ABA, Big Marine, 8/17/08

Big Marine is one of those lakes where I always catch fish but can never break the 10 pound mark, this time would be different.
I did not want to make the same mistake I made on Clearwater by sticking with flipping all day, but I did not want to miss anything either so I planned on prefishing shallow and deep.
My brother Scott went pre-fishing with me since he had won a club tournament with over 12 pounds two weeks earlier on a deep spot. We first went to his winning spot where all we caught were 13 - 14 inch fish, we tried shallower and deeper but didn't catch anything bigger.
Scott said nothing was going in the reeds during his tournament but I wanted to check them anyway so we gave them a try with only two small fish for our efforts. I was looking at a map for other areas to check when I happened to remember a deep spot I found a few years ago, it only had small fish at that time but it would be another spot to go to. I ran to the spot, lined up the boat and made a cast, I immediatly hooked up with a 12 inch fish, then Scott landed a nice 16 incher. I threw back and quickly caught another 16 incher. At this point I knew what I was going to do during the tournament. I was going to sit on that spot all day if I had to since I had no bigger fish to go to anyway. I figured if I could catch 12+ pounds I should make the money and move near the top of the standings.
Tournament morning was a cool 55 degrees with a light Southwest breeze with stronger winds predicted for the afternoon. I drew boat 16 out of 32 and waited anxiously for the 7AM take off, hoping no one else had found the same spot. I arrived at my spot to find another angler very close to it, but he was casting a crankbait and moving away. I grabbed my Kistler Helium 7' Medium spin rod, moved up to the right depth and made my first cast and got bit right away, I threw out a buoy and reeled in a 13 incher. I put the fish in the livewell and quickly made another cast - another bite, this time a 15 incher. My next cast produced a fat 16 incher, a few minutes later - another 16 incher. By now I was pretty excited and took a minute to re-tie and compose myself. After a couple more casts - a 17 incher. It had only been 30 minutes and I already had a good limit - and the fish were still biting!
By 8am I had culled the 13 and the 15 and everything in the livewell now was over 16 inches. The bite slowed a bit but I was still catching fish and making culls once in a while. By about 10AM the boats that were fishing in the same general area had left, this gave me an opportunity to roam a little without someone moving in on my spot.
I was still gitting bit occasionally, but nothing that would help. At this point I knew I had between 12 and 13 pounds but I needed that one big kicker. I was starting to think I should move and go hog hunting, but decided I would stay all day and hope for the best.
About 1PM, about 30 yards away from my buoy, I caught a very fat 18 incher - which culled my lightest 16 incher and added probably a pound to my weight. Now I knew I had a pretty good chance of winning and was very anxious for the weigh-in.
By 2:30 the wind had come up pretty good and the skiers were out in full force. It was getting hard to hold on the spot and I was getting worried about my starting battery being dead from running the livewells and aerators all day. I decided I would head in early in case I had to jump start my battery. Fortunatly my motor started ok and I took my time going in. I made it in with time to spare, tied up and waited for weigh-in to start.
Since we weigh in by boat number and I was boat 16, I was able to watch some of the bags coming in. There was one 13 pound bag but most were in the 7-8 pound range. Finally it was my turn. While bagging my fish I realized I probably had better than the 13 pounds I originally thought. I weighed in with 14.04 which held up for 1st place and a 635.00 check.
This finish moved me up to 4th place in the standings with only the 2 day District Championship to go. The good thing is one of the 2 days is on Big Marine again!