Athens

Who's headed to Athens tomorrow? Was thinking of going but hearing there may be a lot of boats there this weekend.

There are always "a lot" of boats on Athens. It is a very good little lake. Lots of good slot fish to catch and some real big ones (I hear) to be had.
Spent 2 hours there this morning and caught 5 real good fish. Biggest was 4.7lbs.
with the Athens Ironman Open coming up,,,,,, night tournament 8pm--7am info will be tough to get.
I will do guided trips for the next week only,,,,, for a small fee.
Day or night,,,PM me.

I will be there, from first light until it gets to 102 degrees anyway

Fished Athens on Tuesday and I can attest folks there are not afraid to roll up and "share" water with you. Found some fish off a point and got to catching one now and again. Looked up and had 4 boats coming up on it. Found another point and same deal. Then I noticed it seemed most points had a couple of boats on it. Fork gets a rep for that but I can say I have yet to have that happen to me on Fork,
That being said everyone was friendly, I don't own the lake and it was a great way to spend an afternoon on the water.

"Tuesday ? Tuesday ?"
That usually does not start happening until Wednesday. But remember, those boats were probably pre-fishing for the Tuesday night Big Bass tourny.
Mark; did you stick around and fish in that?
Talk about drawing a crowd,,,,,

We got off the lake right before that tourney started. I was really surprised at the turnout for a Tuesday night. Fortunately, we didn't experience anybody crowding us & the fishing was decent...buzzbait bite was good first thing in the morning, then caught 'em on a little bit of everything 'til about 9a (football jig, senko, C rig). Absolutely ZILCH from 9a - 2p, then picked up a few more before calling it a day around 4p.

When is the ironman tourney.

Week from tonight

another big tourney the following Saturday w/ CCBC

Athens was jammed packed this weekend. 100+ boats both Saturday & Sunday mornings. Got there at @ 5:15am today and the line was to the highway from the ramp. with 3 slots though it went fairly quick. I* still don't understand what is so hard about learning to turn your headlights off when at the ramp and parking at a good angle w/o taking up 2 spots.
Even though I got on the lake fast I decided to fish "new" water. Glad In did. Had a great weekend with my son, didn't miss fishing in the BC at Fork and spent Saturday night on the lake with my son & wife getting ready for the Ironman. Should be fun.

A couple of questions, I found the the post that says it is a Poormans tourney, how many usually turnout.

Rules state that entry fee covers big bass payout and then I guess there is an optional 7 pound pot. So one fish over 7 gets both payouts?

After this past Friday night club tourney I would like to play, but at this time I have church conflict. A decent attendance might get me to find an alternate Elder.

Finally,,,,,
4:30 Tuesday morning at Lake Athens and not one boat trailer or vehicle in the parking lot.
Looking forward to a relaxed morning on the lake.

Rub it in while we slave

Takes 4:30am on a Tuesday to have it solo! Enjoy your morning sir!

For the night T's, would have to go back and look but seems like 15-ish boats last year. This is a popular night lake so maybe a few more? EDIT - went back and looked @ last year - 20 teams on cypress springs, 9 teams on Texoma so about 15 average, but i would expect this one to be closer to Cypress Springs turnout than texoma



7lb pot is a progressive throughout the season - if there is a balance from prior Ts then you can't get in the 7lb pot on your first T with the club for this calendar year. If the balance is $0 to start that particular T then anyone can join in. In this case, i believe there is a roll-over of about $400 in the pot, so you can only buy in to the pot if you have already fished at least one T with the club prior to the start of this event.

Lake Athens has a very good turnout for the Tuesday Night Athens BC Big Bass Tournament. $15 entry fee, one winner. So I really expect this Saturday Night tournament with a better payout to get just as many entries as the Tuesday Night tourney. I would expect there to be 50+ teams entered. Plus fishing is good right now on Athens, overs are tough to come by, lots of good quality slots being caught out of the schools & there are some nice big 14 inch unders if you know where they are.
Like any slot lake you are going to need a good over to win, but heck you got all night to sit on your hole with your favorite 12 inch worm and just wait,,,,,,but don't fall asleep or the boogy man might get ya !!!

I cannot find a substitute Elder for Sunday's communion table, so i will be at church.

The bigs ones bit very well in several areas of the lake last Friday night, using the same bait with very slow retrieve. the bait out fished our clubs "wormers" 4 to 1.

wow! that would be unprecedented - seems like we had over 25 teams at CC years and years ago for the largest turnout for an ironman event.

the thing that tends to keep it lower than weeknight Ts is the fact that it runs all night long.

got room in any of those storage compartments for a sleeping bag and a pillow.
that's what I would be doing after I caught my 2 big uns.
unfortunately my son had to cancel due to wife going into premature laber (2 months early) and still in the hospital........ so I do not have a partner & you need a partner in this one,,,,,,, 1 over for a single, 2 overs for a 2-man team. It will take 2 overs and 3 good unders to win.