Category Archives: Tournament Fishing

Two Club Tournaments and A Top Six At Hartwell

Bass fishing is good in November but it does vary a lot, as three tournaments show. Two years ago the Potato Creek Bassmasters fished their November tournament at Oconee. Then the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished its November tournament at Lanier. And the Flint River Bass Club sent a six man team to the Georgia Bass Chapter Federation Nation State Championship at Hartwell.

At Oconee, 20 members of the Potato Creek club weighed in 24 keeper bass weighing 40.68 pounds. There was one five-fish limit and six members didn’t have a keeper bass after eight hours of fishing.

Bobby Ferris won with the only limit and his five fish weighed 8.44 pounds. Wesley Gunnels was second with three bass weighing 5.17 pounds, Michael Cox was came in third with three at 4.63 pounds and Bob Nash placed fourth with two at 3.03 pounds. Pete Peterson had big fish with a 2.48 pound largemouth.

Fishing was tough for bigger bass at Oconee and the 14 inch size limit makes it harder to land a keeper bass.

At Lanier the next Sunday 11 members and guests of the Spalding County Sportsman Club fished for eight hours to land 13 keeper bass weighing about 27 pounds. There were no limits and four fishermen zeroed in the tournament.

Javin English won it all with four bass weighing 9.84 pounds and his 3.66 pound bass was big fish. Jimmy Harmon came in second with two keepers at 4.93 pounds, Kwong Yu placed third with two at 3.66 pounds and Russell Prevette had two at 3.62 pounds.

There is a 14 inch limit at Lanier and the spotted bass just didn’t cooperate.

At Hartwell six Flint River club members fished for two days to try to qualify for the State Team. The top 14 fishermen in this tournament advance to the Southern Regional in Kentucky next April. The top man on that team will go on to the Nationals where one fisherman from each region will qualify for the Bassmasters Classic.

Although there are no team awards other than bragging rights, the six club members, myself, Bobby Ferris, Lee Hancock, JJ Polak, Charles Gaddy and Chris Lee worked together and tried to help each other out. All of us but Chris went up Wednesday or Thursday and practiced two days trying to find fish for the tournament.

It took ten bass weighing 24 pounds to win. I caught ten weighing 17.94 pounds and came in 8th. I was happy but disappointed at the same time since the top seven fishermen get to take their boats to the Regional and I missed that, so I will have to fish out of someone else’s boat.

JJ Polak finished in 10th and will also be on the team. He had ten bass weighing 17.53 pounds. JJ owns JJ’s Magic dip and dye and Ole Nelle bait company and is president of the Flint River Club.

In two days of practice I caught some fish but was worried. On Thursday I landed seven keepers but they were all small. Then on Friday it took me from daylight to 11:00 AM to catch a bass. That one was a good three pound fish and it hit back in a creek where I had caught fish before. I hooked several more in a few minutes before leaving the area.

In the tournament on Saturday we went there but in the first two hours I broke off a fish in a tree top and my partner landed one. We ran to another place I wanted to fish but another boat was already there. I stopped on a nearby dock and landed my best fish of the tournament, one close to four pounds.

After fishing several more docks in the area I told my partner I felt like we should go back where we started. Between noon and leaving at 3:10 to get to weigh-in on time we both landed our limit. I caught two keepers on my last two casts at 3:05, just a few minutes before we had to crank up for the ten mile run.

I was surprised to be in 14 place out of 90 fishermen after the first day. The second day my partner and I ran the small creek, shut down the gas motor at 7:10 AM and did not crank it until 2:45 for the run back to the ramp. I got another limit but it was slow. He caught three keepers.

I was happy to make the state team again. My partner from the first day got a limit the second day and also made the team, visiting in 12th place.

If club fishing and going to the Top Six sounds like fun, both the Flint River and Spalding County clubs are taking new members and everything starts over in January. The Potato Creek club does not send a team to the Top Six but have their own championship.

Fishing A Winter Tournament At Lake Jackson

At Jackson last winter fishing was as tough as expected in the Spalding County Sportsman Club January tournament. Many members let the weather guessers scare them off with the terrible weather they told us to expect but which never arrived. Only nine of us braved the chance of bad weather to fish for eight hours and land a total of seven bass weighing just under 17 pounds. Five of the nine didn’t land a keeper all day.

Niles Murray wore us all out and caught more than the rest of us put together. His four keepers weighing 9.93 pounds ran away with first place. I got one bite but it was a good one and my keeper largemouth weighing 4.09 pounds was good for second place and big fish. Third went to Billy Roberts with a keeper weighing 1.42 pounds and Brent Terry was fourth with one spotted bass weighing .98 pounds.

Niles said he caught his bass on a crankbait and most were on rocky banks and points. My one keeper hit a jig and pig on a rocky point. Brent said his fish hit a crankbait, too.

Although it did rain some, I kept my rain suit hood down most of the day. And it was much warmer than expected. I dressed for very cold weather but had to keep my heavy rain suit bibs and jacket unzipped and open most of the day. And, although thunderstorms were predicted, we never heard any thunder all day.

