This is What 30th-ish Place Looks Like

Here are four of our five fish limit.  You aren’t missing anything.  The fifth fish looked about like the other four.

I don’t know if we were actually 30th, but Dave Willhide and I made it out for the YVRGC derby yesterday (February 24th 2024).  There were 35 boats in our club, and there was a BASS kayak tournament.  I talked to one kayak guy who said the top five of their tournament would qualify to fish the kayak division of the Bass Master Classic.  I wish him luck.

We mostly fished my spots, and they were 50/50 for success.  Our first spot throwing cranks was a total wash, but there were already three boats and three kayaks fishing in that immediate area.  We were fishing “used” water all day.

In our second spot I literally waited my turn to fish the spot I wanted to start.  Another angler was sitting on it, so I came up along one bank fishing towards that area before he pulled off and started fishing the other way… over the area I wanted to fish from my start point.  LOL.  Again I winged crank baits and got just one bump.  No hook ups and no fish in the boat.  The other angler was fishing right near us still and stuck a couple decent fish, but I didn’t want to crowd him.  I picked up a Club-O and started winging it at the bank.  I quickly picked up 3 fish.  One of them was our first keeper of the day.  I lost a couple on the Club-O, and had several pressure bites I failed to connect with.  I don’t think any of them would have helped us for the day.

Finally the other angler moved on and we were able to fish the area I really wanted to.  Of course after he had caught fish from there and run his boat over it several times.  It was slow for us, but we caught three keepers in the same spot/area on crankbaits.  We were throwing regular crank baits and the previous guy fishing the spot was throwing lipless, so our different presentation may have helped us pick up a couple after he had pounded them.  I tried a hard jerk bait for a little while, but only managed one short on that.

I stood on the trolling motor and headed over to fish some sparse tulies on our weigh out.  Another boat had been fishing the area, but I think they were mostly fishing the open water.  I chunked a bladed jig right across the tulies, and started bashing it through them.  I got a hard violent strike, and started tearing that fish off and through the stems.  I thought sure it was a four or a five, but out in open water it was only a 2.  We left our second spot with a limit.

Our third spot was a little bay with a few boat docks, but there was a lot going on. A big house boat motored in, power tools going, etc.  I did managed to drag a little one out of some cover, but he came off out in open water when I couldn’t keep the line tight.  That was it.  We tried a little longer, but we weren’t feeling it with all the noise and activity.

Dave suggested a spot, but I didn’t fish it the way he would have.  When we got to his “spot on the spot” I flipped a keeper on an RT45 for our first cull.  The Colorado King paddle wheeler was right there going past us as I swung that fish in the boat, and I heard somebody on deck say, “And THAT’S the way its done.”  I might have smiled.  We came around the corner and asked a kayaker which way he was fishing.  He’d seen me catch that fish and we chatted a minute.  That’s when I found out the info about the Classic qualifications for their tournament.  He also kind of let me know he’d been pounding that spot for two days.  Talk about fishing used water.  Can’t complain.  We still caught one there.

Finally, we decided to grind it out in a big marina.  It was probably a mistake.  There were a dozen other boats and kayaks who were doing the same thing.  Again, we were fishing used water, but Dave managed to catch one more on a stick worm for out second cull of the day.  I think he also stuck a “no help maybe a keeper,” but because it was no help I didn’t bother to measure it.

We finished up the day with a limit, but a small one at only 9.76 pounds.  Dave stayed with the boat while I took them up to weigh-in.  I have no clue what place we finished in but I did talk to a couple other teams that caught less than we did.  We didn’t finish last.  All the top places had over 20lbs, so our small limit is nothing to be proud of, but I am anyway.  I’ve been busy cleaning things up and taking care of “stuff” after my dad passing, and getting my mom settled in to live with us.  Dave has had his own things to deal with.  I haven’t been on the river since last fall, and we had no practice days.  We went out with no practice and very little information.  We just dealt with what we could see and scratched out a limit.

I can’t give you an exact fish count per bait, but we caught fish on crankbaits, a jerkbait, Club-Os, stick worms, a bladed jig, and an RT45 ribbed creature bait.