2nd Place 5,000 dollar win!

This past weekend we headed down to Lake Ouachita for the FLW National Guard College Fishing Regional Qualifier and we placed 2nd out of 40 teams. The finish earned our Bass Club 2,500 dollars and our school another 2,500 dollars as well as double qualifying us for a birth to the National Guard College Fishing Regional Championship.We brought 5 fish to the scales that weighed in at 13lbs 4 oz to fall short of first place by less than a pound. It was so hard to come so close to winning the tournament when the winning fish was on the line numerous times throughout the tournament.

Who knows the amount of time we put into this tournament with our map study and finding out as much information as possible about how the lake fishes. We had a game plan going into the tournament to target pre-spawn and post spawn bass that were staging on secondary points. We decided not to sight fish because we didn't get the opportunity to practice to locate bed fish as the lake is a good 11 hours away from campus. I put a little over 2,000 miles on my truck this weekend. If you factor in that College Fishing tournaments are rather short, just 6 hours, we thought it would be best to try and target staging fish in hopes of getting into some schools to give us our limit.

To start the day I had a variety of baits and rigs tied on. Up on the front deck I had a Megabass jerkbait, an OMEGA 5/16th oz watermellonseed jig, a carolina rig with a lizard, a methiolate floating worm with the New Honey Hole Hook from Naked Bait Company, and an OMEGA Savior shakey head. My partner Mike had similar setups on his rods.

Out the gate I decided to start with the jerkbait and cover some water in hopes of getting into a couple of active fish in the morning. We ran east to fish a well known creek on the south side for spring bass action and I started towards the mouth of the creek on a secondary point. Within the first 10 minutes or so I put a 4 and a half pounder in the boat on the jerkbait. I was working it really fast and not letting it sit for more than a second. The next little pocket I hooked up with another keeper that pulled off. The fish were slapping at the jerkbait and it was hard to keep them hooked up. That 4 pounder clued me in big time on what we needed to be doing. I fished around this pocket and I was able to put a second keeper in the boat on the jerkbait while just smoking it down the bank. We ran to similar points and areas in the creek and I had a couple of smaller keepers that managed to throw the jerkbait. I was making long casts and fishing really fast trying to be efficient.

After all the strikes I was generating it wasn't long before we were both throwing Megabass jerkbaits and covering more water. That is the thing about fishing a jerkbait verses a floating worm. You can cover so much more ground with a jerkbait and that is what we needed to do as we were unfamiliar with the lake. The wind started to pick up big time out on the main lake, the sun was starting to peak its way out, and with a little down time in the action we decided to make our way out to the main lake to fish some windy points. We headed up towards point number 5 just down the lake a little ways. From what I gathered in my research from looking through online reports it's a well known point for stripers. The whole key to the point is that the channel swings into it and the point comes way out offering a shelf for bass to move up on and feed. When we got to this point I was able to put my third keeper in the boat a 2lber. It was at this point that I moved to the back of the boat and we switched up jerkbaits.

Mike was up front now and with my Cosmic Shad Megabass tied on, he was able to put his first keeper in the boat, a 2 and a half pounder. He caught it out of a wind blown pocket just around the point where I'd boated my third keeper. What we noticed about the area was that some kind of pollen was really thick at the edge of the water. We put two and two together and realized that the points with a lot of pollen on them had more baitfish and were the ones that were getting hit with wind the past couple of days the most.

It was then that we put it together and started point hoping on the main lake looking for rocky points with tree pollen blown up on them. The points that had some type of wood on them were even better. We stopped on the next point up lake on the way back towards the marina and Mike was able to get his 2nd keeper in the boat a lil chunky 14 incher. I continued to catch fish out of the back of the boat. We were around fish all day long. I caught a couple of 1lb crappie, a couple of nice walleye, and hooked into what looked like was a 50 pound drum. If I was a crappie guide I would be making a good living. Mike caught a nice hybrid too on the jerkbait and some white bass. It's amazing we never lost one of those high dollar jerkbaits to all these toothy strong fighting critters. We caught a bunch of pickerel in the morning too when we were fishing shallower. It's just that time of the year when everything is putting on the feed bag.

