Final F3 Club tourney...

Tough day:

Rain and storms all morning. The topwater bite I had been on basically disappeared. I did manage 4 club keepers (12+ ") and lost three others that were hooked up including a nice 2 lb smallie that was clearly my mistake. Coolest thing all day was when I caught my two largest keepers on one cast on a Zell Pop.

Weighed in 4.4 lbs. Good enough for around 4th place on the day. Most importantly, I was able to hold on and close out the year as points champion / angler of the year.

Good year all in all. I managed a limit in all but the last tourney.

Until next time.

RBK

Sat 9-19 JPP....

We headed out Saturday under cloudy skies, with rain in the forecast. Ran down lake to a new pocket near a marina that I suspected would be holding fish. We proceeded to catch around 9 fish on top water and cranks in shallow water in this particular spot. No bigguns here, but we did catch a couple of decent sized spots on top.

From there, we went back up lake to the cove where I had caught them the day before (and last couple of weeks). We snagged around 5 more in there with one of them being a chunky keeper spot. We eased up a bluff in the same area to where the river channel swings away, and I caught a solid 2 1/2 lb largehead on the top water bait on the point. We worked on up into the pocket, and my partner caught two short largemouths on a crankbait in around 5 ft of water. Shad were popping in the area, but we never got on a group of them here.

Next, we headed under the bridge to the mid-lake area, and went looking on the flats. We eased up on a shallow bank with big rocks, and on the third cast I caught another chunky 2 1/2 lb LM on top. We had a couple of other blow ups in that area but no hook-ups.

While we were there, we decided to probe a long gravel point where the smallies tend to feed. My partner was working a c-rigged lizard in around 7-10 ft, and he got a good bite. it was the smallie pictured here, which was around 17" and pushing 3 lbs.

We worked some different types of stuff for the next hour or so, but we never found a really good group of fish. Off the water by 12:30. Totals for the day:

22 fish with three good ones, and a handful of keeper spots.

I'll report back after our final club tourney on Saturday.

Tight lines,

RBK

Fall is showing up- topwater time...

Here's a nice 5 1/2 lb Largemouth caught on a topwater bait today on JPP. The water is high, and the fish have moved shallow. Sorry for the crappy photo, but I was solo when I caught her.

Labor Day 2009...

Caught around 4 in the lake early on topwater and crankbait; then headed up towards the Stones River. We caught 3 more on some ledges in the upper end of the lake. Around 9:30 we went into the river. Saw a good deal of schooling activity, but we didn't spend any time chasing them.

Went way up the West Fork, and I caught a nice 4 1/2 lb LM on a jig.

Nice day.

Later

RBK

P.S. fell overboard today! NICE