I started fishing my favorite area of the lake with crankbaits but did not get a hit the first hour. Out on the main lake the water was 48 degrees and very muddy, with a chartreuse crankbait disappearing about 3 inches under the water. After the first hour I went into Tussahaw Creek,and the further up it I went the clearer the water got but the colder it got, too.

Clearer did not mean much clearer! At the best I could see a crankbait down about six inches. And the water was only 45 degrees. I went all the way to the Highway 36 Bridge and thought I had one hit up there but was never sure.

I used all my skill to catch the one I got. I was throwing a crankbait around the bridge in Tussahaw and decided to crank up and run up to some docks further up the creek. But it started raining hard so I just kept fishing up the bank and caught the bass in a place I had never fished before, and would not have fished if the rain had not started.

I cast a black and blue jig and pig up on a rocky point and worked it slowly down the slope under the water. Somewhere around 12 to 15 feet deep my bait felt mushy and I set the hook on a heavy fish. I almost had a heart attack when it came to the surface and I saw how big it was. It did not fight very hard in the ice water, which was good since I was fishing by myself and had to net it while fighting it.

Kingfish Fishing

Saltwater Fishing’s Fall Classic for Kingfish
from The Fishing Wire

The SKA® National Championship and Yamaha Professional Kingfish Championship in Biloxi this November are the offshore equivalent of the Bassmaster Classic® and more

Big King Fish Mackerel

Big King Fish Mackerel

Monster king mackerel like this one are the target in the Southern Kingfish Association’s National Championship, which gets underway Nov. 4 in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Winning Kingfish at Tournament

Winning Kingfish at Tournament

Big payouts await the winners in these tournaments, but the competition is tough–and sometimes, so are the seas.

If you want to see hundreds of the most exotic, high-performance center console fishing boats on the water today, fielded by the top competition saltwater fishing teams in the nation going head-to-head for big cash purses and glory, then you better head to the Golden Nugget Casino and Marina in Biloxi, Miss. for the week of November 4th. It promises to be an amazing display of fishing prowess and the newest, hottest boats and gear.

Kingfish boat powered by three Yamaha Outboards

Kingfish boat powered by three Yamaha Outboards

Triple power like these big Yamaha’s is favored for dependability and speed during top-tier tournaments.

The Southern Kingfish Association (SKA®) is the largest saltwater fishing tournament organization in the nation. Structured somewhat like the Bass Angler Sportsmans Society (B.A.S.S.®), it has ten regional divisions that stretch from N.C. to La., pretty much everywhere king mackerel are found in U.S. waters in abundance. Each division has at least three SKA® sanctioned kingfish tournaments per year that are open to members from within or outside of that division, for a total of 45 events in 2013. By entering and placing in divisional tournaments, teams earn points in addition to cash and prizes offered in each event. At the end of the season the top teams, as determined by the points earned in those events, are invited to compete in the National Championship in Biloxi.

There are two levels of divisional competition, the “open class,” dedicated to the biggest, baddest most powerful boats you can bring to the tournaments; and the “small boat class,” which limits boat size to no larger than 23-feet 11-inches at the water line. While large boats can only compete in the open class, small boats are permitted to compete in either class, but the team must declare which class it will fish at registration before a tournament begins.

In addition to the divisional competition, the most consistently successful teams are invited to step up to the SKA® Professional Kingfish Tour, which culminates with the highly anticipated Yamaha Professional Kingfish Championship. The money and prizes offered to the top-tier competitors makes for top-flight competition. Every division tournament has a pro class, which leads up to the final pro event of the year held in Biloxi the same week as the SKA® National Championship.

Like B.A.S.S.®, the SKA® is devoted to fishing for a single species-king mackerel. These missile-shaped pelagic gamefish are long, strong, very fast and sport a mouth full of teeth that can slice and dice pretty much anything they want to eat. Kings are found throughout the Gulf of Mexico, around the horn of the Florida peninsula and northwards as far as Virginia. Their range pretty much sets the range of the sanctioned tournaments. Unlike B.A.S.S.®, where tournaments are individual angler events, SKA® sanctioned tournaments are team efforts. Each boat can be “manned” by two to six people.

In an effort to make their tournaments more family-oriented, SKA® has offered special awards, trophies and even scholarships for female and junior anglers for more than 20 years. There are teams made up of fathers, mothers and their children. A great example is Team Ocean Isle Fishing Center from N.C., fielded by the McMullan family. At any given tournament there can be three generations aboard; Grandfather Rube, fathers Brant and Barrett, mother Amy and one or more of the family’s children including daughter Caroline.

The McMullan’s compete in a Yamaha-powered 32-foot Yellowfin center console in both divisional and pro events. Two years ago they weighed the largest kingfish ever brought to the scales in 25 years of SKA® tournaments, breaking the Mississippi state record in the process. The fish weighed an amazing 74 pounds. There is usually a large and very vocal audience filling the bleachers at tournament weigh-in time, and this fish brought them to their feet. Many more spectators walk the docks discussing the boats, talking to teams to learn more about the fish and fishing, and just drinking in the festive atmosphere that is the SKA® Nationals.

