As we pulled into Mizel's Landing on the 1st anniversary to my joining the Hawg Hunters, it was around 5:20 am.
My partner, Mack Cramer and I looked at each other in wonder about why we were here so early. Its January with the temperature hovering
in the low 40's with a brisk 15 mph wind out of the north. After launching the boat
we discovered why, our boat wouldn't start. We troubleshooted for a few minutes to
find that we had a fuel leak at the water separator filter. Our only alternative
if we wanted to run the big motor was to bypass the filter, but with what. After
searching thru the McGuyver handbook we decided to use a 10mm extended socket to
splice two pieces of fuel line together. Anyway it worked so we were off in search
of clear water. The water was high and muddy in the main river but thanks to the
north wind it was alot lower than it had been a few days earlier. To make a long
story short, we only picked up one short fish in our many stops by 1:20 pm. We pulled
into our final stop to find clear water running out of the creek and immediately
my partner started catching fish. The only problem is we had to step on them to make
12 inches, so back they went. After Mack pulls in his 5th fish I start to grill him.
He says "all I feel is pressure". Pressure, Im pulling the worm thru Milfoil all
I feel is pressure. So after a short class with my teacher catching fish the whole
time, he is up to 7 by now, I give it a try. I begin to look for pressure or something.
Now I have to thank my partner for the encouragement and not laughing each time I
set the hook and he had to duck or be hit by the incoming sinker. Anyway finally
a fish, a short fish but a fish. Mack is up to 9 or 10 by this time but a few minutes
later I catch a 2nd. At 3:30 when we had to leave to make the wieghin we had boated
21 bass. Mack had 13 and yours truly had pulled in 8. 21 bass and not one made 12
inches. Back at the wieghin we found out that we had not been the only ones to get blanked.
Jim Bolleter came in 1st with 2 fish wieghing 4.20pds, anchored by the tournament
big fish of 3.10pds. It was Jim's first tournament back since a car accident that
kept him side lined, good come back! 2nd was Neil Springstead with 2 fish wieghing
3.70pds, and 3rd belonged to Kevin Simmins with 2 fish that came in at 3.25pds. If this tournament proves anything is that we are all ready for spring to arrive.
Plus Im sick of being cold, Im ready to go back to being hot.
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