Pete Marino
03-03-2014, 12:12 PM
So My tourney partner and I went to Silverwood the week before last to prefish for our next ABA Inland Empire region event there. We fished for about 6 hours and the bite was spotty but we got on 2 different stable patterns.. One was a deep dropshot bite in 40-50 ft. And the other was a deep crankbait bite in 15-25ft. We also had a fish or two on jigs, Ikas and Alabama rigs...But nothing seemed as consistant as our deep worm bite and our crank bite.
By the end of the day that day we caught about 14 bass and in those 14 bass we had about 8-9 keepers (15" or bigger).. Nothing huge just solid keepers around 2 1/2 -3 1/4 lbs. each..
When we left that day I didn't really know if we were on anything decent... yeah we caught bass and we had 8-9 keepers but I had no idea how my other competitors were doing in their prefish.. I also knew at that point that there was a big storm brewing in the forecast and that could change everything.
So when I got home that day I made a couple calls to ask how some of my buddies were doing in their prefish.. The story seemed to be that the bite was pretty tough for most.. Were they telling me the truth? Were they bluffing me? Were they slow playing me? It all started to feel like a game of poker... See, tournament fishing especially here in So Cal is very competitive... So I talked to one of my buddies and I told him exactly how many bass we caught.. I told him to tell me the truth about his prefish.. We weren't saying what exactly we caught our bass on but I just wanted to see how their prefish went. . He told me that they had 4 keeper bites when they were there and that if we had 8-9 keepers that we'd probably win the tourney because nobody he had talked to had that many bites. I told him it was ONLY prefish and a lot could and probably would change come the day of the event because of the powerful storm that was about to hit the area the weekend of the tournament.
My plan was to go back out last Wednesday to check things out again and maybe find more areas... BUT.. when Wednesday rolled around the forecast clearly said that the impending storm was indeed gonna get here on Thursday and hit hard on Friday and Saturday (The day of the event). So because of that reason I decided not to go back to the lake on Wednesday because things were surely going to change and be affected by the storm which was projected to be the worst storm to hit us in 3 years.
Now I started to wonder if the tournament would even take place... Because if there was lightning they would cancel the event and even more so if the road got washed out (like they always do close to silverwood when it rains hard) then they would have to cancel the event as well.
So I decided to just stay home Wedsnesday and get my gear ready for Saturday and hope that it didn't cancel. The reason I didn't want it to cancel wasn't because I had real high hopes that we'd do well but because rescheduling the event would be a huge hassle as most of us make our tourney plans and commitments months in advance and it would be tough for them to find a weekend to reschedule it when everyone in the angler of the year race would be able to make it.
So I really was hoping for this event to happen whether we did good or bad..
So Friday gets here, and the storm, as all of you know, hit us hard.... So hard in fact that the road leading to the lake washed out and crews had to shut it down for 6 hours on Friday to clear it... Also so hard that they actually closed the lake around 2pm.. I stayed in contact with the Tournament Director.. He told me that the lake personal told him that if the road was open and them and us could get to the lake in the morning then they would be open, business as usual.
On my way to Bass Pro Shops on Friday late afternoon there was a break in the clouds and the sun shined bright as I drove on the 60 freeway from my house in Perris.
I took a pic of it and sent it to the Tournament Director and the caption simply said... "SHE EITHER BROKE OR THIS IS THE EYE OF THE STORM"... lol
By the time I got to BPS about 630pm Friday night it was raining again...haha This dang storm was stressing me out!!! I checked all the road closure reports and everything was open so now all we could do was hope.
When I went to Bass Pro Friday night I set up my table for their Spring Classic and I had dinner with BASS ELITE SERIES Pro Ott Defoe who was also there doing a seminar himself. We talked about alot of differences between fishing here and back where hes from in Tennessee. I told him about my tournament the next day and I also told him about the patterns I was on and I wondered if they would hold up or not. Ott told me that back home when it was early Spring and there was a storm that the bass would be on the chew. He told me to have confidence in my Reaction bait pattern because it would probably be better then I thought.
