Although, a couple weeks have passed since the Bassmaster
Southern Open #3 on Smith Lake in Jasper, Alabama the memories made there that
week still cross my mind to and from the work commute and during a
daydream. My tournament partner Scott
Williams, a.k.a. S2H, made the trip out there with me to fish, split the costs
and keep my confidence up as he has been there done that in an Open. Scott, had
a great event during the first Open of the year on Harris Chain where he took
home 10 place in a strong field of 198 co-anglers. I knew this week going in
was going to be something different for both of us as Smith Lake is everything
that our “home lakes” are not. Smith is a HUGE body of water with limited
cover, when the water is down, clear and depths reaching over 200 feet in many
places. We joked about the conditions and how when our sonar reads anything
over 20ft we know it’s an error, not here at Smith. Loading up the week before
we packed our bags with spinning rods, light fluorocarbon lines, drop-shot rigs
and other finesse type baits. Needless to say we left our eight foot flippin
rods with 65lb Power Pro at the house. In any event that forces you out of your
comfort zone there are always baits and techniques you want to have at your disposal
to ease the nerves if the new stuff ain’t working or to just adapt your
strength to the body of water you are fishing. My security blanket baits were
square bill crankbaits, spinnerbait, casting/pitchin jig and texas rigged soft
plastic. Whether it is a false sense of security or not you have to have
confidence in what you are throwing or success is much harder to achieve. Also,
I received some great advice from a fellow angler and try to keep this in mind
on every body of water I fish. “Listen to what the fish are telling you,
sometimes they will tell you exactly what they want but you just have to
listen, its kinda like being married. There are mysteries never to be solved
but don’t miss the golden ticket just because you aint listening”.
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| Copyright James Overstreet Bassmaster |
So there, I was packed up and had somewhat of a game plan. Due
to work I wasn’t able to arrive until Tuesday night before the event and Scott
was already in town, pre-fished and learned a little about this giant clear
Smith Lake we have been reading so much about. The weather report was looking
good with clear days and steady temps, well until the last day but you had to
make the cut to worry about fishing Saturday so that was out of my mind for the
time being. We spent Wednesday doing a little research and getting necessities
and a decent night sleep as gameday was coming quick and 4am Thursday was fast
approaching.
My first day draw was Elite Angler Cliff Crochet from Louisiana.
I knew I was in for a bit of a struggle when he gave me the game plan for the
day. “Parallel the bank with a white buzzbait and run the trolling motor on 80
covering water”. I am sure my face turned white as I imagined being hung out to
dry all day in the back of the boat. Well, during our 45 minute run up the lake
to look for Largemouth I gave myself a bit of a pep talk. I thought about that
I was happy to be here and just have fun and keep an open mind. I thought about
my dad always making the best of situations and could hear him saying “hey babe
I am just happy to be here”, so that’s how I was going to approach it. We dropped the trolling motor and I was not
farther than 15 feet from the bank for the following eight hours. I tried
throwing a buzzbait a little then tried a shaky head some but I couldn’t keep
my bait wet long enough to feel comfortable. I noticed we are winding around
creeks that had small coves with short points I could see on his HDS. I picked
up the Squarebill crankbait and started ripping it from the bank and down the
rocky points. In less than 15 minutes I had two small keepers in the livewell
and was able to shake the initial jitters. Then, one of those moments happened
that I could have easily overlooked but it was so obvious I couldn’t ignore it
if I wanted too. I boat flipped my third fish for my co-angler limit and while
I was getting him situated the fish coughed up two perfectly intact crawfish
claws. They had perfect color detail and lying right on the rear deck for
further inspection. That was what I needed to target larger fish. I kept
throwing the Bandit Crankbait but when we would pause in a cover and power-pole down
I grabbed a small finesse jig and added a Z-Man Punch CrawZ as a trailer. Now, I
felt I had a one-two punch to get me a decent limit. As the day went on, it was
a grind from the back of the boat fishing in the footsteps of someone but I
tried to stay positive and knew if I could be in the top 1/3 of the board at
the end of the day I would have a shot on day two. As we ran back to the weigh
in all you can think about is how everyone else did and if the three fish you
have are good for first or last, you just never know. When the smoke cleared I
sat in 51st place after day one in a 149 boat field but only had 14
ounces between me and 20th.
As it happens in the Bassmaster Opens, the top 40 places
after two days of fishing cash a check and for the final third day of fishing
they cut the field to 12. So, of course my goal was to make it to the final day
but a secondary goal was just to cash a check and at least get my entry fee
back. After weigh in is when you meet your random boater draw for day two and
set up a game plan. I got a good draw in Peyton Mcginnis, a young 20yr old
local kid who lives 4 miles from the lake and to add to that he was sitting in
20th place with a good limit of fish after day one. He felt pretty
confident that we were going to catch fish and we would be out on points, drop
shotting and looking for Spotted Bass in open water. That was music to my ears
after being pinned in the back of the boat all day.
