Tournament jitters!

[Gary P]

I love the night before a tourney! working out all the rods and gear, retying, new line etc. Got a 2 day at Bellows tomorrow, will be 15-20 mph winds, 2-4 ft waves, chocolate water from all the rain and 30 degrees in the morningFishing1Fishing1 I can't waitGrinning1Grinning1. Fishing will be tough but if we hit it right, it can be awesome, even in post front conditions, or it will just plainYuck1.stink!

Only time will tell. Got the winter gear out, the Balaclava and snow board gloves, snowmobile helmet and suit. lots of EMS wear in layers and a thermos full of hot chocolate in the a.m. to start the day!

Oh and of course in the morning, I will have the runs, its a givenSmashheadSmashhead

Taking the jet boat tomorrow and some friends that have the same type will be there also, thats over 630 hp in 2 boats!

My Ally is still being broke in at 45 mph so far on the way to 110!

And of course, my digital camera is on the fritz?? I will try to get some pictures up... The batteries just keep dying and I can't figure it out??

Gotta finish packing up....more to come.

[JeffA]

in a crazy way.....thats sounds like alot fun! i can't wait to fish in a tourameant.
i wish you the best of luck, and stay safe.

[Gary P]

Mack not sure how old you are but there are many clubs out there that have spots for non-boaters once you hit 18. you have to have alot of patience to fish tournies. I love the boat race in the morning, I always win! I love running in 3" of water 55 mph in Daves jet boat and 90 mph passing boats in mine. I love the competition, the friends you meet, the feeling you get when you win or when you almost win... I only fished 6 tournies this year and won 5 of them, that is a cool feeling. Dave won 8 all together this year, from 15-75 boats. The downside is you can never take the friends you meet fishing as you want their money! it takes alot of years of practice and fishless days to become consistent. Your first check, you will not forget, mine was at Lake Cochituate, 2nd place Mass bass fed 1988, $810.00, still got the photo copy of it! When I was 23 or so and just starting out on tournies, I was depressed when the old guys were constantly placing in the money and one said to me "you just have to put in your time". Now I am 42 and don't hardly prefish for tournies becuase I just know where the fish SHOULD be at any time of the year and actually have too many spots and lures to use. But I still get excited over a 10 boat or 100 boat tourney! I am so looking forward to battling mother nature, high muddy water, 20 mph winds on a body of water I know like the back of my hand! Even if I don't catch a thing, it will STILL be a learning experience. I can lead you towards some clubs if you want to get involved with tournie fishin, let me know, Gary

[JeffA]

i'm 31, i just started really getting into fishing, i would love to get into some tournies, but i'm afraid i don't have the "top of the line stuff" to ever be competative, so i don't know if that will ever happen, i would still love to look into it.

[G.Horne]

Gary, I have fished over 40 tourneys this year aloneEyeball Roller and I'm very happy to say I will not be fishing one tomorrowThumbsup Good luck and don't miss a hit because you might not get anotherWink1 Beerchug


Mack, you don't need the top of the line gear to fish T's or even compete. My father has won many club and draw T's out of the back of the boat before I gave him my Tracker. It doesn't matter if you have a $30reel or a $300 reel or rod. Just through senkosWink1 Laughing1

[fisher16]

Hey Mack Check the Tourny Forum. Fish Head posted a open tourny this coming weekend. I think its tomorrow starts at seven a.m. They get a pretty good turn out from beginners to the sharpies. Gotta start somewhere if your interested take a look.

[JeffA]

i'm going to start with the one at the oxbow on sunday, i can't get in on the total weight, but i can go for the "big fish", i though i would start there, i was told them guys up at southwick are really good on that lake.

[fisher16]

The Thursday Night Tournies are pretty good time. They are all done for this season but if you wanted hook up next year and try a couple. I can show you how to fish the Muck.

[Gary P]

G.Horne good for you! how much $$ did you win? When I was younger, it was 1 or 2 every weekend, but time, money, wife and most important, Kids have cut me way down. Doing that many really taught me alot and I spent a ton of $$ doing it. Now, I pretty much stay within 2 hours, no more crazy 5 hour drives at 2 a.m!

[Gary P]

Mack All you need is 1 rod and 1 real and a senko! The bass don't know the diff between GLoomis and Kmart! But here is a list of what me, the NON boater is bringing!

Rods- 9 with everything from 6-30 lb tes, all spinning

tackle 1 oversize dufflebag with 1 box of crankbaits,worms, tubes, grubs, spinnerbaits, crankbaits,Senkos( worth about 1k), terminal tackle.

Pliers, Boga grip(in case of pike), scale, razor for braided line,camera( like I will have time). extra line in case the one that backlashes is THE one I need!. Sunglasses, back up sunglass in case they blow off at 80 mph. back up hat, same reason.

junk food, sodas, water, crackers, pb and J, etc.

