Choke Canyon Texas Classic Bass Club 2006 Classic Tournament.

I fished the Choke Canyon Texas Classic Bass Club 2006 Classic Tournament over the weekend, March 18th & 19th, with Mike Amescua. We got second place, and had one of those fishing tournaments that neither of us will ever forget.


Day One: Weather - Partly cloudy with 30 mph winds from the SE.

I'm going to glaze over the details on day one, because it was a long hard weekend of fishing. Mike and I woke up at 5:00 AM, loaded our stuff headed off to South Shore park. The gates open at 6:00 AM which was the official start time of the tournament, so we were loosing time. We were third in line at the gate at 5:30 AM, which wasn't a bad thing since it gave us time to ready the boat. At 6:15 AM we had launched the boat and run around the corner to the pocket next to the dam and started fishing. Mike quickly set the hook on a solid 3 lb fish with a Texas rigged watermelon red brush hog. A few minutes later I caught a short fish on a white spinner bait. We fished there with a few missed bites until safe running light and then made a run across the lake to 4 fingers only to find it covered up with boat traffic. We worked a long stretch of the east bank with nada for our efforts, so I moved the boat to the west bank and went to work. Mike and I fished this area for the rest of the day, catching a limit of keepers from 1 lb to 4 lbs. In our first attempt to run back to the south side of the lake, we suffered an unfortunate setback. We hit a 3 foot roller pretty solid, that caused the water in the livewell to slosh the lid open and eject one of our larger bass. We eventually made it back across the lake despite the big waves and strong winds to finish out the first day with a little over 10 lbs which was far from top of the standings for the first day where the leaders had 20 lbs of bass. If you're wondering, no the live well in my boat doesn't having a lock on the lid to keep it closed. It's never been a problem in the past, but from now on you can bet that I'll be holding the lid closed any time I make a run across the lake.

Day Two: Weather - Cloudy with 20 mph winds from the SE.

5:00 AM Mike and I, loaded our stuff headed off to South Shore park once again, but a little stiff from the beating we took from the weather the day before. We didn't get to the gates until 5:45 this time and we were fifth in line, but ended up being first to launch. At 6:15 AM we headed across the lake, but I made a last minute decision not to hit the corner again and instead went to the dam spillway. Mike quickly put a bass near 5 lbs in the boat with a brush hog flipping the brush and a few minutes later followed with a 2 lb bass. I put my spinner bait down and joined in the fun with my own brush hog rig. 30 or so minutes later after several missed strikes by Mike and I, I set the hook on a bass I'd say was 5 lbs. I worked her out of the brush and all the way to the boat when I said, "Don't worry Mike, I've got her on braid, she's not coming off." No sooner than the words are spoken and the bass makes a strong run under the boat and tears the hook out. She came off, so a few minor explicatives follow while I reposition the boat and refocus. Mike eases the tension by saying, "At least you were not fishing in the BASS Classic and lost a five pounder." Mike and I cast back to the same area a foot or two apart and double up with nice 2 lb keepers. For a minute, I thought one of us had a fish and it had tangled our lines, but hey I'll take'm two at a time. :-) I reposition the boat again, because of the winds and we pound the area with nada to bite after those three. If it was a school of big fish, it had already moved on after we pulled those three fish out. 10 minutes later I set the hook and caught a nice 3 lb bass. We fish around the area for another hour with nothing biting. There are 4 or 5 other boats in very close rang and nobody is catching anything at this point. We make the decision to leave this area and head out to the island near Four Fingers. We make a pass down the west side of the island while fighting the swells and Mike sets the hook on a 5+ lb fish, he fights it out from the bank and halfway to the boat where the fish surges into some brush that's not visible and comes off. We hit the west bank of Four Fingers and nothing else bites. We ended the second day of the tournament with 15+ lbs and had the day two big bass.

Tournament in Review:

The wind blew and blew and blew from 10 mph in the mornings to 30 mph in the afternoon on both days. It made for extremely tough fishing, because the boat was never sitting still. We caught our fish on white spinner baits, watermelon Eager Beavers, watermelon/red Brush Hogs and watermelon/red lizards. Most of the fish we caught were in three to seven feet of water in brush. All the fish, but one were holding tight to brush, so flipping Texas rigged plastics was the best pattern. Congratulations to Dan and Karl on their first place finish, to Dudley for his day one big bass that was over 6 lbs, and to my partner Mike for this day two big bass. Official Results will be post on http://www.tcbc.net/ at some point before April 6th.