Anyone fishing the "Bud Light" at Mark Twain???

[harshman]

I was just wondering if anyone here plans on fishing the "Bud Light" (23rd Annual Golden Eagle Distributing/ MTL CoC Bud Light) bass tourney Sept 15-16 on Mark Twain lake.  It is the longest running tourney on the lake with 23 years strong and one of the few two day tourneys that I know of.

Harshman

[Needemp]

I am waiting for my buddy Ryan to get back to me. If he can, then we are. Other than that, 5 of my friends are fishing and I think there are several others from the club. One friend is boat 8 and another is 31. Pretty good starts. Do you fish this torney?

[harshman]

This will be my first year. Have you ever fished it Needemp ? I've heard it draws as many as 300 + boats I can't wait to see a take off like that. This will be one of my first two day tourneys I have ever fished.

Harshman

[dink]

I fished one a few years back.... over 400 boats if I remember correctly.  Pretty cool seeing all those boats in the staging area and then seeing them being fired off every couple seconds.  We didn't do well at all.  It was won way up river on spinnerbaits and crankbaits I believe.  Yet, that was five or so years ago.

[Needemp]

I have not fished one yet Harshman. To tell you the truth, I am not ready. I wanted to wait till next year. I am confident in my progress, but I know that I don't stand a chance against all them locals yet. It will take a big stringer, that is for sure. I have a tournament there the weekend before. Whether I fish the Bud Light or not, I will tell you how I did.

The boats take off in lots of 50. Don't worry, everybody gets 8 hours to fish.

PM sent

[cart7t]

I fished a couple 500 boat tournaments on Tablerock before. Basically it's take a number on anything resembling decent fishing water.

[Needemp]

...Plus all the beer is free. They also give a nice bag of goodies including Tshirts and caps and other things. Do you know twain much? What area do you think you are going to fish?

[harshman]

Twain is my "home" lake. Up until recent hot weather my wife and I were up there a lot. I mostly fish the rivers , but have really begun to expand my fishing areas there if the river fish have turned off. Not sure where I'm going to start out the tourney yet. Gonna have to wait to closer to time to figure that one out.

Harshman

[Nick]

I have fished it the last 3 years. I usually have one decent day and one clunker day. I am very frustrated by my performance. The field has shrunk a bit down to about 300 boats, and they don't let them off 50 at a time. Actually the take-off is a joke because once you get boat checked, no one really watches closely to see if the correct boats are actually going out when called.

I hae planted lots of brush the last two years only to have some bad luck getting good fish in the boat. Last year they wouldn't use my stuff in 10-12 ft. of water so my 40 new piles didn't hold a single fish.  You just never know up there what will happen in mid September. The best thing for me is that I have another tournament scheduled that weekend so I can save face this year. Good luck.

[Needemp]

Harshman, just fished a tourney at Twain and we took 1st place (thanks to my partner ). The bass are NOT up in shallow water. Not even in the early morning or on cloudy days. There are tons of shorts up there, but no keepers. This was even true in stained and heavily stained water. They are deep. We went up some rivers and creeks but had no success there. There are a lot of fisherman and there will be a lot of prefishing this week. Most of the bass will be spooked and quite a bit of the 'catchable' ones will be sore-mouthed.

The boats have for the last several years, and will this time as well, take off in lots of 60. There is a live-well check and it is very organized. In fact you can't weigh in fish unless you have it checked and receive a card for your boat. I think Nick might be trying to scare some of ya off;) Currently there are 287 boats, but there is an onslaught of sign-ups prior. Should be more than 300 boats and around 30 places paid. Good luck!!!

[harshman]

Thanks for the fishing forecast Needemp. I already have goose bumps on top of goose bumps thinking about that many boats taking off. It will be quite a sight. Thanks for the luck. Glad to hear you won another tourney this year. Way to go!!!

Harshman

[Needemp]

How did ya guys do at Bud Light? I have heard from several people that the fishing was tough both days and Sunday was the worst.

[harshman]

Sunday was my best day, Saturday I laid a big ol goose egg. It would have helped if my partner and I could have landed 4 out of the 7 keepers we caught on Sunday. Our river bite was hot on Sunday but we just couldn't get em in the boat. Guess there's always next year. It took 20lbs to win and 5.62 was big bass. Needless to say it was tough conditions over 160 boats blanked on day one and if you add in the boats that brought in only 1 the number of boats that struggled was in the 200's. Final total of boats was 270 on launch day. It was an experience I will never forget.

Harshman

[conserverebel]

It has been years since I fished Mark Twain as I have moved out of the state.  I have some truly memorable trips to Mark Twain.  Won a little money in some tourneys and caught some good quality fish.  Years ago crankbaits (Model A Bomber Brown crawdad) was a killer.  I caught most of my fish on a Bass n eel. It is a plastic bait made by V&M Bait Company out of Louisanna today.  I used the Pumkin with black Pepper.  They do not make this color any longer.  I am sure the lake has changed over the past several years.  Hope to get back one day and look over some of the old  holes.  Good luck!!!!!!

[MOBucketmouths]

What ramp did the tournament launch out of

[Bass XL]

Anyone fishing it this year? Just registered and we're boat 164