Hitting the trolling motor on high we kept hitting points and at about 12:15 pm I put another 4lb plus fish in the boat on Mike's stardust shad Megabass as well as another keeper. It was great to cull out a 14 incher with a 4lber! We tried to get Mike his 3rd fish but it just didn't work out. We headed to the scales to weigh my 3 biggest and Mikes two keepers.

The crazy thing about jerkbait fishing is that it's all about the cadence and I was doing something that just couldn't be matched. The way I was working it was triggering strikes.
We were the last to weigh in as they thought we had a shot at winning and it was just exciting to be up on stage weighing fish in front of a nice crowd of spectators. Some of them were just out enjoying a day at the lake and had gathered around in awe of a college tournament.

The tournament was another great experience that was only made possible by all the hard working people at FLW Outdoors and the National Guard. My hat goes out to all the people involved in College Fishing. The opportunities available to us college anglers through this tournament trail is incredible! Also I would like to thank my sponsors for all their support!

Terminal Tackle:
AiRRUS 6'9" Ultra XL rod medium heavy, 12lb fluorocarbon line, 7.1 Abu Revos, Megabass Jerkbaits

My next tournament is the BFL at Lake of the Ozarks and then it will be off to Kentucky Lake for the last College Fishing Regional Qualifier so stay tuned! Good Fishing and God Bless!

Right Rod/Reel for the Job

A big part of being successful in tournament fishing or any kind of fishing is maximizing your efficiency and that comes down to having the right rod and reel for the job. Having the right set up for whatever technique you are fishing will allow you to have a better presentation and allow you to focus on catching fish rather than working against your tackle.

If you are just getting started in bass fishing make sure that you invest in the best equipment that you can afford from the start. It will save you a lot of headaches and money down the road when you need to upgrade or replace cheaper equipment that breaks down. I have been fishing with AiRRUS rods for a while now and if you are looking for a dependable rod with a ton of high performance features you need to check out the rods they have to offer. AiRRUS rods have never let me down.

If I had to pic one rod and reel set up to cover a majority of the techniques I fish it would have to be a 7 foot medium heavy rod with a fast action and a high speed baitcast reel with a 6.4:1 ratio. The rod is perfect for throwing spinnerbaits, crankbaits, jigs, plastics, and buzzbaits. The length and action give you power to make long casts and take up line quickly on the hook set. A 6.4:1 reel gives you a balance of power and speed to keep you in control of the fish as well as to bring your bait in quickly to make another cast.

There will be times when you need to throw some smaller offerings at the bass like shakeyheads, smaller crankbaits, and spinnerbaits. In these situations I like to use a 7 foot medium action rod with a fast action. The length and action of the rod will give you the ability to cast these baits a long ways with added feel and sensitivity. Everything seems to work better if you use lighter line with these techniques and having a softer actioned rod will keep you from breaking off fish on the hookset as well as when you get them closer to the boat.

If you can afford to branch out your arsenal a little, be sure to get a couple of 6 and a half foot rods in medium and medium heavy action. Shorter rods will help you if you are fishing in tight areas or around docks where casting accuracy is everything. Shorter rods are great when you are making short roll casts to standing timber with a spinnerbait. If you find yourself doing a lot of crankbait fishing you might want to try some slower speed reels like a 5.4:1 because you will get more power out of these reels which helps out a lot when throwing large crankbaits like DD22's. For flipping and pitching I really like to have a high speed 7.1.1 ratio reel because I can make more flips in a days time because I can get the bait in faster to make another flip. If you ever get a chance to fish for river bass a high speed reel is a necessity. Those river bass are so mean and fast that you will lose a lot of fish if you do not have it to catch up to them.

1st Place Heavy Boat on Thousand Hills Lake

Practice: My partner Paul Emmerich and I got out to do a little scouting on Thousand Hills during the week. We mainly checked water temperatures and for baitfish activity. I had a couple of spots that I wanted to check out and we shook off a couple of fish. The game plan going into the tournament was to fish jigs and plastics deeper in clearer water in the morning up by the dam and then to move to the dirty water once the sun got up to take advantage of an afternoon spinnerbait bite.

