KFAN/ST. JUDE PATTERNS?

Is anyone willing to share what patterns were successfull in this tournament. I know I sure had a hell of a time!

I fished every little piece of backwater without current on it that I could find with little to no success. I realize after a brutal trial and error that this was not the pattern to be fishing. With water temps dropping into the mid 50’s the fish made a move.

I personally think they all left and magically disappeared With only a years experience on the river, i found myself lost with no sense of direction on what to do or where to do it. Unfortunately tournament day is the exact wrong time for that to happen.

So, I will plead again for anyone to share patterns/details on how they or anybody for that matter found a way to put fish in the boat.

On a good note this tournament was run with out a flaw, I really enjoyed the experience and would like to invite those who were interested and didn’t fish it this to definitely do it next year.

Skeets, sorry about your tough days on the water, I did make it to the first days weight-in and it did not seem that the guys who did get a limit,did not seem to be confindent that the patterns would hold or simply stumpled onto fish,Anglers did talk about males on beds and females moving up and them moving by end of day,alot of sort fish caught,but fishing this event once in the past does give a better defination to donating your money.Put it behind you and good luck in the B.F.L.

Skeets,

Still several tournaments to come so I’m going to be very general. Keep in mind the water level was low and falling, the water temp was stable or lower than the week before and many areas had been beat to death. We ran summer spots. We found smallies on the main channel and largies in deeper wood with current. The problem for us was you couldn’t go back to a spot and catch any more so we hit a ton of spots. Seeing my partner and I have fished the area for years we had an advantage. We needed 1 more spot seeing we came in 1 fish short of a limit the last day. A 14″ fish would have been worth an additional $1400.

John, is this the same tourney the Capra’s fished in? If so, I saw a post about their use of cameras for targeting fish. What’s your opinion of this? Good, Bad, Indifferent?

yes, the capras did fish this one. where did you see the mention to using the aqua view? i would like to read the post. with so few limits this tourney was tough. but what still amazes me is that for as few limits as there were the winning weight just keeps going up. i thought sure no one would be able to top last years weight as tought as the pre-fishing has been. plus there was a lot more pressure this year with so many tourneys on 4&5 earley in the season but i was proved wrong again. i wish i had the knowledge base like john and some of the other guys. we had to go back to our ay one spots and they just wernt there. but man what a well run tourney we cant say enough good things about the job every one did. and with over $65,000.00 raise for ST
JUDES it couldnt have went to a better cause

Link Second post up from the bottom.

thanks

john, in your opinion will it take 50# to win this tourney next year or the year after? does that mean that the fishery is getting better and better or are the fishermen getting better. you hear about people saying that tourneys are hurting the fish but if the weights are getting bigger and bigger than the fish must be doing ok with the pressure right? even thought we didnt do well the second day the first day we were in the hunt and we did catch fish the second day but they were all short except for 2. every ones opinion is welcome

Hey Corey,
Sorry Wes and I were not able to stick around and chat after the tourney on Sunday. We were {once again} totally demoralized. All the fish we had the weekend before, {and even on Friday’s practice} went bye bye. It was really strange, never have I seen things change as drastically as they did for us. The weekend before you could have caught em with a bare hook they were so active.
Even though the fishing was tough for Wes and I, this fisherie truly amazes me. It just seems to be getting better and better every year. We could not put any pattern together in this tournament. It seemed like you could catch one fish here and there, and you had to keep your line wet. There didn’t seem to be any active schools of fish going for us anywhere on Saturday or Sunday.
Congradulations to all the guys who did well in this tournament. You guys did your homework and figured them out. This tournament really has some of the best fisherman in the midwest fishing. And a big THANK YOU to the folks who organized and ran this event!! I can’t wait for next year. You guys are awesome!!
Bait Caster

hey ken, man we gotta figure out this tourney one of these years. i thought this was going to be the one for you and wes and i was pullin for ya. dean and i couldnt get them figured out in prefishing but on sat. until dean broke the trollin motor i thought we had a chance ourselves but as luck would have it the fish were gone on sunday. we were one our usual spot sunday morning and we usually have mark fisher and dave there with us. they were gettin them and we wernt and we were only 40 feet away.they invited us in but it wouldnt have been right so we left it for them and they cashed a check. oh well there is always next year.and lets not wait till next year befor we get together again. later man. corey

Tom,

The AquaView is one of the Capra’s products so you have to put that into the equation. As far as using them I see it as one of many tools. I have used them in the fall and can easily see down to 20′ in our stretch of the Mississippi. If you know fish are there you are going to work them harder.

Cory, I can see a 50 lb tournament but it’s not going to be commonplace. I have seen and heard of more 5 lb plus fish this spring this year than ever. The problem is those fish will likely be gone from the system next year. The age/size studies in our area indicate that our fish grow fast than the local norm but have a shorter life span. Don’t know why but I would guess it’s genetics. I would expect most of the big fish in the system right know will die of natural causes. It sure is fun right now.

Myself like many of the guys was on fish in lots of locations. One bank alone for 3 weeks in a row took 3 to 4 large mouth off of it every weekend, including 3 the first day of the tourny. We had 7 fish the first day, but new the water was dropping and thought that we could still scratch out a limit the next day. WRONGO!!! We only got 2 and they were hard to come by. What I notice about the top finishers in this tourny is that most of them are seasoned veterans and through experience and maybe a little of “talking to the pearls” they adjusted better than most of us. It’s amazing that one day the smallies are no where to be found and the next day they come out of the wood work!! For my partner and I, 2 nights of needed rest and time to laugh at our egos getting crushed, were already looking forward to next year. The one thing I can say about this tournament is that a month of preparation, all the anxiety that goes into that first tournament, and then to feel like the bugs on the front of my windshield, it amazes me that in just a few days I’m willing to try and do it all over again. What really gives me the “warm fuzzys” is nowing that this is all not in waste, cause kids and familys are benefitting from this. It gives me hope that someday all of us will know someone who benefited from the money and knowledged gained. Riverfan your a good teacher! Just ask Pat!

I couldn’t agree more with fishnut…we had a decent bag on day one and then only squeaked out three swimmers on day two. The water dropped signifcantly overnight, which certainly changed things for the worse in the area we were fishing.

That aside, this tournament was the neatest event I’ve ever fished. There’s something to be said for a great group of anglers getting together to raise around $75,000 for the children’s hospital. I would encourage anyone who can to participate next year!