MLF Phoenix Series Rookie Diary: Event 2

[Koz]

Background: I decided to fish the MLF Phoenix Series (BFL) this year for two reasons. The first, I'm an older guy and this is a bucket list item. Second, it's good PR for my hotel. My hotel has provided me limited sponsorship for the events. Also, some of you know I have the Fishing with the GM events at my property, and this year I asked for donations from bait companies and in return one of the things I do to promote them is have their logos on my tournament jersey. I'm an average recreational angler with very little club tournament experience and with that I have no expectations entering these tournaments. I'm in them to have fun and for the hotel PR.

 

This narrative is going to discuss some of the challenges of being a co-angler in a non-team fishing tournament.

 

Event 2: West Point Lake

Prep Day

 

Going into this event I felt that West Point Lake set up better for my style of fishing, especially compared to the first event at Lake Lanier. With things  going well at my hotel I decided not only to take off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the tournament but I also decided to take off early on Thursday afternoon to get a few things done around my house, wash my car, and prep my gear for the weekend. Well, that was the plan.

 

I left the hotel just before 2pm but at just after 3pm I got a call from an employee stating something was wrong with the girl working the front desk and that she might be drunk Then I got a text from another employee saying something bad was going on with that girl. The girl working the desk was still new to my team, having worked with us for under one month. But the week AFTER she was hired she did tell me that she was an alcoholic and had been sober for about two months. I thanked her for telling me and told her we would be there to support her if I could.

 

I won't go into details, but when I got to the hotel she was disheveled and drunk. It was pretty bad. I had no choice but to terminate her on the spot. You simply can't come to work that way. What bothers me is she could have called off sick or even called and told me that she fell off the wagon and I would have worked with her and her job would have been spared.

 

But now the issue is that I'm worried about missing the tournament. We're on bare bones, off season staffing and just beginning to conduct interviews for peak season staffing. The girl I fired was due to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and I needed shift coverage. But then I got texts from the rest of the team telling me, "You are NOT going to miss your tournament. We have this covered." I have to say, I love my team! We all take care of each other. So I called them, we juggled some things around and they picked up Friday and Saturday and I said I would cover Sunday night. 

 

Getaway Day

 

It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive to my hotel and I hit the road mid afternoon so I'll be there in time for our virtual meeting at 6:30pm. But the latest weather report has severe weather moving in. I decided to take the back roads to avoid the Atlanta traffic, and while I'm driving I'm watching the tall pine trees REALLY swaying. About 40 minutes out traffic comes to a brief stop. There's what's left of a tree  partially blocking the road and a good Samaritan with a chain saw clearing the road.

 

I stayed at the Wingate in Lagrange, a pretty decent hotel. It was clean, and that's what mattered most to me. But their door closures don't work right on some rooms and all night long as people were coming and going doors were slamming shut, keeping me awake so I ended up getting only 4 hours or so of sleep.

 

I talked with my boater earlier in the night and he was a good guy and had a good finish at his home lake of Lanier in the first event. He wasn't all that familiar with West Point, and I gave him the intel I had from a guide and a few online articles. That week that the bass were feeding in the backs of creek channels, hitting on Rat-L traps, lipless crankbaits, and crankbaits . I provided some GPS coordinates from that intel if he wanted to use them. But the big question was would the bass still be there after the front moved in on Friday?

 

Tournament Day

 

We were in the first flight which is usually a good deal because there aren't as many boats to contend with for spots to fish. But West Point Lake is a smaller lake and there were a lot of tournament boats on the water along with a lot of locals fishing. Boats were already 3 or 4 deep in the creek channels so we started fishing some inlets, points, and wherever we found an opening in a creek channel. 

 

I landed the first fish of the day sometime within that first hour. It was off a point on a Carolina Rig with a big watermelon lizard. It looked to be only about a pound and a half, but I was on the board!  When we made it into some of the smaller creek channels I was tossing Rat-L traps and cranks, but nothing was biting on those despite the intel that I had received. I switched to an underspin with a Keitech and landed a second, but it was barely a keeper.