His words gave me so much confidence in my pattern that I couldnt wait to get this event started. Him reassuring me that our pattern would probably hold up was like gold to me because hes one of the best anglers in the world, he fishes the BASS Elite series and he just got 4th place at the Bassmaster Classic 2 weeks ago.
So after we were done he went and did his seminar and he told everyone about his BassMaster Classic event.. The story he told was epic and inspired me some more.. When he was done we talked some more, he wished me luck and told me to go win it!!! He also told me that next time he was in the area he wanted us to go out and catch some Southern Californioa GIANT BASS!
So when I left BPS I was pumped up and ready to rumble... I drove home and it was POURING RAIN!! Ugggg.... When I got home I checked the weather again and the forecast was down graded to 40-50% chance of rain with only 9-10 mph wind.. That pumped me back up.. I called and checked the roads and everything was open...and one last text to the TD and he said it the tournament was good to go.. So off to bed I went..I literally starred at the ceiling for almost 2 hours.. It was midnight the last time I looked at the clock. Then at 3:45am my alarm went off and I felt rested oddly enough and off I went feeling confident and determined yet still kinda unsure what the day was gonna bring.
As I drove to Bass Pro to Meet Kevin, the tournament director called me and told me that he was already at the lake and it wasn't even raining... THAT PUMPED ME UP because now was the first time I felt like this event was 100% gonna happen.
So I meet Kevin and off we go... no rain... that is until we crest the road just before the lake and it begins to POUR...lol.. We laughed about it..we didn't really care if it rained and blew all day..We were prepared mentally and we were prepared physically. We both had our rain gear on and we were ready for the worst of storms.
I even was equipted with foot warmers, wrist warmers and also a neck warmer.. This dude wasn't gonna shiver once... I was going to stay warm and fish not be cold and shiver!!!
So we get signed in, launch the boat, they call our number and off we go with high yet uncertain hopes of how the day was going to go..
We get to our first spot and start firing out our crankbaits and on my 4th cast...FISH ON!!!! As I swing our first keeper into the boat...
Within minutes Kevins on and I net our 2nd keeper.. Then Within seconds Im on...Short fish back into the drink it goes..
Then Kevins on.. and I net our 3rd keeper.. Then we each get bit like 3-4 times but the fish don't hook up...they smack the bait but weren't eating it... we continue to work and Kevin gets a nonkeeper!!!!
Then I get bit like 3 more times and again they aren't hooking up.... Im literally crawling my crankbait on the bottom in about 15-22 ft of water hitting every rock and stump in the lake..
After a little while we make a move and say "We'll Come Back later". This sounded eerily like what happened at Perris a few weeks ago.. I know that the bass are there but at that point we had about 10 bites at least that didn't hook up so we decided to make a move and just come back later when we hoped they would eat the baits and not just smack at them.
We head to the next spot and Im throwing my crankbait and Kevins throwing the Alabama rig... we each catch one but they dont keep.. Now I switch to the dropshot to try to get our 4th keeper (It was a 4 bass limit)... Within the next 25 minutes I get snagged and break off 6 times...ugggg. Silverwood is starting to piss me off.. as the rain is pounding us now. Im not cold, My body isn't wet in fact Im warm but my hands are wet and cold because I cant fish with gloves so retying was getting irritating.
So I tell Kevin... Im gonna win this tournament for us right now as I pick up my swimbait and start donkey hunting. I threw it for about 40 minutes without even a follower... in the mean time Kevin caught another Alabama rig fish, a jig fish and an Ika fish...all of which were shorter then the 15" limit.
We were literally pulling out all the tricks in our bag to get bit..
