April 18th, 2010
Had a club tournament on our other local reservior, Quail Creek on Saturday. It was another tough day on this lake. It is a older lake and is known for some really big bass but less bites and more days with no bites. The water is warming up and was in the 58 range. The weather was near perfect with sunny skies and a high of 85. The fish have moved shallow and were starting to get locked in on spawning beds. This of course makes for a really fun time sight fishing.
We started the morning throwing spinnerbaits and my partner catches a nice 2 1/2 lb fish. Then we keep searching moving in the shallows looking for fish but only spot a few spooky fish here and there but no fish that want anything to do with us. We move toward the main creek arm and start noticing more fish up shallow. We spent quite a bit of time on fish that wouldn’t bite. Then we find a pair that seem to be locked in on a spot. We both work the bed for a while before my partner finally hits the sweet spot with the right color stick bait and we boat our 2nd fish of the day. A nice fish over 3 lbs. We keep moving and looking, fishing different fish but no takers.
We get close to the mouth of the creek and spot another pair locked on a spot. One of the fish spooks off and the other stays put. We work the fish for a long time and can’t get it to bite. We leave and continue on and but don’t see anything. Before we were about to cross over to the other side of the creek arm we go back to the fish we just left. We try hard with every lure in the boat. I was just about to give up trying when I noticed the fish looked to be getting agitated. It started to push my partners bait away from the bed. I decide to try one more bait. A soft plastic jerk bait (fluke) in baby bass color. I get rigged up, drop the fluke on the spot and the fish did not like it one bit and just eats it. I set the hook and Fish on! A short fight and we get her in the boat. A nice 4 lb 5 oz beauty. Now we keep moving, looking for the same pattern and fish numerous fish and spots and come up empty. We decide to go back to where we caught fish #2 and try to get the other one to bite. Get there and the wind has picked up just enough to impair our vision. We can barely see them but keep trying to get the lures on the right spot that will make them bite. This goes on for a long time, not really sure how long. I finally get the fluke in the right spot and the fish bites. I set the hook so hard, my line snaps. Many cuz words later, I retie and we keep trying to catch the fish with the new lip jewelry to no avail.
We had about a half hour left in the day and I tell my partner to give up and move on. We cruise up the lake looking for another fish locked on. I spot a nice fish as we are searching. I noticed the fish didn’t spook or even budge. We go back and the fish is just locked on and it’s not moving. Exactly what we were looking for. We both start pitching lures down below. I toss that baby bass fluke down there……now I’m not even sure what happened here, but I thought she picked up the bait, so I set the hook and my line snaps again….I’m pissed, thinking I just blew it for a second time. My partner tells me the fish is still there, so I re-rig the another fluke up on my big flippin stick rod with 14 lb test. I was using 10 lb test. I still blame the line. I’ll be respooling that reel later. Anyway, on the first toss back down she nails it. I set the hook and she fights like hell. Trying to take me in the bushes nearby, under the boat, my drag is too loose, the handle is doing nothing, I tighten it down and finally start to gain some line and after a short war, we get her in the net and in the boat. 5 lbs 8 ozs!!! High fives ensue. I look at my watch and we have 10 minutes left. Hell yeah. We ended with 15 lbs 11 ozs for our 4 fish which earned us 2nd place. We also won the Big Fish award with that last fish. The first place team was the only team out of 9 that had a 5 fish limit and had about 4 1/2 pounds on us. 3rd place had four fish but were 3 lbs behind us. 4th was 7 lbs behind us with 3 fish and 5th place had only 2 fish. 6th and 7th had only one fish each. The last two teams didn’t even catch a fish. It was a lot better than last time we fished, but it was damn tough to get those fish to bite. I’m not sure we could have made up the 4 lbs with that fish I broke off, but we would have been a hell of a lot closer to winning it all if I had landed that fish. Oh well, we made money and got some more hardware for the wall and great memories.
Posted in Fish Reports, Out of Area, Warm Water | 3 Comments »
April 11th, 2010
What’s up all my friends here at AAA? Back once again with another warm water report from Southern Utah. The weather is getting good and the water is warming up.
I got a call last week from a friend, who is our local club president, asking if I wanted to fish with him in the next Ultimate Bass Team Tour event the following weekend. Now this is a little bit of a step up in terms of competition and money for both of us, so I had to run it past my wife before I gamble a good chunk of change on this tournament. She gave me the go, so I called him back and we were in.
