Category: Triple Hooked Blogs

Kansas Bass Youth Qualifier & Championship

On Sunday, May 6, the twins had two tournaments to fish on Melvern for the Kansas Bass Nation Youth Trail. They were making up their 4th Qualifier tournament that was supposed to be on Milford, but due to weather in April, it was cancelled. The Qualifier was going to be from 7am to 11am. The lake was cut in half so we could only fish from West State Park straight across the lake to the south and west part of the lake. This would save the east area and dam for the championship. It was going to be a very nice day to fish.  In fact, maybe a little too nice as the wind wasn’t going to blow much. Boys and I had done our homework for this event pre-fishing 4 times. We had found 4 good spots; two for the Qualifier and the other spots for the Championship. Being spring, fish are moving around everywhere. During the cold weather, we were catching fish in prespawn mood about two weeks ago. Then the weather warmed up, and the fish decided to start spawning.  The fishing had gotten harder. The last time the twins and I pre-fished, it was tough as the Kansas Buddy Bass tournament was taking place. We had only caught one keeper, but we were getting a lot of bites. I told the boys the fish are picking our baits up and moving them off the beds. It would be our best spot in the championship.

Kansas Youth Bass Qualifier #4

We decided to start in Turkey in back of some of the pockets. Which the Friday before, I had a couple of bites pre-fishing. Fishing was going to be tough with the high school and another adult tournament fishing the day before. I told the boys to start with crankbaits and topwater. Never know this time of year, you can sometimes get a big fish to hit something by fishing slowly across the surfaces. We fished it for about a hour. I told the twins, “Lets go to one of our best spots and see if we can catch one there”. It had not produced for a couple of weeks, but we were hoping the fish had pulled back up on it. The twins both started with plastics on the spot dragging them slowly back to the boat. All of sudden, Kyle set the hook right next to the boat in 9 feet of water. The big smallmouth jumped right out of the water next to the boat. I was getting the net out of the locker telling him “Don’t reel!  Just keep your line tight.” We finally got him in the net, and after a couple of high fives, put number one in the boat. Kyle would hook up with another smaller non-keeper a couple of casts later. I decided to move out a little deeper so they could fish the 9 feet range better as we were seeing a lot of fish on the depthfinder in that range. Kyle would catch 2 more non-keepers before we moved on. We had only one hour left before weigh-in, and decided to check a couple of other spots that had produced for me in the past. Never know, maybe we could find a spot for the afternoon championship. We weren’t able to catch any more fish, and had the one smallmouth to weigh-in. All the teams had a hard time with just half the field catching fish. A lot of teams were saving their spots for the championship. Two teams had two fish, so I knew it would be hard to win with one fish. Twins ended up tied for second with 3.65lb, but having big fish took second place. They had a lot of confidence going into the championship. The championship wouldn’t start until 1pm.

Kansas Youth Bass Championship

I knew we were going to start at our best spot on the lake. It had not fished very well the last couple of weeks. Twins started with plastics slowly dragging them along the bottom. They caught about 4 non-keepers before we got in the back of a pocket which had fish moving around. Kyle casted up to a stickup very shallow and his line took off to the side. It was our first keeper and largemouth of the day. We fished for another 30 minutes without catching another fish. I decided to move to the spot that a week before I had caught the good largemouth. We pulled up to the spot and Kyle hooked up right away with a keeper. Both the twins would catch three non-keepers and missed some fish. We were fishing back and forth, then Kyle hooked up with another keeper. Had three keepers with 2 hours to go. After another 30 minutes, we moved to the spot we caught the big smallmouth. We were hoping to catch another big fish, but we fished for 45 minutes without a bite. I looked at the twins and said “Let’s go to a spot that maybe we could catch another keeper.” Idling out of the cove I decided to go back to the spot that we caught the two keepers. It would be the best decision of the day. I told the boys on the drive over this could be a champion move. I pulled up to the best spot. Nick’s second cast, he hooked up with the fourth keeper largemouth of the day. After landing it, celebrated, and had 20 minutes to go. I told the boys, “We need one more.” Which wouldn’t happen.  It was a hard ride back to the boat ramp. Pulling up to

the boat ramp all the kids started to ask who had fish. Another boat had 4 keepers, so it would be between us and them. It was going to be close as they had 4 smallmouth and we had 4 largemouth. They weighed first having 7.57lb.  We were next. Gulp.  Our weight was 7.83 pounds. The twins won the Championship! It was close, and both teams deserved to go to the nationals. I was so proud of the boys and how hard they fished. Kyle was on today catching 4 keepers through the day. Nick never quit, kept fishing hard, and caught the final fish that would win the tournament. They worked so hard for the Championship. This July ,the twins will represent Kansas at Bassmaster National Junior Championship in Tennessee.

Fishing Fundraiser On Perry

I decided to fish a fundraiser this last weekend on Perry for K-State Fishing Team with a friend. I did a little pre-fishing, and it was tough.  I was able to catch one 3 pound smallmouth of a main lake point. I decided to start on main lake points with plastics. It was supposed to be a very nice day, but it started cold and a north wind was on the spot. After just one bite, we moved to the next point in the area. I would catch 4 non-keeper smallmouth on 5 casts. Being a big fish contest with 4 weighing periods, we needed to find some bigger fish. We moved around the lake trying docks, the marina, and the back of pockets. We didn’t have any luck for several hours. Then we went to fish some wood, and was able to catch one more non-keeper smallmouth on a swimming jig. We had heard that the big fish was 5.12lb and several more 5 pounders were weighted in. I probably ran around the lake more then I have ever before. We never could find any more fish. My friend was able late in the day to hook up with a fish on a crankbait. I thought we finally had a fish we could weigh in. NO, IT WAS A DRUM!! We decided to call it a day.  It was nice to hangout with a friend I had not fished with in 4 years. K-State put on a nice tournament. One thing about fishing, there is always a next time.

 

 

March 2018 Fishing Review

March was a tough month with the weather changing daily. But, we fought through it, and we went fishing at least once or twice a week. It can be a great month if you are willing to put up with the weather. We started the month off with a fishing trip to one of my favorite lakes in Kansas. Kyle caught the biggest bass of the month so far this year at 4.25lb on a lipless crankbait. Check out the post “15 Minutes of Greatness”.

Next trip was the boys’ KBN Youth Team Series. It is a great organizing if you have some boys or girls between 7 – 13 years old that love fishing and would like to fish tournaments for bass.  Check it out. The tournament was on Big Hill, and the boys would place 3rd with two small keepers. One thing I learned, have the kids fish their strengths and not yours. But, anytime at this age it is good to teach the kids even during the tournament. If you would like to check out the story more, here is the link “Youth Tournament on Big Hill”.

Ponds can be a great time to fish in March..They warm-up quicker and locating the fish is a lot easier than lakes. I always like to take the boys pond fishing at the beginning of the year. It gets them in a grove of hooking fish and catching them. You can also catch a big fish this time of year. One of the best baits is Swimbaits any size from 2 inches to 5 inches will work in ponds. If you are catching small fish, up the size of your bait to catch bigger fish. Here are a couple of past blogs I wrote about “Pond Fishing” and “Pond Fishing 2”.

I fished a tournament on Melvern with Kyle in cold and windy condition but, we where able to catch 1 keeper and catch 4 more fish. I’m excited about fishing tournament with the twins.

Twins love fishing. Kyle the other day was talking to Melissa about summer plans. He said ” Fishing Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday then start it all over”. It is a passion with the boys, and I can share it with them. I hope you enjoy the fishing stories and blogs.

 

Drum on Milford

I went pre-fishing for an upcoming tournament for the twins on Milford. I happened to run into a couple of drum on this cold day. Also, I was able to catch a nice spotted bass and lost a really good largemouth bass in a different area. Of course the camera wasn’t on. The tournament was postponed due to the weather. The weather has really been tough this year. We have had a lot of cold days and not very many warm days. I have a feeling the next week that it is warm, it is going to be crazy. The fish are waiting for the warm weather.

Melvern Sunflower Team Series Tournament

Sunflower Team Series had their first event; Kyle and I were ready. It was a cold morning as we waited at the ramp with the other 39 boats for take-off. The wind was going to blow hard out of the NW about 20 mph. That was going to make it hard to fish our best spot. But, we were going to go there and fish as long as we could. Kyle was throwing a finesse bait and I started with a Jerkbait. We fished two hours in the spot with only 1 bite, and we did watch another boat land a keeper in the area. I knew they were there, but something had changed. Kyle was also getting very cold, and it was hard to fish in the wind.

We decided to move to another spot out of the wind, so we could fish a little slower and maybe feel a bite. We moved to area that had a lot of secondary points as we could fish multiple spots out of the wind. Everyone else was there too, and there were probably 10 boats or more in the area. I looked at Kyle and said, “Lets do something crazy; go throw square bills in the back of these pockets.” The water temp was 49 to 50 degrees. We fished around in the back of a pocket when we came to a drain, and I hooked up. I had a good smallmouth on, and Kyle was fighting with getting the net out. I told him to take his time; he finally got it out and netted our first and only keeper of the day.  It weighted 2.34lb. We would catch 3 more fish on square bills in the pockets. Kyle would catch 1 smallmouth on a secondary point with a finesse bait to end the day. I thought we fished hard for the conditions, and was so proud of Kyle.  He never said anything negative about the weather and just kept fishing. We would end up 16th place out of 39 teams; not a bad start. There were about 20 boats that didn’t come in with a keeper. The next Sunflower Team series event will be at El Dorado April 14. Thanks to Rick and Kip for putting on a great event and letting me fish with my boys. Nick will fish the 3rd Event at Wilson with me.

March Bass fishing on Melvern

I had an upcoming tournament on Melvern, so the twins and I decided to go prefish. It was a cloudy day with a little bit of wind. It didn’t take very long to hook up on my first three casts. We caught 12, lost 4, and we had the best luck on finesse baits and Jerkbaits. There was only one area we could get a bite. It is funny to watch the video and notice how long I would let the jerkbait set. It was cool to have Kyle catch a jerkbait fish. We are hoping the fish will be there next week when Kyle and I fish the first Sunflower Team Series Tournament.