What makes the SKA® unique is the level of competition and the unbelievably harsh demands tournament teams put on their boats, motors and tackle. They fish in rough weather, think nothing of making runs of up to 100 miles in a day to find that one big king, and then racing back to the scales in time for weigh-in. It has made SKA® competitors a driving force in the development of bigger, stronger, better-handling boats and larger, stronger, more powerful and dependable outboards. So it stands to reason that when you get to the Championships in Biloxi in November, you will be seeing the best-of-the-best in fishing boats, engines and fishing tackle being used by the best tournament teams in the nation.

Here’s how the week shapes up. Registration for the Yamaha Professional Kingfish Championship takes place at the Golden Nugget on November 4th, but many teams will have arrived a day or two early to scout out bait and pre-fish the area. Tuesday and Wednesday are fishing days, and Thursday is registration for the National Championship and awards presentation for the Pros. Friday and Saturday are the fishing days for the Nationals, and Sunday is the awards presentation. There are numerous parties, gatherings, sponsor displays and more during the week. This year, Garmin Marine Electronics will be sponsoring a live simulcast of both events. To learn more, go to www.fishska.com and click on the banner for the Nationals. It’s one of the biggest events hosted by the city of Biloxi each year, and this one promises to be bigger and better than ever.

Booyah Baits Help Jordan Lee Make the Classic

Jordan Lee makes the Classic

Jordan Lee makes the Classic

Jordan Lee Fishes BOOYAH To Championship, Classic
from The Fishing Wire

Q: What’s in the water at Auburn University?
A: Bass

Auburn student Jordan Lee is on his way to the Bassmaster Classic thanks to a win in the College Championship.

For two years in a row, final round of the Carhartt College Series Bassmaster Classic tournament came down to two Auburn University anglers battling for the opportunity to fish the Bassmaster Classic. One of them, Jordan Lee, was in that same position last year, then fishing against his brother, Matt. Matt edged him out and qualified to fish the 2013 Classic on Oklahoma’s Grand Lake O’ The Cherokees.

This year the anglers were fishing for entry to a Classic held on a body of water Jordan considers his home lake, and his final-day opponent was an angler he considers “like a brother,” his best friend and tournament partner Shane Powell.

“We’ve been best friends since we started college,” Shane said. “We’ve been tournament partners since the first semester.”

The three-day event on the Grand River in Michigan pitted one team from Auburn, one from Eastern Washington University, one from Young Harris College and one from Auburn University at Montgomery in a head-to-head bracket style tournament. With Jordan in the top half of the bracket and his partner Shane in the bottom half, a best-friend-versus-best-friend finals was a distinct possibility.

If Shane and Jordan beat the competitors they were matched against on Friday and Saturday, Sunday would again be an all-Auburn final. And that’s how it went down.

Launch for the event was in the Spring Lake area of Grand River, and Jordan fished the lake the entire tournament, while Shane normally picked up a fish or two from areas around the ramp before fishing a portion of the river for the rest of the tournament. Jordan found an area in the lake that featured water depths he liked, docks and vegetation, and this 600- to 700-yard stretch is where he fished all three days.

The Booyah Poppin’ Pad Crasher frog scored well for Lee in the backs of coves during the tournament.

Jordan rode three main lures to the trophy, a BOOYAH Poppin’ Pad Crasher for skipping under docks and to vegetation, a 3/8-ounce BOOYAH Blade spinnerbait retrieved at high speeds, and a YUM Wooly Bug for flipping.

When the water was flat he could catch them on the Poppin’ Pad Crasher, a hollow body frog with a cupped mouth that chugs water, especially when the sun was bright. Early mornings and when there was chop or a lot of boat wakes he caught his fish on the double willowleaf spinnerbait in Snow White color pattern. His spinnerbait fish hit while he “burned” the bait around docks.

When the wind really kicked up and boat traffic was at its highest on Saturday, he flipped the Wooly Bug around the docks and caught six or seven more, culling a few times.

He said the pieces to his pattern really didn’t come together until the first day of the tournament, when he caught four of his five-fish limit on the Poppin’ Pad Crasher, including big bass of the tournament, a 4-pound, 1-ounce largemouth that netted him an extra $500 on top of the boat, truck and $5,000.

Lee also scored by “burning” a Booyah Blade in 3/8 ounce size, which he said matched the baitfish at Grand River.

He caught his fifth Day 1 weigh-in fish burning the spinnerbait, and brought the biggest sack of the tournament to the scales, 15-pounds, 2-ounces.

What keyed him into the spinnerbait bite was the size of the baitfish in the area he was fishing. The smaller spinnerbait blades on the BOOYAH Blade matched the size of baitfish. He also trimmed the skirt up to the point right beyond the hook bend to give it a smaller overall profile.

