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Darin Roddick-Small's Tournament Journal |
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Big Bucks Bass Journal Madison Chain May 10, 2008 Prefishing May 3-4 Air Temperature ranged from 45-55 degrees over the two days, by no means great fishing weather. This was following mid 70’s up through Thursday. A strong cold front rolled into town and winds were blowing up to 35-40 miles per hour. Given the conditions, I went to an area that I knew would have some good weed growth. I stated there because I figured they would be hiding in the weed clumps. I was able to get a few good bites on Saturday fishing a black spinnerbait in less than two feet of water. I knew that these were not fish that would win for us, but I knew this was a spawning flat and the fish could move up on it by tournament day. On Sunday, day two of prefishing, I started looking for big fish in deep water in classic prespawn locations. This would include long weedy points, mid lake humps and ledges that drop off into deeper water. We fished these areas with Carolina rigs, football heads jigs and I even through a jig worm at them a little. I al of the places we tried, no takers. We did however find a few good patches of weeds that I could go back and fish if needed. Prefishing Summary I was not overly excited going into my tournament with what I had found. With that being said, I knew that my first priority would have to be getting a limit, even if I knew they would not win the event. This was true due to the year end points standings that we would be fishing to win. Even with a lot of short males in the areas we found, I knew that if the weather changed in our favor, the females would be right there. It was now a waiting game as I would not be able to get out for the remainder of the time before the tournament. Tournament Day Tournament day greeted us much like our prefishing. The week before had been in the mid to upper 70’s and the females were moving up. Tournament day greeted us with another cold front and moderate winds. I knew this would drive the females off of the shallows. With this being the case, I decided to rig my rods up with the following selections. - Black Spinnerbait - Shallow running crankbait - Mid level crank bait - Super K Swim Jigs in Beat Up - Super K Swim Jigs in Natural Craw - Venom Salty Sling in Watermelon Gold Flake When the fishing finally started and we pulled into our first spot, I was throwing the spinnerbait and my partner was throwing a swim jig. Within five minutes, I scored our first legal of the day, a 15 inch large mouth. We continued to work the area for the next hour and connected on a number of legal bass. We caught about 8 legals before we decided we needed to go looking for bigger fish as they did not seem to be there yet. We figured we would come back later in the day in hopes that some females would have moved in. We headed to our other spots on the main lake where my partner had some larger fish going in the days before the event. We fished in various areas for the next four hours trying to hook up with some bigger fish. No luck there. All we had to show for our efforts were a northern and a musky that flashed at the side of the boat. With 2 ½ hours left in the day, we headed back to our spawning flat in the hopes that some bigger fish had moved on. We worked the area and did not score any big fish. We spent the last hour on a secondary flat just on the outside of the bay. It was during this time that we saw another boat catch about a 4 pound largie about 20 yards from us. It was a fitting ending for our day. We ended up catching about three more legals, but nothing that would help us out much. We ended our day catching about 20 legals, with our best six weighing in at 11.62 pounds and finishing in about the middle of the pack. All in all, I was not too upset with things, I would have like to have done better, but I knew that with the lack of prefishing I was able to do, it would be though to do really well. I am already looking forward to giving the locals a run for their money at the next event where I will be able to get some solid prefishing in. Lastly, I would like to thank my sponsors for their support and their great products. Please take a moment to check them out. Super K Jigs Darin Roddick-Small |
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