# tournament experience



## Derek777 (Apr 27, 2008)

well, i fished my first real tournament on saturday on the northeast river in maryland. i had fished a couple of lunker tourneys at the nock before, but this was my first ever 'official' tournament where you had a five fish limit and a weigh in like the pros etc. 

i fished this as a co angler/non boater, which means i was fishing off the back of a boat. i was lucky to have drawn a boater who was a really nice guy, and also was able to put us in a position to not only find the fish and catch them, but also to fish in an area where i wasnt handicapped by fishing spent water, like fishing docks, pilings etc afer he'd already cast to them. 

we ended up in a large cove that was a huge weedbed that was just starting to really get thick. i used a ratl-trap and caught 4 of my 5 fish limit on the trap, catching every fish when ripping the trap from the weeds. antoher technique that used to catch my final limit fish was pitching finesse wieghted plastics to individual weed clumps. this is the techinique used by the guy who won the tournament. i weighed my 5 fish in at 12.17 lbs, and finished in 5th place out of 23. i was only .2 lbs out of the money. 

i had a really good time, and came into the tournament with low expectations of a finishing place, but with confidence in my abilities, and with the attitude that if i caught fish it was a bonus, and that i wanted to learn and expand my abilities as an angler. i definitely did that, as my 'confidence' technique is basically finesse fishing, but i was forced by the situation i was presented with to 'power fish', something that i wasnt too experienced with, but definitely wanted to learn so i can expand my abilities as an angler. 

as a coangler, you are quite limited in the amount of tackle you can bring, as storage is limited to usually a small compartment on the backs of the boats, so i was forced to be quite particular/selective about the tackle i brought, as well as the rods. i brought 5 rods, all of which could serve dual purposes. the rod i relied on most was my otterods custom rippin crankin rod, which was also brought for jerkbaits and light swimbaits. 

anyways, i got a nice shot of me from the weigh in for my sponsors 
FilthyFishermen Bait Company
CB's Hawg Sauce 
Enhanced Concrete Design/Wagner Contractors 
The Angling Center


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## Jim (Apr 27, 2008)

5th place as a non-boater is excellent! Good job Derek! =D> 

Tourney fishing is tough. Allot of ppeople don't realize that its a long non-stop fishing day. You really cant take a break and relax and have a samwich and shoot the shit.


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## jkbirocz (Apr 27, 2008)

Congrats Derek, 5th place is awesome for the first tourney. That is one BA shirt you got there too. Nice work. I cannot imagine how hard of decisions you made when downsizing your tackle quantity :lol:


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## Gamefisher (Apr 27, 2008)

Congrads on the good finish, and way to represent the Filthy guys!

Matt


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## redbug (Apr 27, 2008)

Derek, did a great job and kicked a bunch of quality anglers butts

Here is the full standings and some pictures

https://www.pabasstournaments.com/tx080426.php




Wayne


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## little anth (Apr 27, 2008)

nice job congrats and sick shirt


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## FishinsMyLife (Apr 27, 2008)

I thought that reverse grip was only for swimbait fish [-X .?. :wink: 

Congrats on your finish!


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## Derek777 (Apr 27, 2008)

yeah, well ive co-opted/corrupted it and now its my standard grip. 8)


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## Waterwings (Apr 28, 2008)

Great job, Derek! 8) 

Cool shirt also! CB is a regular over at another site I frequent. Were you using his Hawg Sauce?


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## shamoo (Apr 28, 2008)

Way to go Derek, pretty good for your first tourneyment especially fishing from that back of the boat.


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## mtnman (Apr 28, 2008)

Great post dude!!!! Congrats on a nice finish and thats a cool shirt ya go there.


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## G3_Guy (Apr 28, 2008)

Great Job! =D>


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## BensalemAngler (Apr 28, 2008)

I like your FilthyFishermen Bait Company shirt


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## BassAddict (Apr 28, 2008)

Looking sharp Derek!!! I dig that jersey, nice catching too!!!


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## mr.fish (Apr 28, 2008)

Way to represent Derek.


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## Derek777 (Apr 28, 2008)

Waterwings said:


> Great job, Derek! 8)
> 
> Cool shirt also! CB is a regular over at another site I frequent. Were you using his Hawg Sauce?



thanks guys!

and yes, i was using his sauce. i used the sassy shad gel on my ratl trap to help it slide through the weeds a bit easier, and also to get the fish to hold on a touch longer, and i used the sassy crawfish sauce on my finesse worms when i was throwing them.
in my humble opinion, it helped for sure as all the fish that hit on the trap were on the front hook, and my big fish had it engulfed. i think it helped numbers wise too, as i caught 5 keepers, plus about 3 or 4 shorts on the sauce, and my boater caught 1 keeper and 2 shorts without. if i remember correctly, he was using megastrike.


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## slim357 (Apr 28, 2008)

5th place is a nice way to start, how many more tourneys are you fishin this year? Also I cant remember but didnt you say somethign about one being on the potomac, if so that pitching finesse wieghted plastics to individual weed clumps might have been good practice.


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## den (Apr 29, 2008)

great job, derek!!!!

are we gonna see you again this saturday????

tight lines, den


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## Nickk (Apr 29, 2008)

Wow,
You kicked some serious buttocks.

nicely done


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## Jim (Apr 29, 2008)

den said:


> great job, derek!!!!
> 
> are we gonna see you again this saturday????
> 
> tight lines, den




:WELCOME:

Thanks for joining!

Jim


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## den (Apr 30, 2008)

thanks jim


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