baseball_guy_99
Well-known member
My dad and I fished the Murphysboro Chamber of Commerce Buddy tournament this past Saturday (10/1) on Kinkaid Lake in Southern Illinois.
42 Boats
5 Fish-16" Length Limit
6:30am-2:30pm
Air Temps--44-63 degrees.
Wind- N to NW 10-15mph
Water Temps-65-70 degrees
Water Clarity-Lightly Stained
Just a little preview of the days before the tournament. Wed was mostly cloudy with temps in the lower 80s. Thursday was partly cloudy, windy, with temps again in the lower 80's. Friday was clear, windy with temps in the mid 70's.
Take off temp was 44 degrees with clear skies.
We had takeoff #32 (determined by entry). Started off flipping texas rig plastics at deep lay down logs. My dad caught a 14 1/2" on about the 3rd cast. No other bites on this method. Around 7:30am we switched to fishing crank baits and carolina rigs on windy main lake points with grass in 6-10' of water. After catching a few short fish on a shad colored Bomber Fat Free Shad, I threw across the tip of the grass point. About 2 cranks and my lure stops! I set the hook and the fight is on...almost immediately the fish is swimming directly at the boat and coming up! I just knew for sure it was a bass. About 10 seconds into the fight, the fish jumps...about a 42" Muskie!!!!! Not at all was I thought it was nor what we wanted it to be. After about a 10min fight, we net it, and try to get my crank bait back. He had it about 6 inches down in his mouth, so there was no way to get my crank bait back. We cut the line and toss the muskie back in.
That was my only crank bait in that size, so I switched to the smaller Fat Free Fingerling in the same color. About 10 casts later I hook into the 1st keeper of the day. 17 1/2" Largemouth (We think the muskie was a blessing in disguise because I would have never switched to the smaller crank bait). Almost immediately after I get the keeper in the livewell my dad caught one on a carolina rig that we thought for sure was going to be our second keeper of the day...but to no avail, we couldnt get it to bump...15 7/8"!!!
I continued to throw my crank bait all the while catching a small one here and there. My dad did pick up one more short fish on the carolina rig. So he tied on an older balsa wood crank bait in a shad color. It was a little deeper diving crank bait. We fished around another point and decided to try another spot. I reached down and grabbed the trolling motor rope to lift it up...it broke! So luckily my dad had a spare rope. I told him to keep fishing and I would fix the rope. 2 casts later, he yells at me to grab the net. He lands our second keeper of the day 18" largemouth (Again we think the trolling motor was a blessing in disguise HAHA because if it had not broke, he would not have made any more casts).
So we think we are doing pretty good with 2 keepers in the boat by 9am. Boy were we wrong! At about 11:00am the wind switched from the N to the NW and our bite completely shut down. My dad managed to pick up another short fish on his crank bait before getting snagged on a deep stump and breaking it off. I didn't catch another fish on my crank bait but did manage to catch some short ones on a carolina rig.
With about 45 mins to go, we made a drastic move to a huge flat with some grass on it. 1st cast, my dad lands a 15" on a spinner bait. Next cast he catches another short one. I decided to grab my Ribbet frog because I notice alot of fish busting shad out on this flat. In the last 30 minutes I bet we caught 20 fish...and none of them were keepers. So we headed into the weigh-in with just 2 keepers.
Our weight was 5.68lbs with our big bass weighing 3.09lbs.
As stated before there were 42 boats. So they paid out 7 places and 8th place got a free entry into next years tournament along with 1st place take off.
1st place---5 fish limit weighing 13.63lbs
2nd place--5 fish limit weighing 13.05lbs
3rd place---4 fish weight 12.17lbs
4th place---3 fish weighing 10.97lbs
5th place---3 fish weighing 10.01lbs
6th place---3 fish weighing 8.73lbs
7th place---3 fish weighing 7.55lbs
8th place---3 fish weighing 6.33lbs
We finished in 9th place! 1 out of the winnings.
We knew the guys that got 1st, 2nd, and 5th. The guys that won said they didn't have a keeper in the boat until 11am...after the wind switched directions. The guys in 5th didn't have keeper in the boat until 1:30pm. When the wind switched, they switched to wind blown flats throwing scum frogs at stumps. They said fish were stacked all over these stumps chasing shad. They said the water was so shallow where they were fishing, they couldn't get within 40 yards of the stumps they were throwing at. The guys that won said they were basically doing the same thing but throwing buzz baits. The guys that took 2nd said they caught there 1st keeper right off the bat on a buzz bait. Then didn't catch another fish until noon when they started catching them on wind blown flats on a spinner bait.
