Silver Lake Recap - 1st and Big Bass

The Silver Lake tournament yesterday was awesome. Our club showed what this little lake is capable with several great bags coming to the scales.  I was fortunate enough to get the win with 22.73lbs and a 5.91lb big bass.  Here is the rundown of what I used and what I targeted.

Practice

I was able to get out three separate times to Silver Lake, but only for a few hours each time.  The first two days were basically a waste and I caught three small fish each time.  The last trip really clued me in to what I needed to do.  I started that day with a squarebill in some standing timber and caught two nearly four pound fish on back to back casts. I left that area and tried some other areas and caught a several more in the shallow grass with a jig, crankbait and ChatterBait.

Tournament Day

I was boat number 13 and as we were taking off I saw every single boat head to the south end to the grassy areas. I wrote that off immediately as a starting spot and went to my spot with the timber.  My first fish came on a Spro Little John 50 that I bought the day before. I have never owned a Spro crankbait, but this one must have been good! It ended up being the big bass of the event and weighed 5.91lbs.  I then fished more logs, timber and rock and had a limit for about 15lb in the first two hours on that crankbait and a Strike King 1.5 squarebill.

I decided to make a run down to the shallow grass and saw 12 of our 19 boats in one general area.  I spent maybe 20 minutes there and ran back up to the logs.

Since the sun was up, I backed out to the deeper side of the standing timber and started pitching my Eco Pro Tungsten Pro Heavyweight Flipping Jig to the wood that was between 5-10 feet. I was able to catch a 5lber, a 4lber and several more quality fish doing this.  I also culled again with the crankbait a few times. At one point after I had culled three fish that were 3.5lbs, I realized that I have a giant bag.  I would kill to have those fish I culled in some other events.

It was a great day and the big fish were really biting on Silver Lake.  Before the practice for this event, I had not been there in close to 10 years and now I am wondering why I didn't get out there. It's close to home, but we just have way too many good lakes to choose from and it just didn't make the cut when I decide where to go each time.

Here is a pic of the exact baits and a recap of what rod, reel and line I used.

Spro Little John 50
Fenwick Elite Tech 7' M
Revo SX
12lb Seaguar Tatsu

Strike King KVD HC Square Bill Silent Crankbait
Abu Garcia Villain 2.0, 7' M
Revo MGX
12lb Seaguar Tatsu

Eco Pro Tungsten Heavyweight Flipping Jig
Powell Endurance 765 (discontinued)
Shimano Chronarch
17lb Seaguar AbrazX