I was thinking of fishing the Bass Anglers United Tourney on Wawasee this weekend (the 22nd). Is anyone on here fishing and do they know anything about it. The entry is $125 with $25 membership. If we have to put up $175 it would be nice to see at least 50 boats. Any info on it would be appreciated. I call the tx director and he told me there would probably be 50 or more, but he wasn't sure.
I haven't fished them yet. I know Jay and he is enthusiastic about the circuit and has some good sponsorship support lined up. He's had fliers all over and talked about the events on some of the tournament Internet sites. He was at most of the fishing shows this spring handing out brochures and talking to anglers about the circuit.
Me and DHuff are going down to fish the Auburn bassmasters open on Lake Hamilton on Sunday. We saw that tournament too and decided to go with the open $65 team event. The director said they usually get close to 50 boats.
-Matt
Good Luck on Hamilton! I don't know if you have fished it before or not. I live about 10 minutes from it and boy does it have some big fish in it. Ever since LMBV hit it 5 years ago it is really struggling to come back like it used to be when it not only had bigguns', but a lot of fish period. There are a lot of fsih over 3 pounds, but very few smaller ones. It fishes veryyyyyy small now There will be one or two huge bags and it will drop off dramatically from there. I used to fish that tourney and usually cashed a check, but the payout is horrible after 1st place, but it is not all about the money. I was out there in early March and we really whacked them. We had one over 5 four over 4 four over 3 and 3 other keepers and also a 12 and 14 pound pike! Rattletraps, crankbaits, and black/blue jigs are usually the ticket on Hamilton in the spring. God Bless and Good Fishin'!
Rufus
We noticed real quick there were not many little fish in this lake. We covered a ton of water hoping one stupid fish would give a school away but it never happened. The tournament had around 50 boats, it was won with 7 fish at 21lbs. We had 4 fish for just under ten pounds and when we left were in 12th place with only a few to weigh-in. We were suprised by the 7 fish limits guys were bringing in, we couldn't find any small keepers anywhere. Our fish were some early bedders, they would move up onto the beds with the sun, tough to catch though. Every fish took about 1/2 hour to boat. It was only a 7 hour tournament and that just killed our plans at bed fishing. At 2p.m. when we weighed-in fish had come up all over the lake, we caught all of our fish in the last 3 hours.
-Matt
Hey Heath. It was our first time on Hamilton. We just went down to get in some early tournament fishing. We practiced all day Saturday and fournd quite a few beds in the afternoon that the fished moved up on once the sun and water temp rose. We Started the day hitting some beds we thought may have fish on them early but there were none. So we moved to the big Northernly Flat and covered that with one dink on a trap. ONce the sun got up we went to the three beds we found in a canal and all of them had fish on them including one bed that had two real nice fish moving up and down on it but were really spooky. We caught the first one in about ten minutes then we had tow ork the second fish for about a half hour I hooked him twice but both times he got off so we left him alone for a while and then came back to catch him. By that time one of the big fish on the bed about 20 ft away had settled down on the bed right by shore. I pitched a jig on the grass and kept dragging it on the bed and got the fish to hit. That one went 3lbs and 5 or 6 oz something like that. Anyways we moved from there to some beds we found Saturday on a shoreline in one of the bays and caught one fish off of the first bed and we were working the second bed when we had to leave for weigh in. That 7 hour tourney really hurt us. All of our fish were just moving up. We were hoping they wouldn't be so tough to catch but they were and that took up a lot of our time. With another hour or two I think we could of got our 7 fish limit and had around 15-18lbs with the fish we had on the beds. We just couldn't get to them before the time was up. Oh well I guess that is what you get for relying on a bed pattern in the early season. We ended up with 4 nice fish for 9lbs and 11 oz. Not to bad there were like 50 boats and about half ZEROED. However, Frank Randol ended up winning with 7 fish for 21 and change. He did an awesome job. I was glad to see him win if we couldn't. He was always nice to me and talked to me when I was fishing the Lake James division there a few years ago. Very good fisherman and a very humble guy.
I had talked to Frank at the bait store on Friday night and he told me he was on them pretty good. A friend of mine was there on Saturday and burnt them up too. He was catching his fish on a wacky rigged Senko in shallow water. Frank probably caught them on a jig or critter craw. He is quite a fishermen. We fished the Southern Lower Michigan Division of the NBAA last year and did pretty well. We decided not to go to Kentucky Lake though for the classic next week. We usually fish at least one tourney a year together. If you ever need information from stuff around here he is a good man to get it from. He is very honest and will give you all that he can.
Normally a ten pound sack on Hamilton will get you a check, I think it is slowly recovering from LMBV that happened a few year back. God Bless and Good Fishin'!
Hey Heath. Send me an email with your emai or phone number if you don't mind. I am going to get down there again in a few weeks and fish on James maybe we can meet up. My email is dalebhuff@earthlink.net