The Bass College

Well here's a first post for Lake Pleasant it looks like. Had a 5pm-1am tournament there Saturday night. The lake is known to fish small and dropshots are a huge part of your tackle here. My partner and I could basically only get bit on the drop shot thoughout the entire night, with a fish or two coming off of shakey heads and Westy worms. It was a tough night trying to find the keeper bites as its a 13 inch minimum. We managed to finish 4th, lost a big fish in the last 5 minutes that would have for sure put us in the top 3, but was a fun night and tournament.

Fished a tournament again, right in the middle of a nasty cold front. Temps during the week were in the 90s and then tournament day was windy with rain the night before and a high of 58 for the day. Was hoping on an A-rig but but could only get them to chase it and never commit. We struggled most the day but found a bite half way through throwing shakey head worms near the trees in the back of cuts and on the way where the shelves dropped. All the fish we weighed were very healthy and came out of the same area that we hit repeatedly. We finished in 4th place with 10lbs and big fish at 2.54lbs. It was hard fought as we only had the 5 quality keepers and a few short fish. All the fish came in less that 12ft and most came from 2-8ft and later in the day as the storm was moving in.

great job chris!!! nice report. place sounds tough!!!!!

Ya, Lake pleasant can be tough since deep clear cold water, plus it was going up a foot a day when we went.

Nice Report. Next time I'm in Az I'll have to look you up.

Sounds good Rick, always looking for extra reasons to get out on the water

Well Lake unPleasant struck again. I was able to prefish for a tournament and had a decent day. Started throwing A-rigs in back of Humbug and had one fish and 5 hits in a few minutes. I drove to almost every cove and found fish from 1ft-40ft deep but had enough weight to win the tournament the week before. Tournament day came and the weather dropped 15 degrees and the bites just werent there. Every fish we caught was either a short of a striper. It was extremely frustrating. Over half the field zeroed, and only 4 limits out of 2 tournaments on the water. All the winning weights and big fish came out of the Agua Fria Arm which closes in a few days. Maybe with the cold fronnts moving through, and the water levels almost to normal since its filling up at a foot plus a day, the fish will pattern up for the winter.

Wow I remember that kind of stuff. I hate it! It's tough. I complain here but it's easier even though its too cold and you cant fish for a few weeks.

Just wondering Chris why the  Agua Fria Arm closes? Most of my fall fishin days back in Ohio where like that. With me blanking.

On a few of the lakes here they close certain areas of the lakes due to Bald Eagle nesting sites being located there. They close them to keep people away from the eagles during the nesting times since they get very protective of the nests and young.

Chris at December 12, 2012 at 1:14 PM

On a few of the lakes here they close certain areas of the lakes due to Bald Eagle nesting sites being located there. They close them to keep people away from the eagles during the nesting times since they get very protective of the nests and young.

They do that in NJ also.

Well the tournament was moved from Alamo Lake to Lake Pleasant over the weekend, and I couldn't be any happier. I dislike Pleasant but Saturday the bite was decent. It had rained for 2 days and poured all day Saturday but it made the fish push shad up shallow instead of being inside the deep trees. A friend of mine game me a little inside info on the bite so partner and I decided to stick to the game plan. It was supposed to be A-rigs and shakey heads all day. I was also told to try a weedless A-rig since the fish were in the bottom of the trees. Well at about 12pm with only 2 fish in the livewell I made a change to throw the non-weedless A-rig and that was the right move. Within 2 cast I got my first fish of the day, our biggest at the time and continued until 2:30, weigh-in was at 3 and we had a long run to make with tons of no-wake. I made the switch too late and we finished 3rd. I was missing fish with the weedless A-rig because they weregrabbing it and taking off, they were mouthing it and swimming along with it, felt like was just bumping trees. I didnt realize the way they were hitting it until I switched to the hook exposed A-rig and looking back it drives me insane I missed so many earlier because I switched setups to weedless. We finished in 3rd place, with over 11lbs, 12 was 2nd and 13 was first. 4th was at 7lbs. It was truly a learning experience, and even though it rained the entire day without letting up, it was fun. The water went up over 1.5ft while we were on the lake. The Lengends Cup tournament next week should be interesting.