In the Boat With...
Tournament: Get5Bass Summer Series
July 11th, 2021
Lake Dardanelle
Angler: Frank Leone - 8th place - 5 bass - 11.85 pounds
Practice: No Practice for this one....
Tournament: Another Tournament, another change in conditions for Dardanelle. This time the flow fell from 130,00 CFS to 70,000. I welcomed this change, as it allowed me to expand my fishable water. When I got everyone taken off, I hit some grass in Illinois Bayou with a frog. 1st blowup ended up being a fat 13.5 incher... Obviously he didn't make the cut. The second blowup I seen the entire fish come up and eat the frog. It was a keeper, but I lost it at the boat. That's when I began to think it may not be my day... Anyway, I headed upriver pretty quickly after that. Next three stops were duds, and I began to think I was in for a long day. I caught a couple small keepers at the next stop, so I was on the board. After that, I hit a straight stretch bank I caught them on a few weeks ago. the fish were there and biting, the only problem was they were all cookie cutter 15 and 16-inchers. Still, I was glad to have 5 in the box and get some bites. I kind of beebopped around and finally at 11:45 AM it happened... I hooked up with a nice 4-pounder and got her in the boat. I was pumped and thought that was the fish that got me in check range... A slight case of the "big eye" I guess, as I ended up 2 places out of the money....
Keeper count:
8 keepers: Spro Fat John 60 SB - Denali Attax 7' MH CB; 16 pound Sunline Crank FC
1 keeper: Leone's Toad Jig - Denali Lithium 7'4 MH; 16 pound Sunline Sniper FC
Final Thoughts: I counted my chickens before they hatched. Really thought I was in the money after I caught this big one. Oh well, It was still a great day on the water!
See ya' on the flip side...
Frank