Pete Marino
10-08-2014, 05:13 PM
So Ive been extremely busy the last 4 weeks preparing to fish my 3 major year end tournaments...The most important one being the WON BASS US Open on Lake Mead...
I fish the event on the Pro side and had quite an event so I thought Id come on here and write out the story of my tournament because I know a lot of you like reading them... I had to wait until After the ABA fishoff this past weekend for info reasons but now Im back and ready to share..
So With my National Bass fishoff at Havasu, the ABA fishoff at Mead and the WON BASS US OPEN at Lake Mead all in my rearview mirror, Ive had time to sit and think about it all as Ive fought to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Heres the story of how my US Open went.
I got to Mead on Thursday night and got up on Friday morning with the plan to fish until dark on Friday. So I head to the lake and make a long run up about 10 minutes past Temple Bar..
Me and my AAA prefish partner Rob Hutchinson fished this and that for about 6 hours. At the end of the 6 hours we had 25 bass but of those 25 bass I only had ONE KEEPER... So I decided to leave the Temple area and head up the Overton arm which is about 25+ miles long.
So we left and started up the Overton...after about 3 miles of running up, I made a U-turn and decided that Id go up there the following day instead..
Rob asked what was wrong and I told him that I wanted to check something more local to Callville Bay.. Call it a hunch, call it luck, call it whatever, but I just had the feeling to head back and fish more local.... and in this game you HAVE to learn to trust your instincts if you want to succeed.
So we get within 10 minutes of Callville Bay and we start fishing.. On my 2nd cast I caught a keeper largemouth... then I made a move and caught another keeper largie....and made another quick move and caught another keeper largemouth. Literally I caught 3 keeper largemouth in less then 30 minutes... So I made the decision to call it a day because I felt like I put it together and my hunch was right.. I felt good about the two patterns I had going.
I told Rob that we were heading in and we'd check out some more stuff the next day.
I simply didn't want to catch anymore that day.. I didn't even want to get a bass to bite a bait with a hook or without a hook.. I knew the couple baits they would eat and I just wanted to narrow down the areas the following day.
So back to the hotel we went...
Was I making the right choice by coming in? Did I luck onto those fish? Was I truly on to something like I thought? ...So many questions were going through my mind. I couldn't wait for the next day so I could go confirm what I thought..
One thing I knew for sure,... I was on two very different patterns... I was on a deep crank bite in 10-14 ft of water and a really deep dropshot bite in 35-50 ft of water. And I was extremely confident in both patterns... Another thing I decided was that I was going to rule out going to the Overton/Echo area the next day. I felt like Id find enough more local (within 15 minutes of Calville Bay) because I looked at the weather and the weather called for hev. wind on day one late morning from the south.
And if you know anything about Lake Mead, which I do, then you know that you don't want to be far away on a day of Heavy wind because Lake Mead can get extremely dangerous with 5-7ft swells being the norm...and yes that is GIANT for any lake. In comparison our local lakes get swells/waves about a foot to 18 inches on days when the wind is blowing hard.....Nothing even close to lake Meads 5-7 FOOT swells....It is down right scary..
So I head to the lake the next day... I tell my AAA partner that we may be out until late or we may come in really early, it would depend on if my patterns were truly patterns and my hunch was right.
So we launch and head out to the first spot...
I get there and immediately catch a keeper largemouth...literally within 5 minutes on the deep crank.. So I pull the troller up and make a move about 3/4 of a mile away...
I told Rob that I wasn't going to throw the crank anymore because I knew exactly where to throw it and what bait to throw... I absolutely didn't want to catch another fish doing it because Id rather run the pattern during game time then catch a keeper when it didn't matter.
So I busted out the dropshot rod and went to exactly where I thought they'd be.... I dropped the troller and sure enough, there they were, waiting for me in about 38-42 ft. ...
I quickly make a drop and as soon as my bait hit bottom I got bit!! . Instead of setting the hook, I slowly reeled the fish up and when it got about 12-14 ft below the boat I saw it was about a 4lber.... :Shocked::Shocked: I let it sit there for about 10 seconds before it finally shook off... NICE!!! That was a Largemouth.... so I swing the boat around and move about 10 yards and make another drop... My bait heads down to about 45ft deep and I watch the bass streak to my bait.. (I love video game fishing with the graph, its one of my fortes'.) So I flip the bail and tighten my line and Im already bit.... much more aggressively this time... this fish hooked itself.. and I slowly reeled in a solid bass from 45ft. I swing it in the boat and its a smallie that weighed about 2 1/2 lbs :Shocked:...."TIME TO LEAVE", I tell Rob!! ....