Finally I say...Lets go to our deep spot so we could dropshot in 40-50ft of water.. We pull up and I drop the troller and the screen lights up with bass in 45ft. I tell Kevin they're here...and at that exact moment Kevin responds by saying ..."NET" WTF?? He was so excited to fish it that he dropped down before I even put the troller in the water...hahahaha And already got bit.... I net it and its 14 3/4...uggg back into the lake it went.. Minutes later Kevin says NET again...As I net another 14" bass...Non keeper.. Then I catch 3 in a row all non keepers...sheeeesh!!! Then we each catch 1 more non keeper and I say... "Ive seen enough to know Ive seen enough of this spot".. So we decided to go back to our reaction baits...
On my first cast Boom...Im on!!! As Kevin nets our 4th keeper! That's our limit!! Not a big limit but a limit non the less and its still kinda early...
By now the rain has let up and so has the wind... neither was that bad anyway so we didn't care. It was just nice to have dry hands again for me..
So we continue firing away... our limit consists of two bass that weighed 2 lbs exactly each and two that weighed 2.2 lbs each.... We know that we need to keep grinding because 8 1/2 lbs wasn't gonna do it..
So we decide to head back to our starting spot... we head over there and start firing..with in minutes we both hook up...SHORT FISH...ugg then we both get bit another 2-3 times AGAIN with the bass are not hooking up... Im throwing a 20ft luckycraft deep diver and Kevin is throwing a deep diver as well.
I say outloud.."why aren't they all hooking up?" "Are they small bass? Are they Stripers? Are they big bass that aren't really aggressive? I didn't have an answer... All I knew was that we needed bigger bass and that missing fish was getting frustrating to me. Time for another move....
Now we decided to head to random banks that looked the same and fish them the same way with the same baits.. so we did for a couple hours and did manage to catch a couple fish that helped our weight by several ounces... But we still had a small weight..
With 3 hours to go, I say, "Let go back to our starting spot again.. Without hesitation Kevin says, "Lets do it"..and we motor over there.
Within minutes I am crawling my crankbait along the bottom and my bait gets crushed...I say..."Better fish" as Kevin nets a nice one a bit under 3 lbs...That's over a 3/4 lb improvement. :Envious: We'll take it!!
Then Kevin gets bit and says "NET" and I net ANOTHER keeper...this one about 2 1/2 lbs .. Another 1/2 lb upgrade... then we catch another few shorts and the Kevin yells "NET...BIG ONE" As he brings a NICE Bass to the boat... This one is slightly over 4 LBS!!!! YESSSSSS.....Just what we needed, Now we're over 12 1/2 lbs!!!
High fives are flying now!!! That may put us in the top 2-3 spots I say!! But theres a lot of time left..about 2 hours or so, "we can still catch more", I say!!
So we turned the boat around to go back through the spot and theres a boat behind us about 40 yards back... But we stayed there for a few minutes talking to those guys and finally Kevin says lets go try the bank across the lake there because it looks like the bank we were fishing... so we make a move..
We work that bank for about 200 yards slowly..which took up about 30 minutes.. as we neared the end of the of the stretch..We see that boat on our spot pull up the trolling motor and leave... That's All I needed to see to say..."Do you know the difference between this spot and that spot?" ..And Kevin responded..."Yeah..this spot sucks" :LOL::LOL: ...and instantly we both reeled up and headed back over there...hahahaha:LOL:
We pulled up and I unzip my vest jump onto the front deck and fire out a cast. As my bait flew in the air. I said.. "we have about an hour and a half left... Lets win this thing".... As My crankbait hit the water almost 50 yards from my boat...I cranked it down to the bottom and slowed it down to just a crawl..hitting and bouncing it off every rock and stump in 15-22 ft of water that it came across just as we both had done easily over 400 times between us on that spot the whole day..
