Wal-Mart BFL Regional Tournament on Lake Wright Patman

I fished in the Wal-Mart BFL Regional tournament last week, October 19th through the 21st. Normally I'd give a detailed report of how the tournament went, but I can't bring myself to relive the event. It was bad enough to live through it once, and by the grace of God, I lived through it.

Brief overview of the event:

Left on Tuesday night and planned on driving 600+ miles through to Texarkana, but I got a little tired and I got to New Boston when I saw the new Wal-Mart Super Center on the side of the highway. I decided I should pull over and camp there for the rest of the night. Just in case you didn't know, you can camp overnight in Wal-Mart parking lots when traveling. I woke up at 5:00 AM and went inside, bought some breakfast, and headed to the lake. Once I arrived at North Shore park, I parked, and started fishing. I fished for a while and then boats started arriving. I talked to a guy sleeping in his truck who had just woke up and turns out he used to work with my brother and is fishing in the tournament also. Anyway, so I catch a bass while watching boats launch and Max Harader offered to take me out to prefish with him. That day it was a little foggy early, warm and sunny all day after the fog blew off. It was a great day to be on the lake. We caught a few fish that day and I really enjoyed fishing with Max, he's a great guy. Especially since I saw probably 30 boats launch before Max came along and offered to let me fish with him in practice for the event. The next day a front was blowing in with 20+ mph winds, rain, and dark cloudy sky. I drew Gabe Spencer for the first day of the event. Gabe ran the boat all out going across a very rough lake and we made it to the first spot, fished for about an hour and then his boat caught fire! That's right, it caught fire. We smelled smoke a few times and Gabe finally decided to check the engine well where the batteries and gas tank are located and when he opened the lid it was like a back draft or something, flames and smoke came out. Needless to say, that pretty much killed the first day of fishing. Gabe didn't have his trolling motor batteries tied down and something happened in that rough ride that caused a short and lead to the fire. The second day I drew out, Marc Downs. The second day of the tournament the weather was different, it was cold and no wind, but the water was still warm. That creates a lot of fog by the way, very thick fog delayed the start of the tournament three hours. That was pretty much the nail in the coffin for my hopes of making it to the All American event. Four hours to fish wasn't enough to catch the field I was competing against. I've had tough tournaments, but that one will go down in the history books I'm sure.

Lesson learned:

Make sure your batteries are tied down securely. It's possible that in the rough ride, one of the batteries bounced up and touched a cable connection creating the sparks that lead to the fire. The other possibility is that the lead plates in the battery touched together and over heated the battery. That could have happened in the rough ride and coupled with the fact they were not secure. If you take a battery out and it gets knocked over by some mistake, do not use the battery, because it will most likely over heat. We were told this by a tech at the tournament site assisting anglers with boat problems.

One of the trolling motor batteries had melted down to the the acid level in the battery cells, and the acid was boiling, it could have exploded. It also could have blown up the fuel tank! Like I said at the beginning of this report, I survived by the good grace of God and his protection.

Fishing with Fool-A-Fish.

For those who don't know me, my name is Clint Bridges, I run a Bass Fishing Guide Service, I fish in local bass tournaments, and I fish in the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League. Needless to say, I love fishing and I’m always looking for new ways to catch fish, improve my fishing success, and my customer’s success at catching bass. This year I started using Fool-A-Fish and the results speak for themselves. I’ve won or placed in the top four in the local club tournaments. I placed in the top 20% of the field five out of five Wal-Mart BFL tournaments this season, finishing 3rd in the overall points. I caught a ton of bass and even a trophy hybrid-striper that was nearly 8 lbs while competing in bass tournaments. Fool-A-Fish definitely increased my fishing success this season.

One of the primary tools fish use in feeding is sight and I believe Fool-A-Fish helps fish to see the bait by making it brighter. Fishing without Fool-A-Fish on your lure is like an airline pilot landing a plan in the dark without the runway lights on. Sure it can be done, but it helps when they can see the target. Using Fool-A-Fish does not mean you will catch every fish that sees your lure, but it will help fish find your bait and that is the important part. I use Fool-A-Fish on all fishing trips now and spray it on all my lures, soft plastics, crankbaits, and spinnerbaits. Give Fool-A-Fish a try and I am sure you will see the difference first hand. Visist - www.FoolAFish.com for more information. The also make other great products, Fool-A-Duck and Fool-A-Deer that help to conceal you from detection.

Guide trip on Stillhouse Hollow

On Saturday Oct 7th, fished from noon till just after sunset, 8pm. Hit a hump in 20 feet of water, just off the river channel. Dropshots were the primary bait of choice with some t-rigged baby brush hogs mixed in. Small, but good quality fish were caught here. Some more productive spots included the back of a cove in 12-15 feet in grass, wind-blown grass edges off main lake and trees along that same area. The 2 biggest fish we had on in the afternoon were around 5.5 to 6 pounds and both hit topwaters, one popping and one walking. Between 2 boats, we caught just under 3 dozen fish.