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Today, we fished on the Queen Mary. That's the name given for my boat when I showed up with three angles (plus me) to fish a bass tourney out of a 21" CC.
I was honored that my crew, Patrick Cosgriff, Thai Tran and Dan Stroup, opted to stay and fish on the QM instead of going on one of those fancy, shiny, fast bass boats that were there aplenty. Apparently, there were three boats with open seats!
So we put in....
....and staged just like a real tourney!
Wait, this was a real tourney! So off we went....
.....not really knowing where to go!
Thai took care of de-skunking the boat when he landed this on a shaky worm...
...and proceeded to do it again on the next cast! Two in the live well, we are on our way!
Things slowed down significantly so we made a move. Dan started to get the hot hand with a crank bait, but his bass was too small.....
....and this channel cat id not count!
Then I got hot, catching this one deep....
....and then catching one right on the step of a ladder in less than 2 feet of water.
Then Patrick catches a nice one and we started getting a little exited.
But we couldn't get on a pattern. i will let the anglers tell you more on how they caught theirs. By the way, when we started, the water temperature was in the mid to high sixties and by the time we got to the nuke center....
.....the temps were 77-78! Kinda cool how the guy in the white truck just left it there, trailer in the water, while he fished for a bit!
How often do you see three guys fishing off the front of a bass boat?
Time was starting to get away from us so we wanted to work as many docks and points as possible. Working the trolling motor on my boat (stern) is near impossible so we managed the best we could and the crew was just happy to be able to get the lure in the water. Thai got a nice strike out in the mouth of a particular cove so we fished around the area for a bit and as we drifted, his rod bends into the water as he fights a nice fish! I got the assist by netting this 5 lb 13 oz behemoth!
Here she is again!!
I think Thai was a happy man and so were the rest of us.
We finished out the day with Dan catching the non keepers, me catching 2 small keepers, Thai catching three fish including Fat Boy and Patrick catching four fish.
On to the weigh in we go, full of anticipation……there were 35 anglers in the tourney…. 5-6 of them being guests.
The winning angler had a catch of 5 bass and 9+lbs.
To makes along story sorter, Thai came in 5th Place in his 1st tourney and won the Big Lunker Award as well.
He gets no money but he can sleep with pride tonight! Patrick finished in 13th place and I was in twenty something place. We also say mudkart, purpleworm and redskinsfan360 and they scored well too.
Today was just great…..excellent weather and an excellent crew! We had a good time, fished hard and came home with a bit of sunburn.
It just does not get any better than that!
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Looks like y'all had a great time..........
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It was a great time indeed......and it was nice to finally get the boat back in the water!
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It was a great time, thanks to Ernie for inviting us out and being as gracious as to work TM the whole time, the fishing was hard as we all knew little to nothing about the warm side but we all managed to get on some fish! The queen mary deff proved themselves to be a worthy adversary to all those guys in their shiny new bassboats!
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Very nice! super jealous~ Kinda glad I didn't go with you guys or there would have been little excitement since I'm in a slump and can't catch fishhhhhhhh. Thai's still on fiyyyyyyyyyya!
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I got to fish out of one of those 'fancy bass boats' but the fishing was still tough. Caught 5 and a bluegill, but only weighed in 2. It was a lot of fun!
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Thanks for the boat ride Ernie. It was great to get out there and fish uncharted waters (for me at least). I landed all four of my fish on a shaky head warm which is typical for both the cold and warm side. Clear water, no wind = super slow presentation.
Lucky #13th place...pair that up with a 5th and a 23rd and we did pretty well on the Queen Mary's bass tournament maiden voyage!
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Even though I didn't catch any keepers I still had a lot of fun. I don't think any of us would say that we really had any where close to a concrete pattern figured out so I thought I'd get some experience throwing a deep diving crankbait, hoping that I'd happen into a nice fish or two. Didn't happen. I'm determined to get better at deep cranking this year. I think I only made 40-50 casts throughout the day with something other than a crankbait.
Thanks Ernie!
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I think if we had found some deep isolated rock piles you coulda done well with the crank but we stayed shallow most of the day
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Kinda, but I was fishing that crankbait which dives about 15' and in a lot of places I wasn't even hitting bottom. I was really only digging it into the bottom when we got near the shore and I was throwing it along the shallow/deep transitions. I was surprised how little cover that lake had. Besides the occasional stumps there didn't seem to be much of anything! Even the rip rap walls didn't continue very far below the water surface
Last edited by Dominion Dan (Mar-21-10 8:15PM)
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Dominion Dan wrote:
Kinda, but I was fishing that crankbait which dives about 15' and in a lot of places I wasn't even hitting bottom. I was really only digging it into the bottom when we got near the shore and I was throwing it along the shallow/deep transitions. I was surprised how little cover that lake had. Besides the occasional stumps there didn't seem to be much of anything! Even the rip rap walls didn't continue very far below the water surface
Both sides of Anna are pretty much the same in terms of underwater structure and water clarity (below the 208 Bridge on the cold side). If we had cloud cover and some wind, the fish would have been more active and your crankin would have been the pattern. Regardless, it is great to build the skill set. Also, though it may be a DD22, unless you are fishing it on 20lb Flourocarbon, it won't hit the depths you want it to. They should recommend line weight for best diving action on the package.
