"In the Boat" presented by Jewel Bait Company |
Anglers: Cody Kemp and Spencer Grace
Date: 04/25/10 - Lake Ouachita
Tournament: Trader Bill's Team Trail
Practice: The only practice I had before this derby was on Saturday and my game plan was to go into
the day looking for some post spawn fish that had moved back out to the grass lines, “because I miss
the grass on Degray so that’s always my game plan when going to a lake with some grass!” anyways I
proceeded to catch a few small keepers on a big worm but could never get a big un to commit to it. I
decided the water was still rather cool out on the main lake so the fish were probably still in a pre-
spawn / spawn pattern out there and may be a bit more aggressive than what I was finding in the back
of bays and creeks. I pulled up to my first spot it was a main lake island that had some good cut banks
and not nearly as much slime as I was finding in the flats. I started swimming a football head jig in
about 6 to 7 foot range paralleling the bank. Basically was casting my jig right were I couldn’t see while
I was looking for bed fish. On my second or third cast one smoked it and when I set the hook a 6 to 7
pounder came flying out of the water and slammed into my trolling motor. First words that came out of
my mouth were “GOOD LORD!” I un hooked her and set her back and assessed my position. I
thought to myself “I believe that fish was either a pre-spawn fish about to make her bed right there or
she was already on bed” so I continued to do the same hoping I had found a little something. I did, I
was catching the daylights out of them. I caught one more fish that went around 5 and determined this
was my pattern to go with in the derby. OH I also found a couple “TOE, ADS” that were on bed one
around 4 and the other about a 5 along with a ton of 2.5 to 3 pounders. I was excited and thought if I
could get those two fish off the beds first thing in the morning then I would have a good shot once I
switched to my jig fish later in the day.
Derby day: We blasted off in position 44 and headed straight to my 4 pound bed fish she was in
between Rabbit and Cedar Fouche out at the mouth and I had gotten her to bite twice on Saturday so
I just knew I could catch her; but when we pulled up she was nowhere to be found. I could not find her
anywhere. So we left and pulled up to a 3 pounder I had found on Saturday out in Buckville “insert
negative sounding buzzer” she wasn’t there either so I said “let's lay off the bed fish lets go fishin”. We
made our next stop in 25 bay where we started throwing the football head jig I caught a 2 pounder
right in the back of a cut which broke the ice for us around 8:00am. When I say break the ice I mean it
we proceeded to catch the “daylights” out of fish. I estimate we caught around 30 or so keepers all
day just throwing the jig, and only had one solid fish get off. “I will talk you through this painful event”.
“HA sorry Spencer”… We are still in 25 bay with trolling motor on high when all I hear from the back of
the boat is “ah it’s a dink” while I am scrambling for the net because frankly I guess Ouachita fish feel
tiny on the end of your line compared to a Dardanelle fish but this fish exploded out of the water and I
said that is not a dink” so we fight her up next to the boat and her head came up that last time you
could see it about to happen with the jig just sitting on the inside of her mouth she thrashed her
beautiful head and the jig flies straight up in the air. First thing that came to my mind and I said loudly
“that’s gonna hurt”… Spencer started beating his self up pretty hard so I tried to show that I was
already over it and it didn’t matter but inside I was like “WE NEEDED HER” Oh well that’s fishin right.
After culling up to a little limit around 11 pounds I decided to go and try our big bed fish, the 5
pounder. She was on an island right in the top of a small tree top in 5 foot of water and when I found
her the day before I didn’t pinpoint exactly where her bed was “DUMB” because that would end up
preventing us from being able to even fish for her. The wind had blown a mud line all over her, it was
impossible to see her much less the small tree top she was in so we moved on to some more 3
pounders I had found and we spent way too much time messing with them. I can not stand bed fishing
mainly because I’m not good enough at it yet, and I want to be moving, catching, casting, instead of
sitting, and flipping for one fish for 30 minutes. We decided to go back to throwing the jig and see if
we could continue to upgrade our bag ounce by ounce and that’s mainly all we did. We culled around
10 or 15 times our last one came with about 20 minutes left and it was our best fish a solid 3 and half
pounder but that’s it we could not get a big bite all day! “Except for ya know the dink” HA. We made
the short run back knowing that as good as the fish bit for us someone would have a big bag, but
knew we would get some quality points for our efforts.
Final thoughts: Shouldn’t have wasted so much time on the bed fish we wasted nearly 3 hours
probably all day either looking for the ones we had found the previous day or trying to catch 3
pounders that would only upgrade us by ounces any way and we could do that with our jigs and have
a shot at a bigger one while doing it.
Keeper count: A LOT!!! 25+ all on ¾ ounce Jewel football head jig with a green pumpkin candy
paca chunk trailer.
