drumking, River Park Nick, Bass, CFF #2 First Place, March 23, 2013, Bent Rod

[FishNews]

Bent Rod (Rick Stacey) talked me into coming out of retirement and fishing a couple of CFF bass tx with him this year. Last month, we almost froze to death and didn't catch a fish. What a difference 3 weeks makes. emoDance <br /><br />The morning started off in a little rain and for the first hour plus, Rick and I fished deep with jigs, worms, and swimbaits. When that did not produce a single bite, we switched gears and went shallow. It paid off. Rick was fishing a jig and I started slow rolling a tandem willow leaf spinner bait and landed our first keeper. It was a little spotted bass, but it gave us a clue to what/where the fish might be.<br /><br />Shortly thereafter, I landed a 2 lb 6 oz largemouth bass and within 5 minutes, Rick landed a nice largemouth over 4 lbs. Another 5 minutes and I landed a nice Smallmouth bass over 4 lbs. Rick caught another bass but we couldn't cull with that one. It was only 2 lb 3 ozs. We were able to cull our little spotted bass. <br /><br />After 30 more minutes of fishing this area, we shifted to the other side and right off the bat, I landed the big fish that we needed to win the tournament. A 7.13 pound largemouth bass and I thought for a while that it might hold up for big fish for the tournament, but just got nosed out by a 7.19 lb beauty.<br /><br />Other than a large drum, and a couple of smaller bass that didn't help, and one white bass, we went fishless the rest of the day. Nothing landed the last 2 or 2.5 hours. <br /><br />We were very fortunate to be able to win this tournament without doing any practice at all, but relied on old favorite spots for the fish and they were there. There are some outstanding fishermen in this group, so for us to win this thing is an honor and I thank you guys for letting me fish with you. Thanks Rick, you are the best. Our winning weight was 15.28 lbs on 3 fish.<br /><br /> emoBig emoGeezer