Rinse and Repeat
Sunday, February 21st the Lake Placid Team Trail held its 7th tournament for the 2015-2016 year on Lake June in Lake Placid.
My partner, Nick Desanta and I fished the previous tournament, and finished in second place with a 7 1⁄2 pound bass that took the big bass jackpot.
We decided to fish the same area, using the same lure, the Weedless Wonder Shakey Head Jig with a Zoom Trick Worm. Nick had been using this jig for quite some time and he proved to me in the last tournament that it’s truly a remarkable jigT. wenty minutes after the tournament started, we had 5 bass in the livewell with one that was over 5 pounds. The fish were still there, and for the next couple of hours we caught and released several bass in an attempt to cull our smallest.
Around 8:30, Nick caught a nice 7 pound bass and as we culled one of our smallest from the livewell, we both knew we had a shot at winning the tournament if we could just get one more good fish.
At 10:30, I made a long cast into about 4’ of water and before the jig could fall to the bottom, a big bass inhaled it and made a huge run towards deeper water. I prefer using a spinning rod for casting small jigs and worms and this bass was giving my 7 1⁄2’ Denali rod a real workout.
I knew immediately that this was the bass we were looking for. Due to its size, it didn’t jump, but just seemed to break the water and shake its head. Three times she came to the surface before making a long run under the boat. My rod was doubled over and I was sure she would snap the medium strength rod as she bore further under the boat causing my drag to scream.
All I could think was that she would eventually come out, but could I get her back out from under the boat without her getting tangled up in the motor’s prop or in the electric motor shaft. But fate was on my side as I forced her out the way she went in and with one final head shake; Nick scooped her up in our net.
She was a real beauty, and we guessed her to be around 10 pounds. We were confident that we had 24 to 27 pounds and that it would surely be enough to win.
We continued catching small bass, occasionally culling to gain an ounce or two, but our weight didn’t change much through the balance of the tournament.
Around 1pm, John Woods came by and said he had three good fish. He guessed their weight to be in the mid-twenties, so we knew we wouldn’t be alone with 20+ pounds.
We pulled our boat up alongside John Huber and Ken Karoll, and as we prepared to put our bass into the bag for the weigh-in, Huber said he thought they too had a 20+ bag of fish.
It was a close race for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. John Woods, fishing alone had 25.96 pounds, for 1st place, winning $540.00. Nick and I had 25.42 pounds, plus big bass at 9.44, winning $320.00 for 2nd place and $150.00 for big bass. John Huber and Ken Karoll took 3rd place with 25.31 pounds, winning $210.00. Gary Wilt and Roy Clark came in 4th, just out of the money with 18.25 pounds.
68 bass were caught and all 68 were released alive. 17 teams participated and 13 weighed in 5 fish limits.
All in all, in was a great tournament! For Nick and I, taking second place two tournaments in a row, on the same lake, using the same lures, fishing the same area, and winning the big bass jackpot, Pete and Repeat seemed to fit nicely.