The frog he skipped as shallow as possible under and around docks as well as in any vegetation that was protected from the wind. Color pattern on the Poppin’ Pad Crasher was Aqua-Frog, and he trimmed the spinnerbait-style legs to give it a more subtle surface disturbance.

“I also trimmed one leg about a half-inch shorter than the other so it walked easier,” he said.

On day two, extra boat traffic and wind created more chop than the other two days. He’d put a small limit in the livewell, but the conditions were so different than what he’d experienced that with an hour-and-a-half left he pulled out a flippin’ stick and started hitting the docks with a Wooly Bug in Green Pumpkin color.

Lee also added a few fish to his bag by flippin’ a YUM Wooly Bug soft plastic.

“I caught five or six fish and culled once or twice,” he said “I knew there were still fish there but they wouldn’t hit the frog or the spinnerbait. The Wooly Bug is a smaller flippin’ bait that also matched the size of the baitfish.”

At Day 2 weigh-in, Shane brought in a limit weighing 11-pounds, 7-ounces, to win his bracket, and Jordan easily won his match-up, so the final day was set for an emotional, all-Auburn shoot-out.

Jordan started the day by burning the spinnerbait around docks and had a good limit within an hour or so. He culled several times before the action slowed, then switched to the frog and started hitting the calm areas at the backs of docks and in any vegetation, and culled again before heading to the final weigh-in.

Shane brought his bag to the stage first, and even though it held big-bass for the day, was one short of a limit. Jordan brought in a 5-bass limit weighing an even 12 pounds, and celebrated with the monkey off his back and his ticket to the Classic punched.

“I told (Shane) I know how he feels,” Jordan said. “I felt that way last year, getting beaten by my brother, and honestly it made me work harder. I told Shane’s parents the day before that I would be pulling for him, and that he’s my best friend. We all want to fish the Classic.”

For Jordan, getting to fish a Bassmaster Classic on his home lake is like a dream come true. It’s a body of water he fishes more than 30 times a year, and loves fishing it in winter and early spring. He even recalled skipping high school basketball practice one February day to prefish a tournament on Guntersville.

“I grew up fishing there,” he said. “I fished my first tournament on Guntersville when I was 15 years old. Last year I won a BFL there, and a B.A.S.S. Weekend Series event there in early March of 2009. It’s probably my favorite place to fish.”

What Is Fine Tuning Your Spinnerbait Selection?

Fine-Tuning Your Spinnerbait Selection
from The Fishing Wire

Matt Herren carries a selection of spinnerbait blades

Matt Herren carries a selection of spinnerbait blades

An assortment of spinnerbait blades makes it possible to match changing conditions where ever you fish says Yamaha pro Matt Herren.

Among his contemporaries, Matt Herren has long been considered one of the best spinnerbait fishermen competing on the Bassmaster® Elite Series, but all are surprised to learn the Yamaha Pro actually keeps very few of the popular blade-type lures in his boat.

Instead, Herren carries boxes of spinnerbait components, including blades, skirts, and heads, and makes his lures on the water as he needs them.

“I wouldn’t have enough room in my boat to carry all the different spinnerbaits I might want during a tournament,” laughs Herren, “so I keep boxes of parts in different colors and weights and put them together as the conditions dictate. It only takes a minute or so to make one, so I’m really not losing much time at all, and I can have exactly what I want.”

Herren likes double willowleaf baits

Herren likes double willowleaf baits

Herren likes a double willow leaf spinner in autumn, but is always ready for a quick change as needed.

Herren believes spinnerbaits are far more specialized than most anglers realize, and he uses several criteria to fine-tune his selection, including water temperature, water color, and the type of structure and cover he will be fishing. During the autumn months, for instance, he normally fishes spinnerbaits with double willow leaf blades, or a combination of Colorado and willow leaf blades.

“Fall is perfect for spinnerbaits because the primary bass forage this time of year is shad, and with willow leaf blades I can match the size and even the color of that forage very closely,” Herren explains. “Normally, the water is clear in the fall, too, so if I’m fishing 10 feet deep or less, I’ll make a spinnerbait with double willow leaf blades, because those blades keep the lure from sinking very deep. If I want to fish deeper, I’ll replace the front willow leaf with a more rounded Colorado-style blade so the lure will sink.

“I believe a lot of fishermen overlook the importance of blade size and color, but at times these can be critical in determining whether bass hit or not. I’ve experienced many days where a slight blade change made all the difference in the world. That’s why I prefer to make my spinnerbaits while I’m fishing.”

Spinnerbait bass

Spinnerbait bass

Chunky bass like this one are chasing shad in fall, and the flashing blades of a spinner are a good imitation.

The Yamaha Pro’s favorite blade color in clear water this time of year is copper, since it isn’t as bright as gold or nickel, but still provides enough flash to attract bass. In his component boxes, Herren has not only these three blade colors, but also white and chartreuse in a variety of sizes.

“My blade and color choices now as summer changes into fall are quite a bit different than they are in the spring,” points out Herren. “In the spring, when the water is often more stained and the temperature is cooler, I want more vibration from my spinnerbait blades, so I really prefer the more rounded Colorado blades. In extremely dingy water, I’ll even make spinnerbaits with double Colorado blades. You don’t find many spinnerbaits like this in the tackle stores, but they’re a major part of my fishing.

