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Jason and I are in the middle of our 30 hour ride home from Degray lake Arkansas. The trip hasn't seemed that bad since we have all our buddies calling about the Team Championship. This was by far the best tournament experience Jay and I have had. It was a grueling no-sleep, tough bite SOB of an event, but still the best experience either of us have had.

Since BASS was only going to allow a day an a half of prefish before the event, we decided to go down before the off limits and get a feel for the lake. The week before Thanksgiving, me and the "Big Smooth", Mike Chandler, drove my truck down to Arkansas, picked up a loaner boat from a Phoenix dealership, grabbed Jason from the airport, and practiced for three days in a monsoon. It was a good practice, where we felt had two or three areas holding bigger fish. In the first 3 hours of practice, we had caught a fish over 5, and couple 3's. This was a bonus, since all of our prefish research was grimm, and without an A-Rig, those fish were uncatchable.

Official practice before the event told us the fish were changing. We could catch them cranking, throwing a jig, and using a shakey head (miserable technique) in the pre-practice, fishing shallow pockets next to deep water or channel swings. By the time we returned, the fish had started moving away from the pockets and into brush on the steep breaks. This was a real pisser, since the state pastime for an Arkansas resident is planting brush by the truck load. We never spent time looking for brush in the pre-practice, cause we couldn't get bit in the brush we found and there was so much of it, it seemed futile.

By tournament time, we had scrapped a bunch of ideas and decided to, as Jay would say, "Pin our ears back" and go for the throat. I really don't know what that means, but in general, we're going to flail around until we figure something out. Long story short, we fished every deep drop we could find with a jerkbait, jig and a dropshot until we found productive brush and worked those spots over like a rented mule. We burned 25-30 gallons of gas a day on a small lake, where our longest run was probably 7 miles.

We had found one key area where we could catch spots in a pinch in pre-practice. It was a beaver hut, right on a channel swing with 25 feet of water at the bottom. On Day 2 we didn't have a fish at 9am, and we ran over to that spot trying to get something started. Up until this move, I had dropped all cranking gear and took up the miserable task of drop-shotting the brush piles in a painfully slow manner. It sucked, but we weighed half of our fish on the dropshot, which entailed, casting to brushpile, getting hung up, breaking off, retying, bitching about how dumb a dropshot is..... repeat. If I had to do that again, I would quit the sport. Anyways, my mindset was the fish were beat up, and this was what we needed to do for a bite. We pulled into that beaver hut and Jason grabbed a dropshot with me, made a cast, and immediately reeled it in. I didn't pay attention cause I was trying to avoid the urge to "quit the sport" while slowing dragging this drop-shot around. Jason dug around in the rod locker, grabbed a 1/2 oz jig, flipped it in the hut and busted a 4lber. It was really clutch, cause the conditions and fishing pressure wouldn't immediately prescribe that move. 15 minutes and 3 casts later (read: soaking bait until mind is numb) I caught a 3lber on the DS and another short. We moved around the rest of the day in that area, caught a 2lb spot on the brush pile (broke off three times, threw a fit) and fished out our limit on a clutch jerkbait bite from Jay.

Long story short, while being interviewed by three writers about what it would mean to fish for the Classic berth, against each other, we got bumped out of the top three. The reality of what was going on hadn't hit us yet, as we were both worn out and overwhelmed about fishing another day on that lake. We weighed a limit both days, but never culled. Eitherway, it was still the best experience we'd ever had.

We have to say thanks the Gary Stiles and Northwest Bass for this opportunity. It was worth all the work. The guys that showed up for this event were "hammers." But we know that Northwest Bass anglers are not slouches, and this experience has solidified that belief 100%.

Also we have to thanks Aaron Mize of Horizon Marine in Clarksville Arkansas. I made one call to Phoenix in need of a boat, and they said no problem. 15 minutes later, I was on the phone with Aaron who's offering me a boat truck and whatever I'd need. We're very grateful.

Jay and I know we're blessed, and that this trip was a gift. Hopefully next year, Gary will be able to send multiple teams.

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Replies to This Discussion

That's pretty cool.  Great job down there.

Good read! Thanks for filling us in.

Phenomenal report, Jake. Informative and exceptionally entertaining. Thank you very much for sharing your experience. Awesome job to you and Jason down there. Way to represent! I ran into the Buck Knives crew down at the Cabela's corporate office in Nebraska last week and we were all rooting you on. Well done!

Proud of you two, great job men.

I believe that next year, depending on participation, Gary could have the option to send a few more teams.  This was the first year of the Championship, and I many details were unknown for most tournament directors.  I think the overwhelming response by angling teams caught BASS off guard.  They had over 8800 entrants by the cutoff date.  Jay and I were blown away when we found out the Arkansas Team Trail (2 - 200 boat divisions) didn't even sign up.  The anglers that qualified from Arkansas had to fish circuits in other states.  The winners of the "Team" event won AOY in the Arkansas Team trail, but had to qualify through Fishers of Men, two states away.

As for the DQ, we called Tournament Director Jon Stewart on the way home.  I doubt there will be anymore "press releases" on this issue.  Before this event, Jason, Gary and I received multiple (5-6) different emails, texts and communications about rule 7.  Then during the drivers meeting, Jon Stewart spent 20 minutes or more going over the rules around the topic.  What I remember most is the speech he gave about "honest mistakes."  He said that 90% of the mistakes made by anglers are honest, but they're still mistakes.   