So I eased out of the area with the troller and went for about 2 miles looking for every spot that looked the same... I logged in a bunch of waypoints of areas that looked like the exact thing I had just fished. All the areas looked perfect and I literally never dropped another bait, in fact I never came within 100 yards of another spot...as I didn't want to disturb the areas at all.
After about an hour of that I looked at Rob and said...IM DONE! He knew that I felt dialed in and he saw first hand how these fish all reacted to the baits I was using. I told him that I felt like I was extremely dialed in and didn't want to waste any fish....so back to the hotel we went.
It was hard fighting the feelings of there being most of the day left and we were getting off the lake but like I said I didn't want to ruin my water and I didn't want to get burned out because I knew the tournament was a 3 day event... nor did I want to take the chance of ruining my confidence... So I put the boat on the trailer and we left.
When I left the parking lot I had even more feeling of "Am I doing the right thing by leaving?" because Most all of my buddies that were in the tournament were still out practicing but I had to convince myself that I was doing the right thing.
Back at the Hotel, Rob and I talked about the patterns I was on and the bass that were in my areas and he didn't hesitate to say that he had "Hoped he got me as his Pro partner"... because he knew I was going to slaughter them potentially.
I on the other hand wasn't so sure... I knew I had some nice bites and I knew I was on 2 REALLY strong patterns but as a tournament angler and competitor, YOU ALWAYS WANT MORE!! I knew I could catch them on the reaction bait and I knew my deep dropshot bite was strong and should stay that way the entire tournament because most guys wouldn't be fishing deep, I figured. I also knew that My dropshot bite was my ace in the hole because the weather forecast said it was gonna blow on day one and 2 but on day 3 the lake was going to slick out and be glassy and that dropshot bite would shine.... I could only hope!!!
So that was Saturday...
Sunday was the offlimits day and "sponsor row" and the tournament meeting... I went to the meeting we went over the rules and got my draw number for day 1...#144 out of #167.... It didn't really matter to me because I figured on day one most of the guys would be making a long run to their spots so my spots would surely be open...
So after the meeting it was time to go carb up for the long day on the water that I was going to have the next day...So Pasta it was... And I destroyed it!! hahaha Rob on the other hand was starting to feel pretty nervous...He made it a point to say that he had never felt that nervous in his life.... After all... I didn't mention this earlier but this wasn't just Robs first tournament as an Amatuer, it was his first tournament EVER... AND IT WAS THE FREAKING US OPEN......AWESOME!!!!! :Cool::Cool::Cool:
After eating we headed back to the room to chill out.... I was COMPLETELY prepared...Rods were done, tackle was done, game plan was done...I literally didn't have anything else to do, I was READY to do it!!!! And I felt pretty calm about it which was a change for me because im usually nervous before a tournament much less a tournament of this size...THIS WAS THE US OPEN!!!!
So it was lights out a 10pm and I slept like a baby....probably had something to do with our room being a cool 62 degrees... side note...I almost guarantee that the $300 that we paid for our room didn't cover the cost of our AC running at 62 degrees for 6 days straight.....hahahahahahahahahaha
So day one of the tournament I was boat number 144 out of 167... I had told my AAA that I had the crank he would use and I also had the dropshot bait he'd use.... It almost felt like a guide trip because I gave him the baits to use and told him how to rig the dropshot too. I figured that since this was a shared weight tournament and I was completely dialed in then my AAA partner should be rigged exactly like me....Because for that day, we were a "team". He was all for it because he had fished with me before at Havasu so he had confidence in me.
They call our number #144 , and off we went....The lake was calm with only a light breeze... Call it the calm before the storm...
We head to the first deep grass spot and we start firing away...within minutes IM ON...Keeper largemouth.... a few minutes later...Im on again...keeper largie number 2 in the box... A little while later...booom My AAA is on with the crank...Keeper largie number 3... And for the record He said.. "dang Pete, Im glad you gave me this crank to use" lol lol
Then Im on again this time a smallie number 4 in the well. Now we're rolling.
Then I move out to deep water and dropshot up 3 in a row all keepers and all culled one another (smallies). Im feeling it... Vincent looked at me and said, "Pete you are on fire". So now I have 3 nice Largies in the well and 2 smallies...