“Depending on how deep I want to fish, I’ll make them in weights ranging from as light as ¼-ounce to as heavy as 1 ½-ounces. Then, as the water temperature gradually warms, I’ll switch one of those Colorado blades for an elongated willow leaf. For me, it’s easier to make the exact spinnerbait I want rather than try to carry so many with me and then try to find it.”

Herren changes baits as neededc

Herren changes baits as neededc

Herren says he’d rather make up his own spinnerbaits as needed, fine-tuning them to match whatever a tournament throws at him.

Herren’s ability to make his own spinnerbaits while on the water has also allowed him to fine-tune his presentations, as well. Few think of making vertical presentations with spinnerbaits, for example, but this is one of the Yamaha Pro’s favorite fall techniques. Instead of casting, he makes short underhand pitches and lets the lure free-fall straight down on a slack line. He uses this technique around rock bluffs, at the ends of laydowns, and even around boathouse pilings.

“I’ve a lot of caught bass doing this with ¼-ounce spinnerbaits with a single large size 4 blade, and also with heavier ¾-oz. spinnerbaits with size 4 ½ and 5 blades,” continues the Yamaha Pro, “blade and weight combinations you’ll never find on the store shelves.

“Building my own spinnerbaits has allowed me to experiment like this and not only create my own favorite combinations, but also to learn to fish the lures a little differently than the other tournament pros, and over the years it’s really paid off for me.”

Fishing Neely Henry, Allatoona and Lanier

Three lakes I fished in two weeks a couple of years ago gave me three very different experiences, all of them good. Neely Henry in Alabama is a river lake with a good population of spotted bass and largemouth. Lanier has become well known as a trophy spotted bass lake. And Allatoona proved its nickname “the Dead Sea” is not true.

I fished Neely Henry a little over a week ago for an Alabama Outdoor News article. We fished the mid lake area near Gadsden and it is much like fishing a river with some backwaters off it. The water was stained and flowing a little but it was just natural current. When power is being generated at the dam it flows very strongly and makes the bass bite even better.

In about five hours of fishing we caught about 20 bass. Most hit a jig head worm or a Texas rigged tube fished slowly on the bottom in just a couple of feet of water. I was lucky enough to land the two biggest bass, a three pound spot and a 3.5 pound largemouth. Both fought hard.

It would take about three hours to get to Neely Henry pulling a boat but would be worth the time. The Alabama DNR says it is a “sleeper” lake because of its good population of good size bass but not much fishing pressure. And the places to catch them right now are easy to find. Any cut going off the river will have bass feeding on the points of it.

I fished Allatoona for a GON article and landed a keeper spot and largemouth, but the fisherman showing me the lake landed about eight spots and his best five weighed about ten pounds. His biggest was a pretty two pound, ten ounce torpedo shaped fish that had very pretty colors.

Allatoona is a very pretty lake just outside Atlanta. I-75 crosses it and it gets real crowded during warm weather, but there were few people on it last Tuesday when we were there. And with the water down six feet the rocky points and banks where the bass were feeding were easy to find.

I caught my two bass on a small jig and pig and my partner caught his on crankbaits and a jig and pig. We fished from daylight until about 2:00 PM and quit because of the biggest problem fishermen from this area have. To get to Allatoona you have to go right through downtown Atlanta and traffic is awful if you are there from about 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. I hate pulling a boat in that traffic and it is bad even on weekends.

Last Sunday the Flint River Bass Club fished Lanier for our November tournament. We had only seven fishermen and we landed 19 bass weighing about 42 pounds. There were two five-fish limits and one fisherman didn’t have a keeper. Four of the spots weighed over three pounds each and were very fat and pretty.

John Smith had four spots weighing 11.37 pounds and won, and his 3.42 pound spot tied for big fish. Kwong Yu was second with a limit weighing 10.01 pounds and he had the other big fish spot at 3.42. Guest Chuck Croft came in third with five at 9.04 pounds and my three fish weighing 7.12 pounds was good for fourth. I had the only largemouth weighed in.

Lanier has been my down-fall the past few years and I have had a tough time catching a keeper there. Last Sunday I knew I would win the point standings for the year if I caught just one keeper since several people were not there. But I was not sure I could catch even one keeper bass.

I started out in the fog throwing a spinner bait on a rocky point near where we started and got a hit and missed the fish. I figured that might be the only strike I would get all day with the way my Lanier luck has been running. For the next hour I didn’t get a bite.

At about 8:00 I went to a hump with some brush on it and landed a 13.5 inch spot from 20 feet of water on a jig and pig. Unfortunately, the size limit on Lanier is 14 inches so I let it go. I started to leave but decided to fish some docks nearby.