As my crankbait reached its deepest point about 1/3- 1/2 way back to the boat... IT GETS SMOKED!!! I swing and Set the hook...and ITS A GIANT!!! "NET!!", I yelled, "its a donkey". This bass absolutely Crushed my bait and it began to take line. Kevin asked, "How Big?" and I responded "REALLY BIG".... Kevin jumped to the front as the GIANT NORTHERN STRAIN SILVERWOOD BASS surfaced next to the boat....It was HUGE.. This was our faces..:EyePop::EyePop::Shocked::Shocked::EyePop:: Shocked:...As Kevin said "Oh my God" as he netted her.... He lifted her in the boat and I saw her and said "GAME OVER!!" We both said she was about 10 lbs as I put her in the livewell with my hands shaking uncontrollably.. I look at Kevin and ask.. "DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?" And the only thing Kevin could muster up was..."UNBELIEVABLE!"
I literally couldnt fish for the next 5 minutes and had to take a break... Then I look at the time and we have a little over an hour left and I say..."I want more!" as we both start firing again.... With our heads spinning over what just happened.
We catch a couple more shorts in that short time and finally its time to head in.. Our heads are still spinning...:Singing In Rain:
We head up to weighins and we hear that 12 lbs is leading it and the tournament director asks how we did.. I tell him we have what we think might be a 10 lber...and he is shocked to say the least. I go get the truck and pull up to the scales and they put that GIANT on the scales...She weighed 8.25 lbs!!! She looked much bigger in the moment we caught her..hahaha
Our total weight was 17.36 lbs for our 4 fish limit...
The rest of the teams weighed in and it became official that we got 1st place again!!! And This time I got the big bass of the tournament!!! (Last time Kevin got it) :Envious:
We caught about 24 bass for the day.. We caught them on deep cranks mainly, we also got about 7 fish on deep dropshot, 1 on the Ika, a couple on the Alabama rig and one on the jig...but by far the best fish came on the deep crankbait fished in 15-24 or 25 feet of water.
Im giving up a lot of info this time because I don't fish Silverwood very often and our next event there isn't for a whole month and a week and it will be much different then..
Here are some pics
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/IMG959620.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/IMG959620.jpg.html)
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/IMG958886.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/IMG958886.jpg.html)
That was a crazy day to say the least...With heavy rain, light rain. no rain, light wind, heavy wind, calm wind, HAIL, short bass, lots of fish and a few giant bass to go with it all.. We did what we do...Grinded all day, never quit regardless of the conditions and just kept firing away and it worked out.
Pete:Cool:
By the end of the day that day we caught about 14 bass and in those 14 bass we had about 8-9 keepers (15" or bigger).. Nothing huge just solid keepers around 2 1/2 -3 1/4 lbs. each..
When we left that day I didn't really know if we were on anything decent... yeah we caught bass and we had 8-9 keepers but I had no idea how my other competitors were doing in their prefish.. I also knew at that point that there was a big storm brewing in the forecast and that could change everything.
So when I got home that day I made a couple calls to ask how some of my buddies were doing in their prefish.. The story seemed to be that the bite was pretty tough for most.. Were they telling me the truth? Were they bluffing me? Were they slow playing me? It all started to feel like a game of poker... See, tournament fishing especially here in So Cal is very competitive... So I talked to one of my buddies and I told him exactly how many bass we caught.. I told him to tell me the truth about his prefish.. We weren't saying what exactly we caught our bass on but I just wanted to see how their prefish went. . He told me that they had 4 keeper bites when they were there and that if we had 8-9 keepers that we'd probably win the tourney because nobody he had talked to had that many bites. I told him it was ONLY prefish and a lot could and probably would change come the day of the event because of the powerful storm that was about to hit the area the weekend of the tournament.
My plan was to go back out last Wednesday to check things out again and maybe find more areas... BUT.. when Wednesday rolled around the forecast clearly said that the impending storm was indeed gonna get here on Thursday and hit hard on Friday and Saturday (The day of the event). So because of that reason I decided not to go back to the lake on Wednesday because things were surely going to change and be affected by the storm which was projected to be the worst storm to hit us in 3 years.
Now I started to wonder if the tournament would even take place... Because if there was lightning they would cancel the event and even more so if the road got washed out (like they always do close to silverwood when it rains hard) then they would have to cancel the event as well.
