Gary Michaud and Doc McDaniel bested the field of 148 boats w/ a RECORD 34.32lbs and a 9.93lbs Big Fish to take home $11,000!!
Beau Dixon and Andy Seas earned the $5,000 Top Finishing Skeeter Bonus with 23.26lbs giving them 3rd Place and a Total of $8,000 in Winnings.
Shane and Jerry Lineberger bested the field of 156 boats w/ 19.51 lbs and took home the First Place Prize of $10,000
Shane and Jerry also won the Top Finishing Skeeter Bonus of $5,000 and $1,00 in Skeeter REAL MONEY to bring their total Pay-Day to $16,000!!
Shane and Jerry Lineberger bested the field of 156 boats w/ 19.51 lbs and took home the First Place Prize of $10,000
Shane and Jerry also won the Top Finishing Skeeter Bonus of $5,000 and $1,00 in Skeeter REAL MONEY to bring their total Pay-Day to $16,000!!
Steve and Tony also won the Top Finishing Skeeter Bonus of $5,000 and $500 in Skeeter REAL MONEY to bring their total Pay-Day to a Whopping $17,500!!
The Morristown Marine Team Trail Invitational was on Douglas Lake Saturday May 17, 2014. It was a cool Spring morning that turned into a very windy afternoon. 178 teams were competing for the $10,000.00 1st place money. The tournament had a total payout of $36,195.00. Of the 178 teams, 117 teams were competiting for a berth in the Bassmaster Team Championship.
Brian Ooten from Dandridge, TN and Jordan Card from Knoxville, TN took home 1st place winnings with a weight of 24.05 lbs and a check for $10,000.00. 2nd Place went to Matt and Bob Coughlin with 21.38 lbs and a check for $3000.00. 3rd Place was Brant Grimm and Bobby Drinnon with 21.13 lbs and a check for $2,000.00. Fourth place was Justin McClain and Bobby Chambers with 20.17 lbs and a check for $1000.00. The McClain/Chambers team was the Highest Finishing Skeeter of the day netting them an additional $3000.00 for a total winnings of $4000.00. Completing the top 5 was Nathan Mountain and Jimbo Harris with 19.38 lbs and a check for $900.00. Burton Byran and Willie Bryan were the 2nd Highest Finishing Skeeter good for a check for $2000.00 3rd Highest Finishing Skeeter was David Berry and Tory Ferrell and a check for $1000.00. Mark Richardson and Jimmy Neal had the Smallmouth catch of the day with a 4.76 lb Smallmouth good for the Berkley Big Bass Smallmouth Award, a check for $885.00 plus (2) Berkley rods. Steve and Benny Neal received the Berkley Big Bass Largemouth Award with a 6.95 lb Largemouth. They received a check for $885.00 and (2) Berkley Rods.
(See www.morristownmarine.com for complete results).
The next regular season tournament will be a 2-day Super Tournament on Loudon Lake on September 20-21, 2014. 1st Place for the Super Tournament will be a 2014 Skeeter TZX195 with a Yamaha VZ175TLR. The Blast-off will take place at Loudon/Tellico Ramp at safe light. Entries will be taken at Morristown Marine starting September 15, 2014. Signups will also be taken at Loudon County Visitors Bureau 1075 Hwy 321 N Lenoir, TN 37771 on Friday September 19 from 12 noon until 6PM. You may also sign up at the ramp the morning of the tournament before blast off.
Click Here To See Full Results
SMALL LAKE – BIG FISH*
HARRINGTON AND BROWNING TAKE WIN WITH BIG FISH ON SOUTH HOLSTON LAKE
The Morristown Marine Team Trail Invitational traveled to the smallest lake on the tour Saturday April 26, 2014. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather and bluebird skies and the fish were on. 188 teams were competing for the $10,000.00 1st place money. With 122 of the 188 teams weighing fish, Smallmouth was the predominant catch of the day. The tournament had a total payout of $37,230.00. Of the 188 teams, 117 teams were competiting for points and a berth in the Bassmaster Team Championship.
