Beyond the Scales - "Wondering on Watauga"

The TNCBA fished their ninth tournament of the year this past Saturday and while the fishing was slow, the quality of fish being caught was impressive. So lets look at how the night broke down for some of the anglers...

The tournament began at 7:30pm with about thirty minutes of daylight remaining. Kelsey Harvey was able to capitalize on the twilight bite and pick the Harvey's lone keeper on a green pumpkin finesse worm before dark...

Ryan Pope and Wiley Gobble had located some quality Spotted Bass during practice earlier in the week, but the timing was off during the tournament with the bass having already fed a little earlier in the day. Wiley was able earn the team 3rd place with his two keepers for 8.41 lbs. Wiley also took home big fish honors with a nice 5.49 lbs. Smallmouth. Gobble and Pope caught their fish on a magnum shaky head worm...

Wiley Gobble - 5.49 SM

Looking at some of the other fish caught, Robert Chatman and Jeff Banks finished third in the team competition with three fish for 8.59 lbs. which was anchored by Jeff's 3.92 lbs. Smallmouth. David Crockett also brought a nice Smallie to the scales a 3.73 lbs. All in all 6 of the 13 fish weighed eclipsed the three pound mark and three of those six eclipsed the four pound mark. It was a good night for big fish!

Cody Dison and Keith Dison took home the victory with six fish for a combined weight of 17.84 lbs. The Dison's began the tournament in a small creek not far from take-off, but quickly found the water unproductive after fishing the area with topwaters and spinnerbaits. They then moved out, following the creek channel, hitting swing banks as they made their way towards the main lake.

The Dison's then moved about a mile or so up the lake after dark and focused their attention on main lake, channel swing points and banks. The bait of choice was a small brown and orange jig with a small green pumpkin chunk trailer. All of their keepers came within 75 yards of the swing points. Early in the night the bites were coming in the 5-10' range, but as the night wore on the fish moved deeper as bites came in the 10-15' range. The Dison's final keeper was boated at 3:05am.

***My Personal Opinion***

Dad and I rotated three walls throughout the night...and only two were productive. Wewould catch one or two fish on one wall and then move on to the next, we never turned around and went right back down the same wall. It is very important to rotate areas where you know there are fish, and not keep running new water all night. These fish move up and down a couple times during the night, so as you keep rotating your walls you will finally connect. The technique that was getting us bit Friday night was a very slow, lift and drop...then we would let the bait soak before ever moving it again.

Thanks to all who came out and fished with us!!!!

"Breaking Down the AOY Battle"

2016 has not been the war of attrition that the TNCBA saw in 2015 when every angler zeroed on multiple occasions, and it has left us with an AOY race that could take many different routes to the championship...so lets take a look at some of the scenarios that could play out over the course of our final two events:

*All scenarios are not factoring in bonus points for Big Fish in the last two tournaments.

Scenario #1 (90%): Ryan Pope stays red hot and is your 2016 TNCBA Angler of the Year!
     702 is Pope's magic number. If Pope is able to amass 702 AOY points then he cannot be beaten...even if Bob Harvey wins the last two tournaments. Achieving that magic number of 702 will not be a simple task as Ryan will need an average finish of third place to ensure a championship. 

     Pope does have a little room to gamble with the three drops in place. Pope has only one zero on the year so he still has a couple of decent finishes to fall back on...if Pope were to have a catastrophic tournament he would pick up a 94. If this were to happen at our next tournament, it would put Pope in a vulnerable position. A 94 equates to a 7th place finish and means that Pope would have to win the last tournament on Boone to ensure victory. Pope's current hot streak will need to continue if he wants to walk away with this championship!

Scenario #2 (50%): Bob Harvey leans on his magical start and sneaks back in for the win!

     Bob Harvey lit it up at the beginning of the season, taking back-to-back wins and earning some critical bonus points. As that start cooled Harvey used up his drops in the next three consecutive tournaments. Harvey's max points (leaving out Big Fish bonus) is 701 points if he were to win the final two tournaments.

     Similar to Pope's situation, if Harvey were to have a bad tournament in the next event he would take on a 94. Harvey has to make up six points on pope over the next two events, so this is the point where your competitors become your friends. The more people that can finish between Harvey and Pope the better. With Pope having a 94 to fall back on...anything less than top three's to finish out the year will leave Bob going home without the trophy.

