The Sunflower Team Series hosted an event on beautiful Wilson Lake on May 12th. It was going to be a great day for a tournament as the weather prediction was sunny and only 10 to 15 mph winds. There were 41 boats ready to tackle Wilson lake’s largemouth and smallmouth.
I was fishing with my son Nick. We were looking forward to fishing Wilson. I have never fished Wilson in May. But, I have fished Wilson before so I had an idea where to start and would just need to go a little more shallow. Being the sixth boat out, I fiqured we could be the first one to the spot. We started on secondary and main lake points in the area. We fished for an hour before moving to another spot that had some shallow grass and wood. I would hook up with a non-keeper largemouth on a frog. After another hour of fishing, I decided to move to our third area.
We arrived at the area finding about four other boats in the area. I drove all the way to the back of the cove. I was throwing a Senko special rigged and Nick was fishing a couple of different types of plastics. We came up to a ledge on a bluff with some grass. I tossed the Senko onto the grass and it took off to the side. I set the hook on a three pound smallmouth. After landing the fish, Nick and I were very excited. We fished down the bluff to another ledge with grass. I hooked up again with another three pound smallmouth on the Senko. After landing that fish, I told Nick to cast up there quickly while I got another Senko rigged up. Nick right away said “Dad I have one and it is a big fish”. He fought the fish to the boat and I landed it with the net. It was another 2.5lb smallmouth. When it jumped, it looked huge! They always look bigger when they jump. After fishing the spot for another hour without another bite and watching a couple of other boats landed fish around us, I decided to move on. It was a hard decision because there were fish in the spot. We fished around the cove for another hour in a couple of different areas, and never got another bite. So, we decided to move to a shallower cove, and Nick would catch 4 non-keepers on a tube. We tried a couple of main lake little pockets without much luck for the next few hours. With only 1 hour left, we moved back to were we caught the three keepers. I threw a Senko up to a white shallow spot between the cattails in 6 inch of water. The smallmouth hit it right away when it landed. I was able to get the fish out of the cattails and Nick landed it with the net. It was our fourth keeper. We were so pumped, but we still needed another keeper. Nick even gave me a one handed hug. We fished for 40 minutes without a bite. It was a long drive back to the boat ramp with only 4 fish. There were a lot of five fish limits and four fish bags at the weigh-in. Most of the fish were averaging three pounds. There was also one big smallmouth at 5-11lb. I won’t be very surprised if in the next year the Kansas State record smallmouth is caught in Wilson. Nick and I had 11.70lb for 18th place. Not bad out of 41 boats, and one more fish would have got us in the top 10. It was awesome to fish with my son. Nick is a grinder; he will fish all eight hours and never quit. Even when he has not caught a fish, he won’t quit. Thanks Rick and Kip for giving me the chances to fish tournaments with my sons. We will see you at the Melvern tournament on June 9.
Love father and son stories.