Loch Lomond tourney

I won.

by 3 oz.

More details later.

Winning bass was 3#11oz.

Lots of trout caught, very few bass.

I will write a detailed report later tonight.

Thanks all!

MolBasser

Chris Baugh rules!

You should have heard him on the radio when he caught that fish.


".....pant, pant, pant.......Ok I think I got the contest winner here....pant pant pant....!!"

"Big bass over at ....(unintelligable)......my heart is beating so fast...patpantpant."

Well, he got it allright, and will soon take delivery on a tie-dye prowler 13

Well done, Chris.  this contest was your to win.  sometimes the stars do align correctly.  you da man.

Also youth division winner Eddie Evans.....in between potty breaks, he helped his dad pull in this 11 oz trout!

Nice bass...congrats on the win!

Dude! way to go! we expect details, down to the swivels used.

 

Kayaker Wins! And look at little Eddie hold that Fish. WTG MB .

Couldn't have happened to a more worthy person! WTG man!

I was bummed I could not make it out today. Still fighting this nasty infection 

Congratulations Chris!

Nice pose too.  Looks like a 7 #er from the photo!   

So, here is my story.

After prefishing for a couple of times in the previous week, I felt that I had a bit of a pattern.  I had been catching bass with spinnerbaits near the bluegill spawning beds early in the morning.  After the sun hit the water, that bite would stop.  So, with the tourney due to start early, I had a plan to hit the areas where I had gotten the spinnerbait fish before.  I also had heard that the topwater bite was on in the far north arm.  This was my plan.  Hit the bluegill beds and then head for the top water action.

Well, the best layed plans......

The start time turned out to be 7am, and although I was rigged and ready to go at 6:15, I just had to wait....and wait...and wait.... And watch the sun hit the water where I wanted to do the spinnerbait deal in the shallows.  Then I watched a bunch of non entered fisherpeople hit up the areas that I was headed to also.

I amused the crowd by looking at my gps clock and counting down the time until the start.

With the close spinnerbait bite looking not so hot, I made a bee line for the north end of the lake and commenced to throw a popper over the tastey looking territory.  Loch Lomond has so many submerged stumps and downed trees, it looks just so tastey everywhere....Well, too bad sonny boy, no love for you!!

I spent the first two hours in that arm fishing poppers, spinnerbaits, and jigs.  No love except for a bunch of bluegill who would pull down my popper by the tassles on its trail trebble.

BTW, this lake is loaded with bluegill.  It would really help it out for people to go up there and harvest a bunch of them to cull the herd.

At any rate, no dice in the north end.  I then decided to go to plan C (or is it D at this point) which was to flip any remaining tules in the shade.  I found a bank of tules opposite of the arm I had fished to start out and hit it up with a 6" watermellon senko.  I got some bites that I gave mighty swings on for nothing.  Almost assuradly bluegill again.  At this point a had a serious knocking at the back door so I paddled for a portapotty to regroup.

With relief, I headed back south and threw a jig at any visible downed trees with no luck.  I decided with 2 hours to go that I had to go to the final plan.

I had found a point that had a beautiful drop off and sun cover a few days back.  I had marked fish on it at 15-20 feet deep and it was my alamo for the tournament.  I figured I would anchor off of this spot and work it seriously.  So off I went.  Well, what I forgot was that it is on the shore fishing side of the lake and I found it on a thursday.  This was fathers day, and all the available shore fishing spots were taken.  My point was not an exception, and when I arrived there was a guy camped on the point.  I couldn't very well just anchor up and fish where got to first so I headed into the cove a short bit.

All day I had kept the drop shot rig in reserve (I have no idea why, just never felt I could use it), but now I broke it out.  Here is the rig.

Clarus 7ft. medium action extra fast tip spinning rod
Okuma Epixor 30 reel
Stren Original clear, 6# test
Gamakatsu Octopus hook (red) #2 (I think)
Robo Worm Aarons magic 4" Special FX sculpin dropshot worm




I set up the drop shot with about a foot of leader between the weight and the worm.  I cast parallel to the shore in about 15-20 feet of water (first cast) and started shaking it back to the boat.

