I thought I would share my expericence with you guys. I hooked up with a buddy (Roger Koopman) from across the river and we left Tues after work to get there in time to prefish Wednesday. He had arranged to fish with Paul Hirosky and I with Jared Lintner. We got to the ramp at 330, in time to grab an hour of sleep before meeting our pros.
Wed- Jared had a good aread from his prefish but wanted some backup spots. He was open to sticking fish to check size which I was happy about. We hit a lot of different spots, mostly shallow water docks. I think between us we caught 3 keepers, any time we caught one or saw one we left that stretch of docks alone. I got to see the water color and exposed myself to colors/actions I thought might be good. I clued into the fact that all the fish we caught came on lures that had some purple mixed in, usually with a green pumpkin base. Both keepers were caught on brovarney swim jigs in pumpkin gil with a green pumpkin-red mag grub trailer.
Roger and Paul struggled some, but Paul had an area to start on from previous practice.
Thurs- (day 1)- paired with Mark Tucker. Mark had a spot 30 miles past the lock he planned to go to, but aborted the plan and stuck on Old Hickory. Our first spot we never even got on pad, right around the island from the launch and started shallow. He was anticipating tough conditions so I tried to stay out of his way and fished used water. We went out to a ledge from 12-22 feet and I caught a 2.4 casting well behind the boat. He was gracious enough to land the fish for me as I was using 6 lb line (foreign stuff for me lol) then he caught 2 keepers in a row in the exact same spot mine came from. We fished that ledge for 4-5 hours then the wind picked up so we went to a shallow point. I caught keeper 2 in about 2 fow on a small creature type bait swam quickly back to the boat after a long cast. After this he wanted to fill his limit so we fished a marina wall trying for spots. There was a nice log about 50 feet off the wall and his first cast broke off a nice one. 2nd cast= 2.5 lb fish for him but it stuck in some line and got off as we were on our way over. He caught another about 3 off the log, then it was time to head in.
Roger fished with Charlie Hartley and caught a single keeper, Hartley had 2. They fished shallow.
Day 2- Ben Matsubu. Ben was fishing deep main river ledges. He was sitting in 50th after day 1 so I didnt want to get in his way from making the cut and 10 grand. We had lots of company on the ledges but seemed to get along with everyone. He nailed a keeper right away on a 10″ worm, then a second on another ledge. I caught one about 2.25 lb on a zoom dead ringer off the second ledge but the deep bite seemed to die quickly. We ran upriver to a place he thought we could get some spots, and I caught a nice 15″ keeper there on a shakey worm but neither one of us could get a 12″ spot to put in the livewell. Back down to some ledges, he caught a 3rd and I broke one off but then it was back to weigh in.
Roger got to fish with Peter T day 2 and really enjoyed it. Peter was in 58th after day 1, and with an hour to go had a small limit and didnt feel good about the cut. He stuck a pig (5.5 or so) with an hour to go on a crankbait, and as he reeled it in Roger got down and ended up grabbing the fish for him and bringing it in. They then danced around for about 5 min and had a great time. Peter made the cut by a couple lbs after a 4 lb difference with the last fish. Roger didnt make the cut to day 3.
Day 3- Randy Howell was in 3rd and fishing shallow grass/docks as well as a spot on a ledge he had pulled a 5 day 1 and purolater big bass 6-6 day 2. It was tough for me, I knew he was in contention for 100 grand and needed every fish for day 3 and 4, so I swallowed my pride, fished between the docks and tried to avoid catching anything that might cost him. I caught a nice 1-15 on a nothing shoreline so got to cross the stage again which was cool. Most of the day I stood in the back and asked him questions about everything, and he answered all of them. It was a great 1 on 1 seminar about tourney fishing which for me was worth the price of admission.
I ended up 28th, cashed a nice check and in the process felt like I was never in the way of any of my pros. They seemed to like my attitude of being there to learn and stay out of his way, and I feel like any of them would be happy to help me out if I emailed them or had a question about a lake/presentation/etc. A lot of the talk among pros was how some co’s dont check the ego and really push and that is one reason co’s may not exist next year (thats the rumor anyway). At times a co can help clue in the pro to a color or lure, but often the guy is casting to cover/structure the pro is working and could cost the guy 10 grand or more. Paul called Roger after day 1 and was saying his co was casting all over him and they ended up in an argument over it. After seeing how hard they work and the life they lead that was not how I wanted them to remember me so I took the high road and still cashed a check while learning a ton!!
I would do it again in a heartbeat, hopefully they will still allow cos next year and I can pick another to go to.