Gary and I were fun fishing during the Spring River Ratz Open Tournament. We stopped at Furnace Bay first and things were kinda slow. We heard last week that 25# were pulled in this bay which won the tnx. I wouldn't have believed this since we only pulled 2 fish. Gary scored his first bass on a blue-purple T-rigged worm off a laydown. Then we went into this shallow area that didn't seem to be underwater in normal conditions. I caught a 2.5# bass on a white/chartreuse spinnerbait. This lure was modified with a #5 hammered nickel willow blade. This fish came off a fallen semi-sunken tree. We tried one more area in the bay and there wasn't anything happening. Then we went to the mouth of the Suskie by the railroad bridge with the sunken pilings. Right off I had a bass on the line with the Rebel craw crankbait, but it got off. I was cussing. The treble hooks have got to be changed out. Gary caught 2 more from the same general area on the Rebel craw. He had Gamakatsu trebles on his crankbait. I realized that I could've scored at least 5 more pounds in the Conowingo tnx if I had good trebles. I thought it was all about technique that I lost the 2-3 fish I had on. But after some research I realized it must be the hooks. I brushed my finger on the crankbait with the old hooks and my finger just slid by. I got a whole host of trebles from Dick's including the Gammies, Mustad KVD, and SureSet. For one thing, just increasing the treble one size up made a huge difference. With just a plain set of Eagle Claw #4 my finger was being stuck about half the time. Gammies and KVD faired better, but the KVD seemed the most consistent.

At the weigh-in the winners of the Open were fishing in Furnace Bay and pulled 25#. They said that they were using spinnerbaits and they pulled their limit by 7:30 and culled the rest of the time. Gary admitted there was one place we didn't try in the Bay.

A couple weeks ago I was fishing with Gary in the Conowingo tournament with the River Ratz. I learned a lot from this one tournament. Gary was using Spike-it to tip his plastics. He probably caught 6 good sized bass within half an hour. He also replaced his hooks on his Rebel craw crankbait. Bass were killing the cranks all day long. It was so good that one time we both caught a bass at the same time. I caught 3 bass before I started to lose them. I'm thinking it may have started when I lost one bass by trying to turn the bass into the net. It probably did something to the hook or the bait. I brought another to the boat only to lose that one too. There was yet another that I lost early in the fight. So I lost at least 2 fish and another that neither of us saw. That was a potential 9 pounds, or 6 pounds according to the paper.

I went out again with Tom later in the day since the fishing was so good. We went over to where Gary and I were fishing and Tom was slaying them! He caught a 19" bass before we left for Broad Creek where he caught his double limit to win the tnx. I only managed to catch a baby smallie and what looked like a 2# largemouth which got off. At Broad Creek, Tom caught some more. Within 2 hours, he caught about 7 bass.

Dan and I went fishing on the Bush on the friday afterwards. Right from the start, Dan's overheat alarm on his engine kept sounding off. He took off the weed guard and somehow the engine was working better. We went over to the boat works and there I caught a 3-4 bass on a watermelon jig with a Zoom watermelon Fat Albert 2 tail trailer. I was eating sunflower seeds and probably wasn't paying attention to the line. This bass ate the jig! There was a lot of blood coming out and I ended up cutting the line and letting her go. She seemed to be OK and would probably survive. then we went further into the Bush and fished this small cove with a dock. I caught one 2-8 bass on a tree stump with a BPS Tournament 4" Mag tube in Roadkill (greenpumpkin/red flake) rigged on a 3/8 oz jighead. An hour later I had another bass on a 5" green pumpkin/black flk wacky rig. This bass got off but we both saw it and had the potential of being a 4# bass. It caught me by surprise and I didn't give a hard enough hook set. All the fish I caught that day I used Chartreuse Spike-it Garlic Extra Salty.

I shot my first PA Steel fun match at SLCFSA in awhile with Tom, and his friend Tim. It was really good to get back out and do some shooting.

I went night fishing for the very first time on Friday night. We agreed to fish from 8pm until 5am. We had 3 boats from the club go out; it was me and Chris, Tom and Mark, and Billy and his uncle, JT. I caught the only bass that night early on. She came on my 3rd or 4th cast with a BP frog. It was pretty dead after that. Billy and JT quit early about midnight. Tom called me at about 2:30am and called it quits. I won $30 for lunker. I think next time we'll make it a $50 pot minimum. I definitely had fun despite the bass were turned off. I think that Chris and Mark would be into going again. Tom on the other hand told me to "never invite him night fishing ever again!" lol

I think next month, it'll be Gary and I, Mark and Chris, and Billy and JT.

