Tuesday, March 18, 2014

KATS Bass Tournament #4 by Ray Martinez

Well, Alright alright alright... It seems I'm not as bad as I thought at this tournament thing. Tournament number FIVE...well actually number four, (I had to miss one due to a wedding I was in.) was held  at Lake Bastrop just 30 mins east of Austin. I have fished this lake once before with decent luck. This lake is known to have a lot of bass and fishes well year round. The water temp stays rather warm due to the fact that this is a power plant lake. That being said, many other anglers came out as well to try there luck on such a fishy lake... No pun intended... lol. There were 74 registered to be exact.
this fish was the heaviest 4lbs. she was THICK
We did the normal check-In and rules review as always, and set out. I had a particular spot in mind. Hoping no one else would trek out that way it being rather close to the boat ramp. Although this "AREA" is kind of a known spot, there was no one headed out with me or even there when I arrived. YESS!!!  Once I positioned myself, I began to fish a square bill crank bait to search for fish; third cast in I get a slap at my bait right at the Frontier. Immediately cast back out to the same location , and bang! FISH ON!. Measured her on the ol' hawg trough at 16 inches, snapped a pic and started fishing again. Several casts in I hook up with 2 more fish both in the 17-18 inch range. Things are loooooooking GOOD. The bite turned off for a bit, but I stayed confident in this spot.

Personally I didn't want to move as it was on a small creek channel protected from the hard winds on the main lake. Took a glance behind me just to find....you know it....three bass boats headed my way. It appeared there was another tournament  going on but with motor boats. Each of the boats kindly positions themselves around the same area. It was quite the site. All of us almost fishing in a circle. Each boat was able to catch a fish every now and then, but none over 14 inches. I was slinging in quite a few fish of size on my personal favorite and go-to texas- rig brush hog. It was a great feeling to know that I wasn't just doing well but doing better then other fishermen around me. The only unfortunate thing was when I switched back to a square bill crank bait I lost three very nice fish well over the 18+inches range. I was more than crushed to see the three good fish go away and not in my boat. Time was running low and needed to head back. I fished around for a bit on the way as it wasn't to far from the launch location. Quite satisfied with my bag but was sure if it was enough. I really could have used the three shallow hooked missing fish... lol. All and all this was a much better venture than the events before.
After turning in my top 5 of the 13 fish I caught. We all gather around to hear the winning total. When they announced 94 inches to fifth place I kicked myself ,but was glad to see that I had done well over all. My five fish totaled right at 90 inches. The winner of the event totaled 98 inches. Cool thing was it was a friend and fishing buddy of mine. Over all I finished 8th of 74. Not a bad day in the books. The NuCanoe strikes again on another exciting day on the water.

  Until the next time out..... keep fishing and tight lines.






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