Check Cashed at the Big Bass Bash
Just got back from the Big Bass Bash at Lake of the Ozarks. I've been fishing the Big Bass Bash tournaments off and on the past couple of years when I've had time and its usually a fun event. There are a couple of tournaments every year that everyone should always fish because you have a shot to really win some big money and the bash is one of those tournaments.
A lot of people take fishing the bash pretty seriously but in all honesty most of the time the tournament is won by someone just doing something that is typically out of the ordinary and usually it comes down to getting lucky. Just take the Spring bash this past year for example. The guy that won didn't even get out on the lake till 11 am or so because it was raining too hard. He slept in and enjoyed his day.
One of the things I always look forward to is the on the water drama. Get a couple thousand rednecks on the water that are in bass boat debt up to their eyeballs looking for a 100k fish and you're likely to see people being idiots and getting into a pissing match. There's a lot of excitement and I've had my fair share of dealing with crazy people.
This time around the fishing on Lake of the Ozarks was pretty good for catching numbers. I fished the first day of the tournament up around the Alhonna portion of the lake and we caught a ton of fish throughout the day but they were mostly just two and a half to three pounds. The fish were everywhere from 1 foot of water to 40 foot of water in some spots. One things for sure the lake got pounded as pretty much every cove and every point we wanted to fish had a boat on it. It looked like most people were keyed in on the docks and I'm sure there were a lot of fish caught like that as that seemed to be the predominant pattern.
Day two we decided to take a look at the other end of the lake and we fished up around Red Oak Resort. We caught some fish in the morning on a variety of things but it wasn't till around 11 o'clock I got a money fish to bite. I was throwing a black bladed Giant Slayer buzzbait around some rocks and the big fish swiped it behind a boulder on the bank. I barely hooked the fish because I got him on a trailer hook. The big fish was also behind a dock so I was truly lucky to be able to get the fish into the boat because I pulled him over three cables with a 8 foot flipping stick with 25lb line. My line was frayed for about three feet and probably would have broke if I had swung the fish in the boat but lucky I had a good net man. It was the only fish I got to eat a buzzbait over the weekend but at least it was one that counted. The fish weighed in at 5.10lbs.
I heard the guy that won the entire tournament was a Pro fisherman from California. That's pretty cool that the guy traveled all the way out here to the Midwest and was able to win the entire tournament. What an amazing accomplishment considering how many local Pros and people from around the lake fish this tournament every year. I'm a big believer that people need to go for their dreams and it's always fun to hear stories about people that decide to make things happen. I can't wait to see the amazing catch on video. I'm sure that spot wherever he caught it will probably always have a boat on it.
If you're looking to make a trip down to fish this weekend they got the Costa Series tournament going on and a couple other tournaments so it will be pretty busy. It will probably take a couple of weeks for the lake to bounce back from the pressure but the fishing is going to continue to improve as the fish will be feeding up for winter approaching. The topwater bite is coming and the jig bite will be coming on strong. Good fishing is on it's way at the Lake!
