Seewald takes 4th place,
with the frog,
in local tournament. August 27th, 2005,
"Just for fun", a 'sdfish message
board'
bass tourney held at El Capitan, east San Diego County.
The
gun went off at 6:15 am to start (not really a gun) and I heard the roar
of the boats from the launch ramp, which I was still at launching my boat
'Answered Prayer'- oh well! I was now in my first San Diego County
fishing tournament, how exciting. I said hi to a couple of fellows I
know from the fish boards and went to work (fishing that is). I worked a
point 4/5ths of the way to the trees at the far north end of the lake. It
had produced months earlier but two hours of trying my best with hula
grubs and various topwater lures produced the big zero.
I decided to move down to the trees, where after I arrived I realized I
should of gone immediately because bass were busting
everywhere. Two guys said they already had two keepers in their live-well.
That was heartbreaking as I was skunked so far and it was
nearing 9 a.m..
I tried flukes and other assorted topwater there, with the occasional
spinner bait and plastic, but still no action on my line. I sat back
and thought, what could I do different? The sun had burnt the clouds
away and the heat was starting to get unbearable almost instantly. I could hear the fat lady singing and it was now only 9:30, with
three hours left to fish before we had to be back at the docks for weight
in.
I
realized Barrett Lake (in the mountains of dry, eastern San Diego County)
had the same hot weather and the bass loved the frog there, at least the
ones under heavy growth/trees, even at noon, so I tied on a frog and
started working the trees. 15 minutes later I saw an explosion under
a big tree that was half submerged, as most were, but it was on the other
side of the trunk. I tossed the frog into the thick brush still
growing in it. I did not see it land as it went into and through the
brush, as close to the 'explosion area' as I could get. I kept an
eye on the line though and noticed it was moving, so I cranked down and
set the hook- fish on, Thank U Lord. I beefed him out of the brush
and prayed he would not throw the hook, as he jumped pretty high. I
realized he was a nice keeper at that point and grabbed the net that
was at the ready. I landed my first bass; it was sweet to finally
get one; it picked up my spirits quite a bit.
Surprisingly, it had hit that frog gently, slurped it down, and this was
the first time of getting one like that. In fact, all four hits were
that way that day. Weird.
I
continued my approach of tossing the frog under the trees but it was tough
as the frog constantly got hung up, not hook wise but just the line would
tangle around the tree branches. If I did not get into the dense
stuff I got no hits. Well, it must have reached about 105
degrees by noon, but I was happy with my results. I had landed two
out of possible three fish I hooked into and had watched one really big
bass come out of the water and try to eat the frog that was stuck up in
the branches. I would lower it down and let it dip in the water,
then raise it up to the branch a foot up, trying to get some attention. It was
about 5 pounds and he slowly came up, big ol' mouth wide open and almost
getting up to the frog at the top of the pull. Believe me, I was
excited and cheering for that big guy to get up there and eat it, but he
only gave it half a try and failed, costing me first place, as well as
one that hit the frog and I failed to reel down first before swingin',
amateur mistake. You have to keep your wits about you or you can
miss a hookset really quick.
I
got out of there right after the drawing, I think everyone did. I was so
hot from fishing in the sun it took quite a while to cool down, even with
the air condition on in the van on the way home.
Click on photo to enlarge.
My two frog fish, netting me fourth place out of 11 teams
(I fished solo) on a very tough bite day, most got skunked.
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