ABA - Big Marine

After all the success I had on Big Marine last year I was really looking forward to this years tournament. My only concern was since the tournament is in June instead of August, the big fish might not be on my best spot yet.

I had been on vacation all week and did not plan on pre-fishing but decided to go out Saturday anyway. I went directly to my best spot and on my first cast caught a 3 pounder, I made another cast and got bit again. At this point I was convinced the big ones were there, so I spent the next couple of hours checking some other spots that normally have lots of fish on them, but not the size. They all had fish on them and they were biting well, so I called it a day and left to prepare for the next day.

Tournament morning it seemed as though everything was going my way, beautiful 55 degree morning, light winds, no rain in the forecast, my fish were there and I even drew boat number one!

I arrived at my spot and made my first cast with a jigworm tied to my Kistler HE70MS, put down the trolling motor and when I picked up my jig, a fish was on, a 14 incher went into the livewell. On my next cast another 14 incher, then a 15, then a 13, then another 14. Five casts and five fish, only not the size I planned on. My next cast produced another 13 incher which I released, then I caught a 14 1/2 which culled the 13. In 25 minutes I caught a limit and culled, but then it shut off. I continued to fish the spot for a couple more hours hoping the big fish would turn on, but it never happened. I had two other waypoints in the same general area so I decided to move around a bit and hopefully cull up. I fished the other two spots with no success and decided to spend more time on the original spot. About noon, without another bite, it was time to hit some other spots I knew of. After about a hour and a half and several spots later, and still no more bites, I opted to kill the rest of the day on my best spot. About 2:30 I finally got another bite and culled a slimmer 14 with a fatter one, adding maybe an ounce or two to my weight. At this point my only hope was that everyone was having as tough a day as I was and hopefully I had enough to make the money.
Turns out it was a tough day for everyone, it took only about 11 pounds to win and a few bags in the 10 pound range finished out the money spots. I finished with 7.82 pounds although I'm not sure what place I ended up in because there were a few bags between 7 and 8 pounds.