Well I went up to fish Jordanelle for a change [
] and seen they were having a tournament for bass...
I didn't want to get in any ones spots so I would watch them go through a place then I would hit the same spots...
It was funny to see how fast they fished through a cove or down a bank, they were catching a few but left plenty for me..
The wind came up about 11:30 and I left at 2:00 so I don't know who took first or was it second...[
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Great day and lots of fish and fun...
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CLIFF I THOUGHT FOR SURE YOU WOULD GO TAKE THEIR MONEY, THATS WHY I DIDNT FISH IT. I DONT LIKE FISHING FOR SECOND.[
] CALL DAYBELL AND LET US KNOW WHO WON AND HOW MANY BOATS, I HEARD 16?
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I counted 13 boats but there could have been others...
To fish that tournament you needed a non boater to sign up with you...
First place was 16 or 18 lb, they did it in inches and used a board to figure weight or something like that..By my scales I had only 14.8 lb with a 19" largemouth for my biggest and two three lb smallies and two others at 2+ lb...
I got 20+ bass 12" and over then lost count it was a fun day...
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what were you fishintg with at jord. to catch them bass
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I fished in it. 1st place won it with 18lbs. Of course, like you said Cliff, we used this conversion chart that said how many pounds/ounces a certain length of fish would be. Seemed to me as though this chart was meant for well-fed Southern-strain largemouths. haha. According to the chart a 16 1/2" bass was supposed to weigh 3lbs 1oz. Sorry, but I've never caught a 16 1/2" smallmouth that was even close to that...maybe right at 2lb, but that's about it. Not that it really mattered, because even with real official weights I don't think that standings would've changed much.
The guy who won it was fishing a spot loaded with big smallies that ebass and I had also found on Saturday. We must've caught about 20 big smallies off it in an hour or so. Unfortunately, due to the luck of the draw, he was ahead of me in the launching order and beat me to it. I decided to go for broke and fish a spot where I'd caught two largemouths over 3lbs and see if I couldn't get a big sack of largies. That plan didn't quite work out though as they just weren't there in the numbers I'd seen them in on Saturday. We spent most of the day trying to do that. I lost one about 2lbs at the boat and my non-boater pulled in a 3lber, but that was it. All I could do after that was scratch together a smaller limit of smallies.
They key to catching so many smallies on this lake isn't necessarily your lure choice as much as it is location. Once you find where they are stacked up...they'll eat a wide variety of baits...but obviously some will still be better than others...
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I was fishing with what else [
][
] drop shot gulp minnow and a senko type bait...
I watched others go down a bank and get nathan and I could pick up one or two bass...
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Way to go nice win[
], how long was your fish???
And what did you get them on???
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Sorry Cliffy-boy...read it again...I didn't quite win. I only could've won. haha. The guy who won it beat me to the honey hole as he was ahead of me in the launching order. Luck of the draw. However, when I fished that spot last Saturday and knocked 'em dead...I was drop-shotting a Robo Worm. Same thing I used when I fished with you in that night tournament on Jordanelle last year. Most all of the fish on that little spot were 14-18".
The guy who won on Saturday at that same spot also got big fish, but I'm not sure how long it was. The conversion chart said it was like 4lbs 3oz though. So from what I remember of that conversion chart, it was probably right around 18".
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Great job! It seems as if whenever there is a tournament locally, there is always someone who didn't fish it and did much better than anyone in the actual event ... I wonder why that is?
Oh, I know ... because we LIE!
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I can try to answer that for you since you must be talking about me cause of what I wrote..
And one good reason is we are not in a great rush to fish a spot and in some cases we slow down and work a spot more than someone who is fishing a tournament...
And its no lie just fact...Did you fish that tournament ??? Or even at Jordanelle that day???
Lots of others have seen what I say I do, and three boats that I ask to fish behind seen me do what I said I wrote...
