Philipsburg Bassmasters 7th Tournament of 2012: Lake Raystown (September 9, 2012)

Today was my club's 7th tournament of the season and I did not have high expectations for this one.  There was a Jim's Anchorage tournament today so I knew that with my small boat, that I was not going to make a long run for the fear that someone would be in my spot after running for 30 minutes to get there.
I started out fishing up in Snyder's Run but did not have any luck.  I decided to make a run to near Seven Points and made a quick stop to a rocky point with a steep cliff near it.  That quick stop ended up being where I fished all day!   They were eating my Power Team Lures Finicky Tickler like it was candy!   That Hog Tonic scent really attracts the bass!  I caught 4 keepers off a dropshot fishing along steep banks.  Whenever I would come up on a tree I would throw a senko into it and usually get at least a nibble (darn bluegills). 

I caught my kicker fish which was only a 2.54# largemouth on a senko.  Around 12 o'clock I caught my 6th keeper on a dropshot on the point where I started and ended up culling a 12oz fish.

I ended up finishing with 7.54lbs with 5 fish.  One of my fish died so I had to take a 1/2lb penalty.  I ended up taking 1st place for the day which was really a surprise.

I can't praise Power Team lures enough for the exceptional quality of their baits.  I am happy to be on their pro-staff and their baits alone helped me win today.  I don't think I could have had the success I had using any other bait.  A couple guys in the club weighed 3 fish but no one else brought in a limit today.   Everyone reported catching fish and I had 76 degrees for water temp on this September morning.

Next tournament is September 22 in which I will not be attending.  A buddy of mine is getting married and I am in the wedding!  Should be a fun one. 

I am heading out to Colorado this coming Saturday for a nice getaway with my wife and her family.  Going to do some fly fishing out there in which I will try and post some pictures.

My next tournament I will be attending is September 29 at Curwensville Lake in which my Club is hosting.  Guaranteed 1000$ payout if you are interested please contact me!

Next club tournament I will attend is October 4 at Lake Chataqua in New York.  Should be a blast!
Tightlines!

Philipsburg Bassmasters 3rd Tournament of 2012: East Branch Dam July 7,2012

Our 3rd club tournament of the year was held this past weekend at East Branch Dam in Wilcox, PA.  I have never been to this lake before so going into the day, my goal was to just weigh in 1 fish in order to get some club points.     I took my dad with me and I met him at his house at 3am.  We met Woody in Bigler around 3:30am and we were on our way.  We ended up launching around 5:45 and there were only 4 boats in the tournament.  A total of 6 club members participated for the day.     Jeff Wood ended up bagging a limit real early in the morning on a topwater bait  and taking first place and Ed Eckess found a limit of smallmouth also for 2nd.   I was able to pull in 3 quality keeper smallmouth for a total of 6.03lbs with my lunker just missing big fish with 2.51lbs.  Lunker was 2.60.    

I was throwing a dropshot all day and with 45 minutes left, I found a place that wouldve won me the tournament if I could have had more time to fish it.  I ended up fishing it way too fast and was not able to take my time.    

Our next tournament is July 21 and 22 at the Allegheny River Pool 9 (East Brady.)    

If you are interested in joining the club, please email me at jtmoslak@gmail.com or call 814-553-4831    We could use some new members.  Tournaments are 25$ and we have a club meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of Every month at Reliance Fire Hall in Philipsburg across from Weis Markets.

Tightlines!

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!

Philipsburg Bassmasters: Lake Erie Tournament (June 18, 2011)

Well, Adam Hurley and I hit up Lake Erie for my club tournament back in June. I have never fished Lake Erie so I was pretty much going in blind for the day. I did a little research and had some ideas on what I was going to do and what areas in the bay that I was going to try.
We got on the water around 6:00 and we headed to our first spot. On my very first cast I hooked into a 14.5inch smallmouth. I knew it was going to be a great day. I ended up catching 4 fish from my first spot and managed my first keeper of the day. It was a 15.5inch smallmouth.

We then decided to try another spot after the spot slowed down a little bit and fished the wall leading into the lake. Adam caught a bunch of fish on a senko and I managed a couple more. After the tournament was about halfway done, I decided to run back to that wall because I knew it would start producing for us. Luckily, I was right and I landed my 2nd and 3rd keepers in a matter of about an hour. I culled twice during that time and figured I had about 5.5lbs in the boat between my 3 fish.

With about 20 minutes remaining in the tournament we decided to fish in front of the Perry monument. On my tenth cast or so I threw a tube out and hooked into a fish I thought was barely legal when I saw it jump. When I got it to the boat, Hurley netted it for me and I upgraded my 1.5lb smallmouth I had to a 3.5lb smallmouth! After that we headed to the weigh in and I ended up in 3rd place for the day with 7.47lbs and my first ever check. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year for me (except I will be missing a couple tournament due to getting married! haha I will update on my club tournament on the Allegeny/Clarion River soon.

Thanks for reading!

Raystown Lake Tournament 9/13/09

I had a tournament on Raystown Lake in Huntingdon,PA on Sunday for my first ever tournament on Raystown. I used my knowledge gained from my first ever trip to Raystown (see my previous post) in order to catch a few fish. The fish weren't biting like they were a couple weeks ago when i was there but that didnt stop me from pushing and fishing hard to get a fish in the livewell. I worked a no wake zone for the first part of the morning near snyders run but to no avail... so I told my buddy Tyler that we were gonna make a run for the area right before Seven Points Marina. I told him not to let me stop until we got there.

When we got there, there was a team already fishing on the shallow point in the weeds but that was ok.. all my fish before came just down from there. So we were workin that area throwing a wacky rigged GreenPumkin Senko. after a little bit i had a real nice hit and i could see the fish take off with it.. I was pitching into about 12 feet of water that was about 10 feet infront of the boat. Well i swung and rolled the first fish. probably 30 feet down from there i swung and missed another nice one... so i hurried up and put the rod down and threw in a Watermelon Red Senko texas rigged with a 1/8 oz tungsten weight on it.. that thing no sooner hit bottom and WAM! that fish took off with it.. i set the hook and my net man netted it smooth as silk.. here is a picture of it

That ended up being the only keeper i caught all the day but i learned if you miss a fish, to not give up on it because i didnt give up and ended up with a 2.22lb Largemouth and 6th place in the club tourney...
Catch ya later