Calendar filling up with fishing tournaments
Calendar filling up with fishing tournaments Posted: Friday, May 21, 2010 9:50 am
The bite is good with bluegill, bass and catfish being the best with crappie falling in behind. There are several upcoming events to share as well as some tournament results from around the area. First, the water conditions on Reelfoot Lake are good — especially considering how they were just two weeks ago with muddy water and a very high lake. Water levels have also slowly made their way back to close to the normal level as well. By the looks of the water rings on the cypress trees around Reelfoot lake, the lake water level have dropped at least a foot in recent days. The lake is still just a few inches above the normal level but should level off by this weekend. Depending on how much rain we ended up the last couple of days will determine on how much the area lakes will rise. Water temps are in the lower to mid-70s. This will change and the waters will warm even more with air temps flirting with the 90-degree mark forecasted. Water color is really good. Clear to slightly stained over all of Reelfoot. Some areas are too clear again for fishing on a bright, sunny, clear day. Some areas, though, remain just a little stained and mainly in areas where the winds affect the water more than other areas. As for the fish bite, the bluegill bite is tops. Many reports of locals and visitors at Reelfoot doing very well. Most I have seen are fishing grasslines or large cypress trees. Waxworms and crickets are best on bait. Some casting is doing well for bluegill also. The catfish bite is still good also. Most of the folks I have seen and talked with are catching their catfish on the downside current ends of the ditches. Some are catching theirs off of yo-yos, which I saw several while bass fishing Tuesday. Father and son Gene and Jeff Crabtree, both of the Union City area, had a very good day with the catfish on Reelfoot Tuesday. The bass are biting fairly well also. They are in the latter stages of their spawn and post-spawn mode. By now, most all of the bass have spawned. Left behind is the male bass (usually smaller in size) to guard the small bass fry hatchlings. Best areas for bass is kinda take your choice of methods. Trees, logs, lily pads, stumps, grass, duckblinds, you name it, the bite is there for you to figure out. Spinnerbaits, swimjigs and soft plastics would be a great place to start. This past Monday, my good fishing buddy David Flood and I tried our luck on the bass at Reelfoot Lake and had a really good day. We managed to boat 15 bass with our best five weighing around 19 pounds. All bass were released back into the lake after we had a Canon moment. The Reelfoot Lake Junior Bass Club fished one of its club events Saturday on Reelfoot Lake. Winners of the event are as follows: Ryan Middlebrook was the overall winner with the largest stringer of bass brought to the scales. His weighed 11.98 pounds. Other winners included John Coble Garrett on one big bass that weighed 4.03 pounds and Chance Williams at 4.94 pounds.. Weather conditions weren’t the best, but no matter, the tournament usually has to go on. Last week, Mike Terry of Obion fished on the pro side of the FLW American Fishing Series Central Division Bass Tour that was held on Kentucky Lake. There were 150 pros and 150 co-anglers to fish this event. After two days of competition, Mike accumulated enough weight to allow him to make the top 10 cut, finishing fifth, qualifying him for the final championship day. On the third and final day, Mike took over 22 pounds to the scales, which brought his three-day total Bass weight to 57 pounds, 14 ounces, which was good enough for a third place finish. For his efforts, he claimed a check for $6,000. Congrats Mike on a great tournament. Mike is a well-known area bass fisherman who fishes as a pro in several bass tournaments up and down the Tennessee River System. Mike also used to fish the FLW Outdoors Bass Touring Circuit a few years back and still holds the record for the heaviest five bass to have ever been weighed in during any FLW Outdoors event — just over 38 pounds. Also from our area was Gordon Fox fishing as a co-angler in this event. Gordon wasn’t as lucky but did manage to fish two days with a total weight of 13 pounds, 14 ounces, finishing in 62nd place out of 150 other co-anglers. Here are the results from the Ultimate Bass Fishing Tournament Trail Circuit from their latest event on Reelfoot lake this past Saturday on Reelfoot Lake. First place went to the team of Richard Armstrong of Cape Girardeau, Mo. and Steven Armstrong of Scott City, Mo. These guys had five bass that tipped the scales at 22.10 pounds and a check worth $550. They also claimed the big bass award at 5.35 pounds and worth a extra $90. Second went to Ricky Seals and David McBride, both of Union City. They had five bass that weighed 21.26 pounds and they claimed a check for $150. There overall big bass weighed 5.09 pounds. Others fishing from our area: Billy Blakley and Nelson Northern, both from Obion County with five bass for a total of 19.53 pounds; husband and wife team of Jim and Monica Curlin of Union City with (5 bass, 17.77 pounds); Kelley Powers of Rives and Slayton Gearin of Gleason (5 bass, 17.28 pounds); Ben Ferguson and Ryan Angel of Union City (5 bass, 15.17 pounds); and Chris Droke of Dyersburg and Terry Dunaway of Ripley (5 bass, 14.29 pounds). The Reelfoot Lake Junior Bass Club will sponsor its annual bluegill tournament May 29 on Reelfoot Lake. The entry fee for this tournament is $35 per boat. A possible $500 in paybacks are in store for this tournament. This will be out of the Kirby Pocket State Park area with blastoff at 6 a.m. and the weigh-in will at noon that day. For more information, you can contact Rick Kelly at 885-2610, Gordon Fox at 885-5541 or Taylor Williams at 538-9243. There will be a 10-fish limit on this tournament. Next week, four members of the University of Tennessee at Martin Collegiate Bass Fishing Team will be competing in the 2010 Boat U.S. Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship on Lake Lewisville near Dallas. Members include, Team 1: Travis Howell and Grayson Smith, Team 2: Rhea Taylor and Alex Derry. Also fishing will be Obion County resident and member of the Bethel University fishing team, Jake Lawrence. I hope to have some type of results in next weeks column or you can go to www.collegiatebasschampionship.com to follow the tournament each day. On June 19, the Reelfoot Lake Bass Club’s annual Buddy Big Bass Tournament sponsored by Final Flight Outfitters in the Midway community between Union City and Martin will take place on Reelfoot Lake. This will be held out of the Kirby Pocket area of the lake. This tournament will blast off at 6 a.m. that morning with the weigh-in taking place at 11 a.m. This event will reward the persons who weigh in the largest bass of the tournament. This is a one-fish event, where most other bass tournaments have a five-bass limit. First, second and third places will be paid for the top three largest bass of the day weighed in. Entry fee is $60 per boat. You can pick up a registration for at Reynolds Brothers in Union City or simply show up the morning of the tournament between 5-6 a.m. For more info, call Gordon Fox at 885-541, Rick Kelly at 885-2029 or me at 446-3678. Published in The Messenger 5.21.10
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