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Rain, Rain, Go Away!
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Posted Saturday, August 17th, 2002 to The Bass Pro Diary
Severe weather does more than put a "damp"er on the 22nd Annual Nemahbin Open bass tournament, that requires changing lures and finding new fishing locations on the lake.
The weather forecast for this morning stated that there is an 80% chance of showers, and the chance for severe weather. Just what you want to hear the morning of a bass tournament. None the less, I got the bass boat hitched up and headed to a local church parking lot to meet up with my brother-in-law Brock, who was going to be my partner for this day’s team bass fishing tournament on Upper and Lower Nemahbin lakes, both located in Delafield, Wisconsin. This tournament is one of three events put on this summer by a local bass fishing club called “Lunker’s Unlimited.” This was one of two small club events I have participated in this year. I do enjoy participating in such prestigious events as the Everstart Series, Bassmasters, and Canadian Open - but getting back to the roots of the hometown club tournaments is important, as well. I always have (and always will) encourage people to participate in a local club environment, as these clubs are the backbone of all that tournament fishing is about. Small fishing club tournaments get people into the sport, do good for the local communities, and give everybody (both anglers and sponsors) the chance to get involved in the sport - one way or another.
Brock and I launched the boat, and got started in the tournament with little complications. We decided to head to the north end of Upper Nemahbin to a spot that I have always had luck fishing at in the past. The northern end was also one of the “hot spots” for anglers who fished this exact tournament back in 2001 (and of course I was there). We fished my special spot for the first hour, and were having some luck, as Brock landed a largemouth and two rock bass. Even though we could not keep any of them, we knew that the fish were feeding in that spot, and we were fully aware that the storm front was on its way into Delafield. I am sure the storm front was one of the main determining factors Brock hit on so many fish in such a short time. His fish were all caught on a brown/chartreuse colored diving crankbait.
Then it happened - the storm hit. I am not talking about a few drops of rain that can be controlled by a few volts through the bilge pump - we were talking about serious and threatening weather. We decided (with about half of the other boats in the tournament) to make our way back to the tavern, where the weigh in would, be to get off of the dangerous waters (severe lightning) and get some cover.
The storm front came and left in a matter of about 45 minutes, and we managed to have no more rain for the entire day! That would be good, except the patterns we had discovered with the bass had totally changed. The crankbaits had stopped working and the fish had moved off of my spot on the upper lake. We tried our luck on the lower part of the Nemahbin lakes, but had little luck there. We then decided to head back to the upper half, as we were getting some hits there earlier - we just tried a different location.
We worked our way to the drop-off area located on the northern half of the lake. In this area, there is a deep drop-off that starts round 3 feet and descends down to almost 30 feet. It is not that uncommon to find bass coming from the depths of the water up to the shallow portion to feed, before heading back into the cooler waters down deep. This would become a smart move, as the bass were in that location.
After giving up on crankbaits, both Brock and I decided to change our game plan. Brock switched to a worm/jig combo, while I pulled out my Gold Island spinning rod combo, still holding a tube in place that was last used on Lake St. Clair in the 2002 Canadian Open. I thought, what do I have to loose, and tried flipping the tube in and around the weed beds of the shallow part of the drop-off. Within two casts, I managed to bring a rock bass into the boat, followed by a largemouth, then followed by yet another (and decent sized) rock bass. The fish were here, and they were feeding - on my white w/ black flake tube. Here it was, a lure just left on a rod from a previous tournament proving to be successful once again! This type of tube wound up collecting me three largemouth, one smallmouth, and two rock bass during this tournament. I literally used up all of my white tubes in this tournament, and had luck on every one I tied on. It has been difficult for me in the past, as I have not had a sponsor backing me up with plastic tubes. I am privileged to announce that I have received word from FishMaster Lures that I will be added to their pro-staff in the very near future, and they are one of the nations top producers of plastic products, including salted tubes! It will be a win-win situation for us both!
Outside of the tubes, I managed to land one other largemouth bass on a pre-rigged plastic worm. The color of the worm was purple and white - proving that white was the color of the day. As for the crankbaits, they had their short window of opportunity just before the storm hit. Following the storm, the fish headed deeper and would not respond to the crankbaits at all.
Curt S. Strutz
The Bassmeister
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