What’s up Team Salmon and AAA?  I’m back with another southern Utah bass report.  Since my last post I’ve been fishing the club hard and ended up winning Angler of the Year for the second straight year in our local club.  I then decided I was gonna take a step up and fish with my friend Judd, who I fish with almost weekly now, in the Ultimate Bass Team Tour in the Southern Utah Division for the 2011 Season.  Which just happend to start in November 2010.  The November tournament was not good.  We got 15th out of 21 teams.  It was a really windy, cold, miserable day.  The lake was not producing any big fish for anyone.  2lbs was the difference between where we were and like 4-5th place.   

  We took the loss hard but we could have done well with one decent fish, so we were really right there, just didn’t get the quality bite that day.  We prepared hard for the December tournament.  It’s damn cold, water is in the high 40s, so we knew the bite would be tough.  But we had our spots and just had to stick to the plan, be paitent, and execute.  Down here on this lake the format is your best 4 fish by total weight.  Because of the laws we have to do a double weigh in.  Each team will weight their best 2 fish over 12 inches at midday and then another 2 fish at the end. 

  We start out in the morning 17th in the blast off, but nobody hits our first spot.  We work the spot for hours.  Judd got our first two fish on a blade.  Perfect, now we need to upgrade.  One is a rat and one is just past rat stage.  We keep at it and I just can’t get bit.  Finally a switch up and catch a fish.  Cull out the rat, but these two fish are not winning fish.  We keep on down the bank.  I switch up again to the jig and let that soak.  Reel up slack and feel weight.  I set the hook and fish on.  Short while later we land the 5.11 lb fish.  The stress is over for now.  We try our best to find another big one before the first weigh in to no avil.  We weigh in with a total of 6.45 lbs.  Head back out and go to our 2nd spot.  This time we were like 5th out so we got our second spot no problem.  The bite just died.  I’m working the jig with confidence after catching the big one, and nothing.  Finally I just decide it’s time to switch to a spinnerbait.   I just bought this blade and got it in the mail the day before.  It is the most perfect bluegill blade I’ve ever seen and just knew it would work, but I still hadn’t caught anything with it, until I picked it up again and I casted it out and let it sink 35ft to the bottom and them I started slowly turning the handle making sure the blade never left the bottom and bumped every blade of grass and every branch down there and a few handle turns and BAM!  Fish on.  Landed the Big Fish of the tournament. 5.26lbs.  We try not to flip out, but we were now in the driver seat.  We never get bit again the rest of the remaining 3 hours.  We were stressed that not catching a 4th fish would hurt us but we squeaked out the win with 3 fish and 11.71 lbs.  What a way to end the year and start the 2011 season off.  Now we have to keep at it continuing in February thru June.  We’ll see how we stack up at the end.  My best day ever winter bass fishing for sure!

Oh, here’s a galley of the big fish I’ve landed this year.