2009 - Classic Tournament - 2010

LAKE JUNE-IN-WINTER

March 27 & 28, 2010

For all of my fellow Club Members,

I have to thank you guys for the opportunity to fish my first Classic.

I was working a ton the week before, plus all my school work; man my brain was just racing like crazy ! With all that going on, I still tried to concentrate on this weekend of two days of fishing.

Thursday night, loading the Jeep up, I’m just thinking of how to catch fish. I’ve done “zero” studying on this lake. I had no time and was just dragging the whole week. But I was definitely looking forward to the Classic.

Friday comes around, getting up at 5:30 for school. I get to school, and did my work in first period, then I got into second period, and my buddy asked me, "Matt are you lost, I thought you were fishing." I said, "I am going after I do this test." So great, I get this test and its 63 questions, not looking forward to it at all. But I got it done, and head home to get my stuff.

Page 2

Heading towards Bradenton, I need to get off at Exit 220 ! I look to my right and I see the Cracker Barrel, where all the other guys were, minus Mr. Bill Poirier Bottom line, I met up with the guys to head over to the motel to get checked in, and then head to the lake to check out a body of water I’ve never been on before.

Pulling into the motel, it felt like we were moving in for a week. Chuck screams at all of us to come over to his room to talk about some stuff, we give him the big fish pot, and comments. We had to flip a coin about pre-fishing and Dick Fletcher called the “coin toss” he said “NO PRE-FISH.”

I was a little disappointed, but oh well. Next we were heading down to the lake, and I put my boat in the water, just looking around and taking it all in. I looked at the map on my GPS and thought I’d go down to the south end.

I read an article by Bill Dance about going to a lake that you've never been on, so I went with that. I put my foot into my HOT FOOT but my boat would not get over 30 mph. Just great, here I am at the classic for the first time and my boat is not running right. The week before on Kissimmee, I was having the same problem. Now down at the south end, studying my graph on my Hummingbird, I found some nice spots, so I started to put together a plan. I just went in and put my boat back on the trailer and just relaxed back at the motel. I was a ready as I could be.

Page 3

When the other guys finally got back from the lake we just kicked back before we went out to dinner at the Watering Hole. It was pretty good, but the whole time, I was getting crap like, “Matt are you going to catch fish !” I didn’t have any problem with the ragging because I was not worried about it and felt like, “Just let them talk, I will prove it at weigh in.”

Saturday morning comes along and I go out to my boat to re-rig my worm rod with a new hook; a TROKAR hook, adding a Red Bug Trick Worm. I decided to leave the motel a little early, to help the other guys put there boats in the water. I am sitting in my boat, ready to go all out and give it all my best. Well, we took off a little early as it was dark, but it was ok.

I took off just driving down the lake, reading my GPS but didn’t really no where I was at, so I just stopped and just sat there till the sun came up.

When I could see better, I ran straight across the lake to the south end. I started fishing along docks and weeds, and right away, I felt a "tap, tap," with the line just taking off. I set the hook, and it was a small one, not a keeper. I threw it back but I was happy, moving down the bank slow, and catching small ones, then all sudden my line takes off really fast, and I set the hook. It was the first keeper and man was I really happy.

I just thought, I got a keeper in my first Classic and I was happy. But hey, it’s time to move on and keep fishing. So I did, still catching small ones. Then I see my old buddy Chuck pull up and I asked him how it's going, and he said, “Horrible, not a bite.” I was like man, I am killing them. He said, "Good, good, I'm glad."

I decided to go to the back of this certain dock and cut through the weeds. As I stop and look, I see this bed and see one nice bass on the bed with the “big momma” swimming around. Everyone knows I don't have any patience, but I learned really quick. The first one it took me about 25 minutes to get him, but the second one was forever. It took about an hour an a half, but I got them both and was really happy. Three nice fish in my live well and had a big one, Man, I was really happy and proud of myself.

At weigh in, they asked me, “Matt, do you have any fish ?" I said, "Yeah." I already knew Scott had some nice fish, but I didn’t know about any others. Buddy Doyle helped me by holding my bag so I can put my fish in there. Man, I got a bath getting those fish out. I pulled my big one out last and Buddy says, "Nice fish," I said, "Thank you."

My big one was 3.56, and my total weight was 6.94, good enough for second place and I was really happy. Jerry Bischoff said, "I went to work, you didn’t." He’s always busting my chops. I was happy for day one of the Classic and that my plan went well.

- Saturday -

The Rest of Saturday's Catch

Back to the motel, Chuck told me to start on the potatoes for our cook out. I got started, and after I was done, I get so much crap from the guys about how I wrapped them backwards. But, I have to say, they still tasted the same and they were still good, that’s the bottom line.

Jerry came up to me, and said Matt, "I didn’t go to work today." I said, "I no, but I did." He laughed. We had a great cookout with Chuck cooking our steaks. Again Chuck, I enjoyed it. Thank you very much for cooking. And let’s thank Jerry and Mrs. Bischoff for the snacks Jerry bring for us. Bottom line, it was a great dinner.

Second day of the Classic, I wake up, and thinking to myself, I am going with the same plan as Day 1. Scott Ellis was up by 5 pounds over me but I was still proud of myself. Again, I left the motel early to get down to the ramp, and this time thank God I did because there was a semi-trailer on fire on south US 27. I called Chuck and told him to start coming down to the ramp so the guys would not stuck into traffic. Everyone got down there safe.

Page 5

Relaxing in our boats before we take off, Chuck yells at Jim Sellers about where he parked his boat at the end of the dock, I thought he talked to him about it a week before on Lake Kissimmee, but I guess he just does not listen.

Jerry came up to me and said, “I am going to work today” and I said, "Good, you need to, you didn’t yesterday." We both laughed.

I take off on Day 2 of the Classic and again my boat didn’t get over 30 mph and I was like, “come on.” The motor opened up a little later, so I went back down to the south end of the lake doing the same thing.

I went back to that BED, where I caught my two big ones on the day before. There was one in there but I couldn’t get him at all. I still felt that there would be a keeper on the area where I was fishing.

Fishing along the shore line and docks and all of a sudden, I look and see Jerry just flat out flying right at me. He fished down a little bit from me. I only got one small one all day that was not even a keeper. It was pretty tough, but I still had a great time.

I got back to the ramp with no fish and Jerry comes up to me with a big smile on his face, and I was like, "what’s wrong with you ?" He said, "Nothing, I finally got my boat figured out and I got it up to 78 mph today and now I am ready to go 85." He was really happy and I was happy for him.

- Sunday -

The Rest of Sunday's Catch

Jerry had won Day 2 with Big Fish and finished the Classic in Third Place wit a total weight of 7.96 pounds. Second Place went to Chuck Bearce, with 2 fish on Day 2, 3 on Day 1, for a total weight of 8.18 pounds.

Scott was the “man of the weekend.” He just slammed them on Day 1 of the Classic (he had 4 fish with his big one at 5.20 lbs. (Classic Big Fish) and his total weight was 14.63 from 6 fish, so congrats to Scott, the Classic Champ.

The last thing I want to say is the ride home was horrible. The rain was so hard, where we could barely see out our windshields. We all just took our time and got home all safe and sound which is good. I had a good Classic weekend and ready for more in the future. I know I will be ready to fish the new season.

  "Newsletters" T.O.C.

  "Tournaments" T.O.C.

  "Home"

Copyright © Clearwater Bass Club, Inc.  All rights reserved.  All trademarks are owned by Clearwater Bass Club, Inc.