Now the wind is beginning to blow hard and its pounding the 3 mile bank I planned to fish... Even my dropshot main area was getting pounded but at that point I didn't want to hit it anyway because I already had a decent limit in the boat...I figured Id save it until the next day.. This tournament was going to be a marathon not a sprint so I figured Id need to save some fish for days 2 and 3. This was lake Mead and she could reach out and punch you in the mouth at any moment ....and she was about to start swinging.... because the wind was getting bad...
Because the wind was really picking up now the waves were messing up my Crankbait so I picked up my Alabama rig and fired it towards the deep grass I was fishing that was getting hammered by the wind... The grass was in 12-14 ft of water....
I fired it out and began the retrieve and Booom...IM ON AGAIN...another keeper largie....YES!!! :Dancing Banana:
At that moment I decided to leave the area and go prefish for the next day and get out of the now howling wind.... so off we went..
We finally get to the area and its protected by long points... we fish through those areas for about 3 1/2 hours and only catch non keepers.... :Confused::Confused:
At that point I decide to head back across the basin and seek shelter in the narrows area because I found a good area over there in practice.. So we make the 5 mile run back. We were literally soaked within 50 yards, But finally we made it through and began drying out again... For the next hour we fished hard but I truly think it took us that time to get our witts about us and dry out.. Finally I made another move to another protected area.... All my main water was getting crushed by the wind so we had to do what we had to do...
There was a lot of comfort knowing that we had a decent limit though.. :Big Grin::Big Grin:
So we head into another area I had found... This area had fish in 30-48ft... I dropshotted 3-4 non keepers up...and saw decent fish on the graph but the little ones were getting to the baits before the good ones I figured...so I told my AAA to throw a jig. So he made a cast into 39 ft and "TICK"...and he crossed its eyes...that fish helped by about 4 ounces...NICE...
By that time it was time to head in to the scales... I weighed 8.21lbs and sat in 38th placeat the end of day 1.. Which made me feel good because I didn't hit my best dropshot water all day. I knew I still had my ace in the hole.... And since we were at Lake Mead and In Vegas, you can bet that I was going to use it!!!! :Wink::Wink:
So on day 2 I headed straight to my dropshot water.. I put the troller down in 35-45 ft and THERE THEY ARE!!!!
I make about 8 casts and I put 5 keepers in the boat .. :Big Grin::Big Grin: I had about 10 bass in first hour and made 4 culls by 7:45.. All of my fish were nice big smallies... My AAA was freaking out because I was setting the hook so much.... Hes like, "Pete, are you kidding me, you have another one?" hahahha
I stuck around on that spot until about 9:30...never moving the boat more then 5-10 yards... I caught another 4 bass all culling up ounces at a time....In total I caught about 18 keepers from that spot then at 9:30 I had just caught one when I decided to leave them alone for the rest of the day... The funny thing was my AAA couldn't get bit...it was a feel thing so maybe he was getting bit and not feeling it because he was using the same bait as me...lol... He just said..."Pete you are on fire"!!! lol...
And this was his face when I told him we were leaving... ..........:Wink:.
I simply said..."This tournament is a marathon not a sprint".... And I had hoped that I didn't already catch too many but they were still on the graph when I left so I felt good about coming back the next day..
So at that point I put the dropshot down and picked the crankbait up... "It was time to go upgrade with largemouth", I said!
SO I headed to the one spot I fished the last day of practice...casted into 8 ft of water and burned the grass out to about 14 ft...and BOOOM...I WAS ON!!! Keeper largie!! I love it when a plan comes together... :Envious::Envious:
After that fish I made the decision to leave that 3 mile stretch COMPLETELY so I could run the whole area the next day, so we made a move looking for a 3-4 lb bite..
I fished the crank bait the rest of the day with no more love.....
So I headed to weighins and I weighed 9:56 lbs and jumped into 9th place... BOOOOM Huge jump in the standings!!!
Now my nerves started to really fire away at me...hahaha ... My goal coming into this event was a check (34th place or better) with a top 10 being a distant goal..
Now I find myself sitting in 9th place after 2 days and I still feel like I can get more to add to it off my spots.. I was excited to say the least but unsure of what Lake Mead would throw at Me...
When I left for the tournament I told my wife Carissa that if I was in the top 10 Id fly her out to Vegas to be with me for the final day weighins... But I didnt think Id really be that far up in the standings, afterall this was THE US OPEN!!