The worm had not moved more than 6 feet before it got inhaled and the fish headed right for deep water.  I set the hook and the fight was on.  I knew emediately that it was a decent fish and my heart started pounding right away because (as far as I knew) this was the only bass caught, and thus a new kayak was on my hook.  With 6# test and drag stripping and an unknown hookset with a tree nearby I was  a wreck.  The fish came up to jump, and I tried to stop it by putting my rod tip down in the water to no avail and the fish leaped.  My heart rate surged when I saw the fish.  I started mentally chanting "please don't come off, please don't come off, please don't come off".  As I got the fish closer to the boat I saw that it was hooked quite well and relaxed a tiny bit realizing that it would only be lost to a broken line.  Here is where my decision to leave the net behind to make room for one more rod started to haunt me, but I was able to lip the fish on the first attempt.  I grabbed that lip like a vise!

Now with the fish in hand I commenced the shaky process of putting it on the stringer.  I knew that I was going to keep any bass I caught for tacos (I really like bass) so I was not concerned about keeping it alive, I was more concerned with keeping it on my stringer.  I have a clip type stringer so I hooked it with 3 clips and double wraped the other end around the carry handle on my Drifter.

At this point I reached to the radio and said (in typical MolBasser fasion) "I just won the tournament".  Alan's post is pretty accurate.  Lots of heavy breathing and adrenaline in my voice.

Time, at this point, could not pass fast enough.  I kept looking at my watch.  10:20.....10:22.....10:25....

After the fish, I snagged and broke off my rig and slowly (too slowly) re-rigged.  I couln't tie the knot for minutes as my hands were still shaking.  I finally got it back together and pitched out the bait in the same general area and hooked another fish......a trout!

I stringered that guy also and then got word across the radio.....Another "decent" bass was caught by Gordon.  No details about the fish.  The sweat starts to build on the brow.  I start mentally kicking myself for calling that I "had won" on the radio with an air of certainty instead of my typical humorous smack talk.

Talk about nervous.  LL is a big bass lake.  Any "decent" fish is a decent fish.  My fish weighed just under 4 pounds on my cheapy pocket scale.  I was very worried that it wouldn't hold up.

I paddled to some other areas and threw drop shot and jigs, but my heart wasn't really in it.  I was worried that the fish wouldn't hold up, but I couldn't concentrate.  I was going through all the scenarios in my head.

At 20 minutes to the bell I packed it in and went back to the weigh in.  I left my fish on the stringer on the yak on the dock and went up the the table.  I asked Mark what the current big fish was, and he said 1 something.  I said "I've got that crushed, what about the big bass?"  He said he hadn't seen it yet and that I should get my bass to weigh.  As I headed back to the dock Gordon, and the his bass was on the way to the scales.  It looked like a clone of mine.  I was WAY nervous.  As I brought my bass to the scales the Gordon with his bass was headed back for the lake to release the fish (he had a live well) and we put them side to side.  We both looked at each other and said "this is gonna be close!".  I got my fish to the scale and after some diddling I got it out of my hand and free to weigh.  3 pounds 11 ounces.

Thump, thump, thump goes the heart....

"What did the other bass go?"......3 pounds 8 ounces......WOOT!  I'm in the lead, but there are 10 minutes...

Tick tock, Tick tock..

At that point the press showed up, and the Fish Sniffer dude took a bazillion pictures which got my mind off of the clock.

Noon! and I was the winner.  Felt great.

What felt better was all the camraderie of the crowd at the tourney.  What a great bunch of guys!  

I look forward to more tournaments on my new Sunrise Prowler 13.

Thanks again to Kayak Connection and Ocean Kayak and everyone involved.

MolBasser

Edited several times for spelling errors etc.

Congrats!!!

Mol,

Congratulations!!! I guess i called it right for you. With all the scooping- out and Pre-fishing of the lake Paid off for you.   was bummed that I couldn't make it this time around.

Again, Congratulations on the Win

Did you see my brother on his rubber kayak Hee, hee...


Alex

Way to go! Pre-fishing paid off.
Jack

Right on.... Mol.  You deserved the win after doing all that homework!

Hooray Chris!!!!  Will this be the year of skill and preparation?  Good showing.

Congrats Chris, That's the way it's done . . .prefish...prefish...prefish. Excellent report.

Congrats to Chris,Gordon and Stuart for First,Second and Third place    !!! Will follow up with more pics!