First of all I need to send a big thanks out to BfishN Tackle for thier great products! We had some horrible weather down here this last weekend with 30+mph winds on Friday for pre-fish and a cold rain on Saturday for day one of the tournament. Through all the weather tried to throw at me, I was able to find ways to get fish to bite with the help from my ringworms and H2O jigs. This tournament was a tough bite, with a lot of zero’s but with the help of great equipment, we were able to make it a sucessful weekend of angling.
Day one of the tournament started out as a really nice morning. Rusty and I decided that we were going to start our day on the dam. About 10 minutes into the morning I got a just sub-legal ‘eye to fall for a firecracker/char ringworm and shortly after that I was able to land a nice 23″ male on that same set-up. We fished the dam for a short while longer but the wind had layed down and the fishing shut down so we were of to out next spot.
We headed to the Island’s next and met a pretty large group of boats in a not so large area. Most of those boats were anchored to it made quite a maze for us to try to drag jigs through but we gave it a shot. We were only able to pick up a couple of shorts there and fishing in the crowd just wasn’t getting us anywhere. Me made a decision to head to the far west end and try to find some fish that we could have to ourselves. We headed up the lake and started to search for the creek channel and that was SO easy to do with my 997si. We dropped our H2O’s tipped with chubs and river shinners and started working up and down the channel. About that time the rain started in and we are not talking a nice warm June shower here. It was a cold soaking rain that would have been a real pain if my sno-suit hadn’t of made the trip. Guys, these thing are not just for the ice! We picked up a nice 20″ keeper just as the rain started and another 18″ keeper before we headed to weigh-in.
Day 2 of the tournament saw us starting out the day in 6th place overall. Rusty and I decided the night before that were were going to head right to the west again, instead of the dam, so we could have a shot at getting a nice fish in the boat. As word got around after day one about the bite on the west end, there were a lot more boats in the area. Right away the bite was on. It was amazing seeing big fish after big fish being pulled in, as I have never been part of a big fish bite like that. Thank God we were one of the teams that was able to pick up a big fish, a nice ‘eye that went just under 28″. The bite was short lived and by 9:30 the fishing got slow and pretty tough. We were able to pick up one more nice 19″ fish later in the morning and that was our day. When all the shouting was over, we ended up moving up one more place and finished the tournament with a 5th place finish. That is the best finish for either Rusty or I so we were really excited!
The bite at Sherman should only get better as the weather becomes more consistent. There are some really nice fish around and the lake is going to offer anybody a real chance at an ‘eye that will go better than 8lbs. There is a lot of bait that made it through the winter and the water is coming up quick, so make sure that you put Sherman on your ‘To Do’ list this year. Good Luck Everyone!
How’s the new ride working out?
Congrats!!!!
Nice finish Zach! That sounded like brutal weather!
Way to hang tough!
Ya did well, man!
Congrats on the 5th place finish Zach!
Nice job!
Boog
Congrats on a great finish, Zach!
Nice job in the tough conditions Zach
Congrats on 5th!
Way to TUFF it out
Nice report and congrats on the 5th place finish.
Jason
Congrats on a great tournament! What a great way to start the season.
Congrats on a great finish. Hope I have the same luck next week.
Way to go Zack!
Nice report and congratulations on your top 5 finish!
Very nice job placing 5th. Sherman can be real tough even in good weather. Gotta share your story with my father-in-law. He and his dad used to farm what is the bottom of that lake. He now lives in Loup City.
Thanks I think that there is probably a reason that the best finish I have had came at the first tournament in the new Tuffy. That thing is SO easy to fish out of No matter what the wind did, I could make the boat do what I wanted it to do rather than what mother nature wanted it to do. I am so pleased with the boat and would recommend that anybody in the market for a new boat, make sure they take a look at Tuffy
That would be really neat to be able to share the boat with someone who new the lake, before it was a lake. I was able to do that with a guy up at Calamus a couple of times and boy did it shorten the learning curve