I haven't had much time to write about my experience at the 2009 Women's Bassmaster Classic. For those that are interested, I will summarize my experience.
The tournament was moved to 4 different locations on the day of registration due to flooding in Louisiana. The final location was Cypress Black Bayou Lake. A mostly residential lake covering about 700 acres of water. With only 20 boats and very little public traffic you wouldn't think it would be so bad but the fishing got smaller and smaller each day. This lake was a "slot lake" meaning you could keep 12" to 14" inch fish, throw back anything from 14" to 17", and keep anything over 17". Personally, this slot limit really hurt me and I know it hurt many others. Hope we never fish a slot lake again.
Pros and coanglers were paired for 1 day of practice and that same pairing fished together on the Day 1 of the tournament. I was paired with Lisa Johnson. I knew Lisa before this tournament and I really enjoy her family. Her husband and inlaws come to every tournament and invited me to play washers with them at our 1st tournament. They also provide me with a cool beer after every weighin. LOL! Gotta love them for that. The temp was in the 80's for practice and it rained pretty hard in the morning. We "shook off" so many fish. It was CRAZY! The frontal bite was on like Donkey Kong. I've never had fish bite like that during any tournament setting. However, I knew it was too good to be true. Best lures for the day were a Zoom Trick Worm, a Berkley crazy leg chiggar craw, and a Strike King Coffee tube. Temps dropped 20 degrees for Day 1 of the tournament and shut these fish off.
Day 1 was much slower. My pro and I went to our best 2 spots right out of the gate and didn't catch anything. Not a good feeling! I had a few good bites on my tube but my hookset failed me both times. I really have trouble setting the hook on these tubes still haven't figured out why (7' MH rod, curado, 12lb seaguar fluro, 3/16 tungsten, 3/0 ewg worm hook (guessing this is the problem)). I tried a 5/0 tube hook one of the pros gave me but that hook was huge and I didn't do any better. I got bites on a Yum vibra tube and didnt have trouble with my hook set. The coffee tubes draw many more bites so I prefer those. The wall of the coffee tubes is much thicker. I push the hook all the way thru and then skin hook it. Any suggestions? Any way, I ended up weighing 3 fish Day 1 all under 14 inches. My pro weighed 1 12" fish. I felt bad for her.
Day 2 was FREEZING at launch. 40's with wind. I fished with Diana Clark on Day 2. She is a very well respected pro but I never had much interaction with her. After fishing with her all day, I sure wouldn't want to be on her bad side. LOL! Her co-angler whooped her on Day 1 and brought in 4 fish weighing 9.11 lbs. Monica went on to win the coangler classic. We went to the spot they whacked them on Day 1 and NOTHING. Sat there until 10am. Dianna caught one 12" fish and I caught nothing. Fish were suppose to "come in and feed" but they never did. We spent the rest of the day running around. I busted 2 fish off a boat dock within 5 minutes but slot fish. It sure does hurt to throw back 3 to 4 lb fish in a tournament, especially as a coangler. You wait all day and finally catch a nice fish and then you have to toss it. I ended up weighing 2 fish and she weighed only 1. The bite was much slower and the fish that were weighed went way down. Diana did tell me at the end of the day, "I only let one coangler prefish with me but you are welcome in my boat anytime." That made me feel good even though my day stunk.
Day 3 I fished with Tammy Richardson. Very nice lady and very good angler. Most of you guys would drool over her too. LOL! It was even colder in the morning and my hands were frozen. She gave me some hand warmers to stick in my pockets so that helped a bit. She caught several slot fish out of brush piles. I didn't have much luck. She pretty much picked them apart before I got to them (as she should). I caught one really nice slot fish which was about the highlight of my day. I had one of those days where nothing went right but no excuses. I am just not good at catching fish when they are being stubborn. After all the fish she caught, she only weighed 1 dink. I blanked for the day.
Overall, I had a great time. I finished 18th out of 20 but I didn't feel too bad about it. I know the slot fish affected me as well as others. I was just happy to even qualify for the Classic in my first year. BASS paid for our rooms if we shared with someone and provided lunches every day which was nice. The rewards banquet was nice and of course they called my name to come get my check while I was in the bathroom. LOL!~ Had to run in and up to the front after everyone was waiting on me. Kind of embarrassing but fitting for me.
I got to know some of the anglers alot better. I lost alot of respect for some and gained alot of respect for others. The hot spot for the tournament was the famous "bridge". Judy Wong fished it for all 3 days and never moved. She won by the way. Juanita Robinson and Pam Martin Wells were also parked on it. Day 3 there were "words" exchanged and some other situations between anglers that I found ridiculous. I was involved Day 1 and Day 2 with another pro pulling up and fishing right in front of us. Words were exchanged in both cases. It was interesting to say the least.
I signed autographs alot which I found funny. If you had a fishing shirt on, the kids were flocking to you. It was cute.