Case in point would be the DQ of Brandon Palaniuk last year for culling over an imaginary boundary line.  Negative intent was not present, but he still broke a rule.  When talking with Jon the following day, he was very unhappy about the situation, but mostly because he felt bad for the anglers.  I could tell he was heart broke for the team, and it was the maybe the worst part of his job. 

As for what they were doing, we may never know.  If their heart and intent was correct, they will move on as they're extremely dominant anglers.  I think they're lack of response is honorable.  They made a mistake, it cost them dearly, and they're licking their wounds.  It's much easier to badmouth the organization than to suck it up, refocus and jump back into the game. 

On the positive side, the 4th place team was burning off steam with us at the local eatery that night.  John Stewart and Scooter Griffith had packed up their truck and boat after weigh-in, and met us for dinner before heading home in the morning.  They got the call that they had made the cut at 11pm.  They were told to be at ramp at 6am and "good luck."  They had to unpack the truck, buy lunches and tie-up until 2am in the rain.   It was such a cluster that John Stewart didn't have a navionics chip or waypoints the first day.  They finished 2nd and 4th which was extremely impressive.  Hammers. 

good job representing guys glad to see some northwest guys doing good

Great Post Jake.  Sounds like an awesome experience!

Jake.... Don't sell yourself short, you two donuts are "Hammers" I don't think NW Bass has some of the best Anglers in the country, I know they do! Good job fellas I am extremely proud, to be able to compete against you two hammers!
NW Bass has the best fisherman in the country bar none, I think this is due to the diversity of waters in their schedule, their is not a team tournament circuit in the country with as much diversity of water in its events.

I have to agree with Ronald...and great job Jake and Jason.

Amazing story. Great job representing the Northwest. I'd be curious to know what you would have done differently if a time machine was in your possession...

Snake,

I read you post about hindsight last weekend, and wasn't going to post anything.  My biggest concern was that I'd post some detailed response about tournament execution and thought process, then Hobbs and Wolsky would take turns bashing me for "overthinking."  The truth is, in their eyes, I probably overthink situations a bit too much.  I also believe that guys, like Hobbs and Wolsky, with high levels of natural talent, don't engage in overthinking, because they're so in-tune with the current situation that there just isn't another option.  They've already landed on the correct path, and there's no room for the little voices that say "what about a spoon in 50 feet."

 

Last night I spoke with a member of the team that placed 4th at Degray, one spot above us.  I was amazed to find out what they were doing, and where they were fishing.  Come to find out, they were in the same areas as us, and the winners, but doing completely different things.  They had success in tactics we'd written off, and vise-versa.  They caught the bulk of their fish on two shallow points across from the deep channel swing we were fishing.  And they caught fish out deep on a spoon, in a area we fished shallow with a crankbait.  To be honest, I was dumb-founded when I found out they were in a particular boat.  I remember seeing them and thinking, "poor bastards would have better luck catching the clap on that point, with that pattern."  Funny thing about that is, those guys said the same thing about us on our channel swing. 

 

So what's the point.  The 4th and 5th place teams caught fishing in all three water columns...  We fished the same areas in practice they did, and never got a bite.  They fished channel swings with brush and never got a bite....  There was no perfect pattern that held up for 4 days.  Almost identical finishing weights were posted, doing completely different things. 

 

Case and point, Flannigan Fife and his partner won the team portion of the event fishing clear water, super shallow with a crankbait.  They only weighed 9 fish, and still won by 2-3 pounds.  But during the following 2 days of the tournament, Flannigan stayed with that pattern and only caught 1 fish.  The fish were going away from him, and he didn't know how to follow them out.  The eventual winner found where the fish were heading to, and as his tournament progressed.  He posted full limits everyday.  The only angler to do so. 

 

Ok, back to the point.  If you're spending great volumes of time worrying about what other teams and anglers are doing, you're going to lose.  You have to find confidence in what you're doing, and focus on areas with the larger fish.  I said it in the LOM seminar last year.  If Hobbs gave you his best waypoint in the middle of the river, his boat, gear and a comprehensive explanation of how to execute, you'd still have different results than him.  Every time.  A couple years ago, Brandon Palaniuk posted two 18+ bags on the Mississippi river, before being dq'd for a culling violation.  He was notified of a "pending" DQ, which meant he was still part of the tournament, and could share information with other competitors.  He immediately called his buddy, Chris Zaldain, and gave him everything (waypoints, baits...  the juice) before his DQ was finalized.  Zaldain weighed 14.1 the following day, 5lbs less that Brandon's day 2 weight of 19.3.  Interesting to note, Brandon's weight grew a 1lb from day 1 to day 2, and he mentioned laying off the good stuff.

 

So that's my hindsight.  Probably over-thought it a bunch.  The truth is, Jay and I didn't get enough bites in the day to mess with many different patterns.  We stuck with what we had confidence in, and ground it out.  I think a guy like Vandam would have said, "I'm going shallow on that point."  The cameraman would ask him why he decided to make the unobvious move shallow, and he'd say something smart that made us think "oh yeah, dumby."  The truth is, his confidence and experience can't always be put into words.  He just goes with what feels right in that situation... 

 

Long assed post.  I bet you wished you never asked Snake.

I for one am glad he did. Nice explanation not over thunk atall

Thx Bill

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