 

The Solo Tournament Co-Angler vs, Buddy Co-Angler Difference

 

Disclaimer: I do not mean this to be controversial nor have it be a knock on any boater. I'm appreciative of all boaters that give me the opportunity to fish on their boats, and if I was the boater in a non-team tournament I would probably fish the same way. I'm just trying to discuss some of the challenges you may face in the same situation.

 

If you and your boater are both fishing on the same side of the boat you're generally getting second choice of what may be prime bass locations but it's really not that bad when you're trolling down the bank. The boater won't be able to cover everything, so you should always keep an eye out for where they cast and look for those good second options or primary options that they missed. I also try to keep a follow up bait like a Senko on a rod nearby if he misses and we're still moving down the bank.

 

But the real key to fishing the back of the boat is the angles. If you're fishing with your buddy for fun or in a team tournament, your boater usually gives you good angles to cast. I fish with @flatcreek for fun and club tournaments and he does a good job of giving me angles to cast. When we head down a narrow creek channel he usually sticks to one side and I usually stick to the other on the way in, and we swap banks on the way out. That may not always be the case if you're not fishing with a teammate.

 

It can also be hard to get good angles simply because of the size of the back deck, especially if the boat has a big motor, or if there are Power Poles or something similar on the boat. I will say this if you fish off the back - learn how to backhand cast and flip! I'm pretty sure that Glenn did a video on this.

 

And when you get paired up last minute like in this tournament, you have no idea of the boat size and configuration you are fishing. Most of my rods are between 7' and 7' 6" and if you end up on a small boat that may mean that with those rods it's harder to sidearm or roll cast. Because of that, for this tournament I added a smaller, 6' 6" rod to my arsenal.

 

One thing that was different in this tournament is that my boater had Livescope. How they use it and where they set up to fish when using it can impact your angles as well. For example, with most setups the Livescope can be rotated independently, but some boaters may prefer to keep it forward facing and choose to look at other areas by navigating with the trolling motor. When this happens you may find that you don't have a good casting angle to where you would like to cast. But again - reiterate - this is not a team tournament and your boater is trying to win their division and they are not trying to freeze you out - they are focusing on what they need to do to win. As a co-angler, you need to adapt.

 

Case in point - as we hit the last two hours my boater wanted to fish deeper water where he was seeing activity on his Livescope while I wanted to push into a creek channel that was on my list of targets. We were actually headed there and at first there were a few boats there, so we fished a point and secondary point and as we made our way to the creek channel when it cleared he saw the activity on his Livescope.

 

And this is where I didn't adapt - I threw some deep cranks and dragged a Carolina rig around with no luck. But instead of doing that same thing over and over I should have taken the time and set up one of my rods with a drop shot or even a shaky head. Overall, I did a better job of adapting this tournament than I did the last one, but not at the end. My boater ended up catching a catfish and one small spot.

 

Personally, I also thought we would probably find more morning bass on points and flats in the sunshine after that front had moved in the day before. We did see one boat locked in on one point for over an hour and they looked to be catching a lot of bass there. As it turned out, the boater that won stuck to the backs of the longer creek channels.

 

I did take some time to throw both a Ned Rig and a Senko, but once again not even one strike. I always find that odd, because those two baits are usually good fallback baits, even if it's only landing dinks.

 

The "Big One"

 

After I landed my second keeper I tossed back off the back of that boat to the same area hoping to hit upon a school of bass. Sure enough, I feel something and set the hook. The line takes off as I'm reeling in and I'm trying to work around one of the power poles. The line pulls sideways to the opposite side of the boat and then I see it - a turtle doing a barrel roll trying to get away. My biggest catch of the day was a 3 pound turtle that I snagged in the leg. But I swear it fought like a 6 pound bass. My boater cracked that I should keep it and tell the officials that it actually identified as a bass. LOL!

 

The Weigh In

 

I ended up catching 5 on the day, but only two were scoreable. I ended up with just under 3 pounds. It was amazing how many that caught a full bag weighed in at only 6 or 7 pounds. The winning co-angler weighed in at just over 12 pounds, but the winning boater came in a 20 even - including Big Fish of the day with one over 6 pounds. He was one of the guys that did make it to the back of creek channels and caught them on square bills.