In summary, I can't wait to do it again next year!
The tournament was moved to 4 different locations on the day of registration due to flooding in Louisiana. The final location was Cypress Black Bayou Lake. A mostly residential lake covering about 700 acres of water. With only 20 boats and very little public traffic you wouldn't think it would be so bad but the fishing got smaller and smaller each day. This lake was a "slot lake" meaning you could keep 12" to 14" inch fish, throw back anything from 14" to 17", and keep anything over 17". Personally, this slot limit really hurt me and I know it hurt many others. Hope we never fish a slot lake again.
Pros and coanglers were paired for 1 day of practice and that same pairing fished together on the Day 1 of the tournament. I was paired with Lisa Johnson. I knew Lisa before this tournament and I really enjoy her family. Her husband and inlaws come to every tournament and invited me to play washers with them at our 1st tournament. They also provide me with a cool beer after every weighin. LOL! Gotta love them for that. The temp was in the 80's for practice and it rained pretty hard in the morning. We "shook off" so many fish. It was CRAZY! The frontal bite was on like Donkey Kong. I've never had fish bite like that during any tournament setting. However, I knew it was too good to be true. Best lures for the day were a Zoom Trick Worm, a Berkley crazy leg chiggar craw, and a Strike King Coffee tube. Temps dropped 20 degrees for Day 1 of the tournament and shut these fish off.
Day 1 was much slower. My pro and I went to our best 2 spots right out of the gate and didn't catch anything. Not a good feeling! I had a few good bites on my tube but my hookset failed me both times. I really have trouble setting the hook on these tubes still haven't figured out why (7' MH rod, curado, 12lb seaguar fluro, 3/16 tungsten, 3/0 ewg worm hook (guessing this is the problem)). I tried a 5/0 tube hook one of the pros gave me but that hook was huge and I didn't do any better. I got bites on a Yum vibra tube and didnt have trouble with my hook set. The coffee tubes draw many more bites so I prefer those. The wall of the coffee tubes is much thicker. I push the hook all the way thru and then skin hook it. Any suggestions? Any way, I ended up weighing 3 fish Day 1 all under 14 inches. My pro weighed 1 12" fish. I felt bad for her.
Day 2 was FREEZING at launch. 40's with wind. I fished with Diana Clark on Day 2. She is a very well respected pro but I never had much interaction with her. After fishing with her all day, I sure wouldn't want to be on her bad side. LOL! Her co-angler whooped her on Day 1 and brought in 4 fish weighing 9.11 lbs. Monica went on to win the coangler classic. We went to the spot they whacked them on Day 1 and NOTHING. Sat there until 10am. Dianna caught one 12" fish and I caught nothing. Fish were suppose to "come in and feed" but they never did. We spent the rest of the day running around. I busted 2 fish off a boat dock within 5 minutes but slot fish. It sure does hurt to throw back 3 to 4 lb fish in a tournament, especially as a coangler. You wait all day and finally catch a nice fish and then you have to toss it. I ended up weighing 2 fish and she weighed only 1. The bite was much slower and the fish that were weighed went way down. Diana did tell me at the end of the day, "I only let one coangler prefish with me but you are welcome in my boat anytime." That made me feel good even though my day stunk.
Day 3 I fished with Tammy Richardson. Very nice lady and very good angler. Most of you guys would drool over her too. LOL! It was even colder in the morning and my hands were frozen. She gave me some hand warmers to stick in my pockets so that helped a bit. She caught several slot fish out of brush piles. I didn't have much luck. She pretty much picked them apart before I got to them (as she should). I caught one really nice slot fish which was about the highlight of my day. I had one of those days where nothing went right but no excuses. I am just not good at catching fish when they are being stubborn. After all the fish she caught, she only weighed 1 dink. I blanked for the day.
Overall, I had a great time. I finished 18th out of 20 but I didn't feel too bad about it. I know the slot fish affected me as well as others. I was just happy to even qualify for the Classic in my first year. BASS paid for our rooms if we shared with someone and provided lunches every day which was nice. The rewards banquet was nice and of course they called my name to come get my check while I was in the bathroom. LOL!~ Had to run in and up to the front after everyone was waiting on me. Kind of embarrassing but fitting for me.
I got to know some of the anglers alot better. I lost alot of respect for some and gained alot of respect for others. The hot spot for the tournament was the famous "bridge". Judy Wong fished it for all 3 days and never moved. She won by the way. Juanita Robinson and Pam Martin Wells were also parked on it. Day 3 there were "words" exchanged and some other situations between anglers that I found ridiculous. I was involved Day 1 and Day 2 with another pro pulling up and fishing right in front of us. Words were exchanged in both cases. It was interesting to say the least.
I signed autographs alot which I found funny. If you had a fishing shirt on, the kids were flocking to you. It was cute.
In summary, I can't wait to do it again next year!
