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Author:
slimecoat
Date:
Sep 14, 2009
Subject:
Empty Lake Bass Club - Gardner Lake Tournament 9-13
Message:
Fished 6am -2pm Water temps 68 to 72 Air temps 65 to 78 Water clarity clear in most areas to slightly stained Winds 5 to 10mph Skies cloudy in the early am, giving way to bright sunny skies by 10am Pointing dog and I started off throwing sammy's, and pop r's over shallow and deeper weeds with only 1 slime dart to show for it. With the winds picking up pretty quickly in the am we switched to spinnerbaits and rattle traps with nothing to show for that. I finally caught a short largemouth from a dock with a texas rigged baby bass senko. So we started fishing docks and got nothing else. We took the tube and senko and started catching them out in 6 to 8 foot weedbeds. So we started hitting the deeper weedbeds at our first stop and had a limit of 12 to 13 inch largies by 7:45am. We proceeded to spot hop our usual weedy spots at Gardner, duplicating the same depths and culled 2 fish for a few ounces each time. We still had under 6lbs at this point for 5 fish. I had mentioned to pointing dog that we should try a new weedy/fishy looking spot, that I had stumbled upon the weekend before when doing the bobber and worm thing with my 4 year old and my niece and nephew. He was not in favor of this decision, and we hit a few other spots, but with no fish caught in the last 3 hours, so at about 12:30pm, and with nothing to loose at this point, he finally said ok lets go hit your spot. So we pull up on this spot and P dog casts to some very thick coontail and picks up another 1.25lb largie which culls out our last 12 incher. Then no sooner does he get his bait back in the water, when I cast towards shore and drag my senko to the inside edge of another really large thick patch of coontail that drops into about 4 to 5 feet of water, and it gets heavy. So I set the hook on a fish that I think is just another cookie cutter 1 or 2 lber, because it swims directly at me into the thick stuff. At this point P dog asks me " Is it a big one?" Thinking the fish is mostly weed weight around a small bass, I answer "I don't know? I don't think so?" So I proceed to horse it to the top of the coontail patch and this monster largemouth shows herself with no weeds attached. At this point Pointing dog just about craps himself, he stumbles and trips scraping his hand reaching for the net. Keep in mind neither of us have seen a bass bigger than 1.75lbs today, or any bass for that matter in the past 3 hours. She surges under the boat and I work her out and she goes into the deep coontail again. Finally she comes topside and P dog lands her in the net. All this 40 yards from another team, that at the sight of all this, 1 member drops his rod on the deck of his boat and puts his hands on his hips shaking his head. She was beautiful, and went 5-2 on the digital scale. She only measured 20 inches, but she was a porky thing with shoulders and girth! At this point I am jumping up and down and all around on the back deck, hootin and hollerin, knowing that this fish will probably give us another good finish if not a win, on a day where everybody semed to be struggling to catch any good sized fish. When it hits me P dog had left her flopping around in the net on the back deck, reality check time dummy, get the fish in the box then celebrate. That would be the last keeper we put in the boat for the day. 1st place - Pointing dog and Slimecoat with 9-14 (lunker a 5-2 largie) 2nd place - Sarom and Steve with 8-14 3rd place - Mike S. and Rich B. 8-7 All in all a good day, all teams caught fish, most had 5 fish limits, and a lot of pickeral caught. Pointing Dog will post the picture of the lunker at some point I'm sure. Our next outing is Lake Zoar on 9-27
Author:
mongo
Date:
Sep 14, 2009
Message:
what a difference a day makes - we had a tourn there on saturday - a 5lber was also caught , but for the most part the rest of us stunk up the joint - noone had theire limit - inlcuding yours truly - winning weight was only 7.26 gardner has become a 'luck ' lake - you just gotta either wait them out on the flat or just stumble on where they are feeding at that moment...i guess it's too pressured with the new ramp and all...ah well.. but that wont stop me from going up there especially to camp out at pequot ledge..top notch people
Author:
slimecoat
Date:
Sep 14, 2009
Message:
Find the weeds, and the bass are usually there. The giant flat has been crap since they initially sprayed the weeds 8 years ago. For the most part you need to fish super slow and drag senkos, tubes, worms, and jigs. It's all about spending time on the water, and finding deeper weeds that don't get pressured too much.
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