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Official results:
LAKE ANNA COOLING PONDS, March 20, 2010
NAME # PAID FISH LIVE WGT RANK
John Crunkilton 4 X 5 5 9.1 1
Alan Frilles (G) 17 X 4 4 9.1 1
Sam Robinson 1 X 5 5 8.6 2
Mark Cary 7 X 5 5 7.8 3
Ron Anzelone 3 X 5 5 7.3 4
Gene Hayman 14 X 4 4 7.3 4
Thai Tran (G) 12 X 3 3 6.8 6
Jeff Palmer 5 X 5 5 6.7 7
Jim Stebbins 8 X 4 4 6.3 8
John Decker 1 X 5 5 6.2 9
Fran Steinbauer 2 X 4 4 6.0 10
Anthony Vining 13 X 5 5 5.9 11
Donnie Hendrix 4 X 5 3 5.0 12
Dannie Bingham 11 X 4 4 4.8 13
Patrick Cosgriff (G)12 X 4 4 4.6 14
Charlie Taylor 16 X 4 4 4.6 14
Vinny Fenerty (G)15 X 3 3 4.0 16
Carl Brown 5 X 3 3 3.7 17
Charlie Hill 7 X 2 2 3.7 17
Jim Feagans 10 X 3 3 3.7 17
Tingyu Li 10 X 3 3 3.5 20
Mike Luparello 6 X 2 2 3.3 21
Wayne Turner 16 X 3 3 3.3 21
Don Neidig 2 X 2 2 3.1 23
Mark Light 6 X 2 2 3.1 23
Mike Burkhart(G)13 X 3 3 3.0 25
Jonnie Bingham(G)11 X 2 2 2.9 26
Jack Wallace 9 X 2 2 2.2 27
Dave Smith 17 X 2 2 2.1 28
Ernie Rojas 12 X 2 2 2.0 29
Jack Brown 3 X 2 2 1.9 30
Dave Redding 8 X 2 2 1.9 30
Gil Coshland 9 X 2 2 1.9 30
Joe Donoghue 14 X 1 1 1.5 33
Dan Greenfield 15 X 1 1 1.5 33
Dan Stroup (G) 12 X 0 0 0.0 35
TOTALS 36 $360 113 111 158.4
BIG FISH WGT.
Thai Tran (G) 5.0
Sam Robinson 4.4
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It looked good when I was editing it......
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I just picked up some deep diving crankbaits from Dick's. I'm determined!!
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Dominion Dan wrote:
I just picked up some deep diving crankbaits from Dick's. I'm determined!!
Go fishing with Mark Light! He is one of the NHBA members (Mike L. fished with him). He is the master of the DDCB. He also wants to learn how to use soft plastics....
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CozUF2001 wrote:
Dominion Dan wrote:
Kinda, but I was fishing that crankbait which dives about 15' and in a lot of places I wasn't even hitting bottom. I was really only digging it into the bottom when we got near the shore and I was throwing it along the shallow/deep transitions. I was surprised how little cover that lake had. Besides the occasional stumps there didn't seem to be much of anything! Even the rip rap walls didn't continue very far below the water surface
Both sides of Anna are pretty much the same in terms of underwater structure and water clarity (below the 208 Bridge on the cold side). If we had cloud cover and some wind, the fish would have been more active and your crankin would have been the pattern. Regardless, it is great to build the skill set. Also, though it may be a DD22, unless you are fishing it on 20lb Flourocarbon, it won't hit the depths you want it to. They should recommend line weight for best diving action on the package.
KVD will throw cranks on 10# flouro to get'm down
think he likes a 7', or more, fast tip, medium action glass rod as well.
( if I remember correctly )
The Bass Pros is a good program for techniques
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I know all the tv tips I just need to get some on the water experience.
I'm throwing them on 12 or 15lb line. I will go lighter if I really have to but for now I'm sticking with a little bit heavier line for the abrasion resistance and because I can pull up more snags and lose fewer baits.
The jury is still out on glass rods. Just not sure how I feel about them. I might try a moderate action graphite rod to see how I like them. I found a graphite rod at Dick's that is VERY moderate that I might have to test drive.
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Dan- next time you are over, try my old St. Croix Glass Rod. It really helps with the "bite" so you don't yank it out before they are hooked.
Those tips on TV? I want to see those guys fish our waters and see how they do. Remember, they pre-fish and then they fish for 3 straight days with lots of spotters.
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Which is exactly why I prefer to listen to their advice about what equipment works best (with a grain of salt of course) and then go figure out the best way to fish a technique on my own.
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Pacemaker wrote:
Dominion Dan wrote:
I just picked up some deep diving crankbaits from Dick's. I'm determined!!
Go fishing with Mark Light! He is one of the NHBA members (Mike L. fished with him). He is the master of the DDCB. He also wants to learn how to use soft plastics....
I fished the hot side of Lake Anna with Mark Light last year in the NHBA Tourney. He actually caught a 4+ on a DDCB fishing an old road bed. Mark loves moving baits but has a desire to learn the slower presentations (punching mats). He says he lacks the patience to slow down. It must be the marine in him. Mark's a great guy and I've been lucky enough to fish with him several times....though I haven't heard from him since I screwed up netting a 5+ for him.
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I am printing that off! What is tx and cb?
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tx=tournament
cb=crankbait
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Mike- nice job on the white paper
Rob- maybe he's forgotten about that 5 pounder......
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I think he has Ernie. We've actually fished together since. I was just making a joke about it. The really bad part was he netted to 5lbs for me that same day. I blamed the spinning setup that he was throwing the ribbit frogs on anyway. I thought it was too light and he couldn't really drive the hook home.
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One of the best anglers on Lake Anna uses a 7' medium light graphite rod with 6# monofilament line on his DD22s. He says that with the lack of cover in deep water, he can get away with using 6# line without fear of losing a good fish. Of course, he keeps his drag set very loose and plays the fish until they are completely docile.
At his urging I bought one of the rods and spooled it with 6# Ande monofilament. He is right! That lure will bounce bottom in 20' of water all day long with that outfit. However, my arm cannot take it for more than about 10-15 minutes. Then I have to switch to soft plastics or a slow-rolled spinnerbait.
Charlie...........
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