So I decided to just stay home Wedsnesday and get my gear ready for Saturday and hope that it didn't cancel. The reason I didn't want it to cancel wasn't because I had real high hopes that we'd do well but because rescheduling the event would be a huge hassle as most of us make our tourney plans and commitments months in advance and it would be tough for them to find a weekend to reschedule it when everyone in the angler of the year race would be able to make it.
So I really was hoping for this event to happen whether we did good or bad..
So Friday gets here, and the storm, as all of you know, hit us hard.... So hard in fact that the road leading to the lake washed out and crews had to shut it down for 6 hours on Friday to clear it... Also so hard that they actually closed the lake around 2pm.. I stayed in contact with the Tournament Director.. He told me that the lake personal told him that if the road was open and them and us could get to the lake in the morning then they would be open, business as usual.
On my way to Bass Pro Shops on Friday late afternoon there was a break in the clouds and the sun shined bright as I drove on the 60 freeway from my house in Perris.
I took a pic of it and sent it to the Tournament Director and the caption simply said... "SHE EITHER BROKE OR THIS IS THE EYE OF THE STORM"... lol
By the time I got to BPS about 630pm Friday night it was raining again...haha This dang storm was stressing me out!!! I checked all the road closure reports and everything was open so now all we could do was hope.
When I went to Bass Pro Friday night I set up my table for their Spring Classic and I had dinner with BASS ELITE SERIES Pro Ott Defoe who was also there doing a seminar himself. We talked about alot of differences between fishing here and back where hes from in Tennessee. I told him about my tournament the next day and I also told him about the patterns I was on and I wondered if they would hold up or not. Ott told me that back home when it was early Spring and there was a storm that the bass would be on the chew. He told me to have confidence in my Reaction bait pattern because it would probably be better then I thought.
His words gave me so much confidence in my pattern that I couldnt wait to get this event started. Him reassuring me that our pattern would probably hold up was like gold to me because hes one of the best anglers in the world, he fishes the BASS Elite series and he just got 4th place at the Bassmaster Classic 2 weeks ago.
So after we were done he went and did his seminar and he told everyone about his BassMaster Classic event.. The story he told was epic and inspired me some more.. When he was done we talked some more, he wished me luck and told me to go win it!!! He also told me that next time he was in the area he wanted us to go out and catch some Southern Californioa GIANT BASS!
So when I left BPS I was pumped up and ready to rumble... I drove home and it was POURING RAIN!! Ugggg.... When I got home I checked the weather again and the forecast was down graded to 40-50% chance of rain with only 9-10 mph wind.. That pumped me back up.. I called and checked the roads and everything was open...and one last text to the TD and he said it the tournament was good to go.. So off to bed I went..I literally starred at the ceiling for almost 2 hours.. It was midnight the last time I looked at the clock. Then at 3:45am my alarm went off and I felt rested oddly enough and off I went feeling confident and determined yet still kinda unsure what the day was gonna bring.
As I drove to Bass Pro to Meet Kevin, the tournament director called me and told me that he was already at the lake and it wasn't even raining... THAT PUMPED ME UP because now was the first time I felt like this event was 100% gonna happen.
So I meet Kevin and off we go... no rain... that is until we crest the road just before the lake and it begins to POUR...lol.. We laughed about it..we didn't really care if it rained and blew all day..We were prepared mentally and we were prepared physically. We both had our rain gear on and we were ready for the worst of storms.
I even was equipted with foot warmers, wrist warmers and also a neck warmer.. This dude wasn't gonna shiver once... I was going to stay warm and fish not be cold and shiver!!!
So we get signed in, launch the boat, they call our number and off we go with high yet uncertain hopes of how the day was going to go..
We get to our first spot and start firing out our crankbaits and on my 4th cast...FISH ON!!!! As I swing our first keeper into the boat...
Within minutes Kevins on and I net our 2nd keeper.. Then Within seconds Im on...Short fish back into the drink it goes..
