Philipsburg Bassmasters 4th and 5th Tournament of Season: July 21,22 (Allegheny River, Pool 9) and August 4, 2012 (Kinzua Dam)

We had our 4th club tournament on Julys 21 and 22 at East Brady (Allegheny River, Pool 9).  This was our biggest even thus far with a total of 11 club members coming out and fishing this tournament.  It was a 2 day tournament in which Saturday night we fished from 4-8:30 and Sunday morning was 6-12pm.  

We launched Saturday evening and I went to the spot where I usually start.  I started fishing under a bridge and about 1 hour into it I got my first keeper.  I decided I was dropshotting for smallmouth all evening and it seemed to pay off.  I couldn't find any schools of smallies but I was able to hit a couple spots where I found 1 smallmouth here and there.  I worked myself back up river towards the launch and I ended up in catching 4 keepers for the evening.  My biggest fish for the evening turned out to be a smallmouth that weighed 1.94lbs.  After day 1, my total of 4 fish for 5.59lbs put me sitting nicely in second.  Only one other angler had 4 fish for the evening and I was sitting only ounces behind him.
I hit pretty much the same spots the next day and everyone else reported having a difficult time catching fish.  I ended up with one keeper smallmouth for 1.04lbs which kept me sitting in second place for the tournament.  It was a good time to say the least and I enjoyed fishing the Allegheny River.

 On 8/4 the club fished at Kinzua Dam which is one of my favorite places to fish.  I fished around the Bridge all day throwing mostly Optimum Baits Wacky shads and AA Worms Straight Tails and absolutely smacked the bass.  I love these baits and you definitely need to try them!  I caught 4 keepers for the day cycling back and forth between 3 spots.  I didnt hit my fall spots yet because the fish are still relatively deep.   I ended up taking 4th place with 5.76lbs topped off with my 2.52lb lunker smallmouth.  Next tournament is August 11th at the 3 Rivers in Pittsburgh!  See you there!

Philipsburg Bassmasters Lake Erie tournament: June 16,2012

Our second club tournament of the year took place on June 16, 2012 in Lake Erie, PA.  We launched out of Presque Isle Bay around 5:30am.   One of my good buddies came with me to fish the tournament who had a little bit of experience fishing the lake.  Jeremy Lake was the 2009 winner of the FLW College Fishing tournament held on this amazing fishery.

Going into the day, we had a pretty solid plan in place.  We knew we were going to dropshot... dropshot... and dropshot some more.    So after placing a nice Tackle Warehouse order, we were well ready to go for the tournament.

After blastoff, we made a run to just outside PIB to fish a pipeline that Jeremy found while fishing with Penn State.  We fished there for around an hour and I ended up putting 2 keeper largemouth into the boat.  Both Jeremy and I knew that those fish wouldn't be good enough to get me into the money so we made about a 4 mile run to fish 15ft of water.  As soon as we got there it was game on!  We ended up catching probably 25 keepers between the two of us.  I can't say enough about the Shimano Stradic and St. Croix Avid rod I was using.  They held up very very nicely this tournament and the drag on the Stradic was perfect.  Also, the Gamakatsu hooks I was using made for a perfect hookup everytime.  I think I only lost 1 fish the entire tournament.     Also, I could not have caught as many fish if it wasn't for the Tabu Tackle Whiptail worm I was using.  This and another bait that I won't name really produced some nice fish for us!

We had a great time and cannot wait to go back!  Jeremy has a Fisher's of Men Regional tournament there in the fall and I would love to go back up and prefish it with him.       I ended up in 2nd place for the day with 3 Smallmouth for 8.15 lbs with my lunker being 3.07lbs.   1st place was taken by Jack Lynch with 9.15lbs.     Jeremy almost won lunker for the day with a 3.74lb smallmouth.  Here is a couple pictures of our fish for the day!

Tightlines!