 

I was also surprised at how many fans (I assume mostly family members)  were at the weigh in. Compared to Lanier, the place was packed. After the weigh in - despite my measly two fish - I was shocked at how many of my friends and family were blowing up my phone with texts because they watched the live stream of the weigh in. I didn't know that they knew about it.

 

Wrap Up

 

In all of the club tournaments and that first MLF event I fished we were rarely around other boats. But at West point, every time you looked around there were 4, 5, 6, or 7 boats fishing nearby. It was hard to find "virgin ground." I'm happy to say that my boater was a good guy and we had good conversation and joked throughout.

 

I did get a bit frustrated and lost focus at the end of the day, but I think part of that was being cranky from not enough sleep and not snacking and staying hydrated during the day. I need to work on that.

 

The next event is on my home turf, Lake Oconee. While I don't have any secret fishing spots, I do know which baits work well on Oconee and I think that's a big deal. I had never fished Lanier or West Point before, so I had no confidence bait. At Lanier I was all over the place throwing different baits. and that added to my frustration with the extremely cold weather. At West Point, I cut down a bit on the baits I brought and focused more on changing colors. Sure, I had researched the lakes regarding forage and what baits other people used, but there's nothing like knowing the lake and having a confidence bait.

 

Getting shut out at Lanier was a killer in the points standings, but at least I moved up in points. I'm hoping to have enough points to qualify for the regional tournament at the end of the five scheduled events, but even if I don't, by fishing in all five events I can still get in by doing well in the Wild Card event. I also have to think that a lot of guys won't fish all five qualifier tournaments.  But in the end, I'm still having some fun out there and learning more each event. Being a co-angler certainly is not all that easy.

[TnRiver46]

Thanks again!! Friggin turtles 

[WRB]

You say you have no intention of entering these tournaments yet you are fishing?

You are back seating in a blind draw team event. As a back seater you can share your G2 but don’t expect the boater to accept your info if it’s not in his wheel house.

As a back seater your window to cast is always behind where the boater is casting, ie used water at whatever pace the boater is fishing. Pace or boat speed limits your options so be prepared. 

Practice accurate casting skills without getting in the way of the boater or snagging lures, both distract the boater. Become a expert at netting bass, never miss!

Do what your boater wants you to do and ask!

Good luck!

Tom

[Koz]

7 hours ago, WRB said:

You say you have no intention of entering these tournaments yet you are fishing?

 

You read that wrong. I stated I have no EXPECTATIONS in these tournaments. Sure, I want to do well. But I'm not going to blow a gasket of I don't.

 

I also think I've been fully transparent here on my communication with the boater and the fact that I'm along for the ride. I've talked a lot about adapting to the situation - it's one of the main points I try and drive home in these recaps. And since we are not competing against each other, if I get intel from a local guide I'm willing to share it. But I have no expectations - again - that the boater will use that intel. That being said, the winners in the first two events seemed to have the same intel that I had. Catching them, of course, is another thing.

 

I'm also very good at casting. But it's not always ideal positioning to catch fish when the bow is pointed at the bank and I'm left hanging out in open water. I won't cast towards the bow of the boat unless the boater tells me it's OK to do so. But when that does happen I grab my Navionics map and look for humps, channels, and ledges. There's still a challenge in that as it's not always easy to quickly swap rods on the back of a small deck. And with bringing only 5 or 6 rods, early on I might not have the right bait tied on for that positioning. Again, more adapting as the day goes on. 

 

Sure, it would be easier if I spread out my gear, but that's not a great thing to do when the boater wants to go on the move quickly. 

 

And again, I don't mind any of this because this is the life of a co-angler. My purpose here is to relate my experiences in case others want to do the same and point out that it's a lot different than being a co-angler with your buddy or in a team tournament.

[GaryH]

Great write up @Koz you’re getting some good experience at the tournament game. Good luck in your future tournaments 

[TOXIC]

Good write up. At one time I was going to do a series of articles for Yamamoto called “From the Back Deck” because I spent so much of my fishing time on the back deck of my fishing partners boat.  While not exactly the same being in a tournament situation, I had a lot of tips and tricks that worked from the back deck.  I will say a boater who wants to “back boat” you all day can be very frustrating, there are some things you can do to salvage your day.  Good luck on the trail. 

