6-13 AiA on Truman Lake

On the heels of a one-fish performance in the 5-23 Anglers In Action Tournament on Truman Lake I wasn't really looking forward to the 6-13 tournament.  The water was high, a ton of rain had just fallen, and it looked like they weren't going to be pulling much current.  Rising muddy water on Truman spreads the fish out, and with all the bushes and logs laid up on the shore you know where the fish are, but they're not easy to get to.  It felt like it was setting up to be just as tough (14lbs won the last tournament and it only took 5lbs to get a check) but all of my preconceived notions turned out to be a little wrong...and I was just kidding about not looking forward to it.  Whether the bite is totally on or super tough I want to be out there trying to figure it out.  I live for these weekends.

Kris and I were able to get down there a week prior to the tournament to do a little scouting and we were pretty encouraged with what we found.  The morning and afternoon were tough but we were able to locate a school that produced a 3-pounder and a 2-pounder, and found a point on our last stop that produced a keeper on every cast.  When I set the hook on one of the schoolers he went straight up to jump and 2 fish jumped along side of him trying to swipe the bait out of his mouth...3 fish in the air...it was awesome.  If we could find them schooled when the current was running, we'd have a good chance of knowing where they were going to spread out if the dam was closed.

We hit the water on Friday at first light and the conditions were awesome.  Despite the heavy rains the water had a foot or two of clarity (super clear for Truman).  Overcast, light wind and light rain every once and while...topwater city right?  Wrong.  After trying for a few hours neither of us could even get a fish to swirl on a topwater.  We'd caught a few shorts cranking shallow and deep, and flippin' into the bushes on the shoreline gave us a few bites, but no keepers.  We figured we'd trailer the boat back up at Bucksaw, get some groceries in Clinton, check in at Uncle Gabby's Motel and fish until sundown in another arm of the lake.  We pulled up to a familiar site at Uncle Gabby's...good ol' Rolex was chillin' on his picnic table waiting for anglers to pull up so he could welcome them (and see if they had any food!).  We unpacked and headed back out, but we didn't really figure out much more than we already knew.  A point we'd done well on in the past gave us a couple, but one was in 10ft and the other was in 2ft.  Our next day of practice turned out to be the same deal.  The pattern was...there was no pattern.  I think I caught 15 fish on 14 different baits and maybe 3 of them were keepers.  Sadly, one of the highlights of my day was catching a monster walleye...even those toothy critters will eat the Bass Team Tackle Shaky Head! 

I'd put our practice in the "this sucks" category but we were in the water and ready to go on Sunday.  We put together a series of points that consisted of memories...some were a week old, some were a day old, and some were a couple years old.  Our best spot was closest to the ramp and but after about 45 minutes and no bites we moved further down the Osage.  Point number two was the spot we had found them schooled up on the week before.  When we pulled up there was zero wind.  We fished moving baits trying to will that wind to pick up but it never happened.  After one trip around the point we picked up our drop baits...Kris with the big worm and I busted out the BTT Shaky Head.  I worked my first cast all the way back to the boat and just when I was ready to reel it in a 3-pounder sucked it up.  He was in the net, in the livewell, and I got my worm back in the water as quick as I could.  On my 3rd cast I caught our 2nd keeper...16" and maybe 2lbs.  A couple casts later I caught his twin...another 16" keeper.  3 fish were in the box and it was maybe 7:30am.  The wind started to pick up and I caught a 14-incher.  A couple casts later I caught one even smaller.  We spent another 30 minutes working back across the point and it seemed like the wind had killed the bite we'd been trying to find for weeks.  We decided to give it a rest and run to the rest of our spots.  We'd be back.

The 5-10mph winds they predicted were howling out of the South at 15-20mph and none of our other points helped us out.  With 3 fish still in the well and only a couple hours left we went back to see if we'd given the fish on our only productive spot enough of a rest.  I'd been cranking a Bomber Fat Free Shad in a couple different colors so I decided to tie on a black and silver Rapala DT10 to give the fish a different profile.  I bombed a cast across the middle of the point and when it came through some flooded brush we'd located that morning my decision paid off.  A 4-pounder completely choked it, and that was good and bad.  He was in the boat for sure, but the back treble had pierced his gills and he was bleeding all over the place.  I unhooked him as gently as I could and put him the livewell with some ice and fresh water.  The fish floated for a minute but quickly uprighted himself and with only an hour or two left I wasn't worried.  We continued to pound the point with everything in the box but couldn't get another bite.

We made a quick run back to our first point and the conditions were identical to what we had seen in practice.  As Kris nudged the boat around the point he hooked up with a 3-pounder on his spinnerbait.  Seconds after he set the hook his reel popped off the rod and up into the air.  He quickly grabbed the middle of the rod to keep pressure on the fish and I dropped the net and jumped up to the front to try and hand-line the fish in.  By the time I pulled him close enough to grab he'd wrapped himself around the trolling motor 3 or 4 times and as I slid my hand down the line it was pretty frayed and felt like a piece of sandpaper.  Laying on the deck with my face almost in the water the fish surfaced and rolled on his side.  He floated between the trolling motor and the boat, opened his mouth and swam into my thumb like he knew what I wanted him to do.  I couldn't believe how it happened, but we had our limit and if anyone was within a half mile I'm sure they heard all the hootin' and hollerin'.  We finished out the point trying to cull out our little ones but it didn't happen and it was time to run back to Long Shoal Marina.

Randy got my name right (he's called me Keith before...haha) and our bag weighed in at 13.59lbs.  With a little less than half the field left to weigh in we were sitting in 9th.  Just like always, I'd seen a couple bigger bags and knew that we'd probably fall a few spots.  My long time friend and fishing buddy Cory was in the tournament and for the first time ever we were competing against each other.  I had my heart set on beating him but he dropped a 13.65lb bag on the scale, beat us by 0.06lbs and bumped us out of the top 10 all in one foul swoop.  Another team tied us with 13.59lbs and we ended up with an 11th place finish and a small check.  The money wasn't much but after such a crappy practice and crappier tournament in May it felt good to put 5 fish on the scale and get ourselves closer to qualifying for the AiA Championship.  All in all the tournament exceeded my expectations and as always, I can't say enough about the job that the Terrell family and the rest of the AiA crew does every time we fish one of their events.  Their Championship payouts this year are awesome and there are still plenty of tournaments left if you want to try and qualify...check out the link above for more info.  They're also putting on the Big Bass Bash on Truman on June 26th and 27th where they'll be awarding $54,000 in guaranteed cash payouts! 

That's all I've got so I guess I'll go get ready for the next trip and work on holding my fish straight for the camera...

Kansas TBF Qualifier - Day 2

After I backed the boat into the water and parked the truck I couldn't help but walk down the boat ramp at a pretty good clip. I was excited. After the day 1 weigh in, I sat down at a picnic table with my day 2 partner Matt King and we went over our plan. We were going to fish the same kind of water I fished on day one...muddy, dirty, shallow, full of stumps and full of fish. Squarebilled crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and close-quarters flippin' would be the order of the day. As Matt described it, day 2 would consist of, "Power fishing at it's finest!"  He had brought a good bag of fish to the scales on day 1 and we were both fairly confident we could do the same thing on day 2.

Although the water and the run would be much the same as day 1, we were pointing the boat in the opposite direction.  For those of you who've been on Truman Lake, you've seen the flooded timber that dominates the surface of the water. Some stumps tower over you and some rest inches underneath the water just out of sight. Following and marking the main river channel of the lake with your GPS system is the only for sure way to avoid a collision that could punch a hole in the boat or even worse...tear your motor completely off the back. Matt had run and re-run the route to our first spot several times over the course of the last several weeks and had learned what not to do the hard way.  He spun the hub on his propeller twice. One of those times, he made the mistake of leaving his cell phone at the boat ramp and was forced to idle all the way back...spun it at dusk and finally made it back to the ramp at 3am. His practice paid off, and after I put my squarebill rod, flippin' rod, spinnerbait rod, and shaky head rod in the boat, we were ready to fly. We zig-zagged over the channel and through the path in the trees (sometimes only 2-3 boat lengths wide) at 50-70mph and we made it to our first spot in 30 minutes. Matt's knowledge of the route was incredible.

With the trolling motor down I began firing a black buzzbait to the best looking piece of cover I could see. Both sides of the bank were reachable and the decision on where to cast was often a tough one.  After watching Matt sort through a couple short fish to find his first keeper on a white/chartreuse spinnerbait, I began wondering if I was going to get a fish to come up and eat on the surface. The fish busting up schools of shad on the surface made me feel like I was still doing the right thing, and a large blowup at the boat further reinforced that thought.  As we finished one productive stretch of the river and neared the next, Matt now had a 16" keeper and another squeaker in the box, and I figured it was time to drop my bait down below the surface.  I picked up the same chartreuse and black RC 1.5 squarebill that had helped me catch 6lbs the day before.

Making the right call is an awesome feeling.  I began catching fish left and right on the squarebill and sorted through 3 or 4 shorts before keeper # 1 made it's way into the livewell.  It wasn't more than 2lbs, but it measured and it was going to help me out on what we all figured was going to be a tough, tough day of fishing on Truman.  Matt had a crankbait rod on the deck (Bandit 100 series crankbait maybe?) and picked it up. When you're a co-angler and your boater plays follow the leader, you know you're doing something very right. For the next several hours it felt like the squarebill rod was an extension of my arm and there was no way I was putting it down. It paid off as I picked up another solid 2lb keeper and gave the fish I already had in the box a little company.