Sure enough, when weigh ins were complete the phone rang and it was her... "Youre 9th", she screamed.... and I told her to get on a plane and come out there so she did... But she wouldn't arrive until 10am the next morning on day 3.. She made arrangements to get a ride to the hotel and then she was riding to the lake for the weighns with another Pros wife. Now I was really nervous because I didn't want to bomb.. :Embarrassed::Embarrassed: Up until this point I was really doing good trying to control my nerves, keep things in perspective and staying focused...
So day 3 comes and I launch the boat and go and tie up to the dock because we have about 30 minutes until blast off... I get out of the boat and go for a walk to calm my nerves.... Along my walk I hear a voice say..."Whatcha doin Pete?" It was non other then the legend himself, Don Iovino. I stop by his boat and said, , "Just going for a walk to calm my nerves Don" ... and the next thing he told me put my nerves at ease and calmed me down... He said, "Son, if its meant to be, it will be. You know how to catch them just go do it".... I told him that I didn't want to drop out of check contention because I thought It would be a major choke job and failure...and to that he said.... "If you catch 7 lbs you will stay about where you are in the standings". That pumped me up because I knew I could do that with my dropshot... So I shake his hand say "Good luck" to him for his day ahead and I go back to my boat.
I put 2 rods on my deck...a dropshot and a backup dropshot..lol... my plan is to go catch a good limit of smallies then go largie fishing...
So they call my number and I went straight to my dropshot spot.....
I shut it down about 150 yards from the spot and cruised in on the troller.... My AAA looked at me like I was an Alien because I shut it down so far away.. I wasn't doing anything to spook these bass...
So I cruise up and there they are on the graph....1st drop...Keeper..... 2nd drop -keeper...3rd drop I had my first keeper of the tournament come unbuttoned... nooooooooooooooo.... but 3 casts later...I swung keeper number 3 into the boat... then they moved deeper.... now Im in 42-44 ft.......I see them and drop down to them and Bingo im on.. Keeper number 4 in the well....
A few drops later I have my limit.....that was a huge relief.... then I literally fished the area out until all we would catch were rats..
After 3 hours I said goodbye to my honey hole..... then I dropshotted around and mixed in the crank the rest of the day... No keepers on the crank but the dropshot fish were still biting here and there... Then with about an hour remaining I went to my really deep spot in 48ft and there they were.... I caught four 13 inch smallies in a row on four drops then on the 5th drop...I see a nice suspended bass follow my bait from 42 down to the bottom in 48 and TICK TICK...and I set the hook....Feels like a nice keeper.. and sure enough it was a bonus keeper largemouth!!! Yahooo.....
I didn't have the biggest weigh that day in fact my smallest of the event at 7. 29lbs but I ended up staying in 9th place...should have had 8th place I lost it by .01 and I had a dead fish from fishing so deep each of the last 2 days that docked me a total of .40 so that was a bummer but oh well I tried my best to keep them alive but the water temps and depth I caught them out of was just to much for them to bare I guess...
Over all my Open was a success..
I need to thank my sponsors... Bridgford Foods, Bass Pro Shops, Dobyns Rods, Maxima Line, Eye Surrender Eyewear, Fairview Ford and Bass King Clothing.. and a special thanks to my wife Carissa who was there with me doing the math on the final day and told me I got 9th far before anything was ever posted.. I also need to thank my 7 year old daughter who gave me encouragement every night along with my wife.. Also I want to thank my Bro, team partner and Fellow Dobyns Pro Staffer Barry Callaway for letting me use his boat for this tournament.. Im selling my Skeeter so I didn't want to risk breaking anything on it at Mead so Barry was gracious enough to offer for me to use his new Nitro... Thanks brother...
Also thanks to Don Iovino for his words of encouragement on that final day... And Special thanks to my friends Ken and Linda who made the drive out to Vegas to cheer me on every day.. They literally got up at 4am each day and drove to the lake to watch the take off and be there for me for support.. Then theyd come back in the afternoon for weighins for more support... It was very humbling to say the least for me.. Ill be forever grateful for all my support I got.
Last but not least to my buddy Rob who was there with me every minute during practice and back at the hotel ...we had a ton of laughs and a really good time.. Im glad you went bro... and although your finish wasn't as high as you may have hoped for, you learned a ton in that one tournament and the next one will be a lot easier for you... I think you did great...
