Tag: Kansas Bass Fishing

Sunflower Team Series on Melvern

The fourth Sunflower Team Series event of the year was on Melvern. Nick was my partner for the event. The day before the tournament, we found a couple of spots, but one of the spots Nick lost a good keeper. We didn’t fish the spot very hard, so we were going to start there. It was about a 100 yard stretch one point to another. On the day of the tournament, we fished down the spot throwing topwater, and I hooked up with a good fish on a spook. Nick was able to scoop up the fish with the net. Great start!  We fished 15 minutes and already had one keeper. There was another spot the day before I had seen a huge smallmouth. With no one fishing the spot yet, I thought lets fish it fast and then go back through the spot that we started on. Nick caught one nonkeeper off the standing timber. Just then another boat pulled up on the spot we started. So I told Nick, “Let’s go back down to the other point since there is a boat on the opposite point.” We caught three non-keepers on soft plastics. Most of the fish were coming off of a laydown or stumps in the water. We started to fish the wood really slow. I would throw topwater a little while Nick threw plastics.  Then we would switch. I was getting a little worried about the weather as some really dark clouds had moved in. Getting the rain gear on, I was wondering if we need to go in. Then about 5 minute later, it was through. Nick was throwing a whopper popper around the laydown. I noticed a dark spot behind his bait. My soft plastic was just under Nick’s bait. Then the dark spot disappeared. Just then Nick had an explosion on his bait, but it missed. Then I noticed my line moving, I set the hook.  It was a good smallmouth.  We landed my fish, and it was keeper number two. A couple of casts later, Nick hooked up on the whopper popper.  It was probably about a 2 pound smallmouth. I told him to take his time.  Just then, it jumped and threw the bait back to the boat. Nick was very upset, but that is topwater or anything with treble hooks. After fishing another couple hours on the spot, we moved. I have learned that in big tournaments, if you find keepers at a spot, you better pick the spot apart before you leave because someone else will move in on the spot. We fished for about an hour around the lake without any luck. So, we headed back to the spot we started because there were two boats on the bank. There was a little bank further down that looked good. Right when we stopped to fish, Nick’s second cast, he hooked a smallmouth.  It jumped, and it was a keeper. Nick was so excited!  He took his time, and we landed the fish. Three keepers!  We need two more fish. Then, I hooked up with a big fish, and told Nick “Get the net.  This is a good fish.” It was a big fish, but it was the wrong species.  A walleye about 23 inches. First thing Nick said was “Mom would love to eat that.” I threw it back, and said I really didn’t want to mess with cleaning it today. I was watching the bank trying to see if the other boats would leave. After they left, we moved back to the laydown. Nick was able to catch two non-keepers before the tournament was over. We had 3 fish for 6.14 pounds, and good for 9th place out of 33 boats. It was awesome to get in the top 10, and with just one more fish we may have gotten a check. Next event is on El Dorado on July 14th. Kyle and I will fish Wilson on August 18. Hopefully we can catch some fish and maybe get another top 10 finish. It has been an awesome season fishing with the twins. We have learned so much on how to fish tournaments. It is totally different then just going fishing.

An Incredible Day on a New Lake

We decided to try a new lake we had never been to. We drove an hour and half to the lake. On the way it was raining a little, so I was hoping we would get lucky and not get too wet. When we arrived at the lake, it was windy and raining a little. By the time we got to our first spot it was down pouring. Kyle started with a fluke and Nick with a frog.  We decided to start on a deep bluff out of the wind and rain. We fished down the bank without any bites.  Then we decided to try the dam which the wind was blowing in on. When you go to a lake you have never been on, it is always a good idea to try the dam especially when the wind is blowing in on it. Both of the twins decided to try a crankbait on the dam. My choice was a spinnerbait. It did’t take long to hook up. On the first pass down the lake, we all hooked up. Being the first time on the lake, we decided to have another pass down the dam. For the next two hours, we caught some really nice fish with a couple being over 5 pounds. After you find fish with moving baits, it is always a good thing to go back through with a slower bait. All the big fish were caught on weightless Senkos. I felt bad the big fish kept hitting my baits. I even moved to the back of the boat, but it didn’t make a difference. The boys were throwing the same thing. For the last hour, I sat down and just watched the twins fish. It was an incredible day, and our best five were 19lbs.

