Getting Reel - Fishing News

A Disappointing Finish Considering

by Don Zaegel on April 13th, 2008

     This past weekends Bassmaster Series, Maryland Division tournament didn’t end up exactly the way I had hoped for.  In some regards it did, but overall it was disappointing as far as I am concerned considering that if there is any one place I would expect to compete for a win, it would be on Lake Anna. But even with the bad, there is always some good to be had.

     Before the morning of the tournament, I pretty much had an idea of how I was going to execute the day of fishing. I felt like I was on a pretty good pattern of pre-spawn fish. I knew going into the tournament that most of the field was going to be sight fishing for any early spawners to be had. While taking that into consideration, I didn’t want to plan on trying to run from spot to spot and taking the chance that one of the other anglers were on the same fish or that the fish weren’t completely locked on.

     I started the day hitting the first of my 7 or 8 spots. I had a milk run graphed out that I was confident I could hit and leave alone for a while and have it re-load. Upon arrival of my first spot I immediately caught my first keeper of the day. A small keeper, but a start. After leaving the area, I hit my second spot and had a small school of buck bass waiting for me. I ended up with a very small limit of around 4 1/2 lbs. within the first 2 hrs. of fishing. Even with a limit in the boat, I was having a hard time focusing. The reason for this was because of a missed fish that I was sure could have tipped the 7lb mark. I set the hook on her and brought her all of the way to the boat as I was guiding her around to the net, she saw it and darted straight under the boat and snapped off. A tough pill to swallow, but one you must take when tournament fishing. Sadly, I hadn’t realized that I had my drag tightened as much as it would go on my reel. With the drag loosened up a bit, I am sure I could have boated the beast on the light 8lb. test line.

     As the day continued, the day slowed down for me considerably, I did end up landing a nice beauty that was somewhere around 4/12 lbs, but that would be it for me. I felt like I could switch patterns and start to catch them again, but with the day nearing an end, I had a few other spots that I had not yet hit.

     On the way to one of my spots, my co-angler had told me about a bedding bass that he had seen during pre-fishing. Without hesitation I swung into the cove planning on giving him 15-20 minutes to work his bed fish. His live-well was empty and I never like to have any of my co-anglers blank. On his first cast onto the bed he whacked her. He wound up just missing big bass on the co-angler side with his 5+ lb. sow. He would end up catching another good fish that had him readily excited about his chances.

     With our time expiring we headed to the scales. My limit of 5 weighed 8.29 lbs and finished me in 33rd. My co-angler managed himself a 3rd place finish with 8.41 lbs. A good day for him, and if he read this congratulations.

     While I know I have expressed my disappointment with my finish, I had the opportunity for a top 10 finish had I not lost that 7 lbr’ early in the morning. Even with defeat comes success. My goal going into the event was consistency and a limit of 5. I accomplished that. I guess the change in goals came after I realized the potential that could have been. A day after, it is still on my mind, but I also have told myself, “What can you do at this point”? One mention I didn’t make is that I am confident that the missed fish would have been the biggest fish (by weight) I had caught on Lake Anna. Those are the kinds of hook-ups you pray for going into the tournament. You know what they say, “You win some, you loose some”!

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POSTED IN: American Bass Anglers, BASS, Miscellaneous