Bass Fishing Team July Update

The most recent NYKBF tournament on the Susquehanna River was a fun, adventurous tournament, but one that ended in a mediocre finish for me. Going into the tournament, I had never fished the Susky before, and river Smallmouth certainly aren't something I'd consider to be in my wheelhouse. I didn't have the opportunity to practice on the river before the tournament, so I went into the derby completely blind. I decided to start in an area where there was a dam followed by a deep pool, followed by shallower tail waters. For the first hour or so, I fished the area right below the dam and was able to fill my limit (although all of them were 9-12 inches) on a Ned Rig. I moved down to the tail waters and committed to throwing topwater in hopes of finding larger fish. Throughout the rest of the day, I caught 20 or so smallmouth on topwater and culled all of the fish in my bag. However, 4 of my 5 ended up being “cookie cutter” fish that were 12-12.5 inches, and the other was 14.25 inches. It was a fun day catching loads of fish, but because of the lack of size, I ended up finishing in 20th, which was pretty middle-of-the-pack. 

Going into the final regular season tournament of the year on Sodus Bay on August 15, I'm still in contention to win the trail's Rookie Of The Year award and make my way into the top 10 in Angler Of The Year standings. To do this, I'll need a really high quality finish at Sodus Bay (top 10 or better). Over the next few weeks, I'll be putting in my time to make sure I'm ready for that tournament so I can make a comeback in some of the season-long standings.