Then Kevins on.. and I net our 3rd keeper.. Then we each get bit like 3-4 times but the fish don't hook up...they smack the bait but weren't eating it... we continue to work and Kevin gets a nonkeeper!!!!
Then I get bit like 3 more times and again they aren't hooking up.... Im literally crawling my crankbait on the bottom in about 15-22 ft of water hitting every rock and stump in the lake..
After a little while we make a move and say "We'll Come Back later". This sounded eerily like what happened at Perris a few weeks ago.. I know that the bass are there but at that point we had about 10 bites at least that didn't hook up so we decided to make a move and just come back later when we hoped they would eat the baits and not just smack at them.
We head to the next spot and Im throwing my crankbait and Kevins throwing the Alabama rig... we each catch one but they dont keep.. Now I switch to the dropshot to try to get our 4th keeper (It was a 4 bass limit)... Within the next 25 minutes I get snagged and break off 6 times...ugggg. Silverwood is starting to piss me off.. as the rain is pounding us now. Im not cold, My body isn't wet in fact Im warm but my hands are wet and cold because I cant fish with gloves so retying was getting irritating.
So I tell Kevin... Im gonna win this tournament for us right now as I pick up my swimbait and start donkey hunting. I threw it for about 40 minutes without even a follower... in the mean time Kevin caught another Alabama rig fish, a jig fish and an Ika fish...all of which were shorter then the 15" limit.
We were literally pulling out all the tricks in our bag to get bit..
Finally I say...Lets go to our deep spot so we could dropshot in 40-50ft of water.. We pull up and I drop the troller and the screen lights up with bass in 45ft. I tell Kevin they're here...and at that exact moment Kevin responds by saying ..."NET" WTF?? He was so excited to fish it that he dropped down before I even put the troller in the water...hahahaha And already got bit.... I net it and its 14 3/4...uggg back into the lake it went.. Minutes later Kevin says NET again...As I net another 14" bass...Non keeper.. Then I catch 3 in a row all non keepers...sheeeesh!!! Then we each catch 1 more non keeper and I say... "Ive seen enough to know Ive seen enough of this spot".. So we decided to go back to our reaction baits...
On my first cast Boom...Im on!!! As Kevin nets our 4th keeper! That's our limit!! Not a big limit but a limit non the less and its still kinda early...
By now the rain has let up and so has the wind... neither was that bad anyway so we didn't care. It was just nice to have dry hands again for me..
So we continue firing away... our limit consists of two bass that weighed 2 lbs exactly each and two that weighed 2.2 lbs each.... We know that we need to keep grinding because 8 1/2 lbs wasn't gonna do it..
So we decide to head back to our starting spot... we head over there and start firing..with in minutes we both hook up...SHORT FISH...ugg then we both get bit another 2-3 times AGAIN with the bass are not hooking up... Im throwing a 20ft luckycraft deep diver and Kevin is throwing a deep diver as well.
I say outloud.."why aren't they all hooking up?" "Are they small bass? Are they Stripers? Are they big bass that aren't really aggressive? I didn't have an answer... All I knew was that we needed bigger bass and that missing fish was getting frustrating to me. Time for another move....
Now we decided to head to random banks that looked the same and fish them the same way with the same baits.. so we did for a couple hours and did manage to catch a couple fish that helped our weight by several ounces... But we still had a small weight..
With 3 hours to go, I say, "Let go back to our starting spot again.. Without hesitation Kevin says, "Lets do it"..and we motor over there.
Within minutes I am crawling my crankbait along the bottom and my bait gets crushed...I say..."Better fish" as Kevin nets a nice one a bit under 3 lbs...That's over a 3/4 lb improvement. :Envious: We'll take it!!
Then Kevin gets bit and says "NET" and I net ANOTHER keeper...this one about 2 1/2 lbs .. Another 1/2 lb upgrade... then we catch another few shorts and the Kevin yells "NET...BIG ONE" As he brings a NICE Bass to the boat... This one is slightly over 4 LBS!!!! YESSSSSS.....Just what we needed, Now we're over 12 1/2 lbs!!!