Barry Harrington from Rural Retreat, Virginia and Willie Browning from Saltville, Virginia took home 1st place winnings with a weight 24.60 lbs. In addition to the 1st Place winnings of $10,000.00, the team also received the Berkley Big Bass Largemouth award of the day with a 9.01 lb Largemouth worth $835.00 and a total payout of $10,835.00 and (2) Berkley rods. For the 2nd year in a row, 2nd Place went to Clifford Bunch and Paul Napier with 22.63 lbs and a check for $3000.00. Bunch and Napier was also the highest finishing Skeeter team of the day which netted them an additional $3000.00 for a total winning of $6,000.00. 3rd Place went to Hayden Everett and Albert Everett with 21.24 lbs and a check for $2,200.00. They were the 2nd highest finishing Skeeter team which netted them an additional check for $2,000.00 and total winnings of $4,200.00. Fourth place was Tim Greene and Charles Widner with 20.94 lbs and a check for $1050.00. Completing the top 5 was Doug and Seth Austin with 20.93 lbs and a check for $950.00. Gary Pilkenton and Tim Smiley were the 3rd Highest Finishing Skeeter team. They received a check for $1000.00. Jason Marshall and Lance Buchanan took home the Berkley Big Bass Smallmouth Award with a Smallmouth weighing 6.34 lbs and a check for $835.00 plus (2) Berkley rods.
Click Here to See Full Results
TROUT CREEK, Mont. — Some anglers in the 2014 B.A.S.S. Nation Western Divisional worked all day to eke out a limit on Montana’s Noxon Reservoir. But not Tim Johnston. He did it in an hour and a half.
“I had five fish by 7:22 this morning,” said Johnston, a member of the Western Montana Bassmasters. Launch was at 6 a.m.
After that, he basically quit fishing. He only caught one other fish the rest of the day to cull up, and he weighed in 14 pounds, 4 ounces.
Now, he’s in the overall lead at the divisional with 26 pounds, 5 ounces.
“It’s an honor to lead here,” said Johnston. “As good as all these guys are, it’s really an honor.”
Johnston was tops on his state last year and qualified for the B.A.S.S. Nation Championship, and from there, he qualified for the 2014 Bassmaster Classic. Is he ready to go back to the Classic?
| As if the color line-up of the Swinging Hammers wasn’t already deadly enough, the all new HOG-lograghic just put the icing on the irresistible cake. The shimmering effect this color puts off in the water stands behind its name! All fish have weaknesses…and we know what they are!If you think the bait images in this email look like a delicious meal selection at an underwater buffet, just think about how the fish feel! If you want to unleash this swimming buffet to your fish, use coupon code SWINGMYHAMMER to get 20% OFF any color Swinging Hammer and let the feeding frenzy begin!
*coupon code does not apply to pro packs.
|
|||
| Hurry! Coupon expires Sunday Night! | |||
Take a Kid Fishing
We hear this all the time, take a kid fishing, but how many of us do it? When I was a kid I was very fortunate to always have someone take me fishing, it was a way of life for both sides of my family. My dad and mom always took me and my brother fishing, they couldn’t leave us home, and they were going. If they were working then one of our two sets of grandparents took us fishing, we were blessed more than we knew at the time. It didn’t matter what type of fishing, we just went. We fished for everything and all of our adventures were made enjoyable by whoever we were with. I few stories I have will last forever in my mind and will always seem just like yesterday.
I remember when I couldn’t wait to get home from school, sometimes Papaw James was waiting for me with the Jon boat already in the truck. I would get off the bus and jump strait into the truck and we would head for Raven’s Woods. That was actually an area on the Occoquan River where we fished, but to our inner circle Raven’s Woods was what we called it. Once we arrived it only took a minute to slide the 12’ boat out, unhook the battery from the truck, put it in the boat, and we were off. The old 10 horse Johnson pushed that boat like a dream, it ran perfect with me on the bow as we twisted and turned through the winding river. Papaw would hook the Shakespeare trolling motor to the battery from the truck and we just hoped when we got back we had enough juice to start the truck. It didn’t matter, we were fishing, and if the truck didn’t start, we would get a jump.
We always fished one particular area that was an old boy scout camp at River Road. It seemed that was one of Papaw’s special spots that always had fish. He always had the coolest and latest gear for the time, or at least in my world it was. His favorite rod and reel was an Ambassador 55 Cardinal spinning reel with a matching rod. He bought it at Montgomery Wards and talked about how he could cast it down the aisle so good, and that’s why he bought it. On one particular day I remember it was pretty warm and he had selected to fish laydowns on the channel side of the river. The plastic worm was his bait of choice, a Mann’s Jelly worm, electric blue with a pink tale. Wow what fish could resist that bait, it had to work. It was so much better than the generic motor oil color we used all the time. What happened next is legend, and I can still see it in my mind as if it were yesterday.