Scenario #3 (25%): Cody Dison rides the consistency train to victory!

     Dison has not blown the competition away with wins like the other two anglers, but he has found himself in third place by being consistent. Cody's max points for the year is 700 if he were to win the last two events. Cody has only picked up one win and two bonus point over the course of the year, but he currently leads the weight tie-breaker with 56.59 lbs. for the year.

     The one positive that Dison has is his fall back score. If all three anglers were to zero, Dison would gain three points on Harvey and Pope because his fall back score is a 97 to the other's 94. Cody is looking at a "Go Big, or Go Home," scenario...his fall back scores are good enough that in the last two tournaments he can shoot for the win or nothing. If Dison were to zero the last two tournaments, the worst score that he would have to pick up would be a 96. Harvey is only one point ahead of Dison so that is a reasonable gap to overcome fishing straight-up, but Cody will need Pope to falter twice to overcome that five point gap.

 

These last two tournaments are critical and present the anglers with polar opposites. The September event will be held in the darkness on Watauga Lake...the next and final event will take place during the day on Boone Lake. We will revisit these scenarios after the next tournament...

 

"Pope Doubles Up on Patrick Henry" - TNCBA News

Ryan Pope - 6.06 lbs.

Ryan Pope doubled up today on Patrick Henry, taking both the team and individual titles and placing a stamp of authority on the day with this 4 lbs. big bass of the tourney.

Ryan Pope and Jeff Carter worked their way around the small reservoir of Patrick Henry with a finesse worm and a jig. Carter brought one bass to the scales for 1.94 lbs. and Pope weighed two bass today for 6.06 lbs. and a combined total that gave Pope and Carter the team overall by over two pounds with 8 lbs. even. Second place in the team competition was hotly contested. Robert Chatman and Jeff Banks edged the Harvey's by one hundredth of a pound with 5.44 lbs. to the Harvey's 5.43 lbs.

The individual title was claimed by Pope with his 6.06 lbs. and he was followed by Cody Dison in second with 4.39 lbs. and Robert Chatman in third with 4.32 lbs. The angler of the year points are getting tighter and with only three tournaments to go, each event is going to be critical. The TNCBA will hold their next tournament on August 12 and this will be a hot lake that is to be voted on by participating anglers at the August TNCBA meeting.

Jeff Carter - 1.94 lbs.

"TNCBA Dock Talk - Patrick Henry Pond!"

During the early hours of tomorrow morning we will idle our way out on to Patrick Henry with one thing on our mind...HOW MUCH LONGER TILL WE EAT!?

I know it is hard to focus, but try to reign yourself in and focus on your fishing...what am I saying...go on and think about food...it is probably the only thing that is going to keep me going...

Patrick Henry is a lake that has trophy bass, but in my opinion, it may be one of the hardest lakes in the area to pattern. Water levels act almost like a tidal fishery with rises and falls of two to four feet on some occasions and the typically cold waters that flow from the base of Boone Dam, can have fish a month or so behind that of other local lakes.

With all that said think simple and keep a positive attitude tomorrow. Although we are in the heat of the Summer I will be fishing shallow cover, instead of deep structure. What is the difference between structure and cover though...glad you asked...when discussing structure we are talking about the lake bottom's contour...humps, points, ledges, etc. Typically with the heat of the Summer, this is where bass will gravitate, but there isn't a good contour chart of Patrick Henry and I don't know the lake well enough to go out graphing for points and humps that aren't on a map...so I will be fishing cover...cover refers to objects that bass can hide under, around, or in...trees, rocks, docks, etc.

During the Summer months, bass will use these pieces of cover for shade so tomorrow's weather will hinder a little of what I am doing. The morning calls for overcast skies and maybe some rain. When the day is sunny and bright, bass will get very tight to the cover for its shade, but cloud cover will cause the to roam. So what to do...I will still be pitching a jig to laydowns, but I will be sure to be throwing a squarebill crankbait as I move from one piece of cover to the next. I will have a black and blue jig on before daylight to create a larger profile. Then I will switch to a natural green pumpkin during the day.

