"In the Boat" presented by Jewel Bait Company |
Tournament: Vince Miller's Super Team
May 18th, 2008
DeGray Lake
Anglers: Jeremy Risley/Frank Leone
14th place - 5 bass - 12.82 pounds
Practice:
May 16th: Jeremy fished on Friday alone, although I got numerous updates throughout the day. "I
just busted our first keeper" is what he said when I answered the first call at 9:00 AM. "What did you
get him on?" I asked. This type of exchange went on all day and made it hard for me to concentrate
on work. Jeremy primarily tried three techniques: Topwater, Big Worm on outside edge of grass,
and Carolina - rigged brushhog on inside edge of grass. He caught keepers on all three
techniques, but he was especially impressed with the topwater bite. Seems they were schooling all
over the points. He caught 6 keepers (best 5 around 12 pounds) during the day and several slot
fish. Things were looking good.
May 17th: We headed out at 5:45 AM hoping to expand the topwater pattern. We started on the
lower end of the lake and on the first stop we started drilling fish. It's too bad they were the wrong
species!!! We hammered those "Frankenstein" Hybrid shad eaters on every point we went to. They
were absolutely smashing our topwater baits (Super Spooks, Sammies, and Vixens)!!! Somehow I
managed to catch a keeper spotted bass in between the Hybrid wolf packs, but it appeared our
topwater bite had fizzled out. We pulled out the C-rigs, but even that bite was slow. We caught a
couple more keepers on the C-rig, but it was a really tough day. We were really puzzled about the
lack of topwater activity. It looked like this was going to be a tough tournament for us......
Tournament: We had a horrible draw (47 out of 53) and it seemed like an eternity waiting. We
could see some storm clouds in the distance and it looked like perfect conditions for a topwater
bite. We finally made it out to our first point (between the State Park and Oak Bower) and it started
to spit rain. Too perfect!! But the fish wouldn't rise to our baits. We had one half-hearted blow-up
on each of the first two points we came to. Finally, on the third point, one pounded my topwater bait
- the one I like to call "Tommy Lee" (Reaction Innovations Vixen - Bone Color). Finally, our first
keeper!! Two points later, and we thought we hit the mother load. Fish were schooling on both
sides of the point! We ended up catching 5 off of it, but they were all in the slot "twinkies". At our
next stop we added a keeper spotted bass, but the bite just didn't seem right. "Let's go try the other
side of that point where we hadn't fished yet", Jeremy said. So off we went. Within 15 minutes we
had two more keepers, including our biggest fish of the day. That's when things started rolling. Fish
just started annihilating "Tommy Lee". Commode flushes!!! The awesome bite continued for the
next two hours and the action was fast and furious. When the water stopped flying, we had 7
keepers for our efforts and we thought we had between 13 - 14 pounds. About 11:30, we decided
to go "head hunting" on the lower end of the Lake. We thought it was our best opportunity to
upgrade our bag. Although we did catch one keeper on the lower end, it didn't help us. We ended
up 14th (12.82 pounds), about a 1/2 pound out of check range..... That hurts.......
Keeper Count: Reaction Innovations Vixen (Bone): 8 keepers
Final Thoughts: We probably left the mid-lake area too early. One more 3-pounder would have
put us in check range. Besides that, we had a great day of fishing. It's hard to beat a good topwater
bite.......
See ya' on the flip side,
Frank Leone
May 18th, 2008
DeGray Lake
Anglers: Jeremy Risley/Frank Leone
14th place - 5 bass - 12.82 pounds
Practice:
May 16th: Jeremy fished on Friday alone, although I got numerous updates throughout the day. "I
just busted our first keeper" is what he said when I answered the first call at 9:00 AM. "What did you
get him on?" I asked. This type of exchange went on all day and made it hard for me to concentrate
on work. Jeremy primarily tried three techniques: Topwater, Big Worm on outside edge of grass,
and Carolina - rigged brushhog on inside edge of grass. He caught keepers on all three
techniques, but he was especially impressed with the topwater bite. Seems they were schooling all
over the points. He caught 6 keepers (best 5 around 12 pounds) during the day and several slot
fish. Things were looking good.
May 17th: We headed out at 5:45 AM hoping to expand the topwater pattern. We started on the
lower end of the lake and on the first stop we started drilling fish. It's too bad they were the wrong
species!!! We hammered those "Frankenstein" Hybrid shad eaters on every point we went to. They
were absolutely smashing our topwater baits (Super Spooks, Sammies, and Vixens)!!! Somehow I
managed to catch a keeper spotted bass in between the Hybrid wolf packs, but it appeared our
topwater bite had fizzled out. We pulled out the C-rigs, but even that bite was slow. We caught a
couple more keepers on the C-rig, but it was a really tough day. We were really puzzled about the
lack of topwater activity. It looked like this was going to be a tough tournament for us......
Tournament: We had a horrible draw (47 out of 53) and it seemed like an eternity waiting. We
could see some storm clouds in the distance and it looked like perfect conditions for a topwater
bite. We finally made it out to our first point (between the State Park and Oak Bower) and it started
to spit rain. Too perfect!! But the fish wouldn't rise to our baits. We had one half-hearted blow-up
on each of the first two points we came to. Finally, on the third point, one pounded my topwater bait
- the one I like to call "Tommy Lee" (Reaction Innovations Vixen - Bone Color). Finally, our first
keeper!! Two points later, and we thought we hit the mother load. Fish were schooling on both
sides of the point! We ended up catching 5 off of it, but they were all in the slot "twinkies". At our
next stop we added a keeper spotted bass, but the bite just didn't seem right. "Let's go try the other
side of that point where we hadn't fished yet", Jeremy said. So off we went. Within 15 minutes we
had two more keepers, including our biggest fish of the day. That's when things started rolling. Fish
just started annihilating "Tommy Lee". Commode flushes!!! The awesome bite continued for the
next two hours and the action was fast and furious. When the water stopped flying, we had 7
keepers for our efforts and we thought we had between 13 - 14 pounds. About 11:30, we decided
to go "head hunting" on the lower end of the Lake. We thought it was our best opportunity to
upgrade our bag. Although we did catch one keeper on the lower end, it didn't help us. We ended
up 14th (12.82 pounds), about a 1/2 pound out of check range..... That hurts.......
Keeper Count: Reaction Innovations Vixen (Bone): 8 keepers
Final Thoughts: We probably left the mid-lake area too early. One more 3-pounder would have
put us in check range. Besides that, we had a great day of fishing. It's hard to beat a good topwater
bite.......
See ya' on the flip side,
Frank Leone