Tales from the Berkley Tourney on Fork!

Caught all dinks. Must be a million 12 inch fish in that lake! Only caught one slot. Fished from Glade to Birch. Grass, docks, points and anything else I could think of. Caught 18 fish off one dock. All were 12 inches. Where are the big unders? Im clueless!

Caught a 2.16 and a 1.97 good for a 8th place check and a Rod. Caught one each day the I weighed in. Also one that weighed in at 1.67 that got knock out. Both on a sebile frog. Caught about 15 fish in two days all on moving baits or top water. could not get a bit on soft plastics. craziest thing I have seen.

Caught probably 30 fish the first day. 1 was just barely over 16", the rest where dinks. I could not get bit on day two, but is was a lot of fun.

caught all on plastics...20 fish Saturday biggest 1.65 on 7" blue fleck worms, only 2 fish Sunday...gosh what a grind, one was a 6.6 on a blue fleck worm and another on the ringed worm in green pumpkin.

Did not feel like I had a good plan on Sunday. Needed to be on the roadbed on the main lake..it was stacked with fish..no buoys and messed up drop shot line - figured this out way too late.

Birch on Saturday for a couple of fish, a 1.5 that got bumped is all I weighed. Got one big THUMP, but the rest were small bites.

Ran around more on the east side Sunday had some pick up/drop more often than not. Finally got into a school but all dinks. Was hitting what I thought were bigger fish areas, but they weren't there!

fished birch sat and caught about 15 fish biggest being about 13" and had one break off never seen!! fished dale creek sunday and it was windy and tought but pulled about 12 fish that were all dinks and a 8lb catfish of plastic craw!! tought weekend for sure

We caught several fish good enough to win a rod or reel, just didn't see driving that far and then returning, so we stuck it out hoping for something bigger, but never happened. Caught a few nice slots on Thursday and Friday after lunch along with a boat load of small fish. Had a great time fishing with my son, looking forward to next years tournaments. Another great tournament ran by Bass Champs, top notch set up.

Only fished Saturday. My girlfriend and I caught well over 40 fish but only one was weighable at 1.86. And she weighed it and won a rod. I was very proud of her. Her first tournament and she did awesome. We figured it wasn't even worth gong in unless we had something 2 lbs or bigger.
This was my first one back in several years, so it was great seeing everyone again. I apparently need to re-learn the lake again! lol. Lots of fish, but none the size we needed!

I fished both days, Saturday was tough for me I only caught 2 dink's. My partner caught 2 fish shallow before daylight on a wind blown point half way back in Williams and won a rod during the first hour. That was it for Saturday. After wondering what I did wrong I figured that since it was a full moon that the mud bugs were probably out and that our best chance was from 6.30 Am till 7.am before the traffic started and the sun came up. I tied on a 1/2 oz. Biffle head and put a Bobby Lane black and blue craw fatty on behind it . We left early and went straight back to the spot we caught the 2 fish early and waited for 6.30. The conditions were perfect for a early bite. On my third cast I felt my bug hit a stick up, I paused it and bounced it into it again. When I went to lift my rod It felt what I would call mushy so I set the hook, that's where things got crazy. The fish ran straight at the boat and went under it taking drag, I finally got the fish turned and it went straight for the trolling motor. I managed to get the fish closer to the middle of the boat where my partner was waiting with the net and on the second attempt we had it in the boat. At first when I grabbed it I thought it was going to be a Lake Fork heart break but it measured right at 25 inches long. If you were near me you probably heard me going Ike in the dark. Knowing that a 9.82 was in the lead and I just landed what could be a potential boat winning fish got the adrenaline pumping. We put the fish in the live well with out weighing it and I tried to settle down. I was the first person in line on the 8 am weigh in. When Chad put the fish on the scales and it weighed 9.62 my heart sank. My partner looked at me and said it ain't your hour to win a Skeeter so lets hop in the Ranger and catch a bigger 1. We went to a spot in Little Caney where we had found some schoolers in the past years and went to work. We ended up catching about 30 fish on Sunday nothing big enough for another check. Over all I had 1 of the most exciting few hours I think I have ever had since watching my son being born.

That's great Chris, really proud of Shanda for fishing her first event and you for getting her on some numbers. Well done, no you don't need to re: learn the lake. There isn't as many good unders as the days of old. We stayed deep mostly except for the first hour an a half ea. day. 27 fish Sat best was 6.7 slot, had 6 slots total the rest were dinks to 14 3/4 inches Kay hung a beast we couldn't get out of a tree, never saw it but it was big no doubt. Sunday sux'd, plain and simple. 13 fish total, 1 slot (Kay's) 23.1/2 7.8 lbs it had a head of a 11 lb fish, got me jacked up when she came up, all for not. We had a great time, happy to get my wife, my partner back in the boat. Looking forward to next year, BassChamps, and Berkley are tops with us, fabulous organizations...

never caught so many fish under 15 or over 17. I couldn't get a Top-water bite where I was at caught some on the pitbull crank even tho they wouldn't run true.went through 4 bags of those ringworm rattlesnake looking worms