PREFISHING

After the serious butt whipping we received at Lake Wheeler, Lance and I decided that we would prefish this tournament and make a serious effort to learn about Millers Ferry prior to the tournament.  Well, Mother Nature had other plans. 

We made our trip 4th of July weekend and that turned out to be perfect timing to catch the Alabama River as it was flooding.  We made an effort to ride around and find useful information, but it was just impossible.   Some locals told us we were crazy for getting on the river with that kind of current and with that much debris floating down the river.  It was interesting.

As you can tell from these pictures, we ended up fishing IN THE WOODS.  What was usually the bank at full pool was 10 feet under water for the prefishing trip.  The bottom line was that we didn't end up learning much on our 4th of July scouting trip.

One pattern we actually tried to fish was to get right up by the woods and use heavy jigs to punch through the canopies of the trees...yes the limbs that are usually hanging over the water were deep under water for this trip.  That idea didn't really work and we ended up catching 4 fish on the entire trip.

Ahh, this is what the river is supposed to look like.  At least for the tournament the river was at a more normal level. 

Millers Ferry Hidden Cove.avi

(Click on hyperlink to view file). 

This is the entrance to a hidden cove.  We had to go through this small, tree covered cut to get into a huge protected area that was 15' deep.

Here is a video Lance accidentally shot while trying to take a picture.  It is a pretty cool feature on the camera and now that we know about it we'll have to start using it more often.

It looks like Russell found some nice backwater to fish during practice.  That is a nice tournament size largemouth. 

Looks like Bill and Russell prefished the main river too.  Notice the crane in the background.  Bill is very skilled at catching fish off of virtually any type of man-made structure.

Once again Lance and I lost the side bet and had to provide a 1st-class meal to Bill and Russell. 

And once again Lance, with no help from his partner, delivered big time.  Because it was a night tournament we had a steak and eggs brunch.

Russell unveils the TMTangler FLY ROD.  This is to become the coveted Angler of the Year trophy passed on from year to year. 

This was our first tournament with a BLAST OFF format. 

Bo and Lance elected to escape the swift main river current and fish backwaters with the gators.

Meanwhile Bill and Russell fished the main river for spots.  This is a great picture of sunset.

This was TMTanglers first night tournament. Unfortunately, right around dusk is when the fish bite completely died for both teams.

The bugs, however, bit well.

The mosquitoes aren't as photogenic as the mayflies, but rest assured plenty are in the mix. 

Notice the nice clump of hyacinth floating by in the background.  That stuff was floating all over the place.  It is a miracle there are any indigenous aquatic plants left on Millers Ferry.

Time for our shootout style weigh in.  It is possible to do this when you only have two boats in the tournament.  The fact that the club doesn't have a nice tournament scale is another reason we do it this way.

The problem with weighing all fish individually with a lbs-oz format is that somebody has to add all those weights up at 2:00 am when he is tired are ready for bed.  Lance got that thankless job this trip.  I know how hard it is to add lbs-ozs together when people are anxiously looking over your shoulder--it isn't fun.  THANK YOU LANCE.

This 4-3 (lb-oz) largemouth was caught by yours truly.  Unfortunately, this fish was gut hooked and was deader than a hammer by weigh in.  There was nothing we could do to save it.

Here is the unusual thing: I was using a crankbait, retrieving it as fast as possible with my high-speed Chronarch reel.  This fish ate the crankbait all the way down his throat.  It just goes to prove what Troy Jens says, "No matter how fast you retrieve it, it is still slow motion to a bass".  I now believe that.

Here is a beautiful 3-10 spot.

And here is another 3-10 spot.  Two are better than one anytime.

These are big spots and it had to be a thrill catching them in that swift current.  I'm told that Bill and Russell hooked fish this size every day.  This says allot about the fishery at Millers Ferry.

We have just started maintaining a TOP 10 BASS page.  This 2-9 bass barely made it to that page as the #9 entry. 

I'm fairly sure that, had we kept more accurate records in the past, we would see that many fish this size have been weighed in by the club.  So I don't expect this fish to remain on the TOP 10 board very long.

DAY 1 RESULTS

• Bo & Lance: 12 -13 (lbs-oz)

• Bill & Russell: 11-11

• Big Fish was the 4-3 largemouth that counted as 3-15 after the dead-fish penalty.

• No trash fish were weighed in.

For our little club, these are really respectable weights when you consider the fact that the bite completely died after dark.  For this reason each team arrived at the weigh-in expecting that their respective stringers would take a commanding lead in the tournament.  We were all quite surprised that it was this close.   Day 2 would not provide either team with a comfort-cushion lead after all.

CHOKE!!

Lance and I were unable to cull this little dippy 12 oz fish and it cost us the tournament. 

We were disappointed because we gave it our best shot.  But, if you can't smile about choking like this then TMTanglers isn't the right club for you.

DAY 2 RESULTS

• Bo & Lance: 6-14

• Bill & Russell: 8-12

• Bo & Lance weighed in a 3 oz warmouth to take trash-fish prize.

The bottom line is that Bo & Lance choked--again. 

 

 

FINAL RESULTS

• Bo & Lance: 19-11

• Bill & Russell: 20-7

• Trash fish: Bo & Lance, 3 oz warmouth.

• Big fish: Bo & Lance, 3-15 largemouth

This tournament confirmed my belief that for tournament fishing the largemouth patterns are more susceptible to shutting down than spotted bass patterns.  However, for our club, catching 20+ lbs of spotted bass for a 5 fish tournament is hard to do.   In my mind anytime you average over 2 lbs per fish with spots you've done an impressive job.  Congrats to Russell and Bill.  This make three wins in a row!

MORE MILLERS FERRY PICS

Buzzard's Roost This is Buzzard's Roost during the flood. I wish I would have taken taken another picture of this when the water was down. There are stumps everywhere!	Private Launch If you rent a cabin a Roland Cooper you get to use this private launch. We did not see anyone else use this ramp. It was a nice place to have the touranment.	The Fly Rod Russell is technically the holder of the fly rod from the 2002 and has a commanding lead for the 2003 season. Bill says, "so close yet so far away"...	Mayflies It is always nice to put your cup next to the black light so that a few dozen mayflies can garnish your drink.	How much proof do you need... ...to believe that fishing was slow at night? The fact that this picture was taken says it all.

 

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