. A-Jay 1 Quote
Global Moderator Bluebasser86 Posted June 11, 2017 Global Moderator Posted June 11, 2017 Awesome! Congrats to both of you! 1 Quote
Will Wetline Posted June 11, 2017 Posted June 11, 2017 Good work, guys! Congratulations to you for figuring out an effective pattern and thank you too for such a well written account of your efforts. 1 Quote
Super User everythingthatswims Posted June 11, 2017 Author Super User Posted June 11, 2017 9 hours ago, A-Jay said: Well Done to you both ~ That's some solid work right there. Good Luck in the next one - Enjoyed the 'full report' Thanks for sharing. Oh, and have your rig / motor looked at, find out why it wasn't starting and fix it. You know that though. Congrats again. A-Jay I know what the problem is, just couldn't fix it on the water 1 Quote
Super User A-Jay Posted June 11, 2017 Super User Posted June 11, 2017 5 hours ago, everythingthatswims said: I know what the problem is, just couldn't fix it on the water Good. Hope it's minor and not reoccurring. A-Jay Quote
lo n slo Posted June 11, 2017 Posted June 11, 2017 that is freakin' awesome man! those are some nice looking spots. has to feel good, making the right moves. Quote
Super User RoLo Posted June 11, 2017 Super User Posted June 11, 2017 Congratulations to both of you! It's plain to see that you boys did your homework, and did it right. Roger Quote
Super User NYWayfarer Posted June 11, 2017 Super User Posted June 11, 2017 Congrats! Love the last pic of the Bass in mid-flight! Quote
Global Moderator TnRiver46 Posted June 11, 2017 Global Moderator Posted June 11, 2017 Nice job thanks for the recap. Alabama spots are tons of fun Quote
Steveo-1969 Posted June 12, 2017 Posted June 12, 2017 Congratulations guys! Let's Go! Mountaineers!!!! 1 Quote
Super User buzzed bait Posted June 12, 2017 Super User Posted June 12, 2017 saw you guys had a good bit of coverage on the photos from the event after day 2. that's a great finish man, sounds like a killer week! Quote
lonnie g Posted June 13, 2017 Posted June 13, 2017 awesome job guys! if you fished lay lake did you fish waxahatchie creek any? one of my favorite spots. best of luck in the championships. Quote
Super User everythingthatswims Posted June 14, 2017 Author Super User Posted June 14, 2017 7 hours ago, lonnie g said: awesome job guys! if you fished lay lake did you fish waxahatchie creek any? one of my favorite spots. best of luck in the championships. Stayed up the river the whole event! 1 Quote
Super User WIGuide Posted June 15, 2017 Super User Posted June 15, 2017 Congrats man that's awesome!! Quote
corn-on-the-rob Posted June 21, 2017 Posted June 21, 2017 Great write-up man, that is great, congrats. You have a long college career ahead of you, lets see what you're made of! Quote
BassNJake Posted June 21, 2017 Posted June 21, 2017 Great job!! Thank you for the awesome write up and good luck to you in both championships!! 1 Quote
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