Last update:  June 20, 2008

2004 BASS Tour Results

What: BASS Tour

Where:  Santee Cooper     

Date:  March 25-28, 2004

Finish:   43rd

The practice days were extremely windy, which stained the water on the windy side.  My Ranger 520VX Comanche made the ride comfortable regardless of where I chose to fish but the clearer water was more productive.  The fish were just beginning their first move shallow with some fish even spawning.  But I felt that the pre-spawners were more catchable but finding them was tougher because they seem to move in big schools on these lakes.  On the first day I couldn’t find any pre-spawners and caught mostly spawning fish and lost several important fish at the side of the boat.  The second day started off much better when I caught my first limit of pre-spawners on a 4” Berkley Power Hawg in the first two hours.  That gave me the rest of the day to fish for spawners and try to catch a big bass or two.  After working on one fish for two hours I finally caught the 5+ pounder that anchored my second day stringer of 17 lbs – 8 oz.

What: BASS Tour

Where:  Lake Eufaula, AL  

Date:  March 18-21, 2004

Finish:  123rd

I got to practice for less than one day because I made the costly mistake of eating in a local Mexican restaurant where I got food poisoning (along with several others).  After spending two days very sick and visiting the emergency room I was in poor condition to fish on the first competition day.  The fish had moved since the first day of practice so I spent the first tournament day trying to re-locate them.  They had progressed further back into the pockets and were either in or very near spawning areas.  On the second day I learned where they had moved to and found two areas that other competitors hadn’t found.  I caught them by casting a 4” Berkley Power Hawg and a small black buzzbait.  The buzzbait caught the larger fish and I culled several times.  Other competitors caught their bass in such a wide variety of ways that the fish were clearly in both pre-spawn and spawning stages.

What: BASS Tour

Where:  Table Rock Lake, MO 

Date:  March 4-7, 2004

Finish:  107th

I approached this tournament correctly by practicing on wind-blown banks in the clear water but I think I made the mistake of fishing the same banks in the tournament after the wind changed direction.  The changing wind actually pushed the baitfish around and the bass moved to the new windy banks.  This is a classic winter pattern where bass will move up out of deep water to feed briefly in less than ten feet, spending most of their time inactively suspending in deep water.  Obviously their feeding and our window of opportunity to catch them is small.  Timing is everything – and luck doesn’t hurt either.  I used a medium-running crankbait and just crawled it along the bottom.  The smallmouth would absolutely kill it but the spotted bass and largemouth were very subtle.  Interestingly, all three species would mix up together but the smallmouth were definitely the biggest overall.  This is a fantastic lake for all three species that is just great from late March through May.

What: BASS Tour

Where:  Lake Guntersville, AL 

Date:  February 26-29, 2004

Finish:  120th

Lake Guntersville has recovered from the dumping of herbicides 10 – 15 years ago and is in my opinion simply the best bass lake in the Eastern half of the U.S.   The winner, George Cochran, caught over 99 pounds in four days and the conditions were relatively tough.  Most of the fish weighed seemed to weigh 3 – 4 pounds with 9 pounders being caught nearly every day.  But getting the bites was the tough part.  We had snow in the surrounding area on the first tournament morning and the weather stayed cool throughout the tournament.  The water temperature hovered around 46 – 48 degrees.  I found the fish to be either in the fullest clumps of milfoil in shallow water or on the outside edge of either milfoil or hydrilla.  I didn’t under stan d why but it seemed that I had a great practice but the fish seemed to quit biting during the tournament.  After talking with other competitors afterwards I learned that I just fished too fast.  I’ll frequently fish faster and then slow down during the tournament but this time I didn’t slow down enough.  On the second day I had a hunch to run way up the lake and weighed in smallmouth, spotted bass, and largemouth that day.  I used the Yamaha Fuel Management Gauge to conserve fuel for the long run and couldn’t have made the run without it.

What: BASS Tour

Where:  Smith Lake, AL 

Date:  February 5-8, 2004

Finish:  112th

A tough tournament like Lake Smith can be viewed as either a test of the best or as a crapshoot.  The conditions were as follows:  spotted bass are the dominant species and they mostly live 20 – 50’ deep, the water temperature was 46 – 48 degrees, heavy rain and wind continued to muddy up the water, and perhaps most importantly a keeper had to be at least 16” long.  I felt that the most dependable way to find the nomadic spotted bass would be to rig a small worm on a dropshot rig in water 20 – 30’ deep because the deeper fish would often “come up” to feed in 20’.  My strategy of using a Berkley 4” Power Finesse Worm worked well because I caught about 20 bass per day but only had one keeper.  I don’t know what else I could have done to catch more keepers.  It’s a tough tournament when the winner only averages three keepers per day.

What: BASS Tour

Where:  Harris Chain, FL    

Date:  January 29 - February 1, 2004

Finish:  44th

Winnings:  $2,400

This year the weather was steadily warming and the majority of the bass had moved shallow to feed.  Most were pre-spawners but some were already beginning to spawn.  I targeted the pre-spawners by flipping my favorite soft plastic ( Berkley 5” Power Hawg) around shallow grass in a network of canals.  The best way to find out where the fish are feeding in canals is simply to fish a lot of them.  After finding the best area I caught about 16 pounds the first day but never caught a big one the second day and only weighed about 8 pounds.