"In the Boat" presented by Jewel Bait Company |
Tournament: Vince Miller's Super Team
March 2, 2008
Jeremy Risley and Frank Leone
Place: 3rd - 5 bass - 11.08 pounds - $900.00
Practice:
February 18th: We both had President's Day off of work, so we decided to go to Greers and scope
out the situation. The Lake had risen several feet and the water temps were in the 44 - 46 degree
range - So it looked like conditions would be tough. We started fishing in Higden Bay but couldn't
get anything going. We decided to go up the Middle Fork, and it looked like Nestle's chocolate milk.
We ended up hitting a bunch of main lake points with little success. We caught one smallie and one
largemouth on megabass jerkbaits, and little did we know at the time, but the largemouth keyed us
in on an area that would help us "cull up" during the tournament.
March 1st: The day before the tournament found us going up one of the Fork's. First stop yielded
two keeper spotted bass on a wiggle wart. Caught an easy limit that went about 8-pounds by 9:30
AM. Then the lights went off. We didn't catch a single keeper after leaving our initial area. We
decided we had found the area we would "camp out" on during the tournament. Got to love it when
practice goes so easy....
March 2nd: Derby day found us rearing and ready to go! We got a good draw and were the 14th
boat out of the hole. We headed to our area in the "Fork of choice" and it was like too good to be
true. For one it was warm, not a bone chilling ride at all. Two, we were the first boat in the area.
Three, on about our second or third cast we doubled up - "We're on our own" I yelled to Jeremy
before boat flipping our first keeper of the morning. His fish turned out to be short, but we had one
in the box early. That's always a confidence booster. We continued throwing wiggle warts around
channel swings and secondary points and had 4 bass in the boat before 8:45 AM. We got to a
steep bank and Jeremy switched to a Megabass jerkbait and quickly put number 5 in the boat. We
had about 8.0 pounds, so we knew we had to cull our two 12-inch spotted bass to get into check
range (Which I slightly overestimated at 10-pounds). Our wiggle wart bite had died so we started
throwing mainly jerkbaits. We were able to cull twice on the jerkbaits before 10:30 AM, but then our
bite started to die. It was kind of funny, but the wind kind of shut the better fish down. We went
about two hours without a bite, so we decided to fish our way out of the Fork. At our last stop, I
caught a keeper kentucky on a Jewel Eakins' Jig, but it didn't help us. We probably had about 9.5
pounds, and knew we had to cull at least one more fish to get in the money. Jeremy decided that we
needed to hit the area down lake where we had caught the 2.5 pounder on our first practice day, so
off we went. I tied on a Megabass jerkbait and on about the second cast, bang 3-pounder! We were
feeling pretty good about our chances now, but we still weren't satisfied. That's when Jeremy went
to the vault. He picked an awesome looking color out of his Megabass box and without hesitating
said "This one's going for over $100 on ebay now - got three of em". About two casts later and he's
hollering for the net! Solid smallmouth! It culled one of our keeper largemouth and moved us into
the 11-pound range - We were pumped!
Keeper Count:
Megabass Vision 110 Jerkbaits: 4 keepers
Storm Wiggle Warts: 4 keepers
Jewel Eakins' Jig (5/16 oz. - Brown): 1 keeper
Lucky Craft Pointer 100 (Chartreuse shad): 1 keeper
Final Thoughts:
Just one of those days when we could do no wrong. The fish we had found the day before were
there and chompin', the decisions we made late in the day paid off, and we never lost a fish.
Somebody pinch me..........
See ya' on the flip side,
Frank Leone
March 2, 2008
Jeremy Risley and Frank Leone
Place: 3rd - 5 bass - 11.08 pounds - $900.00
Practice:
February 18th: We both had President's Day off of work, so we decided to go to Greers and scope
out the situation. The Lake had risen several feet and the water temps were in the 44 - 46 degree
range - So it looked like conditions would be tough. We started fishing in Higden Bay but couldn't
get anything going. We decided to go up the Middle Fork, and it looked like Nestle's chocolate milk.
We ended up hitting a bunch of main lake points with little success. We caught one smallie and one
largemouth on megabass jerkbaits, and little did we know at the time, but the largemouth keyed us
in on an area that would help us "cull up" during the tournament.
March 1st: The day before the tournament found us going up one of the Fork's. First stop yielded
two keeper spotted bass on a wiggle wart. Caught an easy limit that went about 8-pounds by 9:30
AM. Then the lights went off. We didn't catch a single keeper after leaving our initial area. We
decided we had found the area we would "camp out" on during the tournament. Got to love it when
practice goes so easy....
March 2nd: Derby day found us rearing and ready to go! We got a good draw and were the 14th
boat out of the hole. We headed to our area in the "Fork of choice" and it was like too good to be
true. For one it was warm, not a bone chilling ride at all. Two, we were the first boat in the area.
Three, on about our second or third cast we doubled up - "We're on our own" I yelled to Jeremy
before boat flipping our first keeper of the morning. His fish turned out to be short, but we had one
in the box early. That's always a confidence booster. We continued throwing wiggle warts around
channel swings and secondary points and had 4 bass in the boat before 8:45 AM. We got to a
steep bank and Jeremy switched to a Megabass jerkbait and quickly put number 5 in the boat. We
had about 8.0 pounds, so we knew we had to cull our two 12-inch spotted bass to get into check
range (Which I slightly overestimated at 10-pounds). Our wiggle wart bite had died so we started
throwing mainly jerkbaits. We were able to cull twice on the jerkbaits before 10:30 AM, but then our
bite started to die. It was kind of funny, but the wind kind of shut the better fish down. We went
about two hours without a bite, so we decided to fish our way out of the Fork. At our last stop, I
caught a keeper kentucky on a Jewel Eakins' Jig, but it didn't help us. We probably had about 9.5
pounds, and knew we had to cull at least one more fish to get in the money. Jeremy decided that we
needed to hit the area down lake where we had caught the 2.5 pounder on our first practice day, so
off we went. I tied on a Megabass jerkbait and on about the second cast, bang 3-pounder! We were
feeling pretty good about our chances now, but we still weren't satisfied. That's when Jeremy went
to the vault. He picked an awesome looking color out of his Megabass box and without hesitating
said "This one's going for over $100 on ebay now - got three of em". About two casts later and he's
hollering for the net! Solid smallmouth! It culled one of our keeper largemouth and moved us into
the 11-pound range - We were pumped!
Keeper Count:
Megabass Vision 110 Jerkbaits: 4 keepers
Storm Wiggle Warts: 4 keepers
Jewel Eakins' Jig (5/16 oz. - Brown): 1 keeper
Lucky Craft Pointer 100 (Chartreuse shad): 1 keeper
Final Thoughts:
Just one of those days when we could do no wrong. The fish we had found the day before were
there and chompin', the decisions we made late in the day paid off, and we never lost a fish.
Somebody pinch me..........
See ya' on the flip side,
Frank Leone