David Lyon is a WINNER!
David earned first place in his fishing tournament yesterday. He left on Friday night to drive out to Lake Fayette where he slept in the back of the 4-Runner (but didn't sleep much because lightning and thunder kept him up most of the night) and awaited the 6:30 am launch time. The storms delayed their launch time though, so they didn't take off until 8:00 am. I could write a bunch of stuff now that wouldn't make any sense and try to talk about fishing like I know something or I could just copy and paste David's "report" that he posted on the fishing forum he's a part of. Congratulations to my BIG WINNER! Love you ;-)
(WARNING: The rest of this post was (originally) written to a bunch of men that think about, dream about, read about and actually do... fish everyday. If you get to endure your own form of torture at home with your husband's fishing stories, do NOT go on. This post may be for the man in your life that loves fishing and not for you lovely ladies that only come here to see pictures of Mister!)
"Congrats to Troy! Winning an event is great but to consistently catch fish across venues and conditions says a lot about an angler’s skill level. A lot of respect to all of the angler of the year winners, past and present. Well done Mark and Mike, anytime you can break the century mark is great success. Thanks first and foremost to my pregnant wife who managed our two year old while I went fishing. Thanks also to Dennis and all of the sponsors who make KATS possible. Troy hit the nail on the head referring to how much can be learned from fishing with a group of anglers as skilled and experienced as the KATS competitors. Finally, thanks to pilotdan whom I was lucky enough to run into during pre-fish. I told him that I’d never fished Fayette before and he immediately offered to show me around, without that help I wouldn’t have had a chance, thanks again Dan.
I knew that to be competitive I’d have to have one of my best days on the water and that’s exactly what happened. I arrived at Oak Thicket at 7:50 and did my best to get in the water by 8. I saw several guys taking off as I was loading up but only one stopped at the standing timber to the right as you make your way out to the main lake. He went to the far end and made a few drifts back towards the launch. I got shallow (6ft) and made casts towards deeper (8-10ft) water using a weightless zoom toad in white. I picked up my first two keepers in ten minutes but was getting blown all over the place despite attempting to anchor. A few lightning strikes that were too close for comfort and the persistent wind forced me to move to my next spot sooner than I wanted. It was a move that paid off.
I paddled across the lake and hit some shallow reeds where I picked up a few dinks on the frog. Made the corner where I could see three fingers and to my surprise there were no kayaks or powerboats around. Hauled it over there where I would spend the next 5 hours. As I paddled over two things crossed my mind. First, I hope I don’t get struck by lightning and second, small fish aren’t going to cut it. I knew that I needed to get 100 + (inches) in the boat to contend and I wanted to give myself that chance so I went to a big swim bait.
I reasoned that the warmer temps of a power plant lake would make the young of the year baitfish a little bigger a little earlier than elsewhere. I also bet on the fact that the rain cooled water and overcast skies would keep even the bigger bass shallow until the sun came out. So I tied on one of Academy’s H20 hard swimbaits (incredible line of lures for the money by the way) and tossed it next to a tree. It sank for three seconds before I was in a fight with my first fish over 20. I thought I had a 10 pounder on the line the way this thing fought.
The wind laid down about that time and I was able to worry more about fishing than boat control and started to hit some good casting angles. I made my way around the outer edges of the thickest part of the trees specifically targeting cover the isolated trees. I waked it, I let it drop vertically and everything in between in terms of a retrieve. I caught all of the rest of my fish in that area with that lure and basically had the time of my life. One power boat came in but they anchored and left after an hour. One other KATS angler stopped by and I think he caught one before moving on.
The more 20+ (in) bass I took pictures of the less I could believe it. What a lake, what a day. A few of the right things come together to make days like that happen and when they do it’s a blessing and a ton of fun. It was a great feeling to break 100 inches for the first time and to make a long paddle back to check in knowing that I was at least in the running."