If you find yourself fishing cover tomorrow, be sure to make several cast to the cover. During our practice on Thursday I made eight pitches to one piece of cover before getting bit...so annoy the fire out of them. Remember to keep thinking..."THREE BITES"...that is all it takes tomorrow. I think between 8 and 9 lbs. will win the individual competition tomorrow and somewhere around 13 lbs, will win the team side of our tournament.

FISH TILL THE LAST MINUTE!

I will see you all on the water in the morning!!!

Thursday Fishing Report - Patrick Henry

Water Conditions:     The water was in the upper 70's to lower 80's throughout the lower end of the lake. The lake has a slight stain to it and visibility of 2'-3'. There was decent current due to the rains that we have seen.

Weather Conditions:     The night before we had several lines of storms push through. The morning started of in the 60's and never rose above 75 degrees while we were on the water. The sky was overcast all morning with showers moving through all day. The wind was calm during the morning and then picked up to 10-15mph around 10am.

Fishing Notes:     We started the day off down the lake pitching a black and blue jig into lay downs and picked up two keepers before daybreak. Once it was light out we began throwing topwater and had a solid fish blowup on a buzzbait, but didn't take it. The shad spawn that was happening during the last report was over on the lower end of the lake. Other than the blowup on the buzzbait, we didn't have any other topwater action. We then started focusing on rock banks and docks with squarebill crankbaits and spinnerbaits and flukes. We had one keeper slap at a squarebill off the end of a dock and then caught a few short fish on a squarebill crankbait throughout the day. After focusing on docks and rocky banks, we moved back to laydowns and picked up one more keeper on a green pumpkin jig. Towards the end of our day threw worms on bluffs with nothing to show for it.

All in all we had three keepers on the day, but the bite was slow. Our quality fish have come on jigs the last two times out with smaller fish eating crankbaits. Laydowns have been key and the docks that we have gotten bit on were stationary.

Picnic Tournament this Saturday!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Fourth of July...

Picnic Tournament this Saturday!

 

Location: Patrick Henry Lake (Warrior's Path State Park)
 

Time: 5 am - 11 am (Honor Start)
 

Limits: 3 fish/angler   (12in. Spots and Largemouth / 18in. Smallmouth)
 

Format: AOY Points
 

Picnic to follow weigh-in!
 

Location: Pavillion #3 (see map below)
 

Time: 12pm - TBD
 

Need to Bring: Side and/or dessert and a drink
 

Dison's - Bringing Grill and Condiments
 

Crockett and Oiler - Bringing Paper Products and Flatware
 

Harvey's - Bringing Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, and Buns

 

***If you have a set of cornhole boards or other lawn games, please feel free to bring them.***

Early Patrick Henry Report...6/27

Green Pumpkin 1/2oz. Flipping Jig

Green Pumpkin 1/2oz. Flipping Jig

Time:     5am - 11am

Water Temperature:     80 degrees (down lake) / 65 degrees (up lake)

Water Conditions:     Slight Stain (down lake) / Clear (up lake)

Breakdown:     The morning started off very slow, but as we neared daybreak we caught a couple short fish on a small brown and orange jig...fishing bluffs. We then moved into a small cut down lake and noticed that a shad spawn was occurring around the rock and rip-rap. We had a couple blow ups on top, but no takers. The water temperature down the lake was in the 80's. After the sun got up, we ran way up the lake until we found good current and grass. We never got any bites up that way even though the current was flowing and I think it may have been the fact that the water temperature was in the mid 60's. We finally made our way back down the lake around 10am. At this point we had not had a bite in about four hours. We started keying on thick lay down areas where they were in the sun with a 1/2 oz. flipping jig in green pumpkin with a Pit Boss Chunk. We put three keepers in the boat in about 30 minutes and called it a day.

We are little less than two weeks out from the picnic tournament on Patrick Henry, but my initial thought is that a slow and very methodical approach will produce better quality and the shad spawn may be the key to getting a couple keepers early.

I will be out on the water a couple more times over the next week, so check back for more reports in the future!

 

Green Pumpkin 1/2oz. Flipping Jig

Green Pumpkin 1/2oz. Flipping Jig