Until you walk in somebody else’s shoes it’s hard to know the reality of what it’s really like. That is my lead into a very bad finish I had at Lake Dardanelle, Arkansas in my latest FLW Eastern Series tournament on May 9 to 12. The first question most people ask me is, “What happened” when they see that I got 189th out of 197 boats in that tournament.
It started off on a good note. On the first day of practice my fishing buddy, Rick McCrory - who fishes as a co-angler in the FLW Series - and I had a good day. We caught about 20-plus bass including about six fish that were over the 15-inch legal keeper size for largemouth on that system. I was pretty satisfied with that since I had never been on Lake Dardanelle before.
Danny Vasquez, Mercury Service Manager, gets Bob back on the water.
The next morning we got out and had one of those little hiccups that happen when you’re on the water as much as I am. I had a small mechanical issue that I couldn’t get resolved until the following afternoon which essentially caused me to miss two out of my four days of practice. A special thanks to Danny Vasquez, the Mercury tournament support service manager who helped me get going and back on the water for the final practice day. I was mechanically trouble-free for the rest of the week.
On the final practice day we fished close to town, Russellville, Arkansas, where the tournament was running out of. I caught one 3-pounder, another one about 2 ½ and I thought, “Okay, at least I’ve got some fish close by.”
So, on the first day of the tournament I went up-river to a spot I’d found 4 days prior but the Arkansas River had risen about 2-feet in that section. I didn’t realize that it would be not nearly as affected down by where the tournament site was, where the river was wider, forming the lake. As a result of the conditions, I couldn’t find the fish that we had located and ended up catching one short fish. I ran back towards the weigh-in near the end of the day and my co-angler ended up catching one 15-inch largemouth while I had a big, fat, goose-egg. In the meantime, the field had a phenomenal day of fishing. Everybody that stayed close to the tournament site caught lots of fish and there were lots of limits brought in. It was definitely one of the low points in my 32-year tournament fishing career, to come in with no fish when a good majority of the field weighed in limits.
On the second day I decided to stay close by and fish this little back-bay I had found where I had to take the pro seats out of the Ranger and idle under a cement bridge to get into. We stayed there all day, and I caught 4 fish for 11-pounds, including two that were pretty good sized. My co-angler caught one fish which was 4-pounds 10-ounces and just about won the big fish prize for him – he missed out by a few ounces. I was pretty happy to come back with four decent fish.
Bob holding two decent sized bass from Day 2 of the FLW Lake Dardanelle Tournament.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that the lake was fishing very small. What I mean by that is,
because the water had risen so much, the main river and basin of the lake were very muddy but the water was pretty fishable when you got into these backwater areas - but they were very small. The area that I was fishing in was about 8 acres in size but I would say that 50 to 60 tournament boats came in and out of there during the day. Boats would come and fished around it and then leave and then new boats would come in and fish around it and leave and so on. I stayed there all day.
On the third day I went back to my little back-bay. My co-angler caught two keepers in there but I didn’t catch any. I was catching lots of short fish but could not put a keeper into the boat so we ran about 5 miles to some water I’d never fished before. My partner catches another keeper while I continue to catch fish that are ¼”, ½”, 1/8” too short, and won’t meet the 15” limit so I ended up with another fat goose-egg on day three.
Needless to say, it was it was a dismal tournament for me. After sitting 35th in the points for the Eastern Division after the first event on Lake Okeechobee back in January, I slid all the way down to 116th. You really can’t afford to have a bad tournament when you’re fishing against such good talent. Successful fishing is all about making the right decisions but in my case, in this tournament, I obviously made some bad ones.
To tell you how tough the fishing was, Scott Martin, son of legendary angler Roland Martin, weighed in over 21-pounds to lead the field on the first day but he ended up blanking on day two. I believe the fellow that was in second place after day one zeroed on day three. It really is amazing how easily making the wrong decisions can affect your weight. I’m just putting this in here because it makes me feel better! No matter what I write in this report though, nothing will make me feel better after that dismal finish - but that’s fishing. When you fish as many tournaments as I have over the years you certainly will not do well in all of them and that’s a fact. There are winners and there are losers and I just happen to be a bad loser in this case.
After a nice, leisurely 18-hour drive back I got in two days of wonderful rest before heading down to Vermont to fish Lake Champlain. Shawn Good is a fisheries biologist with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department who’s been working down there for about 10-years. He’s a Canadian who I met a number of years ago and he invited me down for the early season bass fishing that they have available in Vermont. It is catch and release only and you can fish from the middle of April up until the middle of June, when the normal regular season opens. The whole idea is to enjoy the fishery for a longer period of time which I personally think is a great idea. I wish the Province of Ontario would consider a law similar to what the State of Vermont has.
Bob with a 5-pound bass caught on Lake Champlain.
We ended up catching pre-spawn largemouth and smallmouth, primarily on Strike King Pro Model Series 1 and Series 3 crankbaits. On the first day we hit a severe cold front - it was cold and it rained all day - but we still caught about 70 bass up to 5-pounds. On the second day we fished all new water. Although it was still windy and cold and we had a slower day of fishing, the fish were bigger and we managed to catch about 40 or 50 bass.
Needless to say Lake Champlain is incredible and the early season bass fishing that they have available is wonderful. It’s the best-kept secret going right now and not too many people know about it. At best we only saw about five or six boats in each of our two days of fishing.
As I call in this report I have just gotten off the water on Lake Champlain on our third and final morning here. We were doing some electro-shocking with the Fish and Wildlife Department. Something I’ve always wanted to do since I got into this business is to go out in an electro-shocking boat and see how it’s done and I’m telling you, it’s just incredible how that shocking works. It basically puts an electrical charge into the water that temporarily paralyzes the fish so they come up to the surface, where they can be netted. It doesn’t hurt the fish at all, and it gives the biologists a chance to sample areas to see what the fish’s movements are, the size of the fish, the species of fish and so on, giving them very important data for their studies. We got channel catfish up to 10-pounds, pike up to 12-pounds, smallmouth up to about 2 ½-pounds and largemouth up to 6-pounds plus in about an hour of shocking.
So, to sum things up, on this trip to Vermont I did some real fishing with Shawn and experienced some unreal fishing in the shocking boat. After my poor performance in Arkansas it’s always nice to leave on a high note and definitely this trip got me grounded again. After experiencing the early season bass fishing here on Lake Champlain in Vermont, I’m pretty sure it’s going to be an annual trip.
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