G
Guest
·I entered the local tournament again today at Ansin Garcia with a friend named Miles. We had as usual cold front blow through over the weekend and cooled us down quit a bit. Temps Sunday morning where in the mid to upper 40's. Folks that is cold for Florida. The bite was also off today as evidenced by the majority of the folks competing today. We actually caught probably 14 or so bass today.
So being bundled up we headed to our spot on the flats. Nothing going on there so we picked up and tried another spot on flats in the south part of the lake nearby to deeper water up to 10' deep. This area has nice hydrilla edges next to the deep water. Well we boated a couple fish with only 1 being a keeper (14") so we moved to another canal in the s.w part of the lake. It is 12-14' deep in this canal but maybe 1 foot deep getting into it. I bumped my skeg a few places getting in there. Once in we started flipping hyacynth mats and floating vegatation mats. One in particular was so thick only an airboat could get through. I was using a 1/2 ounce watermelon jig with a fat albert twin tail grub as a trailer and caught a 5.4lb bass in this thick mat. My friend had no idea it was that nice as we could not see the fish as it was wadded up under the mat. He lipped it out for me and we both whooped about it. It was underneath some thick thick stuff. I thought I lost it but kept good pressure the whole time. We felt lucky to get that fish in the boat. Gotta love 50lb braid and heavy flipping sticks
I caught 1 more keeper fish on a ghost xcalibur in this canal. We loaded up and headed to the main canal going north and south which is what you take to get out into the open lake. Reeds line both sides of ths canal and we flipped in this section. Miles boated 4 or 5 in this area and 2 keepers so we had our limit. That is the good part.
The bad part is that we arrived late to weigh in according to everyone else. Miles was the time keeper for us today (I still should have checked so I am responsible) According to Miles watch we where 1 minute early. They said we where 5 minutes late. What sucks is that we "won" with 11.2lbs. But because everyone made such a big stink about it we where docked 5lbs. We still won big bass with the 5.4lber I caught earlier. So we at least got $60 for that.
What bugged me about this is that I have fished this tournament I am guessing about 8-9 times. (I would have won 3 of these counting today ) And I have seen first hand other guys come in late and no one ever says anything. Now granted we/I screwed up and the rules are the rules and we broke them so we paid the penalty. I am not disputing that fact at all. However, this is a local every Sunday fun type tourney that folks put on. It is not a structured event with a big list of rules. In fact, they do not even check anyone's livewells before blast off or ever measure questionable fish at weigh in. Most people arrive early but like I have said I know I have witnessed a few folks come in late before and remember saying to myself that is odd. But no big deal I didn't care. This is why I guess this bothered me. From what I have seen this is a pretty easy going tournament with a bunch of good old boys. That is till they lose and then watch out haha. When I arrived late everyone had a kinipsion fit about it. Well, I got pretty vocal too about it and expressed my views. I know in the end I was wrong and feel bad about this. Not only for coming in late but for arguing the point. I just told them that from now on I will be keeping track of everyone else who comes in late too. Anyway, what turned out to be a good day of fishing turned out to be a disastor. Not a total disastor but I do feel bad about this.
Here is a picture of my 5.4lb bass:
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I really hate that this happened and that folks might think I am a cheater somehow. I told them this was not on purpose as I am usually in early every time. I guess I should have just shut up and walked away and not even made an issue about it. That is what I feel bad about now that it is over with. :sad01:
So being bundled up we headed to our spot on the flats. Nothing going on there so we picked up and tried another spot on flats in the south part of the lake nearby to deeper water up to 10' deep. This area has nice hydrilla edges next to the deep water. Well we boated a couple fish with only 1 being a keeper (14") so we moved to another canal in the s.w part of the lake. It is 12-14' deep in this canal but maybe 1 foot deep getting into it. I bumped my skeg a few places getting in there. Once in we started flipping hyacynth mats and floating vegatation mats. One in particular was so thick only an airboat could get through. I was using a 1/2 ounce watermelon jig with a fat albert twin tail grub as a trailer and caught a 5.4lb bass in this thick mat. My friend had no idea it was that nice as we could not see the fish as it was wadded up under the mat. He lipped it out for me and we both whooped about it. It was underneath some thick thick stuff. I thought I lost it but kept good pressure the whole time. We felt lucky to get that fish in the boat. Gotta love 50lb braid and heavy flipping sticks
I caught 1 more keeper fish on a ghost xcalibur in this canal. We loaded up and headed to the main canal going north and south which is what you take to get out into the open lake. Reeds line both sides of ths canal and we flipped in this section. Miles boated 4 or 5 in this area and 2 keepers so we had our limit. That is the good part.
The bad part is that we arrived late to weigh in according to everyone else. Miles was the time keeper for us today (I still should have checked so I am responsible) According to Miles watch we where 1 minute early. They said we where 5 minutes late. What sucks is that we "won" with 11.2lbs. But because everyone made such a big stink about it we where docked 5lbs. We still won big bass with the 5.4lber I caught earlier. So we at least got $60 for that.
What bugged me about this is that I have fished this tournament I am guessing about 8-9 times. (I would have won 3 of these counting today
) And I have seen first hand other guys come in late and no one ever says anything. Now granted we/I screwed up and the rules are the rules and we broke them so we paid the penalty. I am not disputing that fact at all. However, this is a local every Sunday fun type tourney that folks put on. It is not a structured event with a big list of rules. In fact, they do not even check anyone's livewells before blast off or ever measure questionable fish at weigh in. Most people arrive early but like I have said I know I have witnessed a few folks come in late before and remember saying to myself that is odd. But no big deal I didn't care. This is why I guess this bothered me. From what I have seen this is a pretty easy going tournament with a bunch of good old boys. That is till they lose and then watch out haha. When I arrived late everyone had a kinipsion fit about it. Well, I got pretty vocal too about it and expressed my views. I know in the end I was wrong and feel bad about this. Not only for coming in late but for arguing the point. I just told them that from now on I will be keeping track of everyone else who comes in late too. Anyway, what turned out to be a good day of fishing turned out to be a disastor. Not a total disastor but I do feel bad about this.Here is a picture of my 5.4lb bass:
I really hate that this happened and that folks might think I am a cheater somehow. I told them this was not on purpose as I am usually in early every time. I guess I should have just shut up and walked away and not even made an issue about it. That is what I feel bad about now that it is over with. :sad01:
