BASS Central Open Wrap Up

2008 Central Open Highlights

Red River, Red River South Marina

4-24/26-2008

Click Read More: to see the 9.1 Pound Largemouth, I caught!

25 inches What A HOG!

Arrived on Friday Late Evening to Red River South Marina, Amped for a great week of fishing. The water level was High! and the River Current was a extreme, 100,000 CFS, in pools 4 and 5.

Pratice Day One: April 19th

Found a Beaver hut with about 4' of stained to muddy water, just in front of it. As all good Bass Anglers Know, "fish-the-Huts". I chose to flip a 5", green pumkin creature bait, with Chart. dipped tails. 1st flip of the first cast, I hooked and landed a 4 pound fish! (some say bad luck, I say, "Great Bass!") 2nd flip a 3 pound class fish! 10th flip I broke off, after a see-saw battle#$@!

I fished 50 yards of the hut and had a solid limit and had not been on the water an hour. OK Spot one found.

As the day went on, I found a little back water area, and the water was full of Duck Weed, Hydrilla, and ton's of laydown logs anywhere from 2-8 foot deep. I got out a top water type frog to work over the tops of the bunched up little green dots, that made a layer, on the surface. It was about 2 pm and when I found this location. First patch of lumped up Duck Week, and "Ka Boom" a solid 2 pound fish, drilled my bait. A dozen casts later, "Ker-Splaash!" a 4 pounder, "sucked it down"! (can you say, WOW!

Then about 10 minutes, I got a phone call from Pete, of TCCranks, when the water, opened up like a under water tornado, and my bait simply disappeared out of sight. I rared back and set the hook, Told Pete hang on, and then it appeared: A blessed beast from the deep! This "Moss Back Monster" rolled to the surface and I had a 100% adrelene rush, it was worse than "Buck Fever". My 7 foot Fenwick Techna AV Med. Heavy, strained and curled over like never before, the Abu Garcia Revo STX, 7.1 was put to the test, both the Drag, and gears!

This "Land Locked Lunker" was over 2 good size logs and I knew if I couldn't hold her at the surface, I had no chance of landing her. Lucky for me I had spooled up with Spider Wire 65# Stealth, in Moss Green.

With the rod still fully loaded, I was screaming in the blue tooth mic, "Pete it's a 10 pounder", over and over! He was getting the "blow-by'blow" of the entire event as it unfolded. What seemed like 2 minutes went by, the Techna Av did what it was built for, as I stayed in a full power postion, the fish could not hold its ground and over the logs she came, but then when she cleared the logs and I went to pull up the slack line, she dove, and dove hard, like an American Submarine, evading overhead Depth Charges!

Then as the battle came to a close, I reached down and put my hand around her lower jaw bone, which was as thick as a "pipe wrench handle" As I hoisted, this true creature from the swamp, I couldn't stop shaking. I told Pete to hang on as I got out my new Berkley Digital Culling System Scales and she bounced back and forth from 9.0, 9.2 and 9.1 it settled on!

After taking a few picutures and telling Pete that was Freak N Fantastic!, it was back to work! I slipped her right back where she came from and wanted to get her in the tournament. I named this spot: "Hog Hole"

I spent 1 hour and had several other 2 and 3 pound fish and had found Spot 2.

Pratice Days 2-5:

I only found one other area that produced and solid potiential and it was on Black Buzz Baits in the 1/4 oz size in the very dirty water.

Day 1 of the Event: Thursday

Had to make a choice Beaver Hut or "Hog Hole" the hidden back water, with Big Mama, in my sights. I decided to committ my time in Hog Hole, and hoped no one else would show up.

I had a great co-angler Paul Sims from the local area. He is a police officer in Bossier City, and a heck of a nice guy. We hit it off great and with in the first hour in Hog Hole, I had a very small limit and Paul had 3 fish. Knowing what lurked below the surface I was sure we could hook up with several of these back water oversized lunkers.

I culled up to a whopping 6.8 pounds by days end and had lost 2 in the 4 pound class. Paul on the other hand had a exciting day with 9.8 pounds and lost one that was in the 7 to 8 pound range!

I found myself trying to decide what now, I was in 121st place out of 196 anglers with over 50,000 bucks on the line. I choose to go back into Hog Hole, again the alure of that huge bass and the fact that only 1 other boat even attempted to cross into this promised land, the entire event, thus far. It was so stumpy and log filled I think most thought there wasn't water enough to fish and you could tear up your equipment just jumping over the 2 foot diameters logs that clogged the entrance.

BASS web link to Day 1 standings:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/media/tournamentDaily?tournamentId=1205&maxTournamentDay=1

Day 2 of the Event: Friday

I stayed with Mike Blaha and Dan Rodlund, who were both ahead of me after day one. I decided to spend the entire day with my Co-Angler Cory Izaj, who is in the process of moving to Lake Amistad and is good friends with Mary Delgado (135th final standings) and Byron Velvick (83 final standings).

Cory was cool with camping out in Hog Hole and with in 5 minutes he boated his first keeper of the event on the top water frog, I had suggested he purchase from Bass Pro Shop. The day went much like day 1 in this back water area, plenty of keepers, but no lunkers. I ended up with 5 fish for 8.12 pounds and Cory had a solid limit for 8.14 pounds. Cory missed the top 50 and a check by 3 pounds, and I missed it by 4 pounds.

Final standings at BassMaster.com:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/media/tournament?tournamentId=1205

All in all the Red River was good to all of us, I felt great because Paul Sims, ended up making the top 30 and finished 24th over all! Aslo, I don't think there were many boats that had a total of 20 keeper fish in the 2 days. Just needed a little more size.

http://www.paulsimsfishing.com/

Current Points Standings:

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tournaments/opens/news/story?page=b_tourn_stand_Central_Open_2008

Dan Rodlund: 65th with 143 points

Kerry Kruep: 85th with 105 points

Mike Blaha: 89th with 97 points

Justin Russell: 135st with 40 points