8/9/14 - 8/10/14 - MA B.A.S.S. Nation State Team Fish-Offs
Day 1 (6:30am-3pm) - Paired with Larry and his 20' Procraft. Nice Rig, and fun guy to fish with. We start on a spot that he has confidence in, mostly for froggin'. Just before we get into the main froggin' area, I bring my 1/4oz Boag Hog Bait Swim/Grass Jig past the out edge/alley way of the mat and get hammered! Big swirl and Bass smashed it! Fight it to the net, and in the boat would be my biggest of the day, a 3lber. In the next hour, and a couple passes through the same spot Larry gets a couple nice 3+lbers on the frog. I was stuggling with the frog, so made the change to the rage frog. I one point I had a bass swipe the rage frog 7 times in a row. Just too small to get though the mat effectively. Finally I do get one to take it. More grass than fish, 1-1/4lber in the box. We try another spot, and it not really giving us anything. Sun is high in the sky as we are near a pontoon boat. 1st skip way under, pick it up, feel weight, but it drops it. 2nd skip to the other side of the motor, pick it up slower and the line it moving, yank it out of there for number three, 1-3/4lber in the box. Give the 1st spot another look, bite is slow but Larry manages one more out of there. Number 3 for him is 1-1/2lber. We run a couple of my spots after, and on the spot a couple kayakers are right where we want to fish in this small cove. And of course, one of them lands a 2lber in front of us. I get a pike...next spot. Larry has a massive blow-out on his buzzbait, and fights in for a couple minutes, but in comes unbuttoned. Fought like a Bass, but we didn't see it. Bummer. It's getting later in the day so we keep working down the shoreline. Larry is throwing toward the bank with the frog, but off the opposite of the boat toward the channel the mat is a little more sparse and in a little deeper water. Out comes the Swim Jig again, Bam, 2lber in the box for fish number 4. Another couple Pike too. With about a half hour left we had our way into a wind blown cove with some more nice sparse mat in the back. About 2:45 Larry gets into one on the Buzz Bait. About a 3lber for his 4th fish. It destroyed his buzzbait though. He says" Keep fishing, we got about 10 minutes, I'm pack some of my stuff up". So with the wind I'm chucking the spinnerbait, 5 minutes late I get into number 5, another 2lber to finish out my limit. End of day 1 weigh-in, had my in the top 20 with 10.05lbs. It was a fun day, with now a new friend to fish with in the future.
Day 2 (6:30am - 2:30pm) My day 2 boater Eli had top 5 with 14+lbs on day 1 (His Co-Angler had 12+lbs on Day 1). So we started the day positive. He had two fish very early. But the wheels fell off after that. Nothing the rest of the day...ouch. Both frustrated at days end wondering what happened. With my zero on the board, I fell to 37th overall out of 54.
Despite the outcome, it was a great learning experience overall. Yes, there are some things I would have done differently, but also some things I would do exactly the same. Looking forward to another chance at it next year! Congrats to all who made the team, especially 2 of my boys from Avid, with Johnny finishing 6th, and Al in 8th!