Date: 04/25/10 - Lake Ouachita
Tournament: Trader Bill's Team Trail
Practice: The only practice I had before this derby was on Saturday and my game plan was to go into
the day looking for some post spawn fish that had moved back out to the grass lines, “because I miss
the grass on Degray so that’s always my game plan when going to a lake with some grass!” anyways I
proceeded to catch a few small keepers on a big worm but could never get a big un to commit to it. I
decided the water was still rather cool out on the main lake so the fish were probably still in a pre-
spawn / spawn pattern out there and may be a bit more aggressive than what I was finding in the back
of bays and creeks. I pulled up to my first spot it was a main lake island that had some good cut banks
and not nearly as much slime as I was finding in the flats. I started swimming a football head jig in
about 6 to 7 foot range paralleling the bank. Basically was casting my jig right were I couldn’t see while
I was looking for bed fish. On my second or third cast one smoked it and when I set the hook a 6 to 7
pounder came flying out of the water and slammed into my trolling motor. First words that came out of
my mouth were “GOOD LORD!” I un hooked her and set her back and assessed my position. I
thought to myself “I believe that fish was either a pre-spawn fish about to make her bed right there or
she was already on bed” so I continued to do the same hoping I had found a little something. I did, I
was catching the daylights out of them. I caught one more fish that went around 5 and determined this
was my pattern to go with in the derby. OH I also found a couple “TOE, ADS” that were on bed one
around 4 and the other about a 5 along with a ton of 2.5 to 3 pounders. I was excited and thought if I
could get those two fish off the beds first thing in the morning then I would have a good shot once I
switched to my jig fish later in the day.
Derby day: We blasted off in position 44 and headed straight to my 4 pound bed fish she was in
between Rabbit and Cedar Fouche out at the mouth and I had gotten her to bite twice on Saturday so
I just knew I could catch her; but when we pulled up she was nowhere to be found. I could not find her
anywhere. So we left and pulled up to a 3 pounder I had found on Saturday out in Buckville “insert
negative sounding buzzer” she wasn’t there either so I said “let's lay off the bed fish lets go fishin”. We
made our next stop in 25 bay where we started throwing the football head jig I caught a 2 pounder
right in the back of a cut which broke the ice for us around 8:00am. When I say break the ice I mean it
we proceeded to catch the “daylights” out of fish. I estimate we caught around 30 or so keepers all
day just throwing the jig, and only had one solid fish get off. “I will talk you through this painful event”.
“HA sorry Spencer”… We are still in 25 bay with trolling motor on high when all I hear from the back of
the boat is “ah it’s a dink” while I am scrambling for the net because frankly I guess Ouachita fish feel
tiny on the end of your line compared to a Dardanelle fish but this fish exploded out of the water and I
said that is not a dink” so we fight her up next to the boat and her head came up that last time you
could see it about to happen with the jig just sitting on the inside of her mouth she thrashed her
beautiful head and the jig flies straight up in the air. First thing that came to my mind and I said loudly
“that’s gonna hurt”… Spencer started beating his self up pretty hard so I tried to show that I was
already over it and it didn’t matter but inside I was like “WE NEEDED HER” Oh well that’s fishin right.
After culling up to a little limit around 11 pounds I decided to go and try our big bed fish, the 5
pounder. She was on an island right in the top of a small tree top in 5 foot of water and when I found
her the day before I didn’t pinpoint exactly where her bed was “DUMB” because that would end up
preventing us from being able to even fish for her. The wind had blown a mud line all over her, it was
impossible to see her much less the small tree top she was in so we moved on to some more 3
pounders I had found and we spent way too much time messing with them. I can not stand bed fishing
mainly because I’m not good enough at it yet, and I want to be moving, catching, casting, instead of
sitting, and flipping for one fish for 30 minutes. We decided to go back to throwing the jig and see if
we could continue to upgrade our bag ounce by ounce and that’s mainly all we did. We culled around
10 or 15 times our last one came with about 20 minutes left and it was our best fish a solid 3 and half
pounder but that’s it we could not get a big bite all day! “Except for ya know the dink” HA. We made
the short run back knowing that as good as the fish bit for us someone would have a big bag, but
knew we would get some quality points for our efforts.
Final thoughts: Shouldn’t have wasted so much time on the bed fish we wasted nearly 3 hours
probably all day either looking for the ones we had found the previous day or trying to catch 3
pounders that would only upgrade us by ounces any way and we could do that with our jigs and have
a shot at a bigger one while doing it.
Keeper count: A LOT!!! 25+ all on ¾ ounce Jewel football head jig with a green pumpkin candy
paca chunk trailer.