Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Castaways-2009 Small Boat Trail

Castaways Bass Fishing will host a tournament trail in 2009 for small boats (17 feet max and 40hp max). The tournaments Kick-off on January 24th at Lake Reedy and ends with an end-of-the-year Classic at Lake Marion on October 24th, 2009. It is a team trail and costs $50 per team and a $15 yearly membership fee. For more information and a full schedule of tournaments go to http://www.castawaysbassfishing.com/

or contact Johnny Lockaby at 813-833-5786

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Lake Tarpon Reports

Thursday October 23rd

Went out on Lake Tarpon for about 3 and half hours and did pretty good. Got on the Lake about 12:30 and the wind was howling! I worked a lipless crank bait (that shall remain nameless) all around the north end catching 3 shorts. I moved to mid-lake area and and caught 3 keepers in about 25 minutes with 2 and a 3 pounder all on the same lipless crank. They were hitting it well as the waves were pushing the baitfish all over the place.

Saturday October 25th
Tournament-North Tampa Bass Club

With another windy day in store, I planned on throwing my lipless crankbait with reckless abandon and that 's exactly what I did! The only thing was the bite just wasn't there today. I stuck with it far to much as I kept catching small fish, thinking I was going to get that big bite if I keep cranking. I eventually stopped cranking and targeted docks. The fish were there but it was becoming evident that it just wasn't my day as I lost a fish that was in the 6-8 pound range. With less than an hour left in the tournament I got several more bites but could not land them, one being about a 2 and half pounder. I finished the tournament with an unbelievable 0 fish on my home lake but somehow held on for Angler of the Year. This was one of the toughest days overall I have fished on Tarpon!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Maiden Voyage on the Kayak

I bought a kayak a few weeks ago and I finally got to get her out today! My Dad has owned one for a few years now so we got together and launched at Crystal Beach for a few hours of paddlin and fishin! My main focus was just to get out there and feel it out as I have never been out on a kayak before but I was definately getting in a few casts! It was a little shaky at first but I quickly got the hang of it. We headed north out of Crystal Beach and after about a mile or so we decided to stop and throw some shrimpies out. We located a deeper cut along some docks and it was loaded with fish! My Dad got things started with a small trout, his first fish on his yak and I quickly landed my first fish, a small snapper. A few minutes later, my shrimp got railed and my drag was screaming! After a several minute fight, my fish still hadn't shown itself. After initially thinking it was a red, I was convinced it was a snook as it kept going on serious runs and dragging me around in circles! I finally got a good look at it and realized it was a nice Jack! Not bad for the first day on the Kayak! All-in-all, it was a beautiful day on the water and we managed about 9 fish between us in a few hours. Looking forward to many days with pops out on the kayaks!


Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Last Stop, Harris Chain!

Well it's taken me all year to do it but I have finally taken over the points lead for Angler of the Year for The North Tampa Bass Club. It has been kind of a struggle as I started the year cold as usual and missed a tournament in March putting me behind the eight ball. I needed a big tourny somewhere along the way and I got that at Rousseau with a 16.10 pound bag and a 7.01 big fish in May that would catapult me into the top three. A 7.01lber at Kissimmee gave me enough to pass the leader Kevin Hayton (who didn't fish because of boat problems) with one tourney to go! So here we go into the final tournament with approximately a 4 lb lead over second and a 6 and 7 pound lead over third and fourth respectively. I plan on coming out strong and holding my lead! Good luck to all my pursuers, lets get it on!

Monday, October 13, 2008

Big Zero at the Big "O"!

We had are 2 day end-of-the-year classic tournament for Xtreme Bass Series on Lake Okeechobee out of Roland Martin Marina in Clewiston this past weekend and the fishing was as tough as I have ever faced! My partner Kevin and I couldn't manage a single bite in 3 days of fishing! Thank you Roland Martin for putting a Tiki bar in your resort! The conditions were not particularly bad so I am not sure if we just couldn't find the fish or they just didn't want what we had to offer. We did fish a multitude of different baits in every color of the rainbow in every presentation we could think of in countless number of spots so it couldn't be us right? Had to be those moody Okee-bass! Actually only 75 teams out of 126 weighed in fish on day one. The rumor was that the high water (15 feet) had the fish really spread out and it took some work to find them. Some of the spots we fished included Coot Bay, East Wall, West Wall, Rita Island, Dynamite Holes, Uncle Joes Cut, Uncle Joes Trail, and all up and down the Rim Canal. The guys that did well all seemed to have had fished the north end of the lake. We heard that it took anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to make the run from Clewiston and for us to make that run would probably be closer to 2 hours if even possible in the windy conditions and my 17 foot bass boat. The winners had somewhere around 35 pounds and won a new Ranger 198 VX with an 200 Evinrude for their efforts! All in all, we had a great time, got to meet lots of new people from different trails, and it was great to finally fish Okeechobee even though it got the best of us this time!

http://www.rolandmartinmarina.com/

Over an hour wait at registration went by a little quicker with a few cold ones. Here's Kev trying to decide which one to start with!



Grass beds as far as the eye can see! Where do we start??