American Bass Anglers
June 1st 2008
Clearwater Lake,MN
This is my first aba draw/trail tournament and I just kinda did it on a whim to see how it is,I arrived at BJ's Tackle on the lake for registration that morning and there is going to be 45 anglers and 40 boats so 5 boaters are going to get unlucky and have to fish with a non-boater, I'm lucky and am alone I drew boat 19 and as I arrived near my starting spot there was a boat blocking the culvert that I needed to go through so I put my trolling motor down and proceed to the culvert figuring the angler would proceed through or give way seeing as you cannot impede another boaters progress, the angler decides to not move so I proceed to go around and enter the culvert and on to my starting spot. This guy starts saying he is going to protest me and I told him to go ahead, as I fished the bay I caught numerous small largemouth on a Fluke type bait and had a quick limit of 5 bass but was very disappointed with the size I was getting in here so I left and went to a spot I figured should hold some bigger female bass that were either pre or post spawn fish. The area I choose was a big flat on the main lake and I started throwing a rattle trap to cover as much of the flat looking for some reaction strikes that did not come another thing is this flat normally has good weed growth from shallow to about 11 feet well I could not find any green or emerging weeds anywhere so I got a little pig headed and told myself if I found any it would probely be a jackpot, well I wasted a lot of time out here so I left and ran to far end of lake to check a flat there for weeds and this was just as crappy,granted I caught some fish but only small upgrades at best so I left and ran back to some reeds I saw earlier and low and behold they were loaded with fish on beds so I proceeded to look for better fish and I came upon a nice 4 lb'er I threw a tube at her she would not bite that,threw a fluke wouldn't bite then a senko and still would not bite so now I'm going insane and moved to a different 4 lb'er and had the same results, I hate spawning fish but I am learning about them so look out in a couple of year's. Well time ran out and I caught zero kicker fish all cookie cutter dinks and came in 32nd place with 8lb's something and I was told I needed to talk to the directer about the protest against me and I knew that wasn't going to be good because the guy that protested me apparently has been fishing these aba tournament's for many years and this was my first. Well I was told I was wrong and could be disqualified and kicked out from their tourney's but he said if I apologized I would not be so I did even though I was not in the wrong at all the angler turned out to be all right and I just let it go.
Clearwater Lake,MN
This is my first aba draw/trail tournament and I just kinda did it on a whim to see how it is,I arrived at BJ's Tackle on the lake for registration that morning and there is going to be 45 anglers and 40 boats so 5 boaters are going to get unlucky and have to fish with a non-boater, I'm lucky and am alone I drew boat 19 and as I arrived near my starting spot there was a boat blocking the culvert that I needed to go through so I put my trolling motor down and proceed to the culvert figuring the angler would proceed through or give way seeing as you cannot impede another boaters progress, the angler decides to not move so I proceed to go around and enter the culvert and on to my starting spot. This guy starts saying he is going to protest me and I told him to go ahead, as I fished the bay I caught numerous small largemouth on a Fluke type bait and had a quick limit of 5 bass but was very disappointed with the size I was getting in here so I left and went to a spot I figured should hold some bigger female bass that were either pre or post spawn fish. The area I choose was a big flat on the main lake and I started throwing a rattle trap to cover as much of the flat looking for some reaction strikes that did not come another thing is this flat normally has good weed growth from shallow to about 11 feet well I could not find any green or emerging weeds anywhere so I got a little pig headed and told myself if I found any it would probely be a jackpot, well I wasted a lot of time out here so I left and ran to far end of lake to check a flat there for weeds and this was just as crappy,granted I caught some fish but only small upgrades at best so I left and ran back to some reeds I saw earlier and low and behold they were loaded with fish on beds so I proceeded to look for better fish and I came upon a nice 4 lb'er I threw a tube at her she would not bite that,threw a fluke wouldn't bite then a senko and still would not bite so now I'm going insane and moved to a different 4 lb'er and had the same results, I hate spawning fish but I am learning about them so look out in a couple of year's. Well time ran out and I caught zero kicker fish all cookie cutter dinks and came in 32nd place with 8lb's something and I was told I needed to talk to the directer about the protest against me and I knew that wasn't going to be good because the guy that protested me apparently has been fishing these aba tournament's for many years and this was my first. Well I was told I was wrong and could be disqualified and kicked out from their tourney's but he said if I apologized I would not be so I did even though I was not in the wrong at all the angler turned out to be all right and I just let it go.
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