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I fished with bassrods about 1 month ago and now in my boat I have two rods rigged dropshot w/mojo weights and I also have the senko's he is talking about rigged also. That day me and cliff fished east canyon and we caught alot of smallies using gulp minnow and senko's. I used his dropshot senko rig and caught a big black crappie. Took the 4" senko rigged wacky at pineview.... imagine the crappie doing that... Pic of crappie is on last friday's post from fishfinder462(or 426). Cliff dont have to lie about fishing all you need to do is get invited on his boat with him and he will just fish like he does and clean house......
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Generally drop-shotting is a numbers bait, tourney guys blast through an area with a reaction bait trying to pick off the most aggressive fish first. Quite often the largest fish is the most aggressive. They aren't out there to catch 20 fish per day, they only need the right 5 bites. If you convert those opportunities then you get paid, if you don't, well there is always the next one. A guy may blast through an area at first light picking off the easy ones then return later on to work the area more throughly. Always exceptions to the rule, but If you don't fish reactions baits your not going to cash very many checks in the tourney game.
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Good call. I know a lot of guys who use the gulp minnow dropshot rig. Seldom during a tournament. Numbers VS Size?
Cliff ... is this why you don't fish many tournaments?
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Re;"we used this conversion chart that said how many pounds/ounces a certain length of fish would be. Seemed to me as though this chart was meant for well-fed Southern-strain largemouths. haha. According to the chart a 16 1/2" bass was supposed to weigh 3lbs 1oz"
On of the things I enjoy about fishing Jordanelle is observing the difference in body shapes and weight among smallies of the same length. I'm know it is true elsewhere, but the X allows one the chance to score multiple big fish on the same trip with a higher regularity. All smallies of a given length there are not even close to equal in weight. One of the fattest smallies I have ever seen was only an even 17 inches, but she looked like she had swallowed about 4 ducklings. I got an 18er last week that was way over the "average" 18 inch fish, and looked more like a grouper. Conversely, others are "below" average on occasion. .Additionally, this year, it does seem to me that the bigger fish do seem to be in particularly good shape.
I would agree with you though that the chart you described does seem a bit generous.
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I agree, but with the current regs in place it is the best option we have right now. The purpose of the length vs. inch conversion chart is to prevent 5-12" 1lb [60"] fish from beating 3-16" 3lb'ers [48"]. It is about as even as the field can get without physically weighing the fish.
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No I use drop shot to catch bigger bass and it does most of the time...
And to say that drop shotting don't cash checks you are so wrong, and right...
Many pros.. have done real well fishing that way, but nathan works all the time....
I don't fish tournament any more cause I don't like paper tournaments, and back a few years ago I had a law ready to go that was approved by the "DWR and others" to let us hold tournaments on all waters of this state and bring them in to be weighed...
The state BASS Federation said no!!!They did not want anyone to know when they was going to have a tournament or have that banner on there motor...So now they don't have live weigh inns.....
And about every year they chang the rules from what the other tournaments have...
And so I won't fish there tournaments....
I have more fun just fishing...
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[mad] I know what you mean, a few years ago I made a proposal at a RAC meeting to allow catch and release tournaments on Utah's reservoirs. After I gave my presentation (which was well researched and well presented) to the board, a rep. from the Utah Federation stood up and said they weren't with me and they didn't agree with me. I couldn't beleive it. Thanks for the Support!
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Just for the record, I'm not complaining about the conversion chart we used, I was just pointing out that I seriously doubt 1st place ACTUALLY had 18lbs. Probably more like 12-14lbs. Like I said, even if we had official weights on these fish, I'm sure that the standings would have remained pretty close to what they were. At least for the top 3 places with who finished in the money, and that's all that really matters. I definitely don't like the paper tournaments that are solely judged upon the length of the fish.
Personally though, my favorite way of conducting the paper tournaments is by using hand-held digital scales.
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Well now this is an interesting topic. This is definitely a discussion that I would like to hear both sides of the story on...
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