Nothing hit around the dock but there was a tree lying in the water between it and the next dock. I made about six casts to the tree and started to move on but on the last cast my line started moving out of the tree when my jig and pig got out near the end. I set the hook and landed a 3.01 pound spot. When I put it in the live well I relaxed – I had the one bass I needed.

After fishing a line of docks and some points , fishing slowly and not really trying too hard, I ran out and fished some points and other brush piles. I got several bites but did not hook a fish.

At 1:30 I was back at the tree where I caught the fish that morning at 8:15 and hooked and landed a 1.5 pound largemouth from another tree right beside the big one. I fished several more places but at 2:30 had not had another bite. We were quitting at 3:00 PM so I decided to hit the tree one more time.

At 2:45 I decided I would make one more cast and leave. As I worked the jig and pig through the tree I got a hit and landed another spot weighing just under three pounds. I put it in the live well and ran to weigh-in, making it with five minutes to spare!

Is There Any Such Thing As A Lucky Hook?

Scott used his lucky hook to catch this bass

Scott used his lucky hook to catch this bass

Scott Martin’s Lucky Bass Hook
By Ron Presley
from The Fishing Wire

Bass pro Scott Martin, like a lot of top anglers, has a “thing” about his hooks–when money is on the line, he sticks with his favorites.

Stories of superstition and luck are not uncommon in the lore of the fishing community. One such story involves a lucky hook. Scott Martin is a bass fishing pro. He also hosts his own TV show, The Scott Martin Challenge. His tournament travels take him all over the place in search of big bags of bass. On one particular tournament trail he was heading toward Washington, D.C. to fish the 2012 FLW event on the Potomac River.

Like many conscientious tournament anglers he spent the evening before leaving for the Potomac in preparation. “As I was packing, getting ready to go to the tournament, getting my tackle in order, getting all my lures in order, getting all my hooks in order, I realized I was basically out of a particular size hook.” The missing hook was a Trokar TK130 4/0. A little bit of panic came over Scott as he realized he didn’t have a single one of his favorite worm hooks.

Scott immediately called Trokar with an urgent request. “Hey guys, overnight me some TK130’s immediately, I am leaving for the Potomac tomorrow and I am completely out.” The guys at Trokar responded, “no problem,” and Scott thought the dilemma was solved.

Morning came and in anticipation of the tournament he ended up taking off from his home in Clewiston, FL a little early. By the time the package of hooks showed up at Scott’s home he was on the highway travelling through north Florida. Decision making is a prominent part of tournament angling and in this case Scott had to make a decision to have his wife overnight the package again, at a personal cost of nearly $100, or pick up some hooks on the way. “The fact that I even considered overnight delivery tells you just how bad I wanted those hooks,” says Scott.

The Trokar TK130 in size 4/0 is Martin’s favorite for soft plastics in many situations.

With that decision made in favor of picking up some hooks on the way, Scott’s thoughts turned to prefishing. “Knowing that I had practice to complete I decided to stop at Bass Pro Shops. They carry Trokar and I planned to buy a couple packages to get me through the week.” Passing a few BPS along the way he waited until Washington D.C., where he walks into Bass Pro Shops the day before practice begins, looking for his hooks.

“I go to the Trokar Hook section,” says Scott, “and they have one pack of 4/0 hooks left.” There are five hooks in a pack, so Scott figures every thing is OK, at least for the next day of practice. “I was happy to find the one pack of TK130’s and I felt ready for practice the next day.”

Scott launched on the Potomac the next morning and wasted no time catching some nice fish. “I was flippin’ a worm rigged on a TK130 and the bass were tearing it up.” Scott likes the TK130 because it is a straight shank hook with a bait keeper on it. The offset hooks will sometimes grab pieces of slime or pieces of grass which fouls the presentation. The straight shank TK130 eliminates that. “It is a very weedless way of fishing a worm and contributed to my success on the Potomac.”

It is on the river that the suspense thickens. If there are two anglers in a boat and one is catching fish and the other isn’t, the one that’s not wants what the other one has, right? “So here we are,” says Scott, “catching some nice fish. My fishing buddy wanted a hook or two so I gave him a couple of hooks.” Scout thinks nothing about it, since he still has some spare hooks.

What he hadn’t planned on was what happened when he met up with his dad. When he did, he mentioned that he was catching a few fish on his worm rig and you guessed it, dad wanted a couple hooks too. Of course Scott obliged. “The next thing you know I am down to one hook. I’ve given all my hooks away except for the original one I tied on that morning. My idea was that I would run back to Bass Pro and hope they have some more in stock. I thought I would be OK.”

The first day of practice ends, but he doesn’t go to Bass Pro Shops to replenish his supply of hooks. The second day of practice ends and he still hasn’t been to Bass Pro. The third day of practice ends without Scott returning to Bass Pro Shops. “I kept checking that point on the only TK130 I had, and it felt super sharp, just like it did when I pulled it out of the package.”

Martin nearly ran short of hook-power in an FLW event on the Potomac River in 2012–and it could have cost him big money.

Day one of the tournament starts and Scott has one hook. It is the same “special” hook, on the same exact rod, that he fished all three days of practice with.