This circut is in it’s first year and one of the 6 regions just happens to be fished at one of my favorite reserviors, Sand Hollow, near my city of St. George, UT. So I new we could hang with these guys, who a lot I know already and have fished with at the club level. But these tourney’s have been averaging about 20-25 boats compared to our local club averaging about 9 boats. Anyway, I just happened to be on vaction all week, so I was able to prefish Tuesday – Thursday. I stayed off the lake on Friday and was ready for Saturday’s tournament.
Now because of the regulations on this lake, 6 bass with only one over 12 inches, the tournament has some different rules. They basically do two weigh-ins. You launch in order in the morning and fish until 11am for your best 2 fish per team. Then you weigh in and relaunch and fish until 3pm for your next 2 best fish per team. The combined weight of your teams 4 fish determines the who wins.
During my prefishing, I found that the best chance of catching a big fish was with a certain spinnerbait slowly rolled on the bottom in deeper water. The water temps are in the mid 50 range now and the fish are scattered. Some of the males have moved shallow but are very spooky, so I thought we would hit an area I found a couple weeks earlier when the water was clear that sat in about 13ft of water and catch a couple 2 lb keepers and then go deeper and shoot for some bigger fish. Well, we got to our spot and started hooking fish with the spinnerbait and crankbaits. I hook into a nice almost 4lb fish and my parter gets an nice 2lb fish. That fills out our morning limit. We continue to upgrade but the other fish come up smaller. I suggest we leave the spot and save it for later and go deep for bigger fish. We hit a spot on my gps that I prefished and did good earlier in the week. After a few casts I hook into the big one with the spinnerbait. I didn’t realize just how big it was until in surfaced from the depths and shook it’s head. I just about crapped my pants at that moment, kept the line tight and then she shot back down with some serious force. Now, the biggest bass I have caught was the 5 1/2 lb fish I hooked last month and it was pretty lathargic from the cold water and didn’t put up that much of a fight. This fish however was not in that class. I was using 10lb test on my shimano baitcasting combo and that fish was ripping line from my reel. I managed to get here back up as my parnter grabbed the net. At the surface again and as my partner gets the net in the water for the scoop, he misses and she shoots back down for another run. I had my drag set pretty loose but had to back off of it a little more for fear of her breaking my line. I have never had a bass muscle me like this on did. It was so freaking sweet! Anyway, I got her back up and we got her in the net and in the boat. We both just stared at each other and I just about lost it. I wanted to go “Ike” on the whole lake, but held it in. (Mike “Ike” Iconelli is a B.A.S.S. pro that is know for his screaming and antics on the lake). We were like giddy little school girls for about an hour after that. I caught this fish at about 8:30am. We didn’t know how much it weighed at the time, but we figured at least 6lbs. So we had two really nice fish in the boat and continued to try to relax and keep fishing until the 11am weigh-ins.
At the morning weigh-ins. The team before us had a nice 6lb fish, so I new right there we were not the only team with a big keeper. I brought our 2 fish in and the big fish weighed 7.01 lbs. Our total morning weight was 10.84 lbs. Before the 2nd launch we found out we were in the lead and had the big fish. So our plan was to go back out and repeat our plan. It didn’t work. The bite died. We hit another spot and I caught a couple more keepers in the 1 lb range and then we kept moving trying to upgrade. Unfortunately we never were able to get the upgrades we needed in the 2nd half of the day.
We weighed in 2.81 in the afternoon, for a total combined weight of 13.65. We knew we were up there, but didn’t know for sure until the awards ceremony. So out of 22 teams, we finished in 3rd place, just 0.18 lbs away from 2nd place, for $375 and I won the Big Fish trophy with that 7.01 lb fish for $265. Our total payout was $640. Not too bad for our first “real” tournament. A day I’ll never forget, that’s for sure.
Bobby Didier aka The Real D Insane
www.ultimatebassteams.com
http://ultimatebassteams.com/results2.asp?Selectvalue=7004
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Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water | 7 Comments »
March 5th, 2010
Hit the local reservoir with my buddy Rob today in search on some winter bassin’. The day was so perfect out there. Sunny blue skies and no wind. Water was 48 in the morning and 52 by afternoon. We fished from about 9am til 330pm. Fished hard! Two hours into it I get bit and I just happened to be sitting down, which I never do while fishing from the boat, and had to set the hook on her like Bill Dance. Luckily, I got her good and after a decent cold winter struggle, landed the 5 lb 8 oz beauty. This was a new personal best for me bass fishing. Finally cracked the 5lb mark! I caught her on another one of my DHCB wild flipperz (beaver). This bait has flat out been smoking them for me lately.
I finished the day with 3 fish landed and my buddy Rob landed 1 and lost another. Tough day overall, but the 5 lber made it all worth it.