Tournament: The day started out pretty good as Paul was able to connect with a keeper on our second spot of the day. The fish was a little ways off the bank and fell victim to a brush hog. We caught a couple of shorts and decided it was time to move to our next spot. which was a channel swing bank that I have done well on in the past this time of the year. With the water temperatures in the mid 50's to start I knew some fish would be hanging out on it. We pulled up to it and I managed to snatch up two nice keepers off a rock pile on an OMEGA 5/16th oz jig. I modified my jig a little using the Naked Bait Co Skirt Expander. One of the things I did to make the jig more productive was put a couple of rattles in it and add some purple into my skirt. The trailer I was using was a Netbail Paca chunk in Alabama craw. That combination works really well out on Thousand Hills. We fished a couple of more staging holes managing to catch only shorts and we decided it was time to make the move down to some dirty water. The sun was beating down and there wasn't a whole lot of wind so we thought it would be best to head for some dirtier water in hopes of getting a couple on a spinnerbait. We moved to a channel swing where fish usually sit waiting to move up to spawn this time of the year and Paul was able to get his second keeper in the boat. It was a 4lber that smashed his spinnerbait. After fishing a bit without getting another bite we made short trip to a similar area and I was able to bag the 5th keeper that went about 3lbs on a black spinnerbait. I only caught the fish because I saw a shad getting chased and was able to capitalize on the moment by throwing my spinnerbait into the area. At this point we were running out of time and had about an hour left to go. We made a short trip again and fished a flat and a back channel swing which resulted in just a couple of more shorts. While I had higher hopes for the fishing our 5 keepers that went 12lbs and some change were good enough.

Terminal Tackle:
7' Medium Heavy AiRRUS Co-Matrix casting rod, Abu Revo Stx, 20lb test (Jig)
6'9'' Medium Heavy AiRRUS Ultra XL rod, Abu Revo Stx, 20lb test (Spinnerbait)

Mizzou's Scott Dooley and Truman's Spencer Clark Team Up for a Thomas Hill Smackdown

Just like other college sports, college bass fishing has it's rivalries. Over the past year or so since Mizzou University started up a bass club they have become one of Truman State's biggest rivals. At Truman State we are always looking to beat everyone but there is certain satisfaction that comes from being able to beat the kids from Mizzou. Over the past year or so I've gotten to know Mizzou's Scott Dooley but we've never fished together. On this April fool's day we both decided at the drop of the hat to skip class and head out on Thomas Hill Reservoir to try and load the boat with some big ol' bass. The weather was perfect, air temps in the 80's with plenty of sunshine and some wind. Things were just setting up to have an awesome day.

We got on the water about 1pm. Scott fired up his Evinrude outboard and we headed down towards the hot water arm. The water temps were in the high 60's to the low 70's when we got down. On the deck Scott had a couple of spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and jigs. I had a couple of different OMEGA jigs in the 5/16th to 7/16th oz size in black and blue, texas craw, and black and chartruese with a Paca Chunk trailer in green pumpkin or alablama craw with the tips died in Spike- It. I put a couple of Naked Bait Co rattles on my jig too to give it that extra sound to make it easier for the bass to find it. Since we just had a full moon, I knew that the bass would be keying in on the crayfish and was looking forward to be able to fish the way I like to fish. I love to fish a jig and I was just chomping at the bit to get to rip some bass from the bushes.

We had a game plan going into the day to stick to flipping shallow bushes and it turned out to be very productive. Scott was able to boat a couple of keepers with one of them going over 5lbs and another one in the 4lb class as well as a dozen shorts. Out of the back of the boat I didn't get as many because Scott was doing a good job of not missing much. The ones that I got were quality. I put one pushing 5lbs in the boat and another one about 4lbs on the jig and one about 2 and a half pounds with a handful of shorts. We were having so much fun that we ended up fishing till dark. Most of the fish we caught were probably spawning or guarding fry. All of our fish were caught on a jig. While it can happen on any lake the great thing about a power plant lake is that you can fish different areas of the lake to key in on fish in certain stages of the spawn. If you are looking for some fast action make a trip over to Thomas Hill just south of Macon, Missouri. Don't forget to tie on your OMEGA Jigs and you won't be disappointed! www.omegacustomtackle.com


Terminal Tackle:
7 Foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Co-Matrix Casting Rod, Abu Garcia Revo Baitcast High Speed, with 20lb Fluorocarbon Line.