here's the story (LONG)

[BJ Laster]

Here is the story of my BFL tournament on Grand this past weekend. Its very long, so if you just want to read about the tournament scroll down. I also wrote about my practice day.



Enjoy!



Practice day June 3, 2005



I put in Friday morning at City Dock in Grove, Oklahoma at 6:00 am. I started out fishing the east side of Wolf Creek. The water temp was around 76 to 77 degrees and the level was high. It had flooded bushes and flooded willows. I started by rotating between a shad colored Baby 1 minus and a white Red River buzzbait. I saw a few small shad jumping back behind a few bushes and around some shallow laydowns. I then switched to a

 

[BJ Laster]

Tournament Day-June 4



I woke up at 3:45 and uncovered the boat. We drove over to gas station and met up with my dad

 

[BJ Laster]

I lost too many fish today. I have always had a little trouble losing fish on crankbaits but never this bad. I

 

[BJ Laster]

I guess there is a limit on how big a post can be, i had to divide it up into three sections

 

[Greg Meyer]

BJ...



You weighed a fish!... That's always better than a "zero".

 

[Barry Loos]

Many times just weighing in fish is a great part of the tourny. Next time you could win it. Never, never, never, give up.



Da Bear

 

[Michael S]

BJ

First off congrats on the TX and fishing with the big boys sounds like a lot of fun. I know you did not say in your story what type of rod and reel you use for crankbaits or what type of line......but I would suggest made getting a softer rod for your crankbaits so you don't pull the hooks out. A lot of people will even go with glass rods for CB because of there flexiblity. and second what lb line did you have that kept breaking...and what type of knot do you tie on your cranks?

 

[BJ Laster]

JimBob, I was using my jerkbait rod. Its a Falcon 4-1-6 (4 power (medium light), 1 Piece, 6 foot) I use it for all of my jerkbaits and shallow running crankbaits. Like I said i've never had trouble losing that many fish so I dont think its the rod. I think I may have just been too excited that morning and to aggresive trying to get the fish in. I was using Berkley Big Game 10#.



I'm going to look into getting a glass rod or a Falcon 3 power rod.



BJ

 

[Michael S]

Yeah it could have been your adrenaline(SP?) flowing that caused you get a little to powerful with the fish....like you said you will need to get some practice in using cranks. Its pretty much habbit for me to get a fish on crankbait and point the rod tip toward the water and never raise it until the fish is in the boat or net....and if I feel like its a big fish I will even stick the rod into the water.....trying to keep the fish from breaking the surface of the water until I can get a net under it......all it takes is practice but don't worry I am sure you will be able to master it in no time.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Welcome to tourney fishing BJ. That's how it goes somedays.