Well I actually slept like a rock the night before. I had been exhausted and the cold didn't help. I had nearly fallen asleep in the shower!
We head out to the boats and wait for our driver. They provided a driver to dump us and pick us up every day. It was awesome.
We put at K dock around 6:35 am, can't take off until at least 7:15 because it is pitch black out. As we were floating in the sea of boats in the light of cameras and the FLW trailer I see a fish blow up on the surface right behind a row of boats beached by the dock. The air is only 30 degrees and the water 45, so I wasn't sure what I was seeing. I pulled over and picked up a dieing threadfin shad about 4" long. They are very silver almost white and there were TONS of them around the lake that were either dieing from the cold front or were out of balance with their swim bladders and were flopping around on the surface all over the lake. Kind of hard to compete with that, but that was where the 5" Fat Albert grub came in. It mimicked a dieing one that was sinking perfectly.
7:30 am, "And in a TBF specicalty boat, Rob LaMoy of NY and David Martinez of AZ, boat #39. Go get 'em Rob!" Robert Cartlidge (the TBF president and a true gentleman) sent us off. We went up to the cove where I had shook off the big fish. I cranked my way back in with no takers. I pulled up to the log and dropped my PB&J spider grub jig on the log and BAM there he was. Whatever it was, it was a big fish. With only 10 lb test I could only hang on. This fish knew just what to do, he wrapped me around that log and "snap"......he was gone. What can you do? I picked myself up, retied another jig and went back to work.
We came out of the cove and I there was a long tapering point going over to the next cove. I cranked it with my Sexy Shad series 5 and the bait started running weird.....yeah, cause a barely keeper 12" spot had "fouled" the running! LOL Anywho, 1 small keeper in the box. I then pulled back into the next cove and drop the jig into a real nice looking little nook in the rocks and almost immediatley....smack, a nice bite. I flip the fish in the boat....a nice large head. He's close so I put him on the stick.....14 7/8".........are you kidding me????
Had to toss him back. Largies and smallies had to be 15" and spots 12".
Eventually we had run most of our coves with no luck. But we realized the wind had shifted and what had been our protected coves were now having the wind blow right into them. So what would you do? If you ain't catching fish, no need to freeze right? Plus the fish were more active in the protected coves so we switched fields, and went to the south side coves.
It's getting pretty late by now, probably 1:00pm and we're due back at 3:30, (good thing too, cause that extra 1/2 hour was critical for me).
As we pull up to the first cove on the other side it was much deeper and we started fishing the "corner" going in. My co-angler started getting bit on the white grub. Now I was throwing smoke but getting no interest. As we worked out of that cove down the shoreline to the next one, we had a row of timber just off shore. Now the fish weren't really relating to the timber but I think they liked having it nearby sort of like a security blanket if you will. My co limits out and I only have the little rat in the box. I'm not proud, I bummed some white grubs. The sky starts getting dark and the wind picks up. The snow starts stinging us in the face. Game over huh? Co-angler puts on a jerkbait to start culling and only a few minutes later lands his big fish of the day. And that is when everything started coming together. As we came up to the next corner of the next cove my line started jumping on every other cast. The Lowrance HDS5 was alive with bait fish and big arcs. Man, I had found the mother lode! In short order I had my limit......2:45...OK, one more fish to cull the little rat. At 3:00 I land another fish that culls me up maybe 5 oz. And we're off running back to check in. I came in about 5-10 minutes early, I didn't want to chance anything and quite frankly, we were frozen.
We warm up in the truck on the way back to the convention center and weigh in. Once there we got our bags and headed back stage. I could hear the dock talk. "Yeah....some guy in the northern division nailed 19 lbs". Oh man.......
Well apparently some guys had had the good fortune and finances made available to them by their states to fly out and pre-fish, some even hired guides for a week. I did not have that luxury. I had just my knowledge of fish, my desire, and stubborness! I came here to do a job and a job I was going to do!!! 2 guys in my division blanked....no surprise there. The surprise was the 17, 18, and 19 lb bags. WHAT lake were those guys fishing????
Charlie Evans calls me up on stage, "Rob LaMoy from New York. Well Rob has a limit, but Rob I gotta say, that's the smallest 5 fish limit I've seen today!" OUCH! 6 lbs 5 oz. But good enough for 4th place in my division. I had over a 6 lb deficit to make up to win my division. My co came in with 7 and change taking the co lead for the western. Good for him. Well, off to dinner and to get me some white grubs and some much needed sleep.
