Well, I thought I would let you all in on my BFL experience. To date, I have not had a SINGLE good BFL for weather and this one was no different.
I had gone out to Jim's (aka Bassinfool) house a few weeks ago to prefish while fishing a small club tourney he had going on. I had never been in that area of Lake Ontario before and was pleased when I took 4th, especially since Jim won it within sight and the guy who took 2nd was also in sight. I had found my money spot. However, it was a 35-40 mile run for Clayton in the St Lawrence where we were launching and it meant I had to go out into the main lake around some islands to get there.
I knew I needed to find some fish in the river in case the wind blew so I went up to prefish Thursday and Friday. I brought along a friend who is the rec director for Plattsburgh and is in charge of bringing tourneys to Plattsburgh. He is knew to tourneys and started fishing BFL's as a co-angler to better understand the tourney mentality.
Anywho.....I poked around that stinkin river for 2 whole days and all I had to show for it was 1 largemouth about 3 lbs that chased my jig from a boat house right next to the launch (which I knew would be fished HARD by everyone else) a few pike, one small smallie that chased a jerkbait, and my rider got one small largemouth. Nothing really at all.
We fished tons of AWESOME looking structure. We fished humps and shoals that went from 12 feet down to 40 feet. We fished ledges, points, rock piles, boat houses....TONS of awesome looking boat houses and docks, weed beds, and anything else you could think of that normally holds bass.
We fished shallow, deep, fast, slow, big baits, finesse baits. I fished spinnerbaits, top water, jerkbaits, carolina rigs, drop shots, rattle traps, deep diving crankbaits, shallow crankbaits, wacky senkos, and more.......NOTHING!
So when I asked Jim on Thursday night he said, "Oh, don't fish in the river, there's never really any fish in there!" HAAAAA And that's the story I got from all the locals and 95% of the tourney guys at the meeting.
So I had but one choice, I HAD to run to my spot out on the lake. Called my wife during dinner Friday night and the liarchannel.com (aka: weather.com) predicted SW winds at 12 mph. OK, worst possible direction but mild enough that I could make it.
Well as usual, they were WAY, WAY, WAY off! It was SW winds at 25+ mph and when I hit that mouth of the river, I was in 10-12 seas. We would dissappear into troughs and only see water on both sides. All but one other boat that had started heading out with us turned back. I DID make it to my spot.....in 3 hours! I had only 2 hours to fish my spot.
On the first cast, I turned the handle 4 times and BAM.....3.5 lb smallie!
10 casts later, I get a 4+ lb smallie to the boat and it comes unbuttoned. My co-angler (who by the way is a member here, John Foster from Boston...super nice guy) realizes that this is a pretty darn good spot and that perhaps the 2 hours would be adequate.
Now when I had decided to make the run anyway, I did so figuring that the wind would die down. Well it never did. It got worse. John caught 2 small largemouth and lost a big fish. I lost another big smallie and had a big one chase it to the boat. In the protected bay I was in, there were still 4-5 foot rollers. I just could NOT hold the boat on the spot where the fish were.
I still wanted to get John back with his 2 fish as he was in 22nd place for points for the year and only 2 fish on a tough day would probably put him ahead of a LOT of other co-anglers and help him get some points. So I knew I needed gas before going back. We went to a marina to get gas. When I went to pump it, the pump was crawling at a pace that a snail could beat. The lady says, "Oh yeah, we just had the tank filled and the line has air in it.
I pumped for 10 minutes and only got 5 gallons. So we
I had gone out to Jim's (aka Bassinfool) house a few weeks ago to prefish while fishing a small club tourney he had going on. I had never been in that area of Lake Ontario before and was pleased when I took 4th, especially since Jim won it within sight and the guy who took 2nd was also in sight. I had found my money spot. However, it was a 35-40 mile run for Clayton in the St Lawrence where we were launching and it meant I had to go out into the main lake around some islands to get there.
I knew I needed to find some fish in the river in case the wind blew so I went up to prefish Thursday and Friday. I brought along a friend who is the rec director for Plattsburgh and is in charge of bringing tourneys to Plattsburgh. He is knew to tourneys and started fishing BFL's as a co-angler to better understand the tourney mentality.
Anywho.....I poked around that stinkin river for 2 whole days and all I had to show for it was 1 largemouth about 3 lbs that chased my jig from a boat house right next to the launch (which I knew would be fished HARD by everyone else) a few pike, one small smallie that chased a jerkbait, and my rider got one small largemouth. Nothing really at all.
We fished tons of AWESOME looking structure. We fished humps and shoals that went from 12 feet down to 40 feet. We fished ledges, points, rock piles, boat houses....TONS of awesome looking boat houses and docks, weed beds, and anything else you could think of that normally holds bass.
We fished shallow, deep, fast, slow, big baits, finesse baits. I fished spinnerbaits, top water, jerkbaits, carolina rigs, drop shots, rattle traps, deep diving crankbaits, shallow crankbaits, wacky senkos, and more.......NOTHING!
So when I asked Jim on Thursday night he said, "Oh, don't fish in the river, there's never really any fish in there!" HAAAAA And that's the story I got from all the locals and 95% of the tourney guys at the meeting.
So I had but one choice, I HAD to run to my spot out on the lake. Called my wife during dinner Friday night and the liarchannel.com (aka: weather.com) predicted SW winds at 12 mph. OK, worst possible direction but mild enough that I could make it.
Well as usual, they were WAY, WAY, WAY off! It was SW winds at 25+ mph and when I hit that mouth of the river, I was in 10-12 seas. We would dissappear into troughs and only see water on both sides. All but one other boat that had started heading out with us turned back. I DID make it to my spot.....in 3 hours! I had only 2 hours to fish my spot.
On the first cast, I turned the handle 4 times and BAM.....3.5 lb smallie!
10 casts later, I get a 4+ lb smallie to the boat and it comes unbuttoned. My co-angler (who by the way is a member here, John Foster from Boston...super nice guy) realizes that this is a pretty darn good spot and that perhaps the 2 hours would be adequate.
Now when I had decided to make the run anyway, I did so figuring that the wind would die down. Well it never did. It got worse. John caught 2 small largemouth and lost a big fish. I lost another big smallie and had a big one chase it to the boat. In the protected bay I was in, there were still 4-5 foot rollers. I just could NOT hold the boat on the spot where the fish were.
I still wanted to get John back with his 2 fish as he was in 22nd place for points for the year and only 2 fish on a tough day would probably put him ahead of a LOT of other co-anglers and help him get some points. So I knew I needed gas before going back. We went to a marina to get gas. When I went to pump it, the pump was crawling at a pace that a snail could beat. The lady says, "Oh yeah, we just had the tank filled and the line has air in it.
I pumped for 10 minutes and only got 5 gallons. So we
