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Quick Run Down of practice for the Cup
First I want to start off with a big thank you to all the WAFISH members, and all the kind words that where written, it means a lot to me.
Secondly I read all of Joel Shangles reports on here and all of them where written way better than I could ever hope to write. I need to thank Joel for that as well.
I am just forewarning everyone that this piece is not going to be well written or spelled correctly, and at times not focused, Mostly because I am just going to write it and not edit. Basically I just want to share some of the things but I am not graced with alot of time these days with a 9 month old son.
So here is a quick break down of the timeline I was working with, I had 4 days of practice, and 4 days of a tournament. Alot of fishing especially when most of the days heat index was showing over 110 degrees.
Practice-
To be honest with all of you I did not do much homework on this lake, about all I knew was what I had read in the FLW magazine and what a local guy had told me. Basically all that I had gathered (which wasn't much) said it was going to be won exactly how it was won, deep brushpiles, fish head spins and drop shot with some topwater. Go figure!
1st day on the water was ok, I found tons and tons of brushpiles they where everywhere on any good looking contour there would be atleast 1 brushpile if not up to 5. I threw the old fish head spin around the bushes that I marked fish threw drop shots around the same piles and tried to catch suspended fish around the brush. All day I fished brushpiles, from sun up to sun down I fished them, at the end of the day I had caught 4 fish for about 13 pounds, all on a drop shot. To say the least I was very disappointed when you can see 5 to 25 fish around a single brushpile on your sonar and you can't catch a single one you tend to get a little discouraged.
2nd day was just like the 1st gps'ed all the brush with fish regardless if they bit or not, I ended up catching 4 fish that day as well but for only about 8 pounds. After the second day I was really discouraged I could not make the fish bite, usually if you can find them you can catch them.
3rd day I fished a while in the morning out deep, again not very many bites so at some point I just said screw it and went shallow with a jig in my hand and my trolling motor on high. Loe and behold I ran into quite a few largemouths and a few good spotted bass up some creek arms, not a ton but enough to atleast get 5 bites a day and maybe weigh semi decent bags of fish, about the time I thought I was onto something, I didn't get any more bites running this pattern the rest of the day, I didn't even see another fish. At the end of the day I probably caught 5 fish for about 12 pounds and shook off atleast another 5! I was way more excited now I was atleast getting more then 5 bites a day.
4th day It poured down rain on the way to the ramp, I didn't want to fish in it, so I just kept driving up the road and up the lake I decided when it stopped raining wherever the closest ramp was I would launch there. Finally it stopped raining and I found a lauch it was about 5-7 miles up the lake where I had been launching. I got in the boat and just ran up the river, I had no clue where I was I didn't even look at the map, I had my GPS mapping system so I knew I could find my way back. Somehow I ended up in a big bay with busting fish all around me out over open whater where I quickly caught 2 decent ones. The blow ups ended as fast as they started, so it was time to go shallow, I would go into every creek I could find fish it and leave it didn't really matter to me what part of the lake it was in or if it had this or that, I was just looking for fish. The first pocket I entered I watched a 3 pounder come out of a brush pile and inhale my jig, so I shook him off. I finally came across a back of a creek with a huge flat covered in dead hay grass with a deeper ditch cut through the middle I thought to myself this is where a boat load of fish could be I fished it no bites, huh liked the looks oh well. Then I found another one and thought you know what a chatterbait would come through this stuff perfect I can fish it fast cover the edges without spending much time on it. Low and behold third cast I caught a largie almost reaching the 5 pound mark....cool as hell..... patted myself on the back for the chatterbait call and then investigated exactly what the fish was doing right where I caught it and investigate without hooking anymore fish. That fish was sitting in a group of 3' tall pine tree saplings on the edge of the ditch. Right down from that was an oak tree sitting in the water with the top in the middle of the ditch, and farther back in the ditch was tons of baitfish and a couple more solid bass, WOW honey hole! For the rest of the day I fished hard and found small groups of smaller fish but my mind kept wandering back to that ditch cutting through the back of creek flat. Unfortunately the day came to a close and I didn't have anymore time to look for anymore of those perfect flats. Sadly practice was over just when I was figuring stuff out.
So anyways kind of a small poor written synopsis of my practice.
It actually would be better if anybody has questions just ask and I will do my best to answer.
Views: 39
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Aaron Christel on
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Good write up Ron! I does a good job of painting an image of what you did.
Here is a question for you: what was your boat and travel situation? Did you drive down and did you take your boat? I was wondering if there was a Nixon's boat running around down there. -
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Permalink Reply by Austin Heyer on
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Ron i was also curious as what type of baits you were running down there.
Once again congratulations and a great write up. -
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Permalink Reply by Ronald Hobbs, Jr. on
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Aaron- Jeff Preister at Nixon's Marine got ahold of the Triton Factory so I flew into Nashville and picked a boat up straight from the factory. I was fortunate enough that a friend of mine found a rental truck for me, most companies won't let you tow with a rental truck.
One bad thing about flying is that you only can take 55 pounds of baits and tackle and one rod tube.....
Aaron Christel said:Good write up Ron! I does a good job of painting an image of what you did.
