[BassCaster]

The rain fishinshed it rath just a few hours before the tournament.

We had over cast skies and just a light breeze

14 contested this hot summer event with 44 Bass brought to the scales.

I am proud to say NO BASS meet their maker.....We had a few close calls
(thanks Jeff for bringing that one back to good health)

ALL fish were returned back to the lake.

Hats off to everyone for keeping the bass in great shape....no I MEAN in "great" shape...they were hard to weigh as they shook off the scale many times.....aerator coolers with some form of ice was the ticket

Congratz to Fishthoughts (Hide)... It's lights out when your culling 2 pounders :wink:
A "true" crank bait clinic. Well done Hide(and thanks for the beers and pizza)

Here are the results:
--------------------------------------------------------------
1st - Fishthoughts (Hide) , 21-4
2nd - Jeff (Jeff). 10-13 (Jeff came late. No fish at the 9:30 weight-in),,,well done dude!!!!
3rd - Jaypee The HHF, 10-3(One fish Flew out of the cooler..OUCH !!!!($42.00 fish :shock: )) ...

TME49(Steve) , 8-6
Georege W, 8-4
BASSPROMATUK (Mike), 8-0
extremefishing (Josh), 6-1
John(from peoria ) , 4-7
BassCaster(Mike), 1-14
LZ Rascal (Hans), 1-11
#1cubsfan(Tony), 1-10
Afalconsvick (Tony), 1-2
Tiffant, 1.2

Skunk Club----------

tradersteve

 

[Afalconsvick]

Congras, Hide! You had some monster fish, well done!

 

[Testudinae]

For my first tourney here, I had a lot of fun, wish I could have pulled out one more to have 5 by the end of the day but it really died down for us in the second session. Ended up with the 4 fish and had 7 of mine I threw back in the 12-13 3/4" range which by next year should be legal!

I was rocking the senkos in my first real test outside of forest preserve ponds.

I did promise to post this picture I took of TME49's 4lb 2oz Bass that he caught early in the A.M Session. Very nice fish!

Also took a picture of the general range on size of what we were throwing back to show just how strong this population is in soon to be keeper fish for those who haven't bit the bullet and headed out yet. I think between TME and I we threw back about 15 of these fish.

Thanks guys for a great day out there!

 

[Kris D.]

Congratz to everyone! 44 fish in this tournament is really impressive. What seemed to be the best tactics today, if I may ask?

 

[BASSPROMATUK]

I finally catch a limit out here and half of you outweigh me again! LOL :mrgreen: Tough group!!! Great job Hide, awesome day... And I agree with the way the bass were handled today... Great job to everyone for maintaining the integrity of the lake... My fish were a real pain in the a$$ to weigh in, they were so frisky, and they were in that cooler for a couple hours!

I was thinking about some kind of rule we should think about enforcing for a fish brought to the weigh in that is accidentally lost in the lake before being weighed... At least a minimum 1 pound 3 ounce rule or something... Considering we weigh them in the boats, there is always the chance of that happening, and in this case it cost JayPee... I would hate to see it happen again especially if it costs somebody like it did today... Not a fun thing to have happen in a fun tournament... Give me your thoughts on this idea...

AOY points should look reeeeeeeeeeally interesting now... Was still a successful outing for me even though I was in the middle of the pack... Looking forward to the next one already...

BPM

 

[George W]

Great job out there Everyone!

You da Man Fish thoughts enough said 8) You and Jay pee dominated total boat wise. Congrats to both :mrgreen:

Thanks Jeff (Jaw Breaker )for taking time after the tourney to show John and I how to pull them deep water, deep lake hawgs. :mrgreen:

I've learned so much today And won't go in nearly as conservative next time :mrgreen:

Awesome group of guys to fish with See you all at the Next one :mrgreen:

Thanks for the new learning opportunities.

- GEO

<((><

 

[mebuddy6]

That is impressive guys. Good job keeping them all alive. John the boat loader fellow told me you guys caught some monster fish, was eager to see the results. Congrats Jeff on 2nd place finish, I'm the guy you lent that DT rapala the other day, pulled out a decent keeper with it :mrgreen: Thanks, and will return soon.

1st - Fishthoughts (Hide) , 21-4 :shock:

.... off to go read through all of fishthoughts old fishing reports now...

 

[TME49]

Congrats Hide - that was a dominating performance. 4 lb 4 oz average. I had to bail right at at 1 so didn't see the second weigh-in...I guess you and others did well in the afternoon? What was the large bass for the day? Our afternoon was very slow and trolling motor even slower with the battery drained. Good times.

 

[Testudinae]

I think there was a 4lb 7oz one caught in the afternoon session but didn't catch who caught it, I believe it may have been Jeff though.

 

[Fishthoughts]

Thanks guys for the kind words. I've been fishing all my life and yesterday was my 2nd most memorable and productive fishing day that I can recall. It was one of those days where I just had to laugh because I was so dogsh#t lucky.

