Philipsburg Bassmasters 6th Tournament of 2012: Sayers Dam August 25, 2012

Well I just finished up my 6th club tournament of the summer which was held at Sayers Dam.  I have never had much luck fishing Sayers in August so I did not have high hopes coming into Saturday.  I went up during the week one day and only managed to catch 2 11 inch fish in the very stained water. 

Saturday was no different with the water conditions as it was still very stained and there was a lot of junk floating around as well.  

I figured I would do what I have been doing all year which is dropshot but that did not seem to pan out.  Topwater in the morning also did not produce.  The trusty senko as well as a Power Team Lures Sick Stick did the trick for me.  I caught about 7 fish on either one of them.  The PTL Sick Stick is absolutely SICK on a wacky rig!   

I ended the day with 3 fish for 3.00lbs.  Good enough for a very surprising 3rd place finish!  My next tournament is September 8 at Raystown Lake.  Should be a fun one!

Tight Lines!

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!

Philipsburg Bassmasters Allegeny River/ Clarion River tournament (July 9 and 10, 2011)

Today I fished day 2 of the club's two day tournament. Day 1 was held at the Allegeny River at East Brady and Day 2 was held at the Clarion River (Millcreek Launch.) I spent all of yesterday moving in and cleaning my new apartment so I was unable to make it to the Allegeny portion of this tournament. Some guys in the club reported that the fishing was decent that day.

My buddy and new club member, Joe Quick and I made it there and were on the water by 5:45. Whenever we launched and were heading out we decided to go the opposite direction of everyone else. We went downstream while the other 2 boats in the tournament went upstream. It turned out to be a pretty goo move for us.

We fished down past the second bridge and I caught my first fish of the day on a Rage Tail Craw flipping it by a dock. I then missed another fish that looked like it wouldve been a keeper.

We ended up fishing for a little bit longer and Joe hooked into a nice keeper largemouth. It weighed in at 1.78lbs and actually took lunker for the day!

After fishing a little bit longer, I moved to a spot that looked like it would produce.. it was a feeder creek that dumped into the Clarion and was very shallow..i ended up catching 4 or 5 fish in this little area and got my second and only other keeper.

We made it back into the weigh in and Joe and I found out that we were the only ones who were solidly on fish! There was 1 other guy who weighed a fish today as the other two had a rough day on the water. I felt pretty good knowing I went into a place that I have never fished before and actually figured something out. I ended up having 1.80 lbs for my two keepers and took 1st place for the day! Joe's 1 fish put him 2 hundredths of a pound behind me and in 2nd place for the day. Since the tournament was a two day tournament, they combined the weights from the two days and I ended up finishing in 3rd place for the second tournament in a row and cashing a check and Joe ended up in 4th place and taking home a check for the lunker.

In all, it was a great day and I had fun trying to figure out fish on a very tough place, the Clarion River.

I will not be able to make the next two club tournaments on Kinzua Dam on July 30 because I am getting married that day and on August 13 at Raystown because I leave for my honeymoon in Alaska that day. The next time I will be in action with the club will be August 27 at Sayers. It will probably be a rough one for sure but I am really looking forward to it.



Thanks for reading and feel free to comment!