As for me......9th place on the Pro side in the US OPEN wasn't too shabby for a grinder like me..
Pete :Cool:
I fish the event on the Pro side and had quite an event so I thought Id come on here and write out the story of my tournament because I know a lot of you like reading them... I had to wait until After the ABA fishoff this past weekend for info reasons but now Im back and ready to share..
So With my National Bass fishoff at Havasu, the ABA fishoff at Mead and the WON BASS US OPEN at Lake Mead all in my rearview mirror, Ive had time to sit and think about it all as Ive fought to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Heres the story of how my US Open went.
I got to Mead on Thursday night and got up on Friday morning with the plan to fish until dark on Friday. So I head to the lake and make a long run up about 10 minutes past Temple Bar..
Me and my AAA prefish partner Rob Hutchinson fished this and that for about 6 hours. At the end of the 6 hours we had 25 bass but of those 25 bass I only had ONE KEEPER... So I decided to leave the Temple area and head up the Overton arm which is about 25+ miles long.
So we left and started up the Overton...after about 3 miles of running up, I made a U-turn and decided that Id go up there the following day instead..
Rob asked what was wrong and I told him that I wanted to check something more local to Callville Bay.. Call it a hunch, call it luck, call it whatever, but I just had the feeling to head back and fish more local.... and in this game you HAVE to learn to trust your instincts if you want to succeed.
So we get within 10 minutes of Callville Bay and we start fishing.. On my 2nd cast I caught a keeper largemouth... then I made a move and caught another keeper largie....and made another quick move and caught another keeper largemouth. Literally I caught 3 keeper largemouth in less then 30 minutes... So I made the decision to call it a day because I felt like I put it together and my hunch was right.. I felt good about the two patterns I had going.
I told Rob that we were heading in and we'd check out some more stuff the next day.
I simply didn't want to catch anymore that day.. I didn't even want to get a bass to bite a bait with a hook or without a hook.. I knew the couple baits they would eat and I just wanted to narrow down the areas the following day.
So back to the hotel we went...
Was I making the right choice by coming in? Did I luck onto those fish? Was I truly on to something like I thought? ...So many questions were going through my mind. I couldn't wait for the next day so I could go confirm what I thought..
One thing I knew for sure,... I was on two very different patterns... I was on a deep crank bite in 10-14 ft of water and a really deep dropshot bite in 35-50 ft of water. And I was extremely confident in both patterns... Another thing I decided was that I was going to rule out going to the Overton/Echo area the next day. I felt like Id find enough more local (within 15 minutes of Calville Bay) because I looked at the weather and the weather called for hev. wind on day one late morning from the south.
And if you know anything about Lake Mead, which I do, then you know that you don't want to be far away on a day of Heavy wind because Lake Mead can get extremely dangerous with 5-7ft swells being the norm...and yes that is GIANT for any lake. In comparison our local lakes get swells/waves about a foot to 18 inches on days when the wind is blowing hard.....Nothing even close to lake Meads 5-7 FOOT swells....It is down right scary..
So I head to the lake the next day... I tell my AAA partner that we may be out until late or we may come in really early, it would depend on if my patterns were truly patterns and my hunch was right.
So we launch and head out to the first spot...
I get there and immediately catch a keeper largemouth...literally within 5 minutes on the deep crank.. So I pull the troller up and make a move about 3/4 of a mile away...
I told Rob that I wasn't going to throw the crank anymore because I knew exactly where to throw it and what bait to throw... I absolutely didn't want to catch another fish doing it because Id rather run the pattern during game time then catch a keeper when it didn't matter.
So I busted out the dropshot rod and went to exactly where I thought they'd be.... I dropped the troller and sure enough, there they were, waiting for me in about 38-42 ft. ...
I quickly make a drop and as soon as my bait hit bottom I got bit!! . Instead of setting the hook, I slowly reeled the fish up and when it got about 12-14 ft below the boat I saw it was about a 4lber.... :Shocked::Shocked: I let it sit there for about 10 seconds before it finally shook off... NICE!!! That was a Largemouth.... so I swing the boat around and move about 10 yards and make another drop... My bait heads down to about 45ft deep and I watch the bass streak to my bait.. (I love video game fishing with the graph, its one of my fortes'.) So I flip the bail and tighten my line and Im already bit.... much more aggressively this time... this fish hooked itself.. and I slowly reeled in a solid bass from 45ft. I swing it in the boat and its a smallie that weighed about 2 1/2 lbs :Shocked:...."TIME TO LEAVE", I tell Rob!! ....
