COUNTY SETX H.S. TEAMS SCORED WELL

 

Last updated 1/21/2020 at Noon



While many of us so called “hard core fishermen”were parked on the couch or in a favorite recliner watching football, 498 teams of high school bass fishermen were taking advantage of a wet, but otherwise perfect fishing day.

Sam Rayburn was the scene of the first event of the year last Saturday and raingear was the order of the day as it was damp even when it wasn’t raining.Fog played a significant role early, but the overcast skies proved user-friendly and kept the bass on the move all day. Not surprisingly, three Orange County teams earned a spot in the top ten at the final weigh-in and eleven teams earned a top fifty finish!

The Vidor team of Kullen King and Trent Korman posted a fourth place finish with five bass weighing 16.81 pounds.Orangefield brothers, Conner and Kade Griffin finished eighth with 14.15-lbs while the LCM team of Braxton Rambo and Cameron Dougharty, fishing their first high school event, claimed the tenth spot with a 13.84-pound bag.

It was a battle at the top as fifty of the teams all weighed in at least a ten pound sack.The winning team topped the massive field with a 19.71-pound catch.As in most tournaments, their winning weight was anchored with a “game changing” 6.34-pound kicker bass.

If you find yourself on a fishing aisle in a department store or shopping in a local tackle shop like Rambo’s dedicated to supplying information as well as tackle, do not make the mistake of hustling noisy teen-agers out of the way.The chances are very good that they are ganged up in front of lures that work and they may well be some of these same youngsters.Slow down and listen!

I have become more aware of the fact that I no longer leave the house with the intention of catching every fish in the pond, regardless of weather, and the past couple of days confirmed that line of thinking.On the heels of three days of unseasonably warmer weather, we unexpectedly discovered that it was windy and much colder than anticipated.Shorts and t-shirts under rain gear were not enough!

That under dressed mistake inevitably occurs when you get so caught up with catching that you could care less about the weather report.A falling barometer and cloudy skies had been exceptionally good to us and we unfortunately ignored the forecast.

Banking on it warming up, we decided to give it a try anyway.It never warmed up!

The only guarantee when winter fishing, fresh or saltwater, is that you will never do well when you are more concerned with the cold than the bite.Your lure presentation is bad, the ability to feel your lure is greatly diminished and your “give a hoot” is solidly frozen.

Even with all of those negatives, however, I returned home in a hurry to get back as soon as it warms up just a little.Tyson Bray, thirty years younger than I, had no clue as to when or how to fish a Corky or suspending mullet imitation.The closest thing he had to one of the winter time favorites was a chrome-blue back Bomber Long A.

In a brief forty-five minute span he missed several strikes while boating his limit of specks.For years, prior to deciding there were better choices, we religiously fished jerk baits like the Long A and Rogue in Sabine Lake.

I am not sure why we put them away forever as they were extremely versatile lures that attracted not only redfish, but big trout as well.They were deadly fished in that top column of water.You could simply twitch them on the surface, jerk them down a foot or so or retrieve them slowly so that they wobbled just beneath the surface.

For some unknown reason they were relegated to an empty corner of the work bench in favor of the more publicized Corky, Mirrodine and Catch V series.I can’t tell you that any of those lures would or would not have out fished Ty’s Long A as I never made the first cast. That would have required taking my hands out of my pockets and I didn’t feel like there was a trout within casting range worth warming my fingers up again.

In any event I have now added a box of Long A’s to my winter arsenal that I didn’t even remember owning and I can’t wait to tie one on.Right after it warms up a little! .

 

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