ABA Weekend Series

A few months ago when I set up my tournament schedule I was disappointed to see that I wasn't going to be headed to Lake Champlain. I cant get enough of the views on this lake and the fishing is outstanding. I had a free weekend without plans to practice anywhere so I figured I'd register for this ABA tournament on Lake Champlain launching out of Ticonderoga, NY. I knew I'd have a very high chance of drawing someone who was going for largemouth and if you know my fishing background you'd know that I am way more comfortable smallmouth fishing. This was a chance to go outside my comfort zone! Part of me was hoping to draw someone who was headed north for smallies but I had to keep reminding myself I was there to learn more about largemouth fishing. Met my boater the night before and the plan was to flip and frog all day. Day of the tournament and we did just that. It was slow pretty much all day. Each spot we went to we caught one decent one. There wasn't a specific spot that held a few chunks. I started out throwing a weighted wacky rigged black senko, an amateur bait I know but this is what everyone was telling me works best on Champlain and what works, works. That being said I tossed it at few trees along the shoreline and let it sit there. Wham something hit it and me being use to smallmouth fishing I just didn't drive that hook! 6:30AM and I already made my first mistake. From there on no more sissy hook sets were allowed! We headed for some off shore weed patches and I put down my senko because my weight just wasn't heavy enough to punch through these weeds. Here is where I go outside the comfort zone. For the first time ever I picked up my 7.6ft heavy Abu Garcia rod strung with 50lb braid that held a 1/2oz bullet weight and a texas rigged Imperium Baits Minotauro Craw. I flipped that heavy cover and felt completely lost but then I thought about it, duh just make contact with the bottom! So I'd flip wait to feel the ting, then bounce, bounce and flip again. First bite I had my line tightened and rod was almost yanked out of my hand. I instantly said well that's not a bass. Brought in a stinky 40 inch pike, rigged my up a new craw then on that first drop another bite. This was a bass and this time I stood on my tippy toes and drove that hook into his upper lip. The rest of the day consisted of flipping these grass beds and I was so happy to have worked on a new technique all day! Come 2pm I was feeling okay about my bag but I knew I needed one more upgrade to be sittin' pretty. With little time to go we pulled up to the shoreline one more time to check out the shaded areas under trees since the sun was beating down on us. I switch back over to my senko and skipped it under a leaning tree. Again on the drop a big ole bass picked it up and I set that hook. This was one strong fella and unfortunately he wrapped me on a tree branch and I lost him. I told my boater "I cant stop shaking I needed that so bad!" I weighed in my three fish limit for 9.07lbs and this put me in 7th place. With that last fish I could have been up in the top 3 but in my eyes I won because I did just what I wanted to do when I registered for this tournament and that was go outside my comfort zone and learn.