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This page is just to muse about my experiences fishing the FLW Stren Series this year. I will comment on the waters I fish...basically whatever comes to mind.
Stren Series Championship... Nov 5 to Nov. 7, 2009
This is it I worked all season to make it to the Championship on Pickwick Lake and here I am. With all the effort that goes into preparing for the a big tournament like this I was disappointed in my performance. I finished at 94th place out of 188. I had a good day one with 8 lb. 12 oz and in 24th place. My big bass was 5 1/2 pounds. Day two was a struggle. I don't blame the boater he had a school of "spots" he thought would "turn on" unfortunately they never did. I just couldn't coax one to bite. I did manage to reach a tree a long the bank and pulled a dink out of it. I also managed to land a huge freshwater drum, but that doesn't count. I tried Carolina rigs, drop shot, cranks, Texas rigged worms and creatures, topwater spinnerbaits, and swimbaits, nothing worked.
Yes I was dissappointed with the finish but as I reflected on my first full season on the Stren I did okay. I was consistant always caught fish met great anglers and learned a lot for the future. I met Charlie Evans, President and CEO of the FLW and he promises to let me show him bass fishing on Lake Erie. For the off season I am going to work on my casting skills and skip like Andy Mongomery showed me on Lake Gaston. I have learned the mental toughness it takes to compete at this level. I am more focused on the goal of winning. My confidence is strong and 2010 will be my year in the spotlight!
For 2010 the Stren Series underwent a name change and is called the FLW American Fishing Series. The Northern Division starts on the Potomac out of Smallwood State Park in Maryland. We move up to Lake Champlain at Plattsburg and end the qualifiers on Lake Erie at Presque Isle at Erie, Pa. I have fished this stretch of Lake Erie before and it is awesome! I caught my largest bag ever at 27 lbs. 11 oz. that was in the Spring and this FLW AF Series is in September, but I know Lake Erie and it is good all year. The Championship is an invitational it will be on Lake Wheeler out of Decatur Alabama. I have fished there before as well it can be tough but there are big fish in Wheeler. I am confident I will be there in November.
Stren Series Lake Gaston Bracey Virginia... Sept 24 to Sept 26
This was the final event for the Stren Northern Division. My primary goal for this tournament was to catch a keeper to weigh in so I could make the championship tournament at Pickwick Lake in November. My wife chastised me for setting my goal so low. She said I should fish to win. I tried to explain to her that I do fish to win but it starts with the first fish... keeper bass. It is amazing how the pressure is relieved when you boat the first keeper. It means you will get points valuable for getting to the championship. Every keeper after that is for the tournament to "cash" as we all say.
I can not tell you how hard I work fishing a tournament. I am focused on the goals... I try to be in the "zone". When you get there, there is a calm and every bite is felt, everything just goes right. The first day at Lake Gaston I was not in the zone. I know I missed a few bites. I fished hard but I could not catch a keeper. The pressure was on if I did not catch a fish I would drop to 47th place and not go to the Championship at Pickwick so to catch one fish was huge. Day one I fished behind FLW Tour Pro, Andy Montgomery. He was very thorough leaving little water for me to fish. He "power fished" he moved the boat fast and covered every inch. He boated three keepers for his efforts. His skills were amazing how he could skip under docks. I don't think I was intimidated by him but he made it extreemely tough.
Day two the pressure was on since I zeroed on day one, however I was confident I would catch a keeper to meet my first goal. It did not look promising to cash but it was still possible. I fished behind Bassmaster Elite Pro, Dustin Wilks, his pace was somewhat slower than Andy's and I was thankful for that. I managed to catch the first bass although it wasn't a keeper. It was very tough we covered a lot of docks, points and stumps but could not get bit. Finally on a dock I managed to get a bite and landed a 2 lb. 10 oz. keeper. The rest of the day didn't get easier and my bass was the only one we brought in to weigh. That bass was enough to secure my place at Pickwick in November.
I have to explain just how tough this tournament was for everyone. On day one of the 96 co-anglers only 45 caught bass, on the Pro side only 77 caught keeper bass. Day two the results were not much better. Many who caught fish on day one zeroed on day two. The weather on day one was hot (94 degrees and humid)and sunny. Day two was cloudy and the temperature fell all day it was 73 degrees at 6:00 AM and when we got to the weigh-in it was in the low 60's. It rained and was windy, conditions were tough at best. The water tempreature dropped about 7 degrees over the week of the tournament and the water level was lowered one foot just before the tournament started. Regardless of the conditions we had to figure out how to catch bass, some of us got lucky. I finished the series in 17th place, I am the highest ranked co-angler from NY beating out 44 other NY co-anglers. Only two other NY co-anglers qualified for the Stren Championship.
Stren Series Lake Champlain out of Plattsburg... Aug 27 to Aug 29
This was the third tournament on the trail. I had high expectations as I always do. My good friend Tom Schaffer won the co-angler side here last year and took home a new Ranger Boat. It was Tom who encouraged me to move up to the Stren this year. I have no regrets, but it definetly has not been easy.
Day one I was paired with Rex Jonhnsonbaugh, he was one of the boaters that Tom Schaffer had last year when he won... I was off to a great start. To add to the great start, during the pre-tournament meeting where we are paired with our first boaters I won the raffle. I got to take home a new Lowrance H2Oc IFind handheld GPS, not a bad start.
