Submitted by Pski's Angling Adventures (ip 192.249.47.9)

Date Fished: 4/17/2005
Water Temperature: 54
Water Clarity: 2-3 feet

My brothers club, Litchfield County Worm & Jig held a 19 boat tourney on Zoar Sunday from 8 am to 4 pm. 37 people. We've got a good bunch of fishermen in this group including guys who do some BFL, Everstart, and BASS events. Yet Zoar was going to be its stingy self and humble everyone on this day.

My partner and I headed south to the dam and were surprised to get our first spot with no one else around. We opted to start on a flat bordering very deep water and my partner Art quickly scored a 12.5" smallie on a green pumpkin copper flake tube in about 4 feet of water. Minutes later I had a very nice smallmouth in the 3 pound range follow a white X-Rap to the boat but refuse to strike. After another pass across the flat, I decided to switch over to a gold/black Suspending Rogue thinking that a color change on the jerkbait might provoke a strike rather than a follow. At about 9:15 the Rogue hooked up with a fat 3.98 largemouth. This guy was sitting up on the flat over a small rock pile surrounded by some new milfoil growth. After working this spot for another hour without a strike we decided it was time to move. At this point we were feeling pretty good in that 2 hours had gone by and we had 2 in the well. Not to bad, under an 8 fish limit, if you average one and hour your usually going to be in OK shape at the end of the day. Well, unbeknowst to us at the time, those were going to be our only bass for the day. The trout bite picked up through the day and included a 4.11 pound brown caught on the same tube bait that the smallie hit. We spoke with a few of the other competitors on the water and had heard that everyone was having a hard time getting any bites.

My son, Caveman, (Jonathan) was fishing solo and when we spoke to him at around 1 pm, he was having a hard time getting bites. His partner had made other plans than to fish on Sunday due to a series of complex issues so Jon had opted to use my boat and give it a go himself anyway. He knew he was the underdog in the event in that he could only weigh in six fish to a two person teams 8, but he was determined to figure the fish out and do well.

Weigh in time, 4 pm: Word around the parking lot was that not many bass were caught at all. Many boats reported getting some perch, trout, and even a carp but the bass seemed to be missing in this bass tournament. When I pulled my partner out of the water, he had spoken to my kid and I found out that he had gotten 3 bass after we last spoke to him. I was happy in that on a tough day he managed to not get the big skunk. At the weigh in table I saw a .96 smallie, a .97 smallie, and a 1.04 smallie get weighed in along with a bunch of guys moaning about the bite being so tuff today. Hmmm? This is getting interesting. Could it be that our two bass could possibly do something for us today? We retrieved them from the livewell and walked over to the scales. When the weighmaster saw the good largemouth, he picked it up for everyone to see and proclaimed, "this is what a real fish looks like". 3.98 pounds and 4.96 for a total weight . HAHA, usually that's a bag to be ashamed of but on this day it was going to be first place, AND Lunker!!! WOW! Who would have thought that under 5 pounds would let you be a winner?

The best was yet to come though. My 17 year old kid, fishing solo, had three bass in his bag. One little largemouth that wasn't going to make 12" and two smallies. His two smallies hit the scales at 3.39 pounds. A second place finish! He had recognized that when the current increased in the afternoon, some bass would take up feeding stations on the downstream side of hard cover. He located a series of rocky outcroppings on the east bank and worked a small 3" smoke pepper Kalins grub on a 1/8 oz Hookerz ball head jig and scored 8 bass in a short time. Though only two of them were keepers, on this day it was all that was needed. Bravo to him for good decision making and taking advantage of opportunities. Seeing this kid snatch away second place by himself, out gunned by all the other good anglers, makes a dad feel pretty good.

It's to bad the fishing was so tough but what a nice way to kick off the Club season with a one, two punch.

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