STL Bassbusters Tournament on Lake of the Ozarks

Yesterday I got the opportunity to fish as a Co-Angler in a club level tournament on Lake of the Ozarks which I consider to be my home lake. My partner had been down pre-fishing all day Friday and all day Saturday and for his efforts he was able to catch 1 fish in two days of fishing all over the lake. I told him not to worry that I would be able to take us to a couple of areas where we would be able to catch them. I was getting back from the Kentucky Lake BFL so I was going to fish the club tournament as a co angler because it would have been pretty much impossible to haul my boat down to the lake. I was already tired from a long exhausting day on Kentucky Lake.

The day started out with a 40 mile run up lake to my first spot. I hadn't been on Lake of the Ozarks since last September but I was hopeful that we would be able to get on some fish. Going down the bank at our first spot I quickly connected with a nice solid 3 pound bass. The fish had absolutely engulfed my crankbait. I was throwing a small shad crankbait on 6lb test line. We fished on down the bank and then my partner connected with his best fish of the day a 5 and a half pound largemouth on a rock crawler crankbait. We stayed and fished the area for awhile then I decided that we should run to another spot. Headed down the bank at our second spot my partner connected with a small kentucky on a red square bill right on the rocks. The fish barely measured 12 inches but I knew he was grateful for getting a bite.

We fished out the pocket that we were in with no more takers on our crankbaits so I decided to head on back to our first spot since it had been about an hour. We were coming down the bank and my partner got his crankbait hung up on the bottom. He was snapping his rod to get the bait off the bottom when the bait broke free and when it came up he had about a 4 and a half pound largemouth on his line! I quickly grabbed the net and we were both a little shocked. You know it's going to be your lucky day when you're getting your bait off a snag and a big fish eats it.

After my partner boxed up his fish we fished the area some more. I switched to a different crankbait and hammered my second keeper which was a one eyed 4 pounder! The fish bit about 5 feet off the bank and I quickly wrestled her into the boat. After blanking in my last two tournaments I guess I was lucky to stumble upon a one eyed fish. I guess that's the kind of fish I can catch these days. God's playing a funny trick on me. We continued to fish this spot out for the next hour and didn't manage to catch any more fish. It was about 1:30 and we were due back in at 3 so my partner wanted to get back closer to take off since we made a pretty big run. We should have stayed and fished the area where we caught our fish up till the last minute because we had about an hour that we ran some other spots that I wasn't familiar with on the way back in which we didn't catch any more.

Since the tournament was an individual club tournament, my partner ended up getting 1st place in the tournament and I got 4th place individually by a couple of ounces. Pretty tough day for me considering I took my buddy to my fish and he beat me. Oh well, we ended up having just under 18lbs with our 5 fish combined which was a pretty good limit on a tough day. We ended up winning heavy boat with our fish. Looking back it was a fun day of fishing and a lot better than anyone else in the club experienced. There were a lot of blanks in our club and most people only had 1 fish. I guess the lake is fishing pretty tough for the most part. All in all it was a tough weekend of fishing for me it was nice to come home to my wife and two girl dogs as the only man in the house. Weekends like this make you want to drink, heavily. I don't drink though so I guess I'll just have to wait till next weekend to chase after those bass again.