ABA, WBS, Central Regional – 09/26-27/14 Lake Chickamauga

[fishermanfrank]

ABA, WBS, Central Regional – 09/26-27/14 Lake Chickamauga Recap



Man, that was a crazy 3 days of fishing. Chickamauga was in that funky stage in between Summer and Fall patterns. It caused these fish to not be in a feeding mode. The little bites you did get were mostly short fish or the fish would short strike the lure and miss it. Fishing as a Co-angler I had no other choice but to fish the absolute best I can with the given conditions.

Day 1: I drew a guy from Central Tennessee and we fished isolated grass mats at the mouths of pockets main lake pockets all day long. These little isolated grass patches showed some signed of life when we would see some fish jumping at the points of these mats. After fishing these isolated mats of Grass for nearly 7 hours on day 1 my boater managed to catch one 2 pound keeper largemouth punching the mats. I tried a little punching after that but just wasn't confident in it so I stuck with the frog. So for most of the day we both gave these fish 2 different looks and finally at noon on day 1 that 4.69lbs Largemouth clobbered that Frog
I had 3 blow ups on the frog and saw 1 of them good to notice it was at least a 2 or 3 pound keeper but didn't get a hook in it. But the landed one of the 3 bites
Most of the activity I was seeing was on the edges of the grass but the 4.69lbs largemouth actually clobbered that frog in the middle of all that grass. Talk about your heart skipping a beat!! So that was the only 2 fish that took ride with us to weigh-in on day 1.
That 4.96lbs Largemouth had me sitting in 12th place out of 115 going into day 2.
64 of 115 Co-anglers ZEROED on day 1. Just crazy tough fishing.

Day 2: I drew a guy from the Kentucky division and we fished main lake points with chunk rock most of the day. After a while we made a little run to flip jigs at some boat docks he caught his 2 fish from the day before but no takers. So we headed back to chuck rock points and bluff walls towards the rest of the day. We found one little chunk rock point at the mouth of a main lake pocket where there was some fish stacked up. We both caught nearly 30 fish there but were all shorts... We left there and fished a few more areas and then tried fishing it again. And we both started catching fish again and still shorts. Then I set the hook on a decent fish and was a largemouth that measured 14-3/4" and the limit for largemouth was 15"... That little fish was FAT. It probably weighed 2.5lbs but just wouldn't measure. I tried both sides of the fish just wasn't enough so I had to release it. After a while I was thinking to myself we haven't tried the point on the other side of the pocket (about 100 yards to the other side). I told my boater about trying it out and he said we will try it in a little while.. Well, before we knew there was a local that came up and fished that point and as they were casting along the point one of the guys set the hook and got the net.. We asked them how big is it and they were getting there scale out. It weighed 5.1lbs.... Man that stung. We talked to them for a minute and they just got on the water an hour before and combined already had a 5 fish limit including the 5 pounder... Both my boater and I couldn't believe it. Come to find out they were throwing Chartreuse and white spinner baits right along the banks. It made a little sense because these were good areas for the transition. As the day progressed it was looking like we would both zero but about an hour left I caught that 12.5" spotted bass and that fish put me over the cut line and officially finished 17th out of 115 Co-anglers for a $307 check. My boater zeroed. So, out of 8 boaters this season 4 of them zeroed and I still caught at least 1 fish behind them Caught those fish on day 2 with the dropshot roboworm combo.
That was a lot of hard work for sure butt it all paid off because I qualified to fish in a no entry fee 4 day Ray Scott National Championship at Wheeler Lake November 12-15 and a chance to win $50,000!!
Thanks everyone for the love, support, and encouragement it all really means a lot. I couldn't do it without my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, family, and friends.
A big shout out to my travel buddy and link to all of the ABA WBS Tournaments this season Matt West. You have been such a blessing being one of my closest friends, fishing buddy, and mentor for things both on and off the water. It was a special blessing how we first met when my mother, grandmother and I decided to randomly stop at West Point lake and saw signs for the Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament going on. So we rolled in there and happened to be the same time as they were weighing in. This was the first EVER tournament I have ever been to in person. When I decided to walk to the release boat the one person I ended up meeting was you. What are the chances of that? God does things in mysterious ways sometimes. I can't even put into words how thankful I am to have met you. You are the one that got me started on tournament fishing and can't wait to see where it takes me. It was a pleasure traveling and pre-fishing together this season. Those moments cannot be replaced.
It has been an amazing year with many blessings and with many more blessings in store.
God Bless

Early PDF Results: www.americanbassanglers.com/BWS/results/869.pdf

There was a Heartland Anglers 2 day tournament out of the same ramp the Friday and Saturday the week before that had 362 boats!! It was tough fishing for them too.

[wcr149]

Congrats Frank. Great to see you doing well out of the back! Good luck at Wheeler in November.

[fishermanfrank]

Thanks bud!!
It should be a fun event at Wheeler.
I can't wait!!
Lots of school work between now and then.
Just have to keep working hard.

[1kicker]

Great report and wish you well at Wheeler.