2 pairs of Long underwear, 4 EMS grade sweatshirts, snow suit, 2 pairs socks, boots, 2 Balaclavas, hat, helmet, snowboard gloves,

I am sure there is more but I gotta go get ready!...oh and probably will only end up using one rod with 1 lure all day! I just have to find that 1....

[Gary P]

Well first day is over, 18 boats showed up to a really fast moving muddy river! the water rose 9' overnite,Notsure and moving at 40K CFS ( normal is like 2-8k) So we totally gave up all learned in prefishing and went back to patterns that work in flood stage every year on every section of the river. We had an ave day of fishing and caught about 20 fish with the best 8 weighing in at 20.6 lbs, currently 1st place!Beerchug

2nd was like 20.4 and 3rd , my brother with 20.2. Seeing 3 people bring in over 20 lbs for 8 smallies in flood stage water just shows you how great the fishing is up there! Lunker so far is a 4.33 lm. So we are back up there tomorrow to do it again, but in order to win, we have to do at least as good as today, We have spots that still have fish, hope they are hungry tomorrow!

[G.Horne]

G.Horne good for you! how much $$ did you win? When I was younger, it was 1 or 2 every weekend, but time, money, wife and most important, Kids have cut me way down. Doing that many really taught me alot and I spent a ton of $$ doing it. Now, I pretty much stay within 2 hours, no more crazy 5 hour drives at 2 a.m!

We didn't win as much this year as I hoped. I haven't figured it out yet but probably in the 3-4G I think I broke even of made a littleEyeball Roller The gas prices killed me this year. My Champion has a 44g tank and cost over $150 to fill it.Mad1 We lost a lot of fish that would have either won or put us in the money but thats fishing. I just bought a house so my T's might be cut down next yearSad1

Good job on the river todayThumbsup with the conditions I figured if you got a couple bites you'd be doing good. Good luck tomorrow.

[Gary P]

first the house, then the kids, then the time, then you only fish a few per year! What trails did you fish to fish 40 tourneys? Gas killing you? I run a modified 225 at 7k rpm and my partners v-8 jet gets about 2 mpg! and they both run on SUPER! As far as the couple of bites thing, no way! there were a few bags in the 18 lb range and 3 over 20, that is how good the river is up there, even if it is high and muddy! If we can do another 20 fish day, we should get some decent ones in the mix, but we will see...

[G.Horne]

I fish my club the RI State Bassmasters(10 t's), Freedom Bass(8), RI Bass Fed Trail(6) ABA d5(RI) plus I fish any open that I can and the SQT. So that keeps me pretty busyWink1
I have never fished the river in Ma or NH. I have only fish out of Hartford for the RI SQT last year(got smallie lunker for day1 with a 4.25lbs) and a RI Trail T out of Haddem this year.

[Gary P]

Well the day started out good and by 10 a.m we had 5 nice smallies in the boat but then they started getting off, it just happens some times, We each lost 4 or 5 fish that would have put us alot higher. We ended up the day with our 8 fish limit and culled out a few for a total weight of 19.8 lbs bring our total to just over 40 lbs for 16 fish and a second place finish. Good news is my brother and other friend who were behind us on day one by only .4 lbs got a whopping 23.6 lb bag for 8 fish including the Lunker of the tourney, a fat 4.58 lb smallie to beat out yesterdays Lm of 4.45. Their total weight for 16 bass, all smallies was like 43.5 lbs! 3rd place was some other friends and their NEW Gator Jet boat that looks just like Daves, only cleaner! they were 6 lbs behind us with 34.8 lbs. Alot more fish were brought in today and a few had 20+ lb bags but since they choked the first day, it didn't matter. We also got 2 20" walleyes on back to back casts, wish they were smallies! Bad luck part of the day was when I went to grab the net for the first walleye, I somehow hooked my rod and over it went into about 10' of muddy water! It wasn't that expensive but an old favorite. Again the water was high, fast, muddy, and 48 degrees! We caught 15 fish for the day and lost at least 8 fish over 2 and a couple over 3! At least we only got beat my a family member! Having another 1 day event up there on Nov 4th Sat, and again, the fishing will be fantastic, no matter what the temp or water level is!

[Bigbear]

Nice goingThumbsup you and Rivernut have that flood stage pattern down.

[Gary P]

Thanks BB, we have been doing for 15 years and every time out we learn something new, Like yesterday, we fished areas and tactics that I learned last year during the whole month of Oct when the river was high for a month. and today we learned a new set up that would blow your mind if we told you!, We also found 3 new flood stage spots and that was even better because they will hold fish at this height forever! Man I love the river!

[Bigbear]

Gary

Talked to Dave at the ramp about 2 months ago and told me how you guys got those bass in May - June flood. I will stop some day(at your house) and you can fill me in. Grinning1

[Gary P]

yeh sure!....not!