Count your blessings!

Jmax

Active member
Thought I would post this pitiful tournament. Guys, I have not fished a tournament since moving here three years ago. For one thing the bass are so small compared to what you all have there it is not that exciting to go. One of my friends here who I fish with kept asking me to go with him to an upcoming tournament here on my lake at my home, Lake Balboa. emoRolleyes The fishing here has been poor also just like I have been told there. It has been tough to find a decent kicker. The tournament was the 50th Anniversary Tournament of Hot Springs Village which had several events celebrating this milestone.

There were some good anglers who showed up for this one but you sure could not tell it from the results. I saw FLW shirts on some of the guys and others who wore ABA shirts as well.(Arkansas Bass Assoc.) I told my partner we had some ringers appear to show up and the competition was much tougher then I had anticipated. There was a five fish weigh in per team with a 12 inch minimum length limit. It was only from safe light to noon so it was not that long of a tournament.

We fished our butts off hard for about five hours. The only thing I could get them to hit was a shakey. emoTongue (Sound familiar?) We boated 10 bass in five hours. emoRedface Only seven were over the 12 inches. All looked skinny. Had one barely 15 incher, 2- 14 inchers one 13 incher and had to weigh in one 12 incher. We had one other 14 incher that was bleeding badly and looked like it was going to pass on us and with a dead fish penalty we decided to cull it before it died. Never found a kicker, never even had a kicker or what we could call a good bass. emoScratch As we went up to the weigh-in I told my buddy to get ready to be humbled...NOPE! It was bad, our little five fish bag weighed a whopping 6.11 lbs. emoRedface To our amazement we led the tournament for a while. Then a team came up with 8.81 lbs, then a 6.61 and a 6.25. emoCrazy Most boats did not even bother to weigh, they had either one or two small bass or none. emoEek We took 4th place with our pitiful 6.11 bag. They paid six places. Big bass was a huge....2.87 lbs. Not even one three pounder was weighed in. emoConfused

I was just told how "Poor" the CBA results was yesterday. That only 21 something won it and it took only 11 something to get in the money. emoBigsmile Gang, COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!!!!

Miss you all, tight lines, there is a good Fall bite coming your way. emoGeezer Jmax
 

Strato-G

Active member
Did well, grats. Yep per it’s tough round here..seems they may be headed towards ur area...good to hear from u, stay safe"....... emoGeezer emoUSA
 

Nauticman

Active member
Nice of you to still keep in touch with the CFF!
 

Spinnerbait165

New member
I'll agree wholeheartedly. Since moving to Texas I really miss the TN river system and the options that are there that I enjoyed for so many years. Yes, we have many lakes here to fish, and the fish here seem to average a bit larger than there. But there is no substitute for the variety of structure and cover that TN reservoirs offer. Don't complain about the TN river. You have a great fishery there!
 
I catch smaller fish in East TN than you do in Arkansas..........

But you darn sure don’t have to worry about me moving to Arkansas! Haha. When purchasing my home, my #1 criteria was it had to be within 4-5 miles of a boat ramp on the TN river
 

ChooChooSnakeMan

Active member
Great to hear from you Jmax and congrats on the 4th. Not too shabby for your first tournament in 3 years. You didn't win but you got in the money!!! We are blessed and I'm not complaining, cause it won't do any good, I'm just making an observation ---- This summer was absolutely nuts on the Chick --- way more people than I've ever seen and not just on the weekends. I hope it is just Covid and that everyone didn't have anything to do and a lot of people who were working from home decided to work from their boat. Really good to hear from you. You know you and Linda can move back to Tennessee any time. We will let you back in emoLaugh and trust me with the numbers of boats on the Chick adding your Ranger won't be a problem.
 

Jmax

Active member
Thanks for the replies guys. emoGrouphug I love my home on the water and being back in my old woods hunting some of the offspring bucks of deer I have shot years gone by. But when it does come to fishing I wished I still lived there. emoToast Jmax
 

FishingwithRusty

Active member
congrats on the good finish! fishing has been tough everywhere but then again its that time of year, give another week or so and it'll get better. thanks for the report
 
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