To be continued:
We head out to the boats and wait for our driver. They provided a driver to dump us and pick us up every day. It was awesome.
We put at K dock around 6:35 am, can't take off until at least 7:15 because it is pitch black out. As we were floating in the sea of boats in the light of cameras and the FLW trailer I see a fish blow up on the surface right behind a row of boats beached by the dock. The air is only 30 degrees and the water 45, so I wasn't sure what I was seeing. I pulled over and picked up a dieing threadfin shad about 4" long. They are very silver almost white and there were TONS of them around the lake that were either dieing from the cold front or were out of balance with their swim bladders and were flopping around on the surface all over the lake. Kind of hard to compete with that, but that was where the 5" Fat Albert grub came in. It mimicked a dieing one that was sinking perfectly.
7:30 am, "And in a TBF specicalty boat, Rob LaMoy of NY and David Martinez of AZ, boat #39. Go get 'em Rob!" Robert Cartlidge (the TBF president and a true gentleman) sent us off. We went up to the cove where I had shook off the big fish. I cranked my way back in with no takers. I pulled up to the log and dropped my PB&J spider grub jig on the log and BAM there he was. Whatever it was, it was a big fish. With only 10 lb test I could only hang on. This fish knew just what to do, he wrapped me around that log and "snap"......he was gone. What can you do? I picked myself up, retied another jig and went back to work.
We came out of the cove and I there was a long tapering point going over to the next cove. I cranked it with my Sexy Shad series 5 and the bait started running weird.....yeah, cause a barely keeper 12" spot had "fouled" the running! LOL Anywho, 1 small keeper in the box. I then pulled back into the next cove and drop the jig into a real nice looking little nook in the rocks and almost immediatley....smack, a nice bite. I flip the fish in the boat....a nice large head. He's close so I put him on the stick.....14 7/8".........are you kidding me????
Had to toss him back. Largies and smallies had to be 15" and spots 12".Eventually we had run most of our coves with no luck. But we realized the wind had shifted and what had been our protected coves were now having the wind blow right into them. So what would you do? If you ain't catching fish, no need to freeze right? Plus the fish were more active in the protected coves so we switched fields, and went to the south side coves.
It's getting pretty late by now, probably 1:00pm and we're due back at 3:30, (good thing too, cause that extra 1/2 hour was critical for me).
As we pull up to the first cove on the other side it was much deeper and we started fishing the "corner" going in. My co-angler started getting bit on the white grub. Now I was throwing smoke but getting no interest. As we worked out of that cove down the shoreline to the next one, we had a row of timber just off shore. Now the fish weren't really relating to the timber but I think they liked having it nearby sort of like a security blanket if you will. My co limits out and I only have the little rat in the box. I'm not proud, I bummed some white grubs. The sky starts getting dark and the wind picks up. The snow starts stinging us in the face. Game over huh? Co-angler puts on a jerkbait to start culling and only a few minutes later lands his big fish of the day. And that is when everything started coming together. As we came up to the next corner of the next cove my line started jumping on every other cast. The Lowrance HDS5 was alive with bait fish and big arcs. Man, I had found the mother lode! In short order I had my limit......2:45...OK, one more fish to cull the little rat. At 3:00 I land another fish that culls me up maybe 5 oz. And we're off running back to check in. I came in about 5-10 minutes early, I didn't want to chance anything and quite frankly, we were frozen.
We warm up in the truck on the way back to the convention center and weigh in. Once there we got our bags and headed back stage. I could hear the dock talk. "Yeah....some guy in the northern division nailed 19 lbs". Oh man.......
Well apparently some guys had had the good fortune and finances made available to them by their states to fly out and pre-fish, some even hired guides for a week. I did not have that luxury. I had just my knowledge of fish, my desire, and stubborness! I came here to do a job and a job I was going to do!!! 2 guys in my division blanked....no surprise there. The surprise was the 17, 18, and 19 lb bags. WHAT lake were those guys fishing????
Charlie Evans calls me up on stage, "Rob LaMoy from New York. Well Rob has a limit, but Rob I gotta say, that's the smallest 5 fish limit I've seen today!" OUCH! 6 lbs 5 oz. But good enough for 4th place in my division. I had over a 6 lb deficit to make up to win my division. My co came in with 7 and change taking the co lead for the western. Good for him. Well, off to dinner and to get me some white grubs and some much needed sleep.
To be continued:
