[ChitownLonghorn]

Fished the college tourney this past Saturday. Our Take off was 7:40. Air temperature was in the 50's and rose over the day. Come cloud cover, but mostly a sunny day. Water clarity was stained. Found water temps ranging up to 67 degrees. We headed to the Brookeland area and headed to a shallow point that extended about 100 yards into the creek entrance. We started throwing senkos up on the point and dragging them off. Within about 15 minutes I landed two Undersized fish, both over 13 inches. Then a few better bites, 14 inches, 16 inches. I am thinking 4 pounds in the boat in the first 30 minutes is a good deal. We start to work up and down the edge of the point and notice another boat approaching us fishing the same ledge. Out pro boater says to me...."Uh-Oh". The Stren top ten were fishing the lake on the same day and we were required to concede water to them. As they approached we realized it was definitely a top ten guy. We saw him pull a 3-4 pound fish withing 50 yards of us. He called to us and asked us to get off the line. We obliged. We were later informed his 7 pounder came off that stretch. We tried to duplicate the pattern and also do some sight fishing as we worked into creeks. We would pick up 13.5 inch fish on every point and then see the same size fish on beds as we worked back. We did not see a bedding fish over 14 inches. My partner caught one keep and two unders. I finished with my original two fish that went four pounds and about 20-25 short fish....very frustrating, but still fun. We were assessed a 1 pound late penalty and finished with 4 and half pounds to place 33 or something. :-[ The big sacks came from sight fishing and fish were caught on various plastics, mainly senkos....The winning team OSU caught their fish on trick worms. I want to go back though....what a great lake.

 

[Ranger_R77]

Thanks for sharing..


More information:
http://www.collegefishing.com/tournament.cfm?tid=6169&t=news

 

[I_Got_1]

well dang. No frog bite in those creek channels? I will be getting in touch with you soon for a little more detail since we've got our big tourney coming up out there. nice report.

~BE

 

[ChitownLonghorn]

The frog bite was not on that week from what we heard, so we decided to go with the senko pattern. I kinda wish I threw the frogs anyway.

 

[I_Got_1]

yea, its fun throwing those ribbitts whether you catch something or not. I did get bit twice on them in LA in a creek channel this weekend. thought what heck, ill throw a frog and practice up for big sam. boom! small ones, but fun.

 

[txlunkerhunter]

I don't understand why you have to give up your water to them. Do they own the lake or something. I think I would