So I eased out of the area with the troller and went for about 2 miles looking for every spot that looked the same... I logged in a bunch of waypoints of areas that looked like the exact thing I had just fished. All the areas looked perfect and I literally never dropped another bait, in fact I never came within 100 yards of another spot...as I didn't want to disturb the areas at all.
After about an hour of that I looked at Rob and said...IM DONE! He knew that I felt dialed in and he saw first hand how these fish all reacted to the baits I was using. I told him that I felt like I was extremely dialed in and didn't want to waste any fish....so back to the hotel we went.
It was hard fighting the feelings of there being most of the day left and we were getting off the lake but like I said I didn't want to ruin my water and I didn't want to get burned out because I knew the tournament was a 3 day event... nor did I want to take the chance of ruining my confidence... So I put the boat on the trailer and we left.
When I left the parking lot I had even more feeling of "Am I doing the right thing by leaving?" because Most all of my buddies that were in the tournament were still out practicing but I had to convince myself that I was doing the right thing.
Back at the Hotel, Rob and I talked about the patterns I was on and the bass that were in my areas and he didn't hesitate to say that he had "Hoped he got me as his Pro partner"... because he knew I was going to slaughter them potentially.
I on the other hand wasn't so sure... I knew I had some nice bites and I knew I was on 2 REALLY strong patterns but as a tournament angler and competitor, YOU ALWAYS WANT MORE!! I knew I could catch them on the reaction bait and I knew my deep dropshot bite was strong and should stay that way the entire tournament because most guys wouldn't be fishing deep, I figured. I also knew that My dropshot bite was my ace in the hole because the weather forecast said it was gonna blow on day one and 2 but on day 3 the lake was going to slick out and be glassy and that dropshot bite would shine.... I could only hope!!!
So that was Saturday...
Sunday was the offlimits day and "sponsor row" and the tournament meeting... I went to the meeting we went over the rules and got my draw number for day 1...#144 out of #167.... It didn't really matter to me because I figured on day one most of the guys would be making a long run to their spots so my spots would surely be open...
So after the meeting it was time to go carb up for the long day on the water that I was going to have the next day...So Pasta it was... And I destroyed it!! hahaha Rob on the other hand was starting to feel pretty nervous...He made it a point to say that he had never felt that nervous in his life.... After all... I didn't mention this earlier but this wasn't just Robs first tournament as an Amatuer, it was his first tournament EVER... AND IT WAS THE FREAKING US OPEN......AWESOME!!!!! :Cool::Cool::Cool:
After eating we headed back to the room to chill out.... I was COMPLETELY prepared...Rods were done, tackle was done, game plan was done...I literally didn't have anything else to do, I was READY to do it!!!! And I felt pretty calm about it which was a change for me because im usually nervous before a tournament much less a tournament of this size...THIS WAS THE US OPEN!!!!
So it was lights out a 10pm and I slept like a baby....probably had something to do with our room being a cool 62 degrees... side note...I almost guarantee that the $300 that we paid for our room didn't cover the cost of our AC running at 62 degrees for 6 days straight.....hahahahahahahahahaha
So day one of the tournament I was boat number 144 out of 167... I had told my AAA that I had the crank he would use and I also had the dropshot bait he'd use.... It almost felt like a guide trip because I gave him the baits to use and told him how to rig the dropshot too. I figured that since this was a shared weight tournament and I was completely dialed in then my AAA partner should be rigged exactly like me....Because for that day, we were a "team". He was all for it because he had fished with me before at Havasu so he had confidence in me.
They call our number #144 , and off we went....The lake was calm with only a light breeze... Call it the calm before the storm...
We head to the first deep grass spot and we start firing away...within minutes IM ON...Keeper largemouth.... a few minutes later...Im on again...keeper largie number 2 in the box... A little while later...booom My AAA is on with the crank...Keeper largie number 3... And for the record He said.. "dang Pete, Im glad you gave me this crank to use" lol lol
Then Im on again this time a smallie number 4 in the well. Now we're rolling.
Then I move out to deep water and dropshot up 3 in a row all keepers and all culled one another (smallies). Im feeling it... Vincent looked at me and said, "Pete you are on fire". So now I have 3 nice Largies in the well and 2 smallies...
