Story by Hunter Baughman | Photos by Tanner & Travis Lyons
This week I’m writing to you from a hotel room in Ft. Worth, Texas. I’m here working the Bassmaster Classic. This is the first Classic I’ve ever attended, and I’m impressed! There is so much to see and do. I’ve met lots of great people and seen old friends. It’s been fun.
Now, let’s get into a little fishing talk. Last week I told you how Santee went. This week I’d like to share with you my week at Pickwick. I hope you enjoy these post tournament updates. It lets everyone keep up with my progress and hopefully it helps you learn some dos and don’ts of tournament fishing. Plus, it helps me to work through my week on the water and see my mistakes.
As you may remember, we left straight from Santee headed to Pickwick. We arrived around 3:00 in the morning and I was in bed by 4:00. Back awake at 8:30 to re-rig all my tackle. I ended up in the water about 11:00. I fought some nasty food poisoning at Santee, and I was still feeling pretty rough on that practice day. I made it until almost dark with one keeper bite—a 3 pounder. On the second and last day of practice we had to be off the water by noon. I decided to skip the short day of practice and try to recover from the food poisoning that was finally fading.
Tournament morning I started from scratch looking for a pattern. I stayed on the upper end for a couple of hours trying to catch smallmouth. After a few close calls on the graph, I was still without a fish. I headed downriver looking for anything—from my history or new—that would give me a clue. Main river, creeks, shallow, deep…you get the point. I was hustling looking for an answer.
I knew the majority of the leaders would utilize their FFS as they have all winter and spring at Pickwick. My entire day revolved around my graph. With two hours left to check in, I found myself 30-plus miles downriver still looking for my first bite. The wind was blowing, and I decided I had enough of the graph. I rolled to a windblown bank in a creek and started throwing a spinnerbait. Told myself no more graph. I was fishing in the dirt the rest of the day. I made exactly two throws and happened to look at my graph. There were two fish floating several yards off the bank. I decided to throw the spinnerbait at them and caught a short. Went on down the bank without a bite. Then I decided I’d go back down that stretch and look out a hair deeper on my graph—even though I had told myself I was done with it.
In the next hour I had six bites on a Damiki rig. I caught five of them, and they weighed just shy of 17 pounds. There was bait and fish everywhere. I had a 5 pounder and a 4. Unfortunately, I just didn’t have enough time to catch any more fish. I ran back to weigh-in as quick as possible and ended up in 32nd place—just two pounds outside the cutline to make Day 3.
Going into Day 2 I had so much confidence. After a very long day it had finally “clicked” the afternoon before. I started the day on the upper end again looking for smallmouth, knowing they would be big. No good again, so I headed down lake to the creek with all the fish. This time I had lots more time to catch them than on Day 1.
I got to my bank. The wind had eased up but was still blowing the same direction. When I dropped the trolling motor, I immediately noticed there were no bait fish. Soon after, I realized there were no fish either. I left and tried to right the ship, but it just never happened. For the second week in a row, I had started strong and zeroed on Day 2.
Even with a bad tournament there has to be something to learn. First, I learned that I’m tired of zeroing on Day 2. Ha!
Seriously, coming into that event I was positive the FFS would be how the leaders caught them. After using it most of Day 1, I tried to fish without it and luckily stumbled on some fish on the graph late. That reinforced the need to trust my gut. I also learned that I’m making the right decisions at least at the beginning of events. I just need to continue making the right decisions on Day 2 and fish the conditions.
I hope this has helped you a little and that you can go catch some fish this week. I’ll be back next week!
Hunter Baughman – Angler Profile
