Thursday, May 24, 2012

Philipsburg Bassmasters 1st Tournament of 2012: Sayers Dam (March 30, 2012)

So I had my first club tournament of the year on March 30 at Sayers Dam. My goal for this year was to win a couple tournaments and gain confidence in a few techniques that I have ignored since I have been tournament fishing (Jig and Dropshot, and maybe Spinnerbait.) My at take off I had a couple places in mind that I would hit throughout the morning. There was about 10 club members present at the tournament so I decided to head to a place where I didnt think I would have any company. I hit this spot for about an hour and finally, when I was hitting it one last time, I had a big largemouth hit my bait in about 6-8 feet of water. I boated my first keeper of the morning, a 4.19 lb largemouth. After fishing for a little while longer with no more bites, I decided to move to my second spot. There was a little bit of wind so I was guessing that this place would work fairly decent. I was right as I picked up my second and only other keeper of the day on a Rapala DT6. She went 4.96 lbs. I fished for the rest of the day and could not boat another keeper. In PA during March, a keeper bass had to be 15 inches as opposed to 12 inches after bass season comes back in. I caught many other bass on a crankbait that day and many of them would have been keepers had the limit been 12 inches. But anyways, when I got back to the launch I found out that 2 other boats had their 3 fish limit. I was happy to see though that the closest competitor to me only had 8.5 lbs with 3 fish and my 2 fish went 9.15 lbs to take the first tournament of the year and also come home with the Lunker pot. My next tournament is June 16 at Lake Erie. It should be an exciting tournament and I am expecting big things this year in our club!