After last years tournament, we decided that this year we were not going to run around the lake like mad men in practice. We were going to put ourselves in high percentage areas that have been known to produce year after year. On the first practice day we started in the lower end of the lake. We tried the Illinois Bayou area as well as in the strip pits. The strip pits are very unique in the fact that they have deep and extremely clear water in them, much different from anything else you typically find on Dardanelle. Basically it is and old mining pit that is now connected to the lake. We were satisfied with out first practice day after catching plenty of fish and enough keepers to have a limit.
On the second practice day we trailered the boat way up lake to an area called Spadra. This is the area that we concentrated on last year, however, last year we were actually up spadra creek. This year we went past the creek and fished in and around the islands up by spadra creek. If you ever watched the Elite Series event from last year on Dardanelle, this is where a lot of the top finishers were fishing. We had some luck in the spadra area around dead pad stems and left the area soon after catching a few keepers to make sure we didn't burn up the spot. After that we ran upriver a little further to the same exact area that Mark Menendez won the Elite event last year. We were able to float across the road that he went under last year; the water was up a few feet higher this spring. We caught a few keepers in that area and then left it alone.
On day three of practice we concentrated in the midsection of the lake. This day was cold, windy and rainy; much different conditions from the previous two days. Once again, we caught our limit in practice that day and I also landed my personal best largemouth of 7lbs 1oz on a rapala DT3 Flat crankbait, it was ridiculous! Unfortunately the only picture we have of it is on a cell phone right now. If I ever get the photo from Tyler's phone, I'll be sure to post it. After we had enough of drifting around in the wind and rain we called it a day and went back to prepare for the first day of the tournament.
After analyzing our practice our game plan was to run up to the spadra area first thing in the morning to see if we couldn't get into some fish on spinnerbaits in the dead pad stems. It was a perfect morning besides some thick fog on the way up to spadra. The wind was nonexistent which made for a smooth ride. We got to our area with only one other boat up there already, however, they were a little farther back in the cut than we were fishing. After a few casts in we had our first keeper of the day in the same area we got bit in practice. We cut through to another spot between some islands and I landed our second keeper of the day on a spinnerbait again, a solid 3lb+ fish. We continued to mosey our way in and around the islands slinging spinnerbaits at every clump of pad stems available. As we made our way out of the cut into a deeper ditch we hit the mother lode. I caught our third fish on the spinnerbait, another solid 3+. I then retied, grabbed a sandwhich for something to eat, held in in my mouth and made another cast. Instantly another good fish nailed my spinnerbait. I fought it to the boat, sandwhich in mouth. One more and we would have a limit. We turned the corner around another clump of pad stems and I hooked up again with a solid 2.5lb fish on the spinnerbait, that was our limit and we were pumped. Not 10 minutes later further down the bank that was lined with a deeper ditch another good fish smoked my spinnerbait. Right as it hit I knew it was a good fish. After a short battle we landed one of our biggest of the day, a 6lb plus fish!
After deciding that we had done enough damage in that area we decided to make a 40 minute run back down river to the strip pits to finish out our day. We got into the area and it was full of other tournament boats, but most of them were up close to the bank fishing in shallower water. We backed off the bank some and as we were working our way out of one of the strips another 6lb plus fish ate my All Terrain Finesse jig. That was an awesome cull and would put us right in the thick of things going into day two. We fished one more small stretch on bank in the strip pits and made another good cull catching a 3lb plus fish using the finesse jig.
This day was becoming unreal and we couldn't seem to do any wrong. Its pretty cool when a plan comes together, but rarely does it happen like it did that day. With about 15 minutes left we made our way back to the launch site to weigh our fish. When our fish hit the scales it read 20lbs even! We had two fish that weighed over six pounds and we were both ecstatic about our day. After the scales closed, Tyler and I were leading the event out of 70 boats with a 4lb lead going into day two. You could say I was a little nervous...
Some pictures of our bag from Day One:
1 comment:
Nice job! Good luck and keep us informed.
Art
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