High fives are flying now!!! That may put us in the top 2-3 spots I say!! But theres a lot of time left..about 2 hours or so, "we can still catch more", I say!!
So we turned the boat around to go back through the spot and theres a boat behind us about 40 yards back... But we stayed there for a few minutes talking to those guys and finally Kevin says lets go try the bank across the lake there because it looks like the bank we were fishing... so we make a move..
We work that bank for about 200 yards slowly..which took up about 30 minutes.. as we neared the end of the of the stretch..We see that boat on our spot pull up the trolling motor and leave... That's All I needed to see to say..."Do you know the difference between this spot and that spot?" ..And Kevin responded..."Yeah..this spot sucks" :LOL::LOL: ...and instantly we both reeled up and headed back over there...hahahaha:LOL:
We pulled up and I unzip my vest jump onto the front deck and fire out a cast. As my bait flew in the air. I said.. "we have about an hour and a half left... Lets win this thing".... As My crankbait hit the water almost 50 yards from my boat...I cranked it down to the bottom and slowed it down to just a crawl..hitting and bouncing it off every rock and stump in 15-22 ft of water that it came across just as we both had done easily over 400 times between us on that spot the whole day..
As my crankbait reached its deepest point about 1/3- 1/2 way back to the boat... IT GETS SMOKED!!! I swing and Set the hook...and ITS A GIANT!!! "NET!!", I yelled, "its a donkey". This bass absolutely Crushed my bait and it began to take line. Kevin asked, "How Big?" and I responded "REALLY BIG".... Kevin jumped to the front as the GIANT NORTHERN STRAIN SILVERWOOD BASS surfaced next to the boat....It was HUGE.. This was our faces..:EyePop::EyePop::Shocked::Shocked::EyePop:: Shocked:...As Kevin said "Oh my God" as he netted her.... He lifted her in the boat and I saw her and said "GAME OVER!!" We both said she was about 10 lbs as I put her in the livewell with my hands shaking uncontrollably.. I look at Kevin and ask.. "DID THAT JUST HAPPEN?" And the only thing Kevin could muster up was..."UNBELIEVABLE!"
I literally couldnt fish for the next 5 minutes and had to take a break... Then I look at the time and we have a little over an hour left and I say..."I want more!" as we both start firing again.... With our heads spinning over what just happened.
We catch a couple more shorts in that short time and finally its time to head in.. Our heads are still spinning...:Singing In Rain:
We head up to weighins and we hear that 12 lbs is leading it and the tournament director asks how we did.. I tell him we have what we think might be a 10 lber...and he is shocked to say the least. I go get the truck and pull up to the scales and they put that GIANT on the scales...She weighed 8.25 lbs!!! She looked much bigger in the moment we caught her..hahaha
Our total weight was 17.36 lbs for our 4 fish limit...
The rest of the teams weighed in and it became official that we got 1st place again!!! And This time I got the big bass of the tournament!!! (Last time Kevin got it) :Envious:
We caught about 24 bass for the day.. We caught them on deep cranks mainly, we also got about 7 fish on deep dropshot, 1 on the Ika, a couple on the Alabama rig and one on the jig...but by far the best fish came on the deep crankbait fished in 15-24 or 25 feet of water.
Im giving up a lot of info this time because I don't fish Silverwood very often and our next event there isn't for a whole month and a week and it will be much different then..
Here are some pics
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/IMG959620.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/IMG959620.jpg.html)
http://i221.photobucket.com/albums/dd134/TeamMarino/IMG958886.jpg (http://s221.photobucket.com/user/TeamMarino/media/IMG958886.jpg.html)
That was a crazy day to say the least...With heavy rain, light rain. no rain, light wind, heavy wind, calm wind, HAIL, short bass, lots of fish and a few giant bass to go with it all.. We did what we do...Grinded all day, never quit regardless of the conditions and just kept firing away and it worked out.
Pete:Cool: