USPS has pretty mucch stamped out my tourney hopes of fishing this year. had one hope, the Salt city bassmasters invited me to join. one of the biggest best bass clubs in NY. lot of driving but I went for it. here is my 2 day event, (day 1 st lawrance river, day 2 black lake ) report:
was granted 4 days off from the USPS, started heading up north with Chris. She was invited to fish as a guest on the non boater side. filled empty seat. Got up to St lawrence wed afternoon and got a room for a few days. decided to hit the river for a few hours. got the Tuffy 1760GC in the water with some dark clouds lurking. parked about 1/4 mile away. by the time I got back. clouds were closer but travelling away. idled out about 1/4 mile, lightning and thunder, game over hammered back to te ramp, loaded up quick. beat the storm which was bad. a 30 mile wasted round trip extra driving, crap. back to the room, AC, beer, I was set. Practiced for 2 days on the river which was beyond slow. couldn’t find anything. one or 2 weak spots. my favrite place to fish and I was crapping out. Fri moved to a hotel closer to the ramp, the Robert peel. Lady said I can’t plug in by the room, down the hill in the tall grass. plugs for boats. went to pay, credit card as missing. crap. plugged in boat, left at gas station in clayton. drove back to clayton, 20 mile trip, extra driving crap. Rooms were nice for the price.
Day 1 got my partner for the day, Kim Moran. we went to my first spot in the open with bad boat traffic. wanted to fish there before the waves got bad. nothing but he got a 3 on a jitterbug!! 6 mile ride to my best area to find a local boat anchored, dunkin minnows. I sneaked around him best I could and caught 3 smallies that were nice. Pointed the Tuffy at a swamp for some froggin… when we stopped, I noticed the liveweels weren’t making any noise. checked the easy access hatch in the floor, motor shot. tried switching with the bilge motor, nope that was shot.( this is not surpring since in 3 and a half years, I’ve never had to use the bilge pump in the boat!) 9am in a swamp, hotter than hell, with the rest of day dumping bags of water in the livewell. stress and BP very high. I was pissed beyond description. couldn’t even function with the frog. gave it about 10 minutes and headed out deep for some cooler water. lost 3 keepers and kim caught 2 more. lots of 11 3/4″ers. I was very hot and pissed. kept dumping water in the livewell. ended up near the end by the ramp. threw out by some weeds with 10 minutes left and got a big one! he jumped off by the boat. kim caught a nice keeper. next cast I caught a small one 1:56 end of day. tied up, turns out Chris had a good day. I weighed in, 4 bass 9-12. terrible. embarrassing. Pissed. you can not spot the Salt city bassmasters 4, 5, 6 #s and expect to do well. put the tag on my toe. he’s gone… Chris on the other hand had a great day, 12+#s with a 5-1 lunker for the day! very happy for her. she was in first or second as a co angler. So with the long wait at the ramp to get on the trailer… I’m hot as hell, too much sun, too much heat, too much stress. next day is Black lake, was there last in 2002, 15″ limit. I’m done. gotta get boat plugged in, start my search for a new pump. Headed east for a few miles, stopped at 4 different places, nothing. was right around 90 out. headed to clayton to a place that sells bassboats. closed for the day. crap. guy told the place to go. back the other way. they had a cartridge that was close. lady was nice enough to charge me $50 for something that is normally 25! hour extra drive..Yahoo!! back to the hotel, looking forward to a dark room, AC and some beer. got there and everybody was plugged into the rooms after the lady told you can’t plug into the rooms! ??? pissed. went into the room, checked fridge, no beer. crap, more extra driving… had some beer, pissed as hell. went and got some subs. waited awhile. it cooled down to 85 and installed pump for livewell in the tall grass. very easy with the access hatch. will have many cartridges with me in the future. twisted my ankle doing it. back to room, dumped beer. took 2 mailman special pain pills, in bed by 7. only happy thought was getting sunday over and heading home.
sunday 3am. up, warmed up some crappy coffee. thinking about black lake. water low. had some ideas of what I wanted to do Largemouth… good I hate smallmouth. threw my rods in the truck for the ride to the long grass. looked around for somebody to tell me where the hell is black lake… 4am, looking at the parking lot, the brightest meteor I’ve ever seen completely lit up the entire area. like a spotlight. I thought something had blown up! it was amazing! speechless. wow! loaded up the tuffy, off to black lake. pretty bad mood but better. got my partner Joe Quazznichi, pointed at the map, said get me there with out hitting a rock. fished, caught a few. nice since I’d thought I’d get nothing. 15″ limit is tough. moved to another area, passed Chris and roger. broke down, chris said call at 1, they were going to try and make it back to the ramp. Me and Joe stopped, we figured out location, presentation, I dug out my favorite old All Star, tied on a all terrain jig. rest of the day was fishin’ talk and hooksets. great day. hot at times but breeze helped. livewell worked great with 10 very nice bass in there! called Chris, they were near the ramp and OK. asked her what she caught, she said 5, hung up, turned to Joe, “She won” stiff breeze had a good chop going. Tuffy likes a good chop. nice fun ride. Got chris, got Roger and my boat on the trailer. finally, I get to head home in the AC!! Wieghed in, 17-14, with a 4-12 lunker. Joe had 14, chris had 14.
good day. figured after day 1 it wasn’t enough…
first place with day 2 lunker, Chris got first with day 1 lunker…
what a turn around for the week!! crazy. can’t take this anymore. Tuffy ran great. AC felt awesome on the 4 hour ride home! hope to have some pics soon.
July 19, 2011 at 11:06 am
#1326537