Bobby D.
Posted in Fish Reports, Out of Area, Warm Water | 4 Comments »
February 26th, 2010
What’s up everyone here at allaroundangler.com! It’s time for the 2010 Southern Utah Bass Anglers (SUBA) season to kick off tomorrow. I’ve been in the lab making new baits for this season and doing a little winter prefishing here and there. It’s been so tough out there for me, but there are some big fish already caught this year out at our local reservoir, Sand Hollow. I’ve seen and heard of fish in the 6-7 pound range. Man, I’d love to get one of those tomorrow!
I went out today to do some prefishing with a buddy of mine, and the water dropped a few degrees since last week and it’s right around 46 degrees. That’s damn cold for bass fishing! We fished for a little over 3 hours and only had 3 bites and one fish landed. Caught this nice 2lb 5oz beauty on one of my Die Hard Custom Baits. Nothing better than catching fish on your own baits.
Tomorrow is gonna get nasty with rain in the forcast, so hopefully that will make the fish bite a little more. I gotta defend my Angler of the Year title, and I know a few guys are gunning for me…haha. My goal this year is to get more wins, and maybe a Big Fish Award somewhere along the line. I’ll report back with the results after tomorrow.
Wish me luck! Take care, and tight lines!!!
Posted in Fish Reports, Out of Area, Warm Water | 6 Comments »
November 15th, 2009
Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water | 4 Comments »
October 30th, 2009
It’s been a long time since my last report. Sorry for the big time slacking. This was the first time my boat has hit the water since early July. It was just too hot for a while, but now it’s suddenly cold as a witches you know what!
Anyway, we only had about 3 hours to fish, but we didn’t do too bad. The water has dropped from the 70’s to 50’s in a matter of a few weeks, so we concentrated in the deeper waters.
We didn’t find the 4-5 pounders we were looking for, but did catch a few in the 12-15 inch range. 6 fish total in the 3 hours with worms and jigs and one swimbait bite. Hopefully next time I can find the bigger ones.
Bobby D.
Posted in Fish Reports, Out of Area, Warm Water | 4 Comments »
May 30th, 2009
My wife has always wanted to do a night fishing trip, so we finally get the opportunity to go and the night just doesn’t go as planned whatsoever. The whole day my wife is so excited, but the weather is just crapping. Passing thunderclouds and wind all day. I told her we’re going no matter what.
My buddy, Johnny is at the lake and giving me the early evening reports of borderline whitecaps, but he’s out there so I’m thinking its doable. We get to the lake about 7pm and its not too bad so we launch the boat. We head to the shallow island since the wind is pushing a little. Before I even drop the trolling motor my wife makes her first cast and hooks up. SWEET! She is happy, the wind died, everything looks great. Then, about five casts into it, the wind shifts, and I see white caps across the lake. Few minutes later the white caps are everywhere. CRAP! So I fire up the big motor and head toward the docks to try to find a spot we can wait it out. Not much better by the docks, and its not letting up. Then Johnny comes cruising in soaking wet from the ride back in. We all head for the docks. I was heading in to pick up my father-in-law anyway, so I tied up to the docks to wait it out. It gets worse…ok, Johnny’s getting of the lake now allong with every other boat, so I decide to pull the boat out too. This sucks!
We get up in the parking lot and decide to bs and wait to see if it dies down. As soon as the sunsets, everything stops. YES!!! Ok, I go to check out my spot light…plug it into the cigarette outlet and it doesn’t work. Then we see smoke coming out of the boat…..OH Sh**!!! Get the extiguisher and in panic mode start ripping everything out of the way to get to the battery area near the motor. Smoke stops…no fire. The power wire on the outlet is fried, but no fire so we got lucky. Good thing that didn’t happen on the water.
Anyway, we decide to launch the boat. I get my lights out to hook up and my transom light doesn’t work….F***! My wife is getting really pissed now. No spare bulbs in the boat either. By this time it’s about 930 and my father-in-law decided to save the day for his daughter and goes and makes a run to wally world for a bulb. We wait. He gets back with a bulb about 950 and we get everything squared away. Father-in-law is now out, since it’s past his bedtime, so it’s me and my wife.
We launch and head out into the darkness. Stop back at the shallow island and fish for about 2 1/2 hours. I really wanted to try all the new baits I got for my b-day but, I grabbed a jig to start and never put it down. They were eating it good. Lost count of the number of fish quickly. The biggest fish was 4lbs. Headed in about 1am and found a citation warning on my window. Apparently my season pass is only good until 10pm. If you stay later you have to pay a camping fee. Whatever. Anyway, it was an adventure.
