January Xtreme Tournament on Harris
My buddy Jessie and I decided to fish the Xtreme tournament out of Buzzard Beach on the Harris Chain this past weekend and it was one of those grind out days with temperatures near freezing in the morning. It never warmed up neither cause the sun never came out.
We started out cranking a shell bar and I caught a nice 3 pounder within the first few minutes of fishing. At this point I’m thinking we’re gonna do good today, but we never got another bite after that on a crankbait.
You’re ahead of the game when you can catch a fish in the morning on the Harris Chain cause most of the fish on Harris are caught flippin and that bite’s never on early in the day.
We go to my fish on Little Lake Harris and go for about an hour without getting a bite and then I feel a little heaviness in my line. I tried to let the fish have it but it never moved. When I finally tried to set the hook, it was already too late.
From that point, I decided to set the hook immediately. The fish weren’t committing and not moving when they bit. I get bit another 50 yards down and set the hook right away to catch another 2+ pounder. I was worried about catching air when I decided to set the hook but there actually was a fish there.
I get bit again an hour later and set the hook on a 5 pounder that wrapped me up in the kissimmee grass and got off when I tried to yank it out. I should’ve just pinned the fish there and used the trolling motor to get to it.
At this point, I’m thinking we may on to some fish and make 3 more passes in the same area never got another bite for the rest of the day.
We run to my spot in Helena Run and get another fish right away but it was just short.
Our 2 fish weighed 5.84 pounds which was good enough for 4th place. The fishing was brutal with the winner only having 12.07 pounds. That fish I lost cost us a check and next time there’s a cold front, I gotta remember to set the hook right away instead of waiting for the fish to start moving with the bait.
You’re always learning in this game, but at least I picked a spot that had a chance to win. Just gotta put’em in the boat next time.
I’ll be taking off to camp out on Okeechobee the next couple of days to prepare for the BASS Open… wish me luck.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:09 pm
Bass really do like to make us second guess our hooksets. I guess the best rule of thumb is to figure out what mood they are in and it sounds like you were doing that. Whenever I let them chew on it a few seconds, I worry I might gut hook one. During this time of year, a funny bite sometimes ends up being a chain pickerel. You get the sense something is there, but you don’t feel any resistance. Fun to catch, but leaves me paranoid about every little bump I feel.