Big Indiana Bass

I have a rare down week in the season, so I wanted to jump on here to get my second installment out for the season and share some ups and downs that I’ve already experienced this year.  This year started off quick, with a whirlwind effect that had me running around like crazy.  It’s amazing how you can have 4 months of down time in the off season, and still be rushed at the last minute once the tournament season is upon you.  You’re watching the weather, hoping for a couple of bright sunny warm days to melt the last of the ice off the lake, and then it happens overnight and you’re supposed to be on the water fishing.  It seemingly always happens that the 100 times you’ve sorted through everything in your boat there’s always something left out when it’s time to hit the water.

So far this season for me it seems the theme has been “behind the eight ball”, literally!  I started the season out rushing. Once on the water, I was behind the movement of the fish, and once I thought I caught up, I was still behind their movement again.  The first tournament of the season it was still very cold outside. Launch temperature was a blistering 19 degrees.  Water temps were also still in the low 40s.  With that, I assumed unfortunately, the bass would still be deep.  I fished deep ledges, deep off main lake points, channel bends/breaks, and deep left over grass lines.  Come to find out the top 5 in my first tournament caught ALL of their fish shallow, and I mean shallow, less than 5 feet of water.  The day was bright and sunny, and although it started off cold, it warmed up quickly.  Hindsight being 20/20, I believe they went shallow to soak up some of the sun.

The very next weekend was the season opener for the IBF Invitational Trail on Patoka.  I went in thinking I knew exactly where they were going to be.  It was another bright, sunny, and warm day, so I figured they would be soaking up the sun once again.  I focused on shallow rock throwing a jerk bait most of the day.  However, again I was wrong and behind the ball.  The top of the tournament all caught them deep cranking, catching them in 10+ feet of water.  Moral of the story for me would be doing exactly the opposite of what I’m thinking in early spring!  I did manage a couple of keepers and finished 23rd in the 67 boat field.  Not a good day for the pocket book, but an OK point day towards making the end of the year Classic.

This past weekend was a tail of two stories.  Saturday I fished the season opener for the Fishers of Men Indiana South Division at Geist Reservoir.  I went up to Geist the day prior in hopes of putting something together.  Water temps in the mid-50s, partly cloudy, and windy was the forecast on Friday.  I expected the bite to be on pretty good.  I fished all day searching for a bite.  Jerk Bait, Jig, Spinner Bait, Square Bill - no, no, no, and no.  Around three in the afternoon Friday I put on a White/Chart Screwy Lewy Lures Chatter Bait and caught two keepers on back to back casts.  These two bites came on a secondary point sea wall.  The next spot I stopped at was another secondary point sea wall, and caught 2 more keepers within minutes.  Just to make sure I went to one more spot, another sea wall, and caught another keeper.  This pretty much told me all I needed to know.  Saturday for the tournament I spend the day throwing that White/Chart Screwy Lewy Lures Chatter Bait on main lake points with sea walls, secondary points with sea walls, and main lake banks with sea walls.  All in all, my partner and I boated 20+ keepers that day, anchored by a 5.20 big bass.  We ended up finishing in 6th place and cashing a check.  We could only manage 2 decent bites, the 5.20 and a 4 pounder to go with it.  Everything else was smaller in the 15” range.  Just needed to come across another good bite to put us right there.

The very next day on Sunday I had the 2nd stop of the IBF Invitational Tour on Brookville Reservoir.  Here lies another mistake for the season.  I had never fished Brookville, never even seen the lake before.  I had no prior history to go off of, only map study and Internet information.  The day didn’t end up so well for me, only catching one small keeper and ending up with a measly 41st place finish.  Luckily I did manage to catch a keeper which allowed me to gain a few much needed points for the season.  Also luckily placing in 41st only dropped me three places in the overall standings to 26th, as it was a very tough day on everyone.  Winning bag on Brookville was only 13.48 lbs., while only taking 8.64 lbs. to cash a check.  Definitely a grind for everyone as the more productive northern end of the lake was completely blown out for the most part.  The clearest and most fishable water was closer to the dam, and had multiple boats stacked up on every textbook spot it seemed like.

So far for the season there are many things I’ve already learned, as well as some things I’m already considering for next year.  First off, I’ve learned you cannot start prepping for the season soon enough.  I started an entire month before my first scheduled tournament, and like I mentioned, still almost ran out of time.  Next season I will definitely be starting sooner, and my advice to those who don’t already know like I didn’t, you can’t start soon enough!

Second, in some of my readings I came across an interesting approach to early spring fishing that I will be adopting for next season.  It’s a top down approach, basically.  Instead of starting where you think they will or should be, for instance in deep water for me this year, start shallow and in the backs and work your way out and down.  This way you aren’t missing any of the shallow fish thinking they are out deep.  Next season in the first few tournaments of the year, I will be starting in the backs of coves and fishing shallow water, less than 5 feet and progressively work my way out and down until I find where they are holding.

Third, I am contemplating my decision to try and fish so many different higher profile series this season.  It was my idea to fish everything I could where I could qualify for something bigger such as the Forrest Wood Cup or the Bassmaster Classic.  That decision led me to fishing the Hoosier Division BFL, IBF Invitational Series, and Fishers of Men Indiana South divisions.  While everything seemingly works out on the schedule, I have multiple weekends where I’m fishing one body of water Saturday and driving across the state to another body of water for Sunday.  This also drastically reduces the amount of practice and pre-fishing time I have with each associated body of water.  If I were to just fish one series for instance, I could devote the entire week or two prior to the tournament to a specific body of water in preparation.  I guess only time will tell which path I take next season as tournament fishing is such a passion it’s hard to think about reducing the amount of tournaments I’m fishing.

In the next couple of weeks I’ve got the first tournament in the Hoosier Division BFL coming up on Monroe Reservoir, which is completely flooded right now, on April 25th.  After that I’m off to Kentucky Lake for the first week of May to fish in the USABASSIN Tournament of Champions, and the Ranger Comanche Classic.  Not only do the tournaments have me pumped up and ready to go, but I’ll also be spending some time with former Bassmaster and FLW Pro Sam Lashlee.  Sam is definitely one of the better sticks on Kentucky Lake and I look forward to spending a few days with him on the water.

Until next time, I pray everyone is safe on the water and good luck to everyone fishing.  If anyone would like to contact me for further information or any other reason, feel free to email me at .