Well let me start off by saying if you don't fish your state FLW TBF you should. If I can qualify for the nationals than anybody can. And they treat you like royalty at these things. Here's my play by play:
Tuesday March 10:
My birthday actually, turned 35...what a birthday present. I am traveling with our TBF state president Tim. We go to the BPS "Mecca" at Springfield.......wow! It really takes 2 days to take this whole place in. I had already spent at least $500 in tackle for the season and specifically this tourney before ever leaving NY but hey.....you can't walk into the largest fishing tackle store in the world and not buy stuff LOL! I ended up spending over $100 more between the BPS at Springfield and the one in Branson.
We head out the last 45 minutes to Branson and after 2 days on the road arrive at the Branson Hilton overlooking lake Taneycomo. I check in and they had me staying alone so I got to choose.....king suite or double bed? Hmmmmm?????? Ahhhh King suite! And I get it on the 11th floor with a balcony overlooking the lake and BPS! You just can't make this stuff up.
It's nearly 80 degrees and has been for over a week. The fish have to be moving up into the coves with spawning on their brains and it turns out they were. However, the forecast was scary.
I go to the boat yard and there are 44 Ranger Z520's awaiting us with new Minn Kota Vortex motors and new Lowrance HDS units. Now I know most of you are Nitro owners but you owe it to yourself to hitch a ride in one of these Cadillacs if you ever get the chance. I finish up loading my gear and head in for registration.
As we check in there is a line of sponsors handing out gifts just for being there. We each got a brand new pair SOSpenders to wear for the week and keep when we were done. A nice SS swiss army knife from Lowrance, A nice diecast BP model of the boat we were running that week, a bottle of rejuvenade, a bunch of t-shirts, hats and other stuff.
Dinner was a 5 course meal and awesome, but as we were listening to the rules and pairings etc, everyone kept looking at the ceiling and frowning cause we all could hear the thunderstorm outside that was bringing the cold with it.
Wednesday March 11: Official practice day
Breakfast at 4 am and the staff there did an awesome job. I head out to my boat and the weather is 28 degrees, overcast and pretty breezy. For clothes I had on jeans and my 100 mph bibs, a t-shirt, my tourney shirt, an insulated Ranger coat and then my 100 mph parka over that a knit cap over my fishing hat and the hood pulled up tight over that with ski goggles on......not enough. I ended up putting on military grade winter thermals, 2 pairs of BPS insulated winter socks and a an insulated Ranger winter coat instead of the parka. Along with my hunting gloves when running and a pair of jersey gloves with the fingers cut off for fishing.
We start on a steep bluff wall. I tried the usual jerkbaits and deep crankbait with no luck. My non boater starts throwing a white grub on a 1/4 oz shaky head. Now, I had had grubs on, (as many of you know from posts in years past.....I tend to throw a Zoom Fat Albert grub now and then
)
Pretty quick he starts getting bit and then with a white 5" swim bait gets a nice spot.
The rest of the day we were only able to find fish way back in the coves that had good ledge structure and deep water in the middle. In one of them there was a nice laydown log. I had to use much lighter line on my jig than I'm used to, 10lb flurocarbon line on a 6'6" med action rod. I tossed to the log and immediately got bit. I had to wait almost a minute to shake that fish off. We marked the spot and got out of there. It turned out that with the northern wind, north sided coves that were protected were the way to go.......or so we thought.
I will continue the rest in another post so this doesn't get too long.
Tuesday March 10:
My birthday actually, turned 35...what a birthday present. I am traveling with our TBF state president Tim. We go to the BPS "Mecca" at Springfield.......wow! It really takes 2 days to take this whole place in. I had already spent at least $500 in tackle for the season and specifically this tourney before ever leaving NY but hey.....you can't walk into the largest fishing tackle store in the world and not buy stuff LOL! I ended up spending over $100 more between the BPS at Springfield and the one in Branson.
We head out the last 45 minutes to Branson and after 2 days on the road arrive at the Branson Hilton overlooking lake Taneycomo. I check in and they had me staying alone so I got to choose.....king suite or double bed? Hmmmmm?????? Ahhhh King suite! And I get it on the 11th floor with a balcony overlooking the lake and BPS! You just can't make this stuff up.
It's nearly 80 degrees and has been for over a week. The fish have to be moving up into the coves with spawning on their brains and it turns out they were. However, the forecast was scary.
I go to the boat yard and there are 44 Ranger Z520's awaiting us with new Minn Kota Vortex motors and new Lowrance HDS units. Now I know most of you are Nitro owners but you owe it to yourself to hitch a ride in one of these Cadillacs if you ever get the chance. I finish up loading my gear and head in for registration.
As we check in there is a line of sponsors handing out gifts just for being there. We each got a brand new pair SOSpenders to wear for the week and keep when we were done. A nice SS swiss army knife from Lowrance, A nice diecast BP model of the boat we were running that week, a bottle of rejuvenade, a bunch of t-shirts, hats and other stuff.
Dinner was a 5 course meal and awesome, but as we were listening to the rules and pairings etc, everyone kept looking at the ceiling and frowning cause we all could hear the thunderstorm outside that was bringing the cold with it.
Wednesday March 11: Official practice day
Breakfast at 4 am and the staff there did an awesome job. I head out to my boat and the weather is 28 degrees, overcast and pretty breezy. For clothes I had on jeans and my 100 mph bibs, a t-shirt, my tourney shirt, an insulated Ranger coat and then my 100 mph parka over that a knit cap over my fishing hat and the hood pulled up tight over that with ski goggles on......not enough. I ended up putting on military grade winter thermals, 2 pairs of BPS insulated winter socks and a an insulated Ranger winter coat instead of the parka. Along with my hunting gloves when running and a pair of jersey gloves with the fingers cut off for fishing.
We start on a steep bluff wall. I tried the usual jerkbaits and deep crankbait with no luck. My non boater starts throwing a white grub on a 1/4 oz shaky head. Now, I had had grubs on, (as many of you know from posts in years past.....I tend to throw a Zoom Fat Albert grub now and then
)Pretty quick he starts getting bit and then with a white 5" swim bait gets a nice spot.
The rest of the day we were only able to find fish way back in the coves that had good ledge structure and deep water in the middle. In one of them there was a nice laydown log. I had to use much lighter line on my jig than I'm used to, 10lb flurocarbon line on a 6'6" med action rod. I tossed to the log and immediately got bit. I had to wait almost a minute to shake that fish off. We marked the spot and got out of there. It turned out that with the northern wind, north sided coves that were protected were the way to go.......or so we thought.
I will continue the rest in another post so this doesn't get too long.