Big Hill Tournament

We had our first Flint Hills Bass Club tournament of the year on Big Hill. My partner Thomas and I pre-fished the evening before the tournament. I already had an idea of a couple of spots to fish, but it is always nice to try a couple of other spots to see if you could find a backup. We ran up the lake, and we fished pass the bridge. I was pitching texas-rig plastics around the tree, and was getting a couple of bites. I figured that they were bluegills. Thomas did catch one small bass on a buzzbait. We decided to run out to the main lake and try some points. I found some grass along the bank. I was swimming a jig and hooked up right away with a good bass. So, we both started throwing swimming jigs on any grass we could find on the main lake. Thomas was able to catch two good bass. I told him lets see if there are any bass on the dam. Right away we both started catching bass on the dam with plastics. I told him we should leave since we had a couple of things going for us. Thomas was not listening; he was having too much fun so we kept fishing. We caught a couple of good keepers. Finally it got too dark to fish anymore.

Tournament Day, I was relaxed and just needed to catch five keepers. I decided to start on the dam. After running to the dam, we both started throwing plastics. I asked Thomas to adjust the GoPro, and just as he touched it, a fish took his bait. Being off balance, he missed him. I felt bad; I told him to hang in there and we will make it up. We both were able to catch one keeper each off the dam. The day before the fish were very shallow. Today, I saw more fish out deep suspended on the graph not feeding. So, we decided to move to the grass. It would be a great decision. I was throwing a weightless stickbait up along the grass. I saw my line moving, and I set the hook. It jumped right away out of the water; it was a big fish. Thomas jumped to the front of the boat getting the net out of the locker. We were both excited with my second fish being over 19 inches. Great start!  We both caught two more fish out of the area. Thomas was able to catch a good 17 inch fish on a swim jig around the grass. I was able to add one more small fish to my bag. Then the bites stopped, and after a hour I needed to go try something different. We decided to go up pass the bridge for a hour and see if we could catch another good fish. Thomas wasn’t happy with the decision; he really doesn’t want to be pitching plastics around trees. He really enjoys fishing finesse around riprap. I needed a change just for a little bit. Thomas hooked up with a fish right away, but it jumped off next to the boat. Then after 30 minute without a bite and boats were everywhere, I told him “Lets move.” Not sure where we were going, lets just go. We went driving down the lake looking for a spot to fish that didn’t have a boat on it. We noticed some wind blowing good on a bank with grass, and saw some fish moving around chasing bait. I picked up my soft plastic bait, and threw it right next to the grass close to the fish chasing bait. Right away, I felt a tick and slammed the hook. It jumped right away out of the water, and it was another big fish. I fought it next to the boat, taking my time. It jumped right next to the boat throwing the plastic bait up the line. Thomas thought it threw the hook, so he dug the net into the water hoping to catch the fish. I knew it was still hooked, and I was yelling at him “Don’t do that your hitting the line.” Then it rolled next to the boat, Thomas netted it. It was a 20 inch long bass. While I was trying to get the fish out of the net, Thomas had cast up to the same spot and hooked up right away with another fish over 17 inches. I was holding a big fish in one hand and netting Thomas’s bass in another. I would say every boat in the area heard us. We both had limits, and were pumped. I was able to creel one more fish just before we had to go in. I was able to take first place with 13.39lbs, big bass of the tournament and also won the team side with 2365 points. Great start to the season.

Family Day on Banner Creek

Flint Hills Bass Club had family day on Banner Creek on June 2. The twins and I would start the day without Trey and Melissa because Trey had a tee-ball game in the morning. A nice rain storm came through in the morning before the fishing derby started. We had about 4 good spots to fish. I knew our first spot would be gone. So, I planned on fishing our second spot, which just before we took off, I noticed some bank fishermen on the spot. We had to start on a spot that was similar to the other spots, but just doesn’t usually have the quality or quanity. But on the first casts, both boys hooked up with 15 inches. A great start! We would catch our limit in 30 minutes and started culling. Most of the fish were caught on soft plastics, and a couple of smaller fish where caught on crankbaits. Kyle was able to catch two fish on a frog. Melissa and Trey showed up with a hour to fish, and we only caught a couple of small fish in the last hour. We ended up with 11.88 lb for second place. It wasn’t a bad day for fishing. Anytime you fish with your family is a great day.

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.