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| Copyright James Overstreet Bassmaster |
Day two opened with a bang for Peyton and he had 2 nice
Spots in the boat right away. I adjusted my color and got bit right away by a
nice spot. Fishing in 25 foot of water over a point we drop shotted with 8lb fluorocarbon
so each fish was nerve wracking as you would work him to the surface just to
see him peel drag back down into the depths of the point. I cannot remember
being more nervous on a fish than that first big spot. The fight seemed to last
an eternity back and forth with light line and small size 1 Owner Mosquito
hooks. That is much of how the whole day went. We moved from point to point and
caught plenty of fish all day and culling up to nice limits. The move of the
day for me was 30 minutes before weigh-in when I pulled out a spook on a windy
point. All I heard about Smith Lake was to throw a spook for schooling Spots,
yet I had not caught one fish on a spook in 16 hours of fishing. Well as
someone was looking out for me I had a nice fish blow up on it 40 yards from
the boat, I had him. Cue the second most nervous part of the fishing. Finally,
he was netted and I made a great cull that added almost a pound to my bag for
the day. I was jacked up and then my mind started racing on what the other
anglers were doing. Since its blind draws each day, you can have a banner day
on day one then get blanked on day two. I was hoping since I had a hard day on
day one and was able to hang around that maybe some anglers ahead of me would falter.
Well, we had an early flight time so our weigh-in was 2.5 hours before the
close and that made the anxiety much worse. I stepped to the scales and weighed
6.13lbs and sat in 4th place overall, but it was way too early to
get excited. The longest 2.5 hours of my fishing career seemed to creep by and
as we would check every 30 minutes or so I hadn’t moved much but didn’t want to
set myself up for disappointment so I tried not to think about fishing on the
final day. Well, as it turns out I hung in and was sitting in 9th
place after day two and was going to have a shot on the final day. I couldn’t believe
it.
Day three came quickly with little sleep that night. My draw
was Elite Angler Greg Vinson of Alabama and felt good about his knowledge of
the lake. Only issue now is what we talked about earlier, the weather. The
sunny 80 degree weather has now turned into a high of 59 and raining. We planned
on hitting both open points and backwater creeks to look for spots as well as
largemouth. With the weather change we were hoping for a better bite out of the
largemouth while keeping in mind trying to get a few chunky spots for the
livewell. Our first stop yielded us both a nice spot that got us off on the
right foot. We moved around a few other times but couldn’t drum up good fish.
Working back into creeks where Greg found largemouth in the days before I switched
gear to a 4X4 Bass Jig with a Z-Man punch crawz, a Terminator Spinnerbait and a
Texas Rigged Z-Man FattyZ. We pressed on as the cold rain tried to dampen our
game but we held on strong. As the weather got worse I was thankful for my
three fish limit I had and thought if I can just add a little weight and some
of the angler would stumble in front of me I could climb the board. Just like
on day two I was left to throwing a bait I knew I could catch a good fish on but
had yet to seal the deal. I was soaking a Chartreuse and White 3/8 once
Terminator Spinnerbait with a white Z-Man split tail trailer. I had made my
decision that I was going to throw this till the end. I had one hour to add
weight and this was the bait that was going to come through for me. Finally,
with 20 minutes before we had to fly I pitched the spinnerbait next to a lone
log that Greg had already hit and with two turns of the reel a largemouth
slammed it. I boated the fish barely hooked with the trailer hook and added a
nice chunk of weight to my bag. That was it, now I had to hope a few guys
dropped the ball but if not the worst I could do was 12th and that was
a good plan B.
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| Copyright James Overstreet Bassmaster |
The 12 anglers trailered down to the Bass Pro Shops in
Birmingham, AL and they had a stage and live music all set up for the final
weigh in. I stepped on stage and weighed 6-14lbs and felt good about my
progress and the tournament in general. I sat in 2nd place but six
guys behind me still had to weigh in. As the weigh in progressed I only fell a
few spots and claimed 5th when it was all said and done. It was a
great week with excitement and sorrow at the same time. As many of you know I unexpectedly
lost my Dad on his 59th birthday in July. He was the one who taught
me how to fish, hunt and pretty much everything else I hold dear. Although, it would have made the top five
finish sweeter if he could have been there or celebrated when I got home but I
will say over the course of the three days fishing, some things happened that I
know without a doubt he was right there, just as he always had been.
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