Hot June day on Pine Lakes

This past weekend I spent about 4 hours on the Pine Lakes with good friend Zach Maxfield.  I've known Zach since he was 9 years old.  I taught him 4th grade, and we have kept in touch ever since.  He is now in his twenties and has become a force to recon with on the local bass tournament trails.  I would like to say that I have been a mentor to him, teaching him as much as I can on the water and we have had some great times fishing and just talking about fishing.

It is always fun to fish with Zach, as he tends to fish much like me, and his equipment mirrors mine too!  Quantum rods and reels all the way!  We headed north to Pine Lakes near Eldora around 2:30pm.  We started on Upper Pine Lake and had some success, mostly on crankbaits.  We caught about 20 bass, but all of them were around the 12-inch mark.  We decided after about 2.5 hours to head down to Lower Pine Lake.  We packed up quick, loaded the boat on the trailer and had it floating on Lower Pine in about 10 minutes.
Back to work, trying to figure out what the bass wanted.  Right away Zach had his shallow crankbait working, hooking up on several small fish.  We caught about 15 total bass on this lake in about 2 hours.  We did switch things up a bit, and caught 2 nice solid keepers.  A 16 and 17-inch bass feel to a jig presentation around rock and wood.  I was using a Green/Pumpkin Jig with a Melon/Red Hot Rod Baits Jig Chunk attached.  This combo looks great in the water, you just have to see it!

A great quick day on the water with a good friend catching bass...sometimes things just work out!

Double up weekend

This past weekend was a greatly anticipated one, but a busy one for sure.  Two things were on the agenda, Saturday fish an "I-BASS" tournament with partner Doug Chaloupek, second, direct a Hot Rod Baits tournament at Brushy Creek on Sunday. 
Saturday morning started early...2:30AM as I made my way to Doug's house so we could get to West Lake for the 5AM blast-off of our tournament.  Doug and I did not do well in our last I-Bass event, so we needed a good one.  I practiced on the lake last weekend, which is my last BLOG entry.  It went well and thus the anticipation of the tournament was immense!  We finished the day in 2nd place and got 2nd big bass.  A cool $500 came our way for those accomplishments, thanks most in part to the 4.85# bass that Doug caught that day!  More importantly we made up some ground in the "Team of the Year" race, which is our overall goal.  Our plan was a good one, and we made some key on-lake decisions that led to our limit of 3 bass that weighed 11.50 pounds.

Myself and I-Bass partner Doug Chaloupek with our
limit of three bass that weighed 11.50#.

After collecting our money we were off on the road for another 90minute trip straight north to Brushy Creek.  I was not fishing this event, just directing the event.  I had 17 teams signed up for the 5:30am blast-off on Sunday.  Things went without a hitch, and the tournament was a big success.  My good friend Dave Jordan and his partner Don Peart won the Hot Rod Baits tournament with over 15 pounds and my good buddies Zach and Kelly Maxfield came in 2nd with over 15 pounds too.  It was great to see these guys have a great day and collect some money of their own.  After a quick cleanup of tournament materials, it was one more 90 minute trip home.  A busy weekend, but looking back...WELL worth it!