Papaw pitched the bait under some overhanging bushes where there was a big laydown present. It was more of a log than anything, no limbs and in the shade, a perfect ambush point for Ms. Big Bass. He worked the worm to the top of the log and then slowly drug it down the side. And out of nowhere, there it was, the biggest bass I had ever seen in my life at the time. I don’t know how big it was, but in my mind it had to be some kind of record. She slowly followed the bait over the log, gently sucked it in, and slowly disappeared deeper into the tinted river. Papaw quickly flipped his bail on the reel and let the fish take line He looked at me and asked if I saw it, it was big and he wanted to give her time. I chuckle at this now, but back then for some reason we believed you had to let the fish run with the bait a little before you set the hook. So he gave this one plenty of time and then some. Once he felt the fish had it good he reeled down and gave a giant jerk. It was on! The drag started peeling and he hollered to get the net. I quickly moved toward the net in the center of the V bottom, the net was free and I was ready. As the fish swan back and forth jumping several times and diving deeper after every jump as if to gain steam for the next jump. The end was near and all three of us knew it, but the outcome was still uncertain. The fish came up again but could only manage to get the top half of her giant body above the surface. Suddenly the worm went flying to the other side of the boat and she disappeared into the abyss, it was over. The silence was deafening as we both looked at each other in total disbelief. Finally Papaw looked at me and said he thought he didn’t give her enough time.
Today I still make memories with my Papaw, although he’s slowed a bunch at 80 years old. I’m very lucky to fish with my dad all the time as well and I have just really began to realize just how fortunate I am. Now I also have a new fishing buddy, my daughter Anna. She really makes me realize how I need to focus more on fishing time with her and hopefully she will enjoy it like her dad, so far she seems to. Some of my fondest memories in life were made on the water as a child. Please don’t under estimate the value of just one day fishing and the affect it could have on anyone, especially a kid. If you get a chance to take a kid fishing, please do. The rewards are amazing and can last a lifetime.
The old saying goes “a blind squirrel finds a nut every once and a while”. Every once and a while in tournament fishing will get you nothing but an empty wallet and lots of hurt feelings. After coming off a miserable performance at Smith Mountain Lake a few weeks ago, it was time to move on and forget it. Try to learn something, but have a short memory. Just like a quarterback that throws an interception.
So since I moved on, it was time to start focusing on the first BASS Northern Open on Douglas Lake in Dandridge, TN. When doing lake research, use all of the tools that you can in order to gather information. Sure, weather patterns and lake levels vary from year to year, but if you take all of that information and compile it in your brain, you may stumble upon something that no one else has, or you may see patterns develop. The first thing I will do is look for articles on the web and past tournament results from similar times of the year. Sometimes these can clue you in to what kind of weight to expect and how they were caught in that particular tournament.
The next thing I will do is go to Google Earth and study the lake. In the instance of Douglas Lake, it is drawn down every winter, so there is some excellent information to be gathered from this. You can see isolated rock piles, channel swings, how points lay out, high spots, depressions, etc… Does this mean that they fish won’t be on a bare point? No, but it does mean that I know there might be a rock pile on a creek channel swing where the fish would be coming out from their spawning areas. These are the type places that will be overlooked by many anglers that didn’t do this type of research. They are also the type places that you can catch a sack full!! This doesn’t guarantee me catching a bunch of fish, but I’d rather have 100 bullets in a gun fight than I would 7.
At the same time I am looking at Google Earth, I will also open up my Lowrance, Insight Planner. This can be subscribed to on the Lowrance website for a very reasonable fee. This allows me to open up my map and cross reference the places I am looking at on Google Earth. If I find an area that I like, I will place a waypoint on the map via the Insight Planner. It will save all the waypoints you place, and when you are finished, save them on your SD card to be placed in your Lowrance unit. Once I have placed a waypoint, I will then ask myself if this is an obvious spot or is it isolated. If it is an isolated spot, I will save the image from Google Earth and print it out later to be placed in the boat. It is nice to have a hard copy of the picture in the boat to help pinpoint the area once you are on the lake. Sure you can use an IPad in the boat, but I prefer to have a hard copy, and if I need to, I can turn the computer on and use my phone as a mobile hotspot. By printing out hard copies, it eliminates the need for another distracting piece of technology while you are trying to practice.
Once I have gone through Google Earth and placed coordinating waypoints, I will go back through the topo map on Insight Planner and look for spots that I think will be good even if there isn’t any cover there. I place waypoints on those areas so I know to go check them in practice. When I am finished, I save them to my SD card, and I am ready to roll.
If you will try this method for your research and lake study, you will be more than just a blind squirrel looking for a nut (bass) the next time you hit the lake. Use all the tools you have to become educated. This sport we so love isn’t cheap, so if you are going to do it, give yourself the best opportunity to do well.