Now the wind is beginning to blow hard and its pounding the 3 mile bank I planned to fish... Even my dropshot main area was getting pounded but at that point I didn't want to hit it anyway because I already had a decent limit in the boat...I figured Id save it until the next day.. This tournament was going to be a marathon not a sprint so I figured Id need to save some fish for days 2 and 3. This was lake Mead and she could reach out and punch you in the mouth at any moment ....and she was about to start swinging.... because the wind was getting bad...
Because the wind was really picking up now the waves were messing up my Crankbait so I picked up my Alabama rig and fired it towards the deep grass I was fishing that was getting hammered by the wind... The grass was in 12-14 ft of water....
I fired it out and began the retrieve and Booom...IM ON AGAIN...another keeper largie....YES!!! :Dancing Banana:
At that moment I decided to leave the area and go prefish for the next day and get out of the now howling wind.... so off we went..
We finally get to the area and its protected by long points... we fish through those areas for about 3 1/2 hours and only catch non keepers.... :Confused::Confused:
At that point I decide to head back across the basin and seek shelter in the narrows area because I found a good area over there in practice.. So we make the 5 mile run back. We were literally soaked within 50 yards, But finally we made it through and began drying out again... For the next hour we fished hard but I truly think it took us that time to get our witts about us and dry out.. Finally I made another move to another protected area.... All my main water was getting crushed by the wind so we had to do what we had to do...
There was a lot of comfort knowing that we had a decent limit though.. :Big Grin::Big Grin:
So we head into another area I had found... This area had fish in 30-48ft... I dropshotted 3-4 non keepers up...and saw decent fish on the graph but the little ones were getting to the baits before the good ones I figured...so I told my AAA to throw a jig. So he made a cast into 39 ft and "TICK"...and he crossed its eyes...that fish helped by about 4 ounces...NICE...
By that time it was time to head in to the scales... I weighed 8.21lbs and sat in 38th placeat the end of day 1.. Which made me feel good because I didn't hit my best dropshot water all day. I knew I still had my ace in the hole.... And since we were at Lake Mead and In Vegas, you can bet that I was going to use it!!!! :Wink::Wink:
So on day 2 I headed straight to my dropshot water.. I put the troller down in 35-45 ft and THERE THEY ARE!!!!
I make about 8 casts and I put 5 keepers in the boat .. :Big Grin::Big Grin: I had about 10 bass in first hour and made 4 culls by 7:45.. All of my fish were nice big smallies... My AAA was freaking out because I was setting the hook so much.... Hes like, "Pete, are you kidding me, you have another one?" hahahha
I stuck around on that spot until about 9:30...never moving the boat more then 5-10 yards... I caught another 4 bass all culling up ounces at a time....In total I caught about 18 keepers from that spot then at 9:30 I had just caught one when I decided to leave them alone for the rest of the day... The funny thing was my AAA couldn't get bit...it was a feel thing so maybe he was getting bit and not feeling it because he was using the same bait as me...lol... He just said..."Pete you are on fire"!!! lol...
And this was his face when I told him we were leaving... ..........:Wink:.
I simply said..."This tournament is a marathon not a sprint".... And I had hoped that I didn't already catch too many but they were still on the graph when I left so I felt good about coming back the next day..
So at that point I put the dropshot down and picked the crankbait up... "It was time to go upgrade with largemouth", I said!
SO I headed to the one spot I fished the last day of practice...casted into 8 ft of water and burned the grass out to about 14 ft...and BOOOM...I WAS ON!!! Keeper largie!! I love it when a plan comes together... :Envious::Envious:
After that fish I made the decision to leave that 3 mile stretch COMPLETELY so I could run the whole area the next day, so we made a move looking for a 3-4 lb bite..
I fished the crank bait the rest of the day with no more love.....
So I headed to weighins and I weighed 9:56 lbs and jumped into 9th place... BOOOOM Huge jump in the standings!!!
Now my nerves started to really fire away at me...hahaha ... My goal coming into this event was a check (34th place or better) with a top 10 being a distant goal..
Now I find myself sitting in 9th place after 2 days and I still feel like I can get more to add to it off my spots.. I was excited to say the least but unsure of what Lake Mead would throw at Me...
When I left for the tournament I told my wife Carissa that if I was in the top 10 Id fly her out to Vegas to be with me for the final day weighins... But I didnt think Id really be that far up in the standings, afterall this was THE US OPEN!!
