More tournament fun - January 7, 2007

I decided to join a local Bass club here in Winter Haven. There's not a better way to learn about different tricks, new tactics and fish locations from the locals.

The club had their first tournament last Sunday (1/7) on the Winter Haven Chain of lakes(16 lakes in total). Pre-fishing proved to be slow with a few small fish coming on stick baits and worms. My draw partner decided to go back to the small lake we caught the few keepers. Well, the day was hot and the fishing was cold. We fished 4 hours without a bite throwing mostly worms, stick baits, blades and cranks. The bass are supposed to be bedding this time of year but the water was dirty and the beds were had to find. We found mostly grass carp beds...whats a grass carp you say??? it beats me, but they put them into these lakes to control the hydrilla. I think it's a Tilipia or something simlar.

Towards the end of the day we decided to hit some reeds that produced years ago....my partner boated a small fish. We then went into a Senior Mobile Home Park canal system and finished the day with me boating a 3lber on a dip stick.

To show you how slow the fishing was, the highlight of the day was seeing grandma sunbathing topless(yuk). All in all I enjoyed the day and learned much about how to fish this body of water and gain some spots for next time. Our next tourney is a two day on the Big O.....should be fun.

Mo later....

Included is a pic of me after a hard days work