Last night we had our end of the year awards banquet for the Spokane Bass Club. This was a club that I helped form last year with Dan Rice from FHCOutdoors.com, my wife and a few good friends. The year was a huge success for the club and I am happy to see more and more people are hearing about us and will help to grow bass fishing in our area. I was fortunate to win Angler of the Year in our first year as a club and was thinking about my tournaments from the year. I realized there were two common themes: a jig and a drop-shot. These two baits were by far the best for me this year. Here's a recap of the events and what I was doing.
Liberty Lake - 2nd Place - 1 fish, 1.16lbs
As you can see, this was a tough event. Only two fish were caught out of 22 anglers. I caught my fish on a jerkbait, a Lucky Craft 78SP Deep Diver, in the first ten minutes of the day. That was it, but I have never been so proud of a 13inch smallmouth.
Hauser Lake - 5th Place - 1 fish, 2.06lbs
Hauser was another tough one as it was still pretty cold. I felt better about this one since I went out for a few hours the day before and caught two and lost one pitching to docks with a black Eco Pro Tungsten Heavyweight Flipping jig. One thing I remember about the fish I caught was that it gave me three chances to catch it. It bit once lightly and let go, I pitched in again and missed on the hookset and I caught it on the third attempt.
Hayden Lake - 1st Place - 5 fish, 9.72lbs
I put some serious time into this one since the ramp is about five minutes from my work, I went three or four times after work and then the weekend before. Out of all of those trips I didn't have a limit of fish TOTAL (15inch min for largemouth and 12inch for smallmouth). I was catching plenty of fish but all shorts, except for three areas that I had caught keepers from. I went to all of those areas a few different times during the day and didn't go anywhere else. I ended up catching three keeper largemouth and four keeper smallmouth. The largemouth came on the Eco Pro jig, a Megabass Pop-X and Green Pumpkin Senko. All of the smallmouth came from one specific area within an hour on a drop-shot with a 3" Berkley Twitchtail Minnow.
Pend Oreille River - 1st Place - 5 fish, 11.16lbs
This was another fun one and a place where I had plenty of fishing history. Before I moved to Florida, I knew this place as good as any other lake or river around here. The funny thing is the two places I caught my fish from were places I had never fished until right before the tournament. The PO River has a limit of 2 largemouth per person and I was able to catch both of my keepers in the first half hour, one on the Eco Pro jig and one on a Megabass Giant Dog X topwater bait. After that it was smallie time. I found a main river point with rocks on it and milked it for all it was worth, catching keepers both times I stopped there. I was using a 4.5" Roboworm in Aaron's Magic.
This was another fun one and a place where I had plenty of fishing history. Before I moved to Florida, I knew this place as good as any other lake or river around here. The funny thing is the two places I caught my fish from were places I had never fished until right before the tournament. The PO River has a limit of 2 largemouth per person and I was able to catch both of my keepers in the first half hour, one on the Eco Pro jig and one on a Megabass Giant Dog X topwater bait. After that it was smallie time. I found a main river point with rocks on it and milked it for all it was worth, catching keepers both times I stopped there. I was using a 4.5" Roboworm in Aaron's Magic.
Loon Lake - 3rd Place - 4 fish, 8.92lbs
This was our night event and was tons of fun. I only had four fish, one more keeper would have likely pushed me to 1st place. I caught one on a drop-shot with a Roboworm right away and then caught one on a Zoom Ultravibe speedworm right before it got dark. My two biggest fish came on the Eco Pro jig next to docks.
This was our night event and was tons of fun. I only had four fish, one more keeper would have likely pushed me to 1st place. I caught one on a drop-shot with a Roboworm right away and then caught one on a Zoom Ultravibe speedworm right before it got dark. My two biggest fish came on the Eco Pro jig next to docks.
Newman Lake - 2nd Place - 5 fish, 17.13lbs
This event was probably my favorite of the year, the fish were biting very good this day. I decided to use my GoPro for this event, you can see the video here. I caught my limit in about an hour or so on a drop-shot with a Roboworm. I caught several more keepers drop-shotting, but the real key was switching to the jig. I culled all of those fish out and caught the big bass of the day on the Eco Pro jig, a 5.83lber.
This event was probably my favorite of the year, the fish were biting very good this day. I decided to use my GoPro for this event, you can see the video here. I caught my limit in about an hour or so on a drop-shot with a Roboworm. I caught several more keepers drop-shotting, but the real key was switching to the jig. I culled all of those fish out and caught the big bass of the day on the Eco Pro jig, a 5.83lber.
Loon Lake - 5th Place - 2 fish, 2.94lbs
I went to Loon the week before and thought I had them figured out, I was wrong! The fishing was tough and I ended up spending too much time chasing the smallmouth bite. I changed up and caught my two largemouth within about five minutes of pitching the jig to docks. I tried it for a bit longer then went back to chasing the smallies. Made a big mistake on that day.
I went to Loon the week before and thought I had them figured out, I was wrong! The fishing was tough and I ended up spending too much time chasing the smallmouth bite. I changed up and caught my two largemouth within about five minutes of pitching the jig to docks. I tried it for a bit longer then went back to chasing the smallies. Made a big mistake on that day.
Long Lake - 6th Place - 2 fish, 3.01bs
This was another one that surprised me. I was able to catch 17lb+ bags the two weeks before in little fun events we had, but the weather changed and so did the fish. I drop-shotted all day and caught my two fish with Roboworms while seeing them on my graph. It did help me continue to gain confidence doing that and it's really a fun way to fish.
As you can see, I pretty much used my three favorite techniques all year: a drop-shot, a jig and a topwater. Next year's schedule has some new lakes and I am really excited to fish the club again next year. I know the jig and drop-shot will be used at all of those tournaments.
This was another one that surprised me. I was able to catch 17lb+ bags the two weeks before in little fun events we had, but the weather changed and so did the fish. I drop-shotted all day and caught my two fish with Roboworms while seeing them on my graph. It did help me continue to gain confidence doing that and it's really a fun way to fish.
As you can see, I pretty much used my three favorite techniques all year: a drop-shot, a jig and a topwater. Next year's schedule has some new lakes and I am really excited to fish the club again next year. I know the jig and drop-shot will be used at all of those tournaments.
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