Scott goes out the first day of the Potomac River event and catches the biggest bag of the tournament at 22 pounds. He was leading by several pounds over his nearest competitor. “Now, I am getting a little panic stricken over this hook situation. I check the point again, realizing that Bass Pro Shops is an hour drive away; I am tired, the hook feels just like it did when I put it on. At this point it has become my lucky hook.”

So here he is, worried but tired. He caught a big giant bag of fish on his lucky hook. It is still sharp. He decides, “I am not going to change anything. It is kind of like not changing your underwear; I don’t think I changed that or my socks that day either. Call me superstitious.”

Now the one hook saga continues. The second day of the tournament comes around and Scott finished that day with the same TK130. Then the third and fourth day of the tournament come to an end. “At the end of the fourth day I am holding up a trophy with a $100,000 check in my hand, Potomac River champion, 2012. I caught every one of my bass on that TK130 4/0 hook.”

Scott Martin’s lucky hook now resides in a glass case at Eagle Claw headquarters in Denver, CO. Scott sums up the whole story by saying, “That’s why I love Trokar.”

Learn more about Scott Martin and The Scott Martin Challenge by visiting the website at http://www.scottmartinchallenge.com.

A Frustrating Tournament At Lake Lanier

Last Sunday 13 members and guests of the Flint River Bass Club fished our September tournament at Lake Lanier. It was a very frustrating tournament for all of us but one. There was only one limit weighed in and six people didn’t have a keeper. Three of those catching fish had only one keeper.

We weighed in 16 bass over the 14-inch minimum length after eight hours of casting. They weighed about 28 pounds. Five of the fish were largemouth, all the rest were spotted bass, as is expected at Lanier.

Kwong Yu wore us all out with a limit weighing 10.24 pounds and got the big fish award with a 2.35-pound largemouth. He also had another one weighing 2.33 pounds. JJ Polak was second with two keepers weighing 3.49 pounds, Gary Morrow had two at 3.23 pounds for second and Don Gober was fourth with two weighing 3.15 pound.

I was excited about this tournament. After doing a GON article with Rob Jordan on Lanier and seeing the size and numbers of fish that can be caught there I thought I could do well. Rob fished a tournament Saturday and I talked to him after it was over I was even more hopeful.

Rob and his partner had done well, catching a limit of spots weighing about 15 pounds and they got big fish with a spot weighing almost five pounds. They had caught most of their fish, including the big one, on a spot we put on the Map of the Month article.

Al and I fished a few places near the ramp since it was pretty dark. Then we ran down to Young Deer Creek. Rob said the spots were schooling on a point there and hitting topwater baits. They were getting a lot of hits on top but missing most of the fish. The big one was landed on a topwater bait but most of the fish were caught on Fish Head Spins.

We pulled up on one of the points and saw fish schooling but could not get them to hit anything. Then Al saw fishing breaking on the point across the creek so we went to them. We could see they were big bass but just did not seem to want our baits.

I did have two big fish blow up on my Zara Spook but didn’t hook them. After chasing them for an hour without any luck I tried a drop shot worm in the brush on the point and caught a keeper. But that was it. We fished there for another hour without a bite.

We left at about 11:00 to get closer to the ramp. The main lake gets terribly rough from all the big boats at Lanier so we wanted to get back across the big water before it got to be a miserable ride.

For the last three hours we tried docks without any bites but did catch some short fish on drop show worms in brush piles on points. But no more keepers.

The one keeper I caught and the small ones were in brush piles in about 30 feet of water. I am not used to fishing that deep but the spotted bass live in very deep water at Lanier, and you have to fish deep most of the year to catch them.

It was a good plan but as so often happens, the fish just were not on the same plan.

Fishing A Tournament At Lake Martin In Alabama

Lake Martin in Alabama is my favorite lake in the world. I have been fishing it since the mid 1970s and the bass clubs I am in fish a tournament there every October. Fall is a great time to be on Martin. Spotted bass are active and you can catch a lot of bass this time of year.

Two years ago in October the Potato Creek Bassmasters had a two day tournament at Martin. The 18 members of the club landed 162 bass weighing 215.03 pounds and there were 25 limits of five bass weighed in over the two days. Twelve of the members had a limit both days.

Lee Hancock won with ten bass weighing 18.77 pounds. Bobby Ferris was second with ten at 17.22 pounds, Tommy Reeves was third with ten weighing 16.4 pounds and Ryan Edge came in fourth with ten at 14.92 pounds. Jamie Beasley had big fish with a 3.89 pound bass.

The next weekend the Flint River Bass Club and the Spalding County Sportsman Club had a two day two club tournament at Martin. In 17 hours of fishing the 16 members of the two clubs brought in 130 keeper bass weighing about 166 pounds. There were 19 limits of five bass weighed in during the tournament and 8 members had limits both days.

I managed to win with ten bass weighing 15.57 pounds. Tom Tanner was second with 10 at 13.80 pounds, Gary Hattaway was third with ten weighing 13.39 and Mark Hawkins was fourth with 7 bass at 13.39 pounds. He also had big fish with a 3.93 pound bass.