[WRB]

You are a better writer then I am a reader.

Being a skilled caster helps to over come Boat positioning.

Shared weight event your boater should want to help you to catch more  bass.

Fishing parallel casting back you can cover a lot of productive  water. Fishing over your shoulder when the boat is more stationary can work or simply fan casting as if you are fishing from shore.

My back seating time was limited to a few trips when I had a boat and fished with friends, fun fishing. I always ended up front in tournaments but never cut off water for the back seater.

Enjoy your experiences,

Tom

[KSanford33]

I haven’t begun reading this yet, but I’m already so excited! I can’t wait! Thanks for documenting this Koz. 

[Koz]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Fishing parallel casting back you can cover a lot of productive  water.

Most of the fish I caught last weekend (and the turtle!) were casting off the back corner of the boat parallel to the shore, about 20-30 feet from the bank. I saw no reason to keep casting tight to the bank when we weren't catching anything and I figured that there was a good chance the bass were cruising water that was a little deeper.

 

You do bring up a good point that in some situations can actually be an advantage for a back seater. If there's a drop off, ridge, or ledge off and parallel to the bank, as a back seater you can long bomb a cast off the back of the boat and give yourself a large target area to cover. In some cases that may work out better than pitching to a single tight spot on the bank.

 

Those people that bank fish know what I'm talking about. Many times we position ourselves on a small outcrop so we can cast parallel to the bank and cover a large potential strike area.

[Cbump]

I like these. Looking forward to the next one. 

[kingmotorboat]

On 3/6/2023 at 10:10 AM, TOXIC said:

Good write up. At one time I was going to do a series of articles for Yamamoto called “From the Back Deck” because I spent so much of my fishing time on the back deck of my fishing partners boat.  While not exactly the same being in a tournament situation, I had a lot of tips and tricks that worked from the back deck.  I will say a boater who wants to “back boat” you all day can be very frustrating, there are some things you can do to salvage your day.  Good luck on the trail. 

as a co angler hopefully for just one mor year, I would love to read this

[TOXIC]

1 hour ago, kingmotorboat said:

as a co angler hopefully for just one mor year, I would love to read this

If you are a follower of Yamamoto on Facebook or subscribed to the Inside Line, they have asked me to do the series.  

[kingmotorboat]

18 hours ago, TOXIC said:

If you are a follower of Yamamoto on Facebook or subscribed to the Inside Line, they have asked me to do the series.  

I do subscribe to inside line I believe. Have you already started doing it?

[TOXIC]

15 hours ago, kingmotorboat said:

I do subscribe to inside line I believe. Have you already started doing it?

I am breaking the subject down into parts.  First is back deck with a guide, then back deck with a friend, then back deck in tournaments both draw and team.  First one is complete and I am waiting to send it in.  Remember though the Inside Line normally does fairly short stories so it limits how in depth I can go.  There have been a lot of discussions on this site as well. 

[volzfan59]

@Koz, Thank you for taking the time to write these recaps. I caught a big turtle once during a team tournament on Ft. Loudon Lake in east TN. Before I could see it, I thought that I had caught a good 'un and was wondering how much the big bass pot was. My buddy came back with the net about the time we saw that it was a turtle. Talk about disappointment mixed in with a lot of laughter ?

[TnRiver46]

8 hours ago, volzfan59 said:

@Koz, Thank you for taking the time to write these recaps. I caught a big turtle once during a team tournament on Ft. Loudon Lake in east TN. Before I could see it, I thought that I had caught a good 'un and was wondering how much the big bass pot was. My buddy came back with the net about the time we saw that it was a turtle. Talk about disappointment mixed in with a lot of laughter ?

The laughter really starts when you try to get your plug back. You better pack a lunch if you wanna wrestle one of those ! My buddy was easing his hand toward a soft shell with a pair of pliers and that thing bit a chunk of his thumb off in the blink of an eye!! I didn’t know soft shells could do that……… noted……….