Since Billy fishes the lake at night all the time, and the fact he left early, the action normally is much more livelier than that night... or he just fishes untill midnight all the time. Just a guess. Hopefully next month will be better.

Right before Tennessee, we had the pleasure of having 2 major branches of our pear tree fall right in front of our cars. All I had was a handsaw and loppers. I tried borrowing my neighbor's chainsaw from across the street but they wouldn't answer the door. I got it cleared out about 2 to 3 hours later. The tree has got to go. The branches didn't break because of the storm; it broke because it is infested with carpenter ants.

The fishing in TN is getting better and better every year. I took the canoe down this year and tried different lures which all caught, or at least got the attention, of bass. I got some action each and every day on Senkos, frogs, skirted jigs, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits. I found a fallen tree in the lake and it held a lot of bass. I had a huge bass one a chartreuse spinnerbait. When it jumped and shook the hook off it looked like it could've been 2 ft long. Not only that this fish mangled my spinnerbait; it bent the spinner wire forward. The one I'm holding tied my personal best; 20 inches, caught on a black buzz bait when it was still dark out.


After we came back I went fishing on post and at the pond. No luck on post, but I caught what possibly could've broken my personal record. This fish took my green pumpkin seed Bass Pro Tnx Series Humpin' Frog to the bottom of the pond and tried to tangle my line on something. I had to move to get the fish free and finally I got it to surface. I landed the bass and tried to take a picture of it next to my rod with my cellphone. I thought I saved the picture, but I lost the file. I guestimate that this bass would've between 21" and 23". I've got to get a good scale and start recording this shit. There is this online tournament that I'm thinking of entering. This would actually get me serious about taking down these numbers.

This will be the last time I'll fish 2 days in a row with a late nite wedding in between. I got up at 6:30am to go fishing with Mark over at an undisclosed pond. This pond was small, but had some unbelieveable bass in it.
At about 9:45am, Mark and I went to Bass Pro to shop the Father's Day sales. I picked up a rod, a few lures, and ultra cheap clothes. Can't beat $4 t-shirts.

Went to shoot the wedding which ended at midnight in Chase, MD. Tom calls me during the wedding and leaves a message to meet up at 5am. Reception ended on time. Got home and started downloading/uploading pics. I was in bed by about 1:30am.

I set my radio alarm to 4:30am, but didn't wake up until about 5:10am. I met Tom at the Otter Pt. ramp and we went fishing. I was TIRED. We spent a lot of time at the canal. Tom caught a short and a 2.5# bass. I didn't get anything. Had 2 strikes but didn't hook up. We ended the day at 12:30pm.

Tom and I went fishing out of Joppatowne on Sunday, May 16. Cheryl and the boys were coming back from the annual visit to Erie and wouldn't be home till at least 6pm. I couldn't go anyway since I had a wedding to do on Sat; which ended late and didn't get to sleep till 1:30am. So, with 4 hours sleep, I woke up about 5:30am to meet Tom to go fishing.

It was a good day out on the water. We weren't catching anything until we went into the quarry. There I caught 2 shorts and 2 good sized bass. Tom caught 2 nice sized ones. He was complaining that I out fished him. I was a happy camper. I didn't think Tom intended to be out the whole day. He didn't pack a lunch, but luckily, I made 2 humongous sandwiches. Tom said there must've been a pound of meat in them. Afterwards while we were getting out of the quarry to the launch, some self-centered idiot decided to block the channel by idling his way to his next stop in the middle of the channel. Tom did his best to get his attention for him to get out of the way but the guy just ignored us. Tom stopped by the guy's boat to ask why he didn't drive to the side to wave him by. Soon a shouting match started up. Got kinda ugly. Nothing happened; just both boaters going to the MD Bass Federation to state their case.

Yesterday was the River Ratz Open Tournament. I went out with Gary to fun fish while waiting for the tournament to end. I caught an 18" bass with a belly. This fish would probably qualify as a HAWG. I wish I had a camera. It probably would've weighed in at least 4lbs. Gary kept on catching catfish all day. 5 catfish in all. One of them bent a hook. I cannot believe the power of these fish!

At the weigh-in for the Open, most of the competitors came in with 6 fish... SIX BIG FISH. I started to wonder where do they go? All of us didn't have much luck in bites in the Suskie. The lunker was a 6lb bass. Unbelieveable!