Here is a question for you: what was your boat and travel situation? Did you drive down and did you take your boat? I was wondering if there was a Nixon's boat running around down there. -
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Austin- During the tournament all the fish I weighed in where caught on a Zoom Magnum shakey worm (green pumpkin) rigged texas drop shot style with a 2/0 rebarb hook and a 1/8 oz. quickdrop sinker.
Austin Heyer said:Ron i was also curious as what type of baits you were running down there.
Once again congratulations and a great write up. -
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Permalink Reply by David Parnicky on
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Thanks for the write up Ron! Very cool!! Congratulations again!! That was an unbelievable performance!! I bet it must have been hard to sleep after finding that honey hole on the last day of practice! It was a blast following the tournament and having a great angler from back home to root for!
I remember watching the first day weigh in and assuming you had caught your fish off of deep brushpiles. I was shocked when I found out otherwise. It always amazes me how the best anglers are always able to find a pattern that works well for them regardless of what everyone else is doing or what the "predominant" pattern is. I guess it goes to show how far the assumptions that we as anglers make before we get to the lake get us.
So my question to you is, was there any point on the last day of the tournament where you went and fished some of the deep brushpiles you found in practice? Or is it one of those deals where once you have thouroughly worked your pattern on the last day, there isn't enough time for a despiration move like that to matter and its better to just keep sticking to the original plan? That might be kind of a rediculous question and feel free not to answer. I was just curious as to how you attacked the last day. -
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Permalink Reply by Shawn O'Connell on
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Thanks for the run down Ron, it was very exciting for all of us to see you do so well. That's great that Jeff handled the boat situation so you could concentrate on whoopin some ass!
My question is how were you feeling day to day as the tournament went on and did you have to make any adjustments? -
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David- Basically I was behind by 4 pounds going into the last day, so I knew at minimum I would need 17 or 18 pounds to win. I could only drop one spot, so the last day I tried to run around the lake fishing shallow to try to catch a bag of largies.... if it would've came together I would've been really rich, I am pretty sure I could have caught another 10 -12 pounds off the same area I was fishing but why not gamble 5K for a chance at 600k? That was my thought going into the last day. I had chances that day to do very well, but lost fished and spooked fished, killed me.
David Parnicky said:Thanks for the write up Ron! Very cool!! Congratulations again!! That was an unbelievable performance!! I bet it must have been hard to sleep after finding that honey hole on the last day of practice! It was a blast following the tournament and having a great angler from back home to root for!
I remember watching the first day weigh in and assuming you had caught your fish off of deep brushpiles. I was shocked when I found out otherwise. It always amazes me how the best anglers are always able to find a pattern that works well for them regardless of what everyone else is doing or what the "predominant" pattern is. I guess it goes to show how far the assumptions that we as anglers make before we get to the lake get us.
So my question to you is, was there any point on the last day of the tournament where you went and fished some of the deep brushpiles you found in practice? Or is it one of those deals where once you have thouroughly worked your pattern on the last day, there isn't enough time for a despiration move like that to matter and its better to just keep sticking to the original plan? That might be kind of a rediculous question and feel free not to answer. I was just curious as to how you attacked the last day. -
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Cool! That makes sense! Thanks!
Ronald Hobbs, Jr. said:David- Basically I was behind by 4 pounds going into the last day, so I knew at minimum I would need 17 or 18 pounds to win. I could only drop one spot, so the last day I tried to run around the lake fishing shallow to try to catch a bag of largies.... if it would've came together I would've been really rich, I am pretty sure I could have caught another 10 -12 pounds off the same area I was fishing but why not gamble 5K for a chance at 600k? That was my thought going into the last day. I had chances that day to do very well, but lost fished and spooked fished, killed me.
David Parnicky said:Thanks for the write up Ron! Very cool!! Congratulations again!! That was an unbelievable performance!! I bet it must have been hard to sleep after finding that honey hole on the last day of practice! It was a blast following the tournament and having a great angler from back home to root for!
I remember watching the first day weigh in and assuming you had caught your fish off of deep brushpiles. I was shocked when I found out otherwise. It always amazes me how the best anglers are always able to find a pattern that works well for them regardless of what everyone else is doing or what the "predominant" pattern is. I guess it goes to show how far the assumptions that we as anglers make before we get to the lake get us.
So my question to you is, was there any point on the last day of the tournament where you went and fished some of the deep brushpiles you found in practice? Or is it one of those deals where once you have thouroughly worked your pattern on the last day, there isn't enough time for a despiration move like that to matter and its better to just keep sticking to the original plan? That might be kind of a rediculous question and feel free not to answer. I was just curious as to how you attacked the last day. -
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I will put it this way if there was you never heard about them. I know Brian Travis was and he was sitting in the top 10 after the second day he only caught I think two on day 3
Mike Bess said:Was there anyone else on a shallow pattern? If so, how did they do? -
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Permalink Reply by D.J. LaRoche on
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Very nice write up Ron. We were all very proud of how you represented Washington. Nice Job!
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Permalink Reply by Ben Hanes on
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Ron,
Good job. I think you went with your instincts which obviously you have honed to near perfection. I haven't read everything on the tournament, but based on your write-up from above, where did you spend your time fishing during the four days? Did you lose fish that would have made a huge difference? Any adjustments you could have made in highnsight that would have secured the win?
Excellent Job...Now I just wish I didn't have to keep competing against you all the time! LOL, not really, tough competition makes us better. -
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