Big Stack Tournament Day – Black Lake
We knew our boat numbers prior to tournament day which is really nice. It makes things simpler in the morning and makes decisions easier. I think ALL large weekend tournaments should do this. One of the big stresses a lot of us had was running the flats and dodging sandbars and reed patches on the way out of the river. I think we were all grateful to be launching out in the lake past that stuff. I was boat 19 and was excited about the first hour of the day. However I wasn’t thrilled about the calm and sunny conditions as I knew it was going to make my morning bite fade fast. My strategy was to hopefully get a good start and then go snatch a couple bed fish.
I was boat 19 so I was hesitant to go right to my bedfish and risk losing the area I really wanted to start in. I knew I didn’t have enough either way but if both things could work out I could have a decent day. I got to start exactly where I wanted to but the mayfly action was pretty much non existent when I arrived. I expected both a mix of smallmouth and largemouth in this area and had been getting bites on both a topwater and a swimbait.
About 10 minutes in and I finally saw one come up and eat a mayfly, I fired over there and had my first fish of the day. Shortly after that I got another one that happened to be the first non keeper largemouth I’d caught all week. It was calm enough to actually see out deeper at this point and I spotted a smallmouth on a bed in 6-7 feet. That fish ate before the bait even hit the bottom! Mayfly activity was fading fast and I saw one more blow up that I didn’t get a bite off of. I picked up another keeper on the swimbait and lost a heavy fish although who knows what that one was. I had 3 pretty quick and spotted another fish on a bed. It was a largemouth and I had no clue if it would actually keep. I fished for him for a few minutes before deciding I needed to go check a spot with 2 smallmouth close together. They were both solid fish and if I could get them I would be in good shape with the rest of the day to fish.
Unfortunately when I arrived there was a boat on them. I did get to check them later to confirm they were gone. I had some other stuff to check but unfortunately nothing was working. Some of it was looking, others were just fishing, and some was just more practice. A couple of the areas I really thought I was going to catch a few just fishing and it never materialized. I caught some short bass and of course pike, walleye, and rock bass. I don’t think I had caught a short bass the entire time until tournament day. I opted to return to my primary area but make it even bigger and see if I could get some bites on the way in. No keeper bass on the way in but I had kept that small largemouth on a bed in the back of my mind. I certainly needed another keeper and a morale fish at this point in the day. Fortunately I knew right where he was and that element of surprise is so important for largemouth. I could see the spot he was bedding on from a good distance away and he ate my dropshot on the first pitch. I had plenty of time left to score some bites from the area and make some moves. Not long after I set the hook on a heavy fish while throwing an old school spider grub. Pike, walleye, bass? It didn’t take long and a 3 ½- 3 ¾ pound smallmouth rocketed to the surface and I needed this one badly! After a tense battle I went to grab the net and the fish dug one last time and I watched it slip away. Talk about devastating, the fish did have a follower and I reeled in and dropped back on it as fast as I could. However it was already on its way out with the fish I caught. It did give me confidence that I could get some more bites here. I stuck with it and thought if I could get one or two more decent bites maybe I could sneak into check range.
After that lost fish I hit a lull, a lull to the point of last cast and then we are going to run new water for the last hour of the day. Except on that last cast I caught a 14.5 inch largemouth and finally had a limit. It kept me there for a little while longer and soon I culled with a decent smallmouth. Both were caught on the old school spider grub which I’m not sure why I was throwing except the water just seemed right for it. I saved about 10 minutes to pick somewhere new on the way in but I was out of time and I at least I had a limit.
They didn’t weigh much only 10lbs and change but after my poor decisions in practice I was happy to have them. It was definitely not one of those tournaments where things went my way. Sometimes that just happens and sometimes you can point your finger at certain things. I’ll definitely take all the blame for this one but it was good to at least get this series going. I’ll be looking forward to the next couple events even though they don’t set up well for me. I’m going to really have to do some research and hope for a couple lucky breaks to get me going in the right direction in both of them.