Posted in Out of Area, Warm Water | 4 Comments »
May 18th, 2009
Our very good friend & #1 out of area contributor…Bobby D..
I just got back from 3 days of unbelievable fishing on Lake Powell. I went down there to fish two tournaments with our local club Southern Utah Bass Anglers. My partner and I for the Saturday tournament shared a hotel room and expenses, so we left at 3am on Friday to get to the lake at 6am for some prefishing. We launched the boat soon as we got there and ran pretty far uplake through the cut to see what we could find and to form a plan for Saturday. Basically everywhere we went we caught fish. Mostly smallmouth bass with some largemouth mixed in. After getting back to the marina around 4pm we called it a day and heading for our hotel room.
On Saturday we decided that since the fishing was great everywhere, we would stay close in Wahweep and fish hard. It paid off too. We caught too many fish to count, but the trick was to find the largemouth, which we finally did later in the day. Ended up culling out an early sack of smallies for a decent sack of largemouth. Unfortunately we just couldn’t land our “kicker fish”. I had a good 3-4 lb largie on and was getting him to the boat when it took a nose dive into a little twig of a tree and wrapped itself around and then as I tried to free it, it took another dive and snapped me off and took my favorite spinner bait with it. My partner also lost a good fish later on a jig. We ended up finishing in 2nd place, just 2lbs out of a winning sack.
My highlight of Saturday was catching a nice striper with a rattle trap. This was the first time I caught one of these, so I was pretty stoked. On Sunday, I had a different partner and we did good, but the fishing was a little slower and was couldn’t find the bigger largemouth. We finished in 3rd place with a nice sack of smallies. Another first for me on Sunday was catching a walleye. It was early morning and I was tossing around a jerkbait and I had it almost to the side of the boat when the walleye came out from the depths to dig his teeth into my lure. Pretty cool to see the whole thing happen.
This was a trip of a lifetime and Lake Powell is a beautiful place. My only regret was not taking more pictures of the many fish I caught. I was just too busy catching to pause for pictures, but I did get a nice shot of that striper….
Bobby Didier aka The Real D Insane
Posted in Fish Reports, Out of Area, Warm Water | 5 Comments »
March 30th, 2009
By Bobby Didier
What’s up fellas? Just wanted to chime in from down south and give you guys a warm water report. Well the water is not as warm as I’d like it to be, but it will be soon.
I took a trip with the family out to my favorite reservoir, Sand Hollow for some largemouth bass fishing. This is only about 20 minutes from my house and is one of, if not the best bass fishery in the state of Utah.
Last week the water was warming fast with the hot weather and the fish were in a full prespawn mode fattening up for the love fest. Then the weather took a turn and the water temps went from 55-56 back down to the low 50’s, which screwed things up a little for our day at the lake.
This was the first trip of 2009 for my old Seaswirl and she ran like a champ like always. We were taking my wife’s brother, who lives in NY, out for the day like we always do when he comes to town.
We got on the water around 10am and fished hard until about 4pm. The lake was pretty crowded with bass fishermen and the bite was slow the whole day. I decided to go to my deep spot first since the water was 52 at launch. Found the hump sitting in 25ft now that the lake’s water level has been rising over the last 2 weeks, threw out a marker bouy, and hooked up my brother-in-law and wife with some sure-fire drop shot rigs and oxblood robo worms. Both got fish on the first cast. My bro-in-law nails a nice 3 lber and the wife nails a soild 2lber. Great way to start. I always like to experiment with new baits and techniques when fun fishing, so I’m struggling at the start. My wife catches a couple more in the first hour and the shit talking begins. The bite dies off and we make a move to the shallow hump now sitting about 15 ft underwater. At this point I have no bites and the wife is kicking our ass. Her bro hooks up again and then the bite dies again. We continue this pattern of catching a couple and moving and catching a couple and moving for pretty much the whole day. About 2 hours in is when I finally get a bite and start catching fish.
To make this long story shorter, we did ok, catching about 12-14 fish with the biggest being my brother-in-laws 3lber. I did finish strong with a nice 2lb 12oz fatty, that I though was gonna beat his when I was reeling it in, but it came up a bit short. I did catch her on one of my home poured senkos, which made me pretty happy. It was just great to be out on the boat again and catching bass. Soon the spawn will be in full swing and I hope to top my near 5lber that I caught last year…we’ll see. Peace out brothas!!!…….
The Real D Insane
Posted in Fish Reports, Out of Area, Warm Water | 15 Comments »
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