Fished with the Bass-n-Tube club on Saturday. We launched from the North shore ramp closest to the river. It was heavy fog all morning and a WON tourney out of South shore meant there was lots of company on the water. To sum it all up the bite was tough!
I had two bites all day, both around noon. Both fish were in about 20 feet of water and hit while barely dragging the bait. I had one hooked on a 3" tube and it got off the hook somehow, and the other one I landed, a pound and a half fish, on a baby brush hog. Eric won the tourney with 2 fish for like 3 and a half pounds. He had one smallie on a pop-r and one largemouth on a crankbait. He lost another big smallie on the pop-r as well. Phil, fishing with us for the first time, came in second with a 3lb largemouth. Jeff Smith was 3rd with a 2 and half pound smallie. Ken A, Paul, and I all had one fish each. Darcie had a 4lber break his spinnerbait in the morning.

As usual I learned my lesson that you have to make every sinlge bite count. Not that I felt like I did anything wrong on the one fish I lost, but you really just have to be ready every second of the day for a bite when the bites are so few and far between. My goal for next year is to make every single bite count all season long. I had 3 for sure, this one maybe, Bass-n-Tubes tourneys that I had the fish hooked on my line and in sight to win the tournament, and I didn't win a single one this year. At Berryessa I lost three smallmouth because I was using the cheap stock hooks on a pointer minnow. At Spring Lake I had a fish on that I had worked on a bed for a half an hour and lost it, probably because I was using my flipping stick to sight fish with. I am going to try to use my heavy spinning rod more next year. And at Pinto my first bite in the morning I lost by just pulling my line out for another cast without first feeling if there was a fish on there. Next year I am going to always pull back gently on every flip / pitch to feel for pressure before I bring it in. That fish was about 3lbs. And this fish, I don't know exactly why/how it got off, but it may have been this texas rig leadhead I was using with the hook built in. I've never fished small tubes much and need to find the percentage rig for hooking and landing fish on them.

So that's my gripe session for today, hopefully it saves you from losing a fish or two. It was a fun season this year, the most tourneys I've been able to fish with B-n-T in one year. I really hope I can make some of the Clear Lake tournaments next year.

Yeah, tough day. After 5 hours of sleeping in the cab of my truck, I went and threw rip baits, senkos, crankbaits and shallow dropshot in the morning to see if I could get some active fish up shallow early, with the fog. But, that wasn't happening so when the sun came out I went to the deepwater. Saw a WON Bass boat pull a few fish off of this one area, so I decided to fish it after they left. It was about 23ft. so I dropshotted it for at least an hour before I got a bite. I begin reeling the fish in, and my spinning reel feels like it's jacked. I couldn't reel in when there was pressure on the line. So, I farm the fish, look at the reel, and the only thing wrong was that the line was wrapped around that roller thing on the bail. It took .5 seconds to undo. I just didn't notice it when the fish was on, and just assumed my reel was screwed. grrrrr. Of course, that was my only bite of the day. The fish felt 2, 2.5#. After I lost that fish, I was thinking to myself that if Rob and John and E and all those guys come back with 3 and 4 fish, or a limit or something I'm selling my skiff and buying a kickboat... I'm over getting whooped on by those foos. But, it was a tough bite for everybody, so that made me feel a little better. I'm actually pretty happy with myself for at least getting a bite. It was probably one of the toughest tournaments I've fished, and I've gone all day with no bites in BNT tournaments too many times, so at least I got one to bite. I hate spinning reels...
-Brian

How about having the fish flip out of your hand while you're trying to get it into the floating livewell? That cost me $20 at Brian's tourney last week in the harbor.

Well, by now every one knows it was a tough bite. It sucks to hear about you guys losing fish, especially Darce breaking off a 4lber. I did learn alot by fishing this tournament. I thought for sure they'd be hitting topwater in the morning so I threw a buzzbait and a zara spook till around 9:00, but got nothing. That's when I realized maybe I should slow down and try to pick up at least one fish. I tied on a jig and threw that the rest of the day. Which is what I got the 3lber on. That was wierd too because it seems everyone got thier fish deep and mine came out of about 8ft, so that was the depth I focused on the rest of the day. I guess that was probably a mistake. I was happy with one fish and 2nd place though. Also it was cool meeting and fishing with you guys. I hope to do it again sometime soon. It looks like we're gonna get some rain this weekend. With 4 days off I think i'll hit Margarita pretty hard with trout plugs. I'll post pics of the Hawgs i'm going to catch (how's that for confidence hehe) -Phil