My tournament partner and buddy Chris Adams also made the trip with me to fish the Open. I was fortunate to be able to travel up to Jasper a few days ahead of the tournament and learn a little about the lake and habits of these spotted bass. Growing up in Florida, you tend to grow accustomed to a few different types of bass fishing mostly consisting of throwing some type of soft plastic. It is pretty simple for me here in Florida. Clear water means I am throwing a green/watermelon worm. Dark water means I am using junebug colored worms. From the outside looking in, that sounds pretty one dimensional. But as most Florida bass fishermen know, it is hard to go wrong with soft plastics. My go to worms for casting are the Zman Saw TailZ and ZinkerZ. When flipping/pitching, I use the Zman Punch CrawZ and the new Palmetto BugZ. If you haven't tried the new Palmetto BugZ out, you really need to. They are going to be a dynamite bite for me next year flipping for the big spawning bass that always show un in the spring time.
Smith Lake was going to be different and I was excited for the challenge. Fishermen on this lake can expect to catch both largemouth and spotted bass on topwater, crankbaits, drop shotting and shaky heads. The lake was absolutely beautiful as well which made for very enjoyable fishing days. It is not often I get to fish in a creek that has waterfalls and rock cliffs with higher elevations than any spot in Florida.
I met up with my buddy Luke Gritter, who I met at the BASS Open in Florida. Luke and I fished together on the final day of that tournament where he finished in 6th place for the boaters. Luke is a former Elite Series pro and an excellent bass fisherman. We headed out on Tuesday to do some prefishing in a fog and misty rain that stayed with us most of the day. By 11:00 in the morning, I had already caught four nice keeper fish with three of them being spotted bass. The first two fish in the morning were caught on a Spook Jr. and Strike King 5XD crankbait. Throwing that crankbait was an experience enough for me because I rarely fish in waters deep enough to handle that 20+ diving bait. After moving around to several new places, I started throwing a Zman Shaky Head rigged with a Green Pumpkin colored FattyZ. This is a new bait designed by FLW Tour Pro and Zman Pro Luke Clausen. It was my first experience using it but I ended up catching the majority of my fish on it this day and during the tournament. I ended the day catching 12 fish with 5 of them being good keeper sized bass. I was pretty excited for this tournament to start after this. The only problem was fishing as a co-angler meant I had no idea where or how I would be fishing. Things did change come the tournament.
The day before the tournament started, Chris and I went looking for a local tackle shop to find some other lures we might need. As most fishermen know, there is always something you can buy to have in the tackle box. We stopped in Pat's Archery & Outdoors in Jasper and were immediately at home. Just like any other good small Southern town, the people in the store were all friendly and hospitable and willing to help you however they can. They even gave us a great recommendation on a local restaurant which we both enjoyed. I purchased several of the 4x4 Jigs which are manufactured in Alabama. I had never seen these Jigs before but loved the way they looked and were made. It was a good thing we purchased them because both of us caught several nice fish using them. I also purchased some 4x4 Black/Blue Jigs to use in Florida and am looking forward to trying them out this winter/spring.
Day one started out with the same kind of weather but the fog was worse this morning. The coolest site of my day was seeing two deer swimming across a creek as we fly by them heading to our fishing spot. Based on their reactions and the speed at which they turned around to head back to shore, they must not have ever seen two guys in a funny shaped object doing 75 MPH by them. Thank the Lord we did not hit them. We made about a 45 minute run to a creek in the north part of the lake. I realized quickly the type of fishing I was going to be doing this day was totally different than I expected. It was basically a shallow water creek/river and we just worked the laydowns and creek edge. I worked behind the boater of course trying to cast in areas he had not. He was working the creek with a Jig rigged with a Pumpkin trailer and caught many good largemouths. I did not have many good opportunities in there but I did catch my three bass limit on a Green Pumpkin/Blue FattyZ rigged Texas style and a Green Pumpkin 4x4 Jig rigged with a Zman ChunkZ. It was one of those situations where nothing else was working for me so I decided to fish like I would at home. The strategy paid off and I was able to salvage the day with a limit and a 50th place finish for the day. I was not very happy about where I was after day one, but in a tournament like this one where 50th and 10th were only separated by a couple of pounds, I was close enough to be able to move up quickly.
Day two is another story completely. As a co-angler, your success is somewhat hinging on your draw as a boater. I knew I was in trouble the night before we fished together because my boater told me he had no idea where the fish were. Per tournament rules, I could not give him any information on where I had fished previously. Unfortunately, the day ended up as I had expected because neither one of us caught a keepr sized fish. It was a frustrating and somewhat humiliating end to my Smith Lake trip but that is fishing. We worked hard all day and fished in areas that looked great to me. Nothing worked for us though and I missed my opportunity to weigh in a fish. Despite my disappointment, Chris had a great second day and made the top 10 to fish the final day. I was excited for him to be able to experience this as I know how much I enjoyed it at the Harris Chain Open. Chris finished up strong on day three and moved himself up to 5th place to take home a nice check. We had a great time learning the lake and competing together in this Open. Bass fishing in Alabama is some of the best there is to offer in the nation and I look forward to my next trip to Bama country.
The remainder of the year is going to all about learning some new areas in the Tampa Bay region for the upcoming season of the West Coast Pro Redfish Series. This is an exciting challenge for me and something I have been looking into doing for several years. I will still be fishing open bass tournaments next year to go along with the redfish tournaments. Look for some more reports/videos later this year of some of Zman's new lures for 2013 as well.
Tight lines!
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