Anyone who knows me, knows I love to flip reeds - almost to a fault! Case in point - Clearwater lake. I have never been confidant with the deep bite on Clearwater, mainly because I don't spend much time fishing deep with so many reeds available.
This lake is full of reeds but I have found that some are more consistent than others.
Pre-fishing, I discovered the bass were holding on the points of reedbeds. I was not getting a lot of bites, but when I did they were 15 - 16 inches and one that was close to 18.
Tournament day I was faced with cold front conditions, cool and 10-15 mph East winds. I knew fishing would be tough so I planned on fishing for five good bites, based on pre-fishing I figured I could come out with about 12 pounds and I would have a shot at the money.
I started on the reed bed that I felt held the biggest fish, pitching a Texas rigged black neon B-A-Hawg with my Kistler HE76XHC flippin stick. I worked all the way around slowly with no bites. After moving to my next spot I quickly caught a 12 incher, I worked the same area a while longer with no more bites so I continued around the reedbed. When I reached the other side I hooked up with a 14 incher, but no more. On the next reed bed I caught two more 14 inchers. I still needed one more for a limit but I knew I had a lot of culling to do so I was hoping the bite would pick up. I ran to an area that had a lot of reed beds close together, planning to fish one in particular, but someone was already there so I moved to the next closest one even though I had never fished it before. At this point I was going to fish every reed bed I could whether I had fished it before or not. It didn't take long before I felt a bite, after a bit of a battle a 3lber was in the livewell. A good way to finish a limit but I still needed to do some culling to have a chance. After two hours working around all the reedbeds in the area and losing a couple of small fish I finally hooked up with another 14 incher that would cull the 12 incher. It was now about 1:30 and I had around 9lbs, I decided to go back through the areas I had already caught fish in hoping the bite had picked up - it didn't.
With about an hour to go I ran to a small bay that the entrance was lined with reeds and had some docks that held fish in a previous tournament. I didn't get any bites in the reeds and the docks were so shallow & weedy I couldn't skip a lure under them, I did manage to get two 12 inchers on a frog but that was it.
I ended up weighing in 9.95 lbs for 21st place. Sounds like the guys that fished deep caught fish all day and weighed any where from 10 to 13 pounds. The winner had about 16 lbs but I never heard what he was doing.
And so the story goes - I love flipping reeds - almost to a fault. This time it costed me a good finish. Half way through the day I should have realized the reed bite was just not happening and I should have taken a chance on something else, I had nothing to lose at that point.
Art Simms Bass Fishing
- Art Simms
- I started bass fishing after watching all of the fishing shows on tv. A few years later I thought I was pretty good, until I entered a few tournaments. I quickly realized that I wasn't as good as I thought and was only donating my money. In 1997 I joined the Viking Bassmasters of the Minnesota Bass Federation to hone my skills with some guys more experienced than me. Since that time I have learned a lot and had some major success. I have been Viking Bassmasters Club Champion three times and won sixteen club tournaments. I was the Fishers of Men Minnesota East division champion in 2006, along with a few money tournament wins and numerous top tens.
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