It was fun catching a lot of bass even though the bigger fish were hard to find. I landed 31 keepers in the two days but my biggest fish was about two pounds. I tried everything I knew to find a bigger bass after landing my limits each day but never hooked one.

On the way to the lake last Thursday I called two people I have done articles with on the lake. One, a guide and tournament fisherman there, told me a pattern he was catching bigger fish on, but it only worked the first two hours each morning. He was fishing a spinner bait in blowdowns going into coves and creeks.

Friday morning I got up late and spend half the day riding and marking such places on my GPS, planning on fishing them fast each morning. At about 11:00 I decided to fish some and stopped in a creek I used to fish a lot. It is full of docks and brush piles but it gets fished so heavily now I seldom go there.

I quickly caught a 1.5 pound spotted bass from under a dock on a jig and pig so I started fishing docks. On about the fifth one I fished I hooked another 1.5 pound spot and, as I fought it to the boat I could see four more bass following it in the clear water. One of them was a solid five pounder!

A little further in the creek I cast into a brush pile, hooked another 1.5 pound spot and saw nine more bass following it! Four of them were bigger. The next brush pile produced another keeper spot and I saw six or seven following it. I knew where I would start.

Saturday morning I ran to that creek and thought I had messed up. I fished the docks and brush where I had caught and seen fish the day before and did not get a bite. I went across the cove at 8:00, after an hour of casting without a bite and cast a spinner bait across a point.

A solid fish slammed it and when I set the hook a nice two pound spot jumped. Since it was cool I was wearing a jacket with a hood. I had noticed the cord from the hood was hang down but had not done anything about it. Sure enough, it wrapped up in my reel handle as I fought the fish. Somehow it loosened the drag and I could not reel in line!

I managed to pull that bass in hand over hand and land it, so I figured I would have a lucky day. By 9:00 I had landed four more bass, one on a spinner bait and three on topwater. Bu 10:00 I had ten in the boat and culled down to the best five. I kept fishing that area but didn’t catch any more big enough to cull.

At 11:00 AM I ran way up the river where I have caught some big largemouth in the past but didn’t catch anything big enough to cull even tough I got five keepers up there.

Sunday was a repeat. At 9:00 I had five and had ten at 10:00. I tried something different, running down the lake to a hump where I had been told it was common to catch a big spotted bass in deep water, and I landed seven keepers there, but none were big enough to cull any I had caught first thing.

Did I mention I love Lake Martin?

West Point Night Bass Tournament

Night time did prove to be the right time for bass, at least for bigger fish, for a couple of us last Saturday night. Fishing was disappointingly tough at West Point though. Part of the problem was the wind. I have never fished at night with such a strong wind. The wind made it extremely hard to feel your bait and bites after dark.

Eleven members and guests fished the Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament from 5:00 PM to 1:00 AM. We brought 18 keeper bass to the scales weighing about 28 pounds after eight hours of casting. There were three limits but six people didn’t weigh in a fish. Three members left before weigh-in since they had one fish each and did not care about trying to get points.

I won with five at 8.36 pounds, Russell Prevatt had five at 6.51 pounds for second, Billy Roberts was third with five weighing 6.44 pounds and Niles Murray took fourth and big fish with one bass weighing 4.39 pounds.

Al Rosser fished with me and we started on a deep brush pile that I just knew was holding bass, but we never got a hit. After working it and some rock piles we started down a rocky bank at about 7:00 and Al got three small bass, too short to weigh, and I lost one small one.

Then at 7:30 Al got hung near the bank and as I moved the boat to try to get him loose I saw what looked like brush with fish in it about 20 feet off the bank. I turned and cast to it and landed a keeper spot, then threw right back and got my second one while Al was breaking off and retying his line. After 2.5 hours of fishing without a keeper I got two on back to back cast on a jig head worm. That is crazy.

About three hours later Al got hung up again and I cast a Texas rigged worm across a point the wind was blowing on and a two pound largemouth almost jerked the rod out of my hand. I landed it and kept fishing the point but the wind was too strong to really fish it effectively.

We went back to the rock piles to see if bass had moved into them in the dark but the wind was blowing right into them. I switched to a half ounce jig and pig trying to control my bait in the wind but even with it I could not really feel the rocks. We gave up and moved back to the deep brush we started on just as the small front blew through and the moon came up.

At 11:30 I felt a thump on my jig and pig and landed my biggest bass, a 3.32 pounder. After that the wind died some and we wore out the brush without another bite. By 12:15 we decided to try one last place and I got my fifth keeper, a spot bigger than the first two I caught, on the jig and pig.

I thought I might have big fish for the tournament but was shot down when Niles walked up with his bigger bass. Niles said he caught it on a spinner bait on the last cast he had time to make before heading to weigh-in.

So Niles caught the big fish after midnight and my three biggest all came between 10:00 and 1:00, so the bigger fish hit for the two of us late. Billy and Russell said they caught most of their bass before dark.