Based on my recon trips over the last few weeks and feedback from a local fishing pro (Winnebasschamp), I suggested to Jaypee that our strategy should be to work the east side of the lake. It was a beautiful morning with barely a breeze and water temp starting at 78 degrees.

We started fishing in 8 FOW with crank baits. Jaypee started us off with the first fish and that was the start of the morning bite. I threw a medium-diver crank made by Jackall and that was a very popular lure as I got slammed on it cast after cast. One new addition to this trip (equipment wise) was a landing net. Jaypee and I have never used one in the past, but I decided it would be wise to have one. It came in handy. Big thanks to Jaypee for netting all of my fish. We still lost a lot of fish today far from the boat. Several times we had to duck because the bass would spit back our crank baits. One cool highlight of the day was when both of us hooked up with nice bass at the same time. Knowing that the morning bite has only a certain window, we fished fast and hard. We did not have time to shoot photographs.

Sure enough, the bite slowed down and we were back to search and destroy mode. We picked off several fish this way. Here's one of my 3lbers:

At one point, we kept seeing boils around us and baitfish jumping out. Jaypee threw his lure in a recent boil and got nothing. I threw mine out shortly after and got a gar to hit my crank bait. I couldn't believe it. We both joked about how we were going to get the lure out. Luckily I had needle nose pliers.

As Winnebasschamp once suggested, the use of a live aerator, ice and "Please Release Me" solution is very effective to keep these bass alive. That's what we did, but our cooler was getting packed. Luckily, Mike was near by so we made our way to him for an emergency weigh-in.

At the morning weigh-in, I opened the cooler to take the two bass that Jaypee and I caught after seeing Mike a few hours earlier. Not a second after the cooler hatch opened up to a 90 degree angle, Jaypee's 2lber went straight airborne out of the cooler and back into the lake. I felt terrible for Jaypee, but the live well system may have been too effective in keeping these fish fresh and lively.

I got lucky all day landing a 4lber right before morning weigh-in and another 4lber in the afternoon. I did cull a lot of fish and honestly lost count of keepers that I had today. Knowing that I will probably never have a day like this again, I cherished every moment of the day. I fell in love with Deep Lake all over again.

 

[George W]

Great day hide! Phenomenal to say the least, You had one hell of a hefty stringer.

21 lbs !!!

Whats the highest weight ever brought in ? I'm sure your up there.

Beautiful Gar :mrgreen:

Thanks for the Beer, and pizza. It gave me enough energy to get back out there and learn things for the Next one. Very eager to get back out there hopefully this next weekend just for some fun.

Great group of guys!

If any of you'd like to fish hit me up.
I need new influences :wink:

- GEO

:mrgreen:

 

[jaypee the hhf]

It was a really fun time! A lot of laughs out there yesterday!

Weather was nice for a long time, till that sun came out and eventually the water skier and jet ski lady :shock:

the double was awesome Hide, for once in the morning you were gonna net one of my fish..lol reaching down for the net..."wait... I got one too!"
...I landed mine, and netted his! :lol:

Congratz brother, you kicked butt out there!

thanks to everyone, it was a blast once again.

-JayPee the HHF

 

[Afalconsvick]

You guys killed it out there, pretty awesome. I find it interesting how you guys caught so many fish, and I struggled to get my one and few far between bites all day.. I fshed shallow, deep, inbetween with plastics, spinner, cranks, swim jigs and frogs and couldn't get anything.. but hey that's fishing and part of the game. Can't wait till the next one!

 

[FishinMatt]

Unreal bag Hide. Wish I could of been of fly on the wall to witness all that hawg catching carnage. Well done sir 8)

 

[Testudinae]

You guys killed it out there, pretty awesome. I find it interesting how you guys caught so many fish, and I struggled to get my one and few far between bites all day.. I fshed shallow, deep, inbetween with plastics, spinner, cranks, swim jigs and frogs and couldn't get anything.. but hey that's fishing and part of the game. Can't wait till the next one!

Did you try senko's? :twisted:

Sorry =P a bit of a senko advocate atm. I had decent luck with Baby Bass colored ones in the lily's and the point. Think I had 11 fish total on the day that were 12+ with 4 of them over 14. TME and I just couldn't locate all the big guys. Even the smaller ones were actually fun since I was pulling almost all of them off the bottom.

 

[Afalconsvick]

Yep, tried Senko's off all colors and sizes, wacky, texas.. got nothing!

 

[Mike the Leszcz]

21-4! thats unbelievable thats 4 lbs and a quarter oz. per fish basically. im really impressed and disappointed that i was unable to make it to this one. i will be there in september. Great JOB!!

 

[Winnebasschamp]

Great job HIDE!! Way to slayy

Same to Jeff and Jaypee!
Sounds like it was a great day to be on the water.

 

[BassCaster]

Sounds like it was a great day to be on the water.

Ya for some :twisted: ....LOL

The good thing is every time I go I learn a ton about fishing from the guys in this group :lol:

Next Time !!!!

 

[Charlie]

HIDE CONGRATS!! Omg 21 and some change is a crazy bag. Sounds like every one had a ton of fun out on the water on Saturday. I really wish I was there to witness it all.