"In the Boat" presented by Jewel Bait Company |
Tournament: Trader Bill's Team Trail
Anglers: Cody Kemp and Spencer Grace
Practice: NOPE!
Derby day:
Before the tournament I told Spencer that the deep bite had to be where it was at and
that deep brush piles and trees is where I would like to stay all day, but if we couldn’t get
bit out there I was going to let him show me how to twitch twitch boom like a Dardy strip
pit pro!!! Well when our number was called we went straight to the trees, and boy was
that where the fish were. I am talking about thousands of fish, except… they were about
3 inches long with a spot and a stripe. We fished amongst the hoards of fluttering shad
for about an hour picking apart every tree, brush and rock pile we could find with our 5/8
ounce Jewel football jigs, but no bites. I decided to start trying to junk fish around until
we could find some type of pattern to go on. We ran to the back of Hot Spring creek and
started chunking everything we could that resembled a shad. I hooked up twice on ½
ounce silver rattle trap but both fish came off quickly; however we weren’t too upset
because we were almost certain they were schooling whites. After swapping back and
forth from deep piles to shallow ditches, we still hadn’t gotten a solid bass bite. I told
Spencer “I got a spot that might remind you of home, lets go”. We ran to the back of Little
Mazarn where the water had warmed up a bit it was around 49 degrees. The water had
some color in it but had some clear portions from the current being pushed in. We
started throwing our jerks, I was throwing the Jackall Squadminnow in chartreuse shad,
and Spencer was throwing a shad colored megabass. I hooked up on about my 5th cast
with the squad and boy was I pumped I started yelling “ITS ON, WE ARE ABOUT CATCH
OUR LIMIT RIGHT HERE” “insert loud, negative sounding buzzer here” we fished the
entire ditch with our jerks with no more bites. Before leaving we poked around a little
more on the bluff banks with jigs and crankbaits but couldn’t find another taker. Finally
we finished our day out back in Hot Springs creek where we had the early bites, but
nothing would commit to eating our hard baits when there was so much of the real thing
fluttering around.
Keeper count:
1 fish 2.19lbs Jackall Squad Minnow
Final thoughts:
I don’t get lucky, I have to be prepared to have a shot at a winning stringer and in no way
was I prepared this weekend. One more thought… bring on Degray
Anglers: Cody Kemp and Spencer Grace
Practice: NOPE!
Derby day:
Before the tournament I told Spencer that the deep bite had to be where it was at and
that deep brush piles and trees is where I would like to stay all day, but if we couldn’t get
bit out there I was going to let him show me how to twitch twitch boom like a Dardy strip
pit pro!!! Well when our number was called we went straight to the trees, and boy was
that where the fish were. I am talking about thousands of fish, except… they were about
3 inches long with a spot and a stripe. We fished amongst the hoards of fluttering shad
for about an hour picking apart every tree, brush and rock pile we could find with our 5/8
ounce Jewel football jigs, but no bites. I decided to start trying to junk fish around until
we could find some type of pattern to go on. We ran to the back of Hot Spring creek and
started chunking everything we could that resembled a shad. I hooked up twice on ½
ounce silver rattle trap but both fish came off quickly; however we weren’t too upset
because we were almost certain they were schooling whites. After swapping back and
forth from deep piles to shallow ditches, we still hadn’t gotten a solid bass bite. I told
Spencer “I got a spot that might remind you of home, lets go”. We ran to the back of Little
Mazarn where the water had warmed up a bit it was around 49 degrees. The water had
some color in it but had some clear portions from the current being pushed in. We
started throwing our jerks, I was throwing the Jackall Squadminnow in chartreuse shad,
and Spencer was throwing a shad colored megabass. I hooked up on about my 5th cast
with the squad and boy was I pumped I started yelling “ITS ON, WE ARE ABOUT CATCH
OUR LIMIT RIGHT HERE” “insert loud, negative sounding buzzer here” we fished the
entire ditch with our jerks with no more bites. Before leaving we poked around a little
more on the bluff banks with jigs and crankbaits but couldn’t find another taker. Finally
we finished our day out back in Hot Springs creek where we had the early bites, but
nothing would commit to eating our hard baits when there was so much of the real thing
fluttering around.
Keeper count:
1 fish 2.19lbs Jackall Squad Minnow
Final thoughts:
I don’t get lucky, I have to be prepared to have a shot at a winning stringer and in no way
was I prepared this weekend. One more thought… bring on Degray