Well, David was in the running... the running for FIRST PLACE! Here is a link to the results page of the tournament:
http://www.austinkayakfishing.com/2010_Results.html
David earned first place in his fishing tournament yesterday. He left on Friday night to drive out to Lake Fayette where he slept in the back of the 4-Runner (but didn't sleep much because lightning and thunder kept him up most of the night) and awaited the 6:30 am launch time. The storms delayed their launch time though, so they didn't take off until 8:00 am. I could write a bunch of stuff now that wouldn't make any sense and try to talk about fishing like I know something or I could just copy and paste David's "report" that he posted on the fishing forum he's a part of. Congratulations to my BIG WINNER! Love you ;-)
(WARNING: The rest of this post was (originally) written to a bunch of men that think about, dream about, read about and actually do... fish everyday. If you get to endure your own form of torture at home with your husband's fishing stories, do NOT go on. This post may be for the man in your life that loves fishing and not for you lovely ladies that only come here to see pictures of Mister!)
"Congrats to Troy! Winning an event is great but to consistently catch fish across venues and conditions says a lot about an angler’s skill level. A lot of respect to all of the angler of the year winners, past and present. Well done Mark and Mike, anytime you can break the century mark is great success. Thanks first and foremost to my pregnant wife who managed our two year old while I went fishing. Thanks also to Dennis and all of the sponsors who make KATS possible. Troy hit the nail on the head referring to how much can be learned from fishing with a group of anglers as skilled and experienced as the KATS competitors. Finally, thanks to pilotdan whom I was lucky enough to run into during pre-fish. I told him that I’d never fished Fayette before and he immediately offered to show me around, without that help I wouldn’t have had a chance, thanks again Dan.
I knew that to be competitive I’d have to have one of my best days on the water and that’s exactly what happened. I arrived at Oak Thicket at 7:50 and did my best to get in the water by 8. I saw several guys taking off as I was loading up but only one stopped at the standing timber to the right as you make your way out to the main lake. He went to the far end and made a few drifts back towards the launch. I got shallow (6ft) and made casts towards deeper (8-10ft) water using a weightless zoom toad in white. I picked up my first two keepers in ten minutes but was getting blown all over the place despite attempting to anchor. A few lightning strikes that were too close for comfort and the persistent wind forced me to move to my next spot sooner than I wanted. It was a move that paid off.
I paddled across the lake and hit some shallow reeds where I picked up a few dinks on the frog. Made the corner where I could see three fingers and to my surprise there were no kayaks or powerboats around. Hauled it over there where I would spend the next 5 hours. As I paddled over two things crossed my mind. First, I hope I don’t get struck by lightning and second, small fish aren’t going to cut it. I knew that I needed to get 100 + (inches) in the boat to contend and I wanted to give myself that chance so I went to a big swim bait.
I reasoned that the warmer temps of a power plant lake would make the young of the year baitfish a little bigger a little earlier than elsewhere. I also bet on the fact that the rain cooled water and overcast skies would keep even the bigger bass shallow until the sun came out. So I tied on one of Academy’s H20 hard swimbaits (incredible line of lures for the money by the way) and tossed it next to a tree. It sank for three seconds before I was in a fight with my first fish over 20. I thought I had a 10 pounder on the line the way this thing fought.
The wind laid down about that time and I was able to worry more about fishing than boat control and started to hit some good casting angles. I made my way around the outer edges of the thickest part of the trees specifically targeting cover the isolated trees. I waked it, I let it drop vertically and everything in between in terms of a retrieve. I caught all of the rest of my fish in that area with that lure and basically had the time of my life. One power boat came in but they anchored and left after an hour. One other KATS angler stopped by and I think he caught one before moving on.
The more 20+ (in) bass I took pictures of the less I could believe it. What a lake, what a day. A few of the right things come together to make days like that happen and when they do it’s a blessing and a ton of fun. It was a great feeling to break 100 inches for the first time and to make a long paddle back to check in knowing that I was at least in the running."
Well, David was in the running... the running for FIRST PLACE! Here is a link to the results page of the tournament:
http://www.austinkayakfishing.com/2010_Results.html
And I don't know what pictures he wants me to post, so I'll just post them all. Here are the fish that carried David to 1st place. (No fish were harmed in the making of these pictures... this is a catch and release contest.)
And I can't post on the blog without writing about B. Here is a picture of him with his new summer haircut - doesn't he look grown up and handsome?
No comments:
Post a Comment