We continued to burn up the river picking apart stumps, laydowns, and beaver huts with our fast-moving reaction baits. Matt seemed to remember every stretch of the river from the practice time he spent up there, and we were able to maximize our efficiency by idling through unproductive water and spending extra time on specific trees. We worked up to a tree that sat dead center in the middle of the channel and didn't go much further. We cast to the tree from all angles with crankbaits, spinnerbaits, brush hogs, 7in worms, and even a shaky head. When we finally made it to the back side, Matt flipped his 7in worm at the tree, hopped it back against the current, and nailed a nice 4lb keeper...big fish of the day for us. Seconds after Matt flipped his 3rd keeper in the boat, I felt a jolt shudder through my shaky head rod and watched my line start moving violently towards the shore. I reared back, set the hook, and watched a 25+lb flathead catfish thrash up to the surface. Luckily, it came unbuttoned quickly...there was no damage to my line and I could cast right back in. It would have been fun, but hooking it could have been time consuming and could have damaged my equipment...not what you want in a tournament. We continued to cast but didn't receive another bite from the tree and decided to work our way back.

With my day 1 weight of 5.95 and 2 chunky fish in the box, I knew I was around 10lbs total. With the speculated cut sitting around 12lbs, one more keeper might put me on the state team. It was time to focus. We agreed that fishing our very first stretch of the river was the best way to finish out the day. There was only one problem...Matt turned the key and his Mercury wouldn't start. He busted out a pair of jumper cables, connected the good trolling motor battery to the dead starter battery, and the outboard reluctantly turned over enough to fire and get us moving.

Out of habit, Matt turned off the outboard when we stopped to fish the next set of stumps. We thought we would be ok...if it started once, it would start again, right? We were dead wrong. With our boat pushed up against the muddy bank, we huddled over the back compartment trying to figure out what we were going to do. Connecting the other trolling motor battery didn't work and every turn of the key made the starter sound weaker and weaker. Panic mode set in...while Matt was thinking about chasing down the boat we had just passed so he could offer them a couple hundred bucks to hold his boat as collateral while we ran their boat to the weigh in, I tried to hold my phone at different angles so I could get service and send the tournament director a text letting him know we had lost power. Looking back, I feel kind of stupid for not thinking of this earlier, but Matt realized we could swap a good trolling motor battery with the bad starter battery and we'd be on our way. We grabbed his tools and made it happen.

Not wanting to risk losing power again, we left the big motor on at idle speed while making one last quick stop in our first stretch of river. Swapping the batteries had taken away 30 critical minutes and a couple short fish was all we could pull out of the water with our limited time. Not wanting to risk another potential disaster, we decided to give ourselves 40 minutes to make the 30 minute run back to the ramp. I don't know if it was adrenaline or what, but Matt somehow got us back in 25 minutes. After the blood got back into my knuckles and they were no longer white, we had 10 minutes left to flip the big timber North of the Long Shoal boat ramp. Out of nowhere, Matt's 7in worm dropped onto the 10ft bottom and he swung keeper # 4 into the boat...another good fish probably in the 3lb range. He had 4 fish and unless everyone else whacked em' he was probably going to represent Kansas next year.

While pulling up and checking in, I knew I was probably out of it. I threw just under 4lbs on the scales for day 2. I feel like I got a fair weight, but still felt uneasy after watching my buddy Casey Scanlon weigh in his bag...it looked like 15lbs, weighed 12, and then weighed 13.5 after Casey asked them to weigh it a second time. I wanted to smile but had a hard time getting it out until Kit dropped the big bass of the day on the ground and dove onto his stomach under a table while trying to corral the flopping fish. Thanks for the laugh buddy! My day 2 partner Matt King was penalized a pound when one of his fish wouldn't measure on the TBF's board. Matt had the exact same board on his boat and was able to make the fish measure, but it wouldn't touch the 15" line on theirs. Most tournaments will have a "courtesy board" so you can measure questionable fish without penalty before you hand them to the director. Because there wasn't a courtesy board available, Matt filed an official protest of his penalty. I don't think the penalty was reversed, but it wouldn't have moved him up or down in the standings.

When the final results were posted, I ended up in 18th place, a pound and a half behind the second alternate...the last team member to receive a plaque. The second alternate was Kerry Kruep...a genuinely nice guy and 19 time team qualifier so I didn't feel all that bad. I showed up, gave it my all, and never had that qualifying fish on the end of my line. Congrats to the qualifying team members...I'm looking forward to watching you make our state proud next year in the divisional!!!

1 Ed Berends 20.13
2 Chris Savoie 19.17
3 Casey Scanlon 18.48
4 Dylan Webb 17.21
5 Michael Hays 16.91
6 Robert Garver 16.88
7 Larry Stoafer 16.55
8 Matt King 14.93
9 Jeff Gatton 14.32
10 Kit Lueg 13.9
11 Brent Neis 13.89
12 Jason Baird 12.34
13 Larry Riffey 11.66
14 Kerry Kruep 11.4