I did okay on day one. I actually out fished my boater, Rex. He had a rough day. He had me on a drop shot bite for smallmouth bass. Unfortunately most of the bass were small. I caught a lot but I couldn't get the fifth keeper. With only four to weigh I ended with less than ten pounds.
Day two I had to make up a lot of ground to make the cut. I had not great expectations, I just wanted to make it to get a check. I fished with AC Campbell. He was a great boater and had a good plan. We started out on a Largemouth bite and then moved to smallmouth. I caught the first fish only problem it was short. The bite came a little harder for me but I did catch five fish One was 3.5 pounds but the rest were small. I did loose a big bass that could have gone four pounds. It wrapped my line around a piling and broke off. I took five fish to the scale with a weight just shy of 11 pounds. My total weight for the tournament was just over 20 pounds.
Funny how things work out, I miss cashing for the tournament, catch plenty of fish... I continue to get points to move up in the standings. There are always big "IFs"... If I had caught a fifth fish on day one that weighed three pounds I would have cashed, so I wasn't that far off the pace. After three tournaments I am now in 22nd place. I just might make the championship... that would be fantastic. I got one more tournament yet and that will be on Lake Gaston. I feel real good about Virginia!
Stren Series on the 1000 Islands... 7/16 to 7/18
The second tournament of the season launched out of French Creek Marina in Clayton New York. It has taken me a few days to write this one cause it hurt. I thought I would cash here becuase I have in the past. Drivng up to Clayton I thought about who I would like to get paired with and Merle Wells came to mind. I have known Merle for a few years from the tournament trail, he is a great fisherman and lives near the 1000 Islands. Guess what? Merle turned out to be my partner for the first day. He was on fish but the smallmouth we targeted turned off a short time after we got to our spot. I caught a 3 pounder and lost one even bigger. The rest of the morning the fish kept getting smaller 'till I couldn't catch anymore keepers. I ended the day with 4 fish... that was hard.... but it was my fault.
Day two I was paired with Dennis Sikorski. His plan was to fish smallmouth on Lake Ontario... drop shotting and tubes is all I would need according to him. A co-angler usually packs too much tackle to be ready for almost anything but when you know you will be needing only dropshots rigs and tubes... I packed light. That was a mistake because after a short time on Lake Ontario we moved back into the river for largemouth....I was not ready. That killed me I did get five bass but they were small. Had I brought more gear I do not know if the outcome would have been different but at least it would have given me the opportunity to try. Making a mistake shakes your confidence and that is big during competition.
I learned a valuable lesson "Be Prepared"... I will never forget. I am sitting in 28th place overall after two tournaments, not a bad spot to be in. My goal is to do better on Lake Champlain... it "owes me one" after last year's BFL Super Tournament. I am looking for two good limits in August.
Stren Series on the Potomac River... 6/25 to 6/27/09
The first tournament this season was on the Potomac River. The tournament launched out of Smallwood State Park in Marbury Maryland. I camped at the park. It is a small campground with tall trees and plenty of shade near a backwater lagoon on Mattawoman Creek. It is also quiet with lots of mosquitoes in the evening and ticks ... I suppose that is the essence of camping, getting close to Nature.
I practiced one day with Gary Barone from State College, Pennsylvania. He is a good angler, I thought we had a good practice we caught fish. I didn't try to hook many but I had some nice bass come up and take my baits. I tested top water scumfrogs, jigs, swimbaits and chatterbaits all had good results.
Day one I was paired with a local Pro Dave Barker. He said he was on fish and being local he knew the spots. That always scares me I never have met a local that knows all the spots. They tend to fish local fishing holes popular with everyone in the county. However, he did hit a few spots a long way from the crowd... he burned a lot of gas. Unfortunately all the spots had small bass... although they held big catfish. I could only creel 7 pounds 3 ounces (with an 8 ounce penalty for a dead fish). Dave was a pleasant person but had a wild streak in the way he ran his boat... it boardered on reckless. He ran under a a dock supporting a pipeline and ran under a bridge with narrow spaces between the pilings. One slip and we could have been severely injured. I thought about the ride later and realized I should have said something because someday he could hurt someone "hotdogging" like that. I will feel guilty if that ever happens. With day one finished, I was in 91st place there was a lot of ground to make up on day two.
Day two on the water was with Harry Moore out of Valley, Alabama. He is a great angler and gentleman, he said before we took off in the morning we would fish and that we did. He had a spot not too far from Mattawoman Creek. I tried some top water and chatterbaits but to no avail. I put on a pumpkin colored jig with a twin tail grub trailer and kept it on all day. It is always a great day when you can cull fish... I mangaged to limit early and had most of the day to improve my bag. By Lake Erie standards my bag was small only 12 pounds 10 ounces, but for this tournamnet it was very respectful. If I had put together two days like this I would have been in 11th place. As it turned out that bag helped me move from 91st to 51st place. No checks but it did boost my confidence... I know I can fish.
It is interesting to note that the week before the tournament there was quite a bit of rain that muddied the water flowing out of all the creeks. Information I got from some local guide bloggs was that creeks were too muddy and to focus on the main river. But as the tournament approached the water was clearing and the creeks got better. Bobby Lane won the boater side by fishing up Mattawoman Creek, not too far from where I fished with Harry. The water had some color but for the most part it was clear.... and I think that is what the bigger bass wanted.
The next tournament will be on the 1000 Islands one of my favorite places to fish. I have the right mental attitude to win, if I can put together a couple days of good fishing I should make the top ten.
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