May Texas Classic Bass Club Lake Dunlap
I fished the Texas Classic Bass Club May tournament on Lake Dunlap. Official results are posted here - May 21, 2005 Results - Lake Dunlap.
I drew Rick Trussell as a partner for the tournament. Rick is new to the club and never fished on Dunlap, but that didn't hold us back from getting 2nd place. We met up early with the plan of launching at the I35 ramp and running down the lake to my first spot where I caught tournament big bass the last time the club fished on Dunlap. We got a little side tracked when I noticed a new boat dock with an underwater light installed after we launched. Sure enough there was a bass on it, I think a small mouth bass from the look of it, that was in the 3 lb range actively feeding on shad in the light. Made an on the fly decision to stay there until 6:00 AM and see if we could catch it. So after 30 minutes of watching that bass hit everything that swam near the light and waiting for 6:00AM, we started fishing for it. After two casts, one from me and one from Rick, the bass disappeared faster than a Texas snow flake. I can't explain what spooked it, but just the same, it was a phantom fish. After getting run over by another club tournament launching out of the I35 ramp we headed to my original spot. I caught an 8 inch bass, the short end of a long story. Mean while I could see Marlin across the lake catching bass up in the lilly pads in about 2 feet of water. Made a run to some other spots and came up with nada, then decided to hit the lilly pads myself. Marlin was fishing up in the pads, so I fished the outside edge of the pads since it was about lunch time now and thought the bass would be moving out into deeper water. I managed to catch a 14 inch bass on a watermelon fluke and killed a lot of time trying to find another fish. With two hours left in the tournament and boat traffic getting a bit heavier on the lake, we headed down to the stump field near the dam. There were two boats on it ahead of us that had just gotten there. Marlin and his partner were covering the lilly pads there and Tom Pursell & Jason St. Peter were on the deep ledge. I decided to go with the ledge and fish behind Tom's boat. Jason seemed to be a bass vacuum with a crank bait ahead of us catching bass on the back of Tom's boat. They picked up 4 keepers on the first pass. The group of boats grew to four or five I forget, but the fish stopped biting. Everyone left except Rick and I with about 30 minutes left in the tournament. Instead of fishing the ledge or the lilies I put us in between and fished water that wasn't really touched. Rick caught the fish below with only 25 minutes left in the tournament on a shad colored crank bait. Great stuff, it jumped several times and I did a bad job getting it in the net, but we got her in the boat in the end. :-) The best part of it was knowing we had that fish to take to weigh-in, because Jesse James had just been taunting us from the other side of the lake after landing their second keeper of the day thanks to a tip from the home owner who had come down to see if they'd caught anything.
I drew Rick Trussell as a partner for the tournament. Rick is new to the club and never fished on Dunlap, but that didn't hold us back from getting 2nd place. We met up early with the plan of launching at the I35 ramp and running down the lake to my first spot where I caught tournament big bass the last time the club fished on Dunlap. We got a little side tracked when I noticed a new boat dock with an underwater light installed after we launched. Sure enough there was a bass on it, I think a small mouth bass from the look of it, that was in the 3 lb range actively feeding on shad in the light. Made an on the fly decision to stay there until 6:00 AM and see if we could catch it. So after 30 minutes of watching that bass hit everything that swam near the light and waiting for 6:00AM, we started fishing for it. After two casts, one from me and one from Rick, the bass disappeared faster than a Texas snow flake. I can't explain what spooked it, but just the same, it was a phantom fish. After getting run over by another club tournament launching out of the I35 ramp we headed to my original spot. I caught an 8 inch bass, the short end of a long story. Mean while I could see Marlin across the lake catching bass up in the lilly pads in about 2 feet of water. Made a run to some other spots and came up with nada, then decided to hit the lilly pads myself. Marlin was fishing up in the pads, so I fished the outside edge of the pads since it was about lunch time now and thought the bass would be moving out into deeper water. I managed to catch a 14 inch bass on a watermelon fluke and killed a lot of time trying to find another fish. With two hours left in the tournament and boat traffic getting a bit heavier on the lake, we headed down to the stump field near the dam. There were two boats on it ahead of us that had just gotten there. Marlin and his partner were covering the lilly pads there and Tom Pursell & Jason St. Peter were on the deep ledge. I decided to go with the ledge and fish behind Tom's boat. Jason seemed to be a bass vacuum with a crank bait ahead of us catching bass on the back of Tom's boat. They picked up 4 keepers on the first pass. The group of boats grew to four or five I forget, but the fish stopped biting. Everyone left except Rick and I with about 30 minutes left in the tournament. Instead of fishing the ledge or the lilies I put us in between and fished water that wasn't really touched. Rick caught the fish below with only 25 minutes left in the tournament on a shad colored crank bait. Great stuff, it jumped several times and I did a bad job getting it in the net, but we got her in the boat in the end. :-) The best part of it was knowing we had that fish to take to weigh-in, because Jesse James had just been taunting us from the other side of the lake after landing their second keeper of the day thanks to a tip from the home owner who had come down to see if they'd caught anything.
posted by Previous Guide Clint Bridges at 8:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home