Farm Island Lake Renegade Bassers 7/21/13

Practice-

I had a chance to check out Farm Island lake in June while on vacation. Kyle Rodriguez and I spent a few hours looking around and familiarizing ourselves with the layout. There was many options and plenty of water. We caught a few fish, mostly good size and a nice bonus smallie before we headed back to the resort.  

On tournament weekend I spent most of my time on Bay Lake but headed out to check some stuff on Farm Island Friday afternoon. Jesse Cermak would be fishing with me on Sunday and was on his way up after work. I told him to call me when he got there and I would come and pick him up from the dock. My first order of business was to see if I could get through a drainage pipe near one of the accesses. I was pretty sure if I could get back there I would have it all to myself. It looked like I would fit but it would be tight. I pulled up to it slowly and got out the oar and cleared my rods from the holders. The opening was wide enough and I fit easily. Then suddenly I noticed it was getting smaller the father in I went. And the current from the wind was pushing me in faster than I anticipated. Crap, my trolling motor and big motor were raised up and I wasn't able to stop the boat with the oar because of the wind. Eventually my trolling motor and windshield started to scrape on the top of the culvert. I was struck and risking more damage to my boat with each minute. I didn't want to call anyone because they would take to long to get there and it would be embarrassing. The current going through was pretty strong because of the wind and I had to go against it to get out. I got down on my back on the front deck and put my feet up against the top of the pipe and pushed the boat down in the water and slowly pushed my way out. It was a tedious process but I finally made it out. Guess I wasn't going to the secret honey hole on the other side.

I took a minute to catch my breath and headed back to fish near the resort and wait for Jesse to call so I could pick him up.

Eventually Jesse arrived at the resort and he loaded up and we headed out to fish for an hour or two. It was nice to officially meet Jesse since he was a new member to the club this season. Usually the best way to get to know new members is on the water fishing since it's just you and them in the boat and you have time to chat. When I was new I felt like I didn't really know everyone until I fished with them and we got to share stories all day. The fishing was extremely slow. I think we maybe caught one keeper before we decided to head in to the resort and hang out.

Tournament -

Farm Island Day 2 didn't start out very well.  I was asking people which launch they were using but no one seemed to know for sure.  I'm not sure why people weren't using the ramp at the resort but I had no problem launching my small boat there.  I planned on doing that and just driving over to the take off site since the weigh in was at the resort anyway.  Last thing I heard we were using the launch near the culvert I was stuck in on Friday.  So we launched from the resort and headed over to the take off site.  I knew something was wrong when we got within sight and no one was around.  They left before we launched so they should have been in the water at least.  I quickly called John to see what was up and they said they were all waiting for me at the other launch.  Damn!  I was 'that' guy.  I got there as fast as I could and since I was 2nd to take off, I had to just turn around and keep going.  Usually I am there with plenty of time to spare to eat some breakfast and relax and make sure everything is good to go.  Not today!  I wasn't even sure where to start. 

We decided to start in a shallow area where I had a few frog blow ups in practice.  We gave ourselves plenty of space before we got to the reed point.  We turned back into the bay around the point and I immediately got a fish on a buzz frog.  About a minute later I had another one on.  We ended up spending the next hour in this bay and both got our limits.  Jesse was throwing a tube to the deeper edges and catching fish consistently.  I was throwing a frog mostly except I got one that missed the frog on a follow up with a senko.  Finally the bite died off and we headed to some deeper stuff. 

We went to a deep under water point near the resort and I got a good one right away.  Jesse hooked into what looked like a giant smallie from a distance as it jumped and looked dark and brown.  As it got closer I was ready with the net and it ended up being a huge dogfish!  Next thing I know Jesse asked to use my pliers because he dropped his in the lake because the dogfish lunged at him.  I gave him a hard time and said he couldn't because I didn't want him to drop mine in the lake.  Eventually I gave them to him and he got the fish off with pliers in the boat.  We made a couple upgrades but mostly had all 15-16 inch fish all cookie cutters exactly the same size. 

We briefly tried some docks and then ended up back on a weedline where I caught a good smallie in practice.  Same deal not much upgrading but plenty of fish.  From there we tried a couple different spots but couldn't find any significant upgrades.  We ended up near the resort and headed to the dock at 2pm for weigh in. 

This weigh in was cool because we didn't have to pull our boats out of the water we could just park at the dock and bring our fish up the hill.  And I could just pull my boat out right there and throw the rest of my stuff in the truck and head back home.  Normally we have to pack in the morning because check out time is usually noon out before.  But the resort had no reservations for the next day so the owner said we could stay and have the weigh in there.  Also some people from the resort wanted to see what the weigh in was all about and what we caught.  I ended up weighing in with 10.31 lbs and Jesse had 10.26 lbs.  Talk about cookie cutters, all the fish we caught were the same size.  I ended up in 7th place and Jesse 8th.  My big bass was 2.60lbs.  A 4 pounder would have gone a long way in this event.  Congrats to Walker for the win and big bass sweep of the weekend.  He caught one that was 4.02 and the next biggest was 2.90, not many big fish in the lake, but the numbers were there.  Again it was tight with 3 pounds separating 1st from 12th place.  I was just happy to get out of the weekend without bombing, and in a good position for the state team and AOY. 

Overview-

I was pretty satisfied with the day as I was one good fish from 1st.  We could have tried some more docks and maybe some other deep points.  I wish I had more time to practice but its hard on the out of towners with everything else going on.  I can tell that every once will count as there are a lot of good sticks in the club and competition will be fierce.  Next time I will make sure I check more thoroughly as to where the launch site will be especially if I'm doing something differently than everyone else.  I'm glad I didn't let it get to me too much and throw me off my game.  It was also fun getting to know Jesse better and hope to draw him as a non boater next year. 

Results

Weather