42 Boats
5 Fish-16" Length Limit
6:30am-2:30pm
Air Temps--44-63 degrees.
Wind- N to NW 10-15mph
Water Temps-65-70 degrees
Water Clarity-Lightly Stained
Just a little preview of the days before the tournament. Wed was mostly cloudy with temps in the lower 80s. Thursday was partly cloudy, windy, with temps again in the lower 80's. Friday was clear, windy with temps in the mid 70's.
Take off temp was 44 degrees with clear skies.
We had takeoff #32 (determined by entry). Started off flipping texas rig plastics at deep lay down logs. My dad caught a 14 1/2" on about the 3rd cast. No other bites on this method. Around 7:30am we switched to fishing crank baits and carolina rigs on windy main lake points with grass in 6-10' of water. After catching a few short fish on a shad colored Bomber Fat Free Shad, I threw across the tip of the grass point. About 2 cranks and my lure stops! I set the hook and the fight is on...almost immediately the fish is swimming directly at the boat and coming up! I just knew for sure it was a bass. About 10 seconds into the fight, the fish jumps...about a 42" Muskie!!!!! Not at all was I thought it was nor what we wanted it to be. After about a 10min fight, we net it, and try to get my crank bait back. He had it about 6 inches down in his mouth, so there was no way to get my crank bait back. We cut the line and toss the muskie back in.
That was my only crank bait in that size, so I switched to the smaller Fat Free Fingerling in the same color. About 10 casts later I hook into the 1st keeper of the day. 17 1/2" Largemouth (We think the muskie was a blessing in disguise because I would have never switched to the smaller crank bait). Almost immediately after I get the keeper in the livewell my dad caught one on a carolina rig that we thought for sure was going to be our second keeper of the day...but to no avail, we couldnt get it to bump...15 7/8"!!!
I continued to throw my crank bait all the while catching a small one here and there. My dad did pick up one more short fish on the carolina rig. So he tied on an older balsa wood crank bait in a shad color. It was a little deeper diving crank bait. We fished around another point and decided to try another spot. I reached down and grabbed the trolling motor rope to lift it up...it broke! So luckily my dad had a spare rope. I told him to keep fishing and I would fix the rope. 2 casts later, he yells at me to grab the net. He lands our second keeper of the day 18" largemouth (Again we think the trolling motor was a blessing in disguise HAHA because if it had not broke, he would not have made any more casts).
So we think we are doing pretty good with 2 keepers in the boat by 9am. Boy were we wrong! At about 11:00am the wind switched from the N to the NW and our bite completely shut down. My dad managed to pick up another short fish on his crank bait before getting snagged on a deep stump and breaking it off. I didn't catch another fish on my crank bait but did manage to catch some short ones on a carolina rig.
With about 45 mins to go, we made a drastic move to a huge flat with some grass on it. 1st cast, my dad lands a 15" on a spinner bait. Next cast he catches another short one. I decided to grab my Ribbet frog because I notice alot of fish busting shad out on this flat. In the last 30 minutes I bet we caught 20 fish...and none of them were keepers. So we headed into the weigh-in with just 2 keepers.
Our weight was 5.68lbs with our big bass weighing 3.09lbs.
As stated before there were 42 boats. So they paid out 7 places and 8th place got a free entry into next years tournament along with 1st place take off.
1st place---5 fish limit weighing 13.63lbs
2nd place--5 fish limit weighing 13.05lbs
3rd place---4 fish weight 12.17lbs
4th place---3 fish weighing 10.97lbs
5th place---3 fish weighing 10.01lbs
6th place---3 fish weighing 8.73lbs
7th place---3 fish weighing 7.55lbs
8th place---3 fish weighing 6.33lbs
We finished in 9th place! 1 out of the winnings.
We knew the guys that got 1st, 2nd, and 5th. The guys that won said they didn't have a keeper in the boat until 11am...after the wind switched directions. The guys in 5th didn't have keeper in the boat until 1:30pm. When the wind switched, they switched to wind blown flats throwing scum frogs at stumps. They said fish were stacked all over these stumps chasing shad. They said the water was so shallow where they were fishing, they couldn't get within 40 yards of the stumps they were throwing at. The guys that won said they were basically doing the same thing but throwing buzz baits. The guys that took 2nd said they caught there 1st keeper right off the bat on a buzz bait. Then didn't catch another fish until noon when they started catching them on wind blown flats on a spinner bait.
