On the second day of competition on the Mississippi River I was paired with Matt Reed. Matt was a great guy and we got to spend a lot of time talking as we traveled through two lock and dams to get to his first spot. Matt's spot gave him over 9 pounds the first day of competition and he left this area as soon as he had his limit, hoping to save fish for the next day. When we eventually arrived to this man-made dike, Matt was nervous because the flow over the the dike had dramatically increased, thus muddying the water throughout the backwaters. We spent about an hour here without any luck and Matt's game plan was out the window.
After realizing that this backwater area was not producing, we headed to a nearby marina. Here, Matt was pitching a t-rigged creature bait up along the banks of the enclosed marina. He caught a few short fish and missed a few that he said felt like keepers. We left this area after about another hour and Matt decided it was time to head back up two pools. So I strapped up and we headed back for our 70 mile journey.
When we got back into the pool where we took off from, Matt started to cast at large logs that lined the shoreline. He was catching many 13 inchers, but he needed that 14 incher to throw in the box. Matt said that if he caught just one fish, it should get him into the top 50 and cash a check. We continued to fish the shoreline with Matt throwing a white spinnerbait with 2 gold Colorado blades to maximize the vibration. One thing that we observed was that the fish were holding to the cover and it took up to 15 casts per log before the fish would bite. Matt said that he almost never makes repeat casts, but due to the conditions, it was absolutely necessary for him to do so. He ended up catching one fish that swiped the 14" mark that he threw in the box.
That one fish he caught sent him into Saturday at 46th place. He was right, he needed just one fish. Matt was excited that he was able to cash a check and his hard work paid off. I learned much from Matt, from the state of sponsorships, presentation adjustments, and how casting accuracy and proficiency is extremely important. Overall, my experiences with him and Guy were awesome and full of learning and teaching. I am hoping to be a marshal again in the future, and I can't wait to see what the lakes will be for next year.
Thanks for reading!
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Wednesday, June 24, 2009
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2 comments:
I thought you were going to fish the MFBA at Rush Lake, what happened?
I looked at the tourny results and they had more boaters than non-boaters and the total turn out was low. A guy that was in my bass club last year but isn't this year fished as a non-boater even though he has a nice bass boat, or at least he did last year.
It basically came down to money for the entry fee. Also, my wife was camping with her family on her birthday on saturday, so I decided to go to Pierz to be with her and her family for her birthday. I am going to try to make the next one in July.
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