Sure enough, when weigh ins were complete the phone rang and it was her... "Youre 9th", she screamed.... and I told her to get on a plane and come out there so she did... But she wouldn't arrive until 10am the next morning on day 3.. She made arrangements to get a ride to the hotel and then she was riding to the lake for the weighns with another Pros wife. Now I was really nervous because I didn't want to bomb.. :Embarrassed::Embarrassed: Up until this point I was really doing good trying to control my nerves, keep things in perspective and staying focused...
So day 3 comes and I launch the boat and go and tie up to the dock because we have about 30 minutes until blast off... I get out of the boat and go for a walk to calm my nerves.... Along my walk I hear a voice say..."Whatcha doin Pete?" It was non other then the legend himself, Don Iovino. I stop by his boat and said, , "Just going for a walk to calm my nerves Don" ... and the next thing he told me put my nerves at ease and calmed me down... He said, "Son, if its meant to be, it will be. You know how to catch them just go do it".... I told him that I didn't want to drop out of check contention because I thought It would be a major choke job and failure...and to that he said.... "If you catch 7 lbs you will stay about where you are in the standings". That pumped me up because I knew I could do that with my dropshot... So I shake his hand say "Good luck" to him for his day ahead and I go back to my boat.
I put 2 rods on my deck...a dropshot and a backup dropshot..lol... my plan is to go catch a good limit of smallies then go largie fishing...
So they call my number and I went straight to my dropshot spot.....
I shut it down about 150 yards from the spot and cruised in on the troller.... My AAA looked at me like I was an Alien because I shut it down so far away.. I wasn't doing anything to spook these bass...
So I cruise up and there they are on the graph....1st drop...Keeper..... 2nd drop -keeper...3rd drop I had my first keeper of the tournament come unbuttoned... nooooooooooooooo.... but 3 casts later...I swung keeper number 3 into the boat... then they moved deeper.... now Im in 42-44 ft.......I see them and drop down to them and Bingo im on.. Keeper number 4 in the well....
A few drops later I have my limit.....that was a huge relief.... then I literally fished the area out until all we would catch were rats..
After 3 hours I said goodbye to my honey hole..... then I dropshotted around and mixed in the crank the rest of the day... No keepers on the crank but the dropshot fish were still biting here and there... Then with about an hour remaining I went to my really deep spot in 48ft and there they were.... I caught four 13 inch smallies in a row on four drops then on the 5th drop...I see a nice suspended bass follow my bait from 42 down to the bottom in 48 and TICK TICK...and I set the hook....Feels like a nice keeper.. and sure enough it was a bonus keeper largemouth!!! Yahooo.....
I didn't have the biggest weigh that day in fact my smallest of the event at 7. 29lbs but I ended up staying in 9th place...should have had 8th place I lost it by .01 and I had a dead fish from fishing so deep each of the last 2 days that docked me a total of .40 so that was a bummer but oh well I tried my best to keep them alive but the water temps and depth I caught them out of was just to much for them to bare I guess...
Over all my Open was a success..
I need to thank my sponsors... Bridgford Foods, Bass Pro Shops, Dobyns Rods, Maxima Line, Eye Surrender Eyewear, Fairview Ford and Bass King Clothing.. and a special thanks to my wife Carissa who was there with me doing the math on the final day and told me I got 9th far before anything was ever posted.. I also need to thank my 7 year old daughter who gave me encouragement every night along with my wife.. Also I want to thank my Bro, team partner and Fellow Dobyns Pro Staffer Barry Callaway for letting me use his boat for this tournament.. Im selling my Skeeter so I didn't want to risk breaking anything on it at Mead so Barry was gracious enough to offer for me to use his new Nitro... Thanks brother...
Also thanks to Don Iovino for his words of encouragement on that final day... And Special thanks to my friends Ken and Linda who made the drive out to Vegas to cheer me on every day.. They literally got up at 4am each day and drove to the lake to watch the take off and be there for me for support.. Then theyd come back in the afternoon for weighins for more support... It was very humbling to say the least for me.. Ill be forever grateful for all my support I got.
Last but not least to my buddy Rob who was there with me every minute during practice and back at the hotel ...we had a ton of laughs and a really good time.. Im glad you went bro... and although your finish wasn't as high as you may have hoped for, you learned a ton in that one tournament and the next one will be a lot easier for you... I think you did great...
As for me......9th place on the Pro side in the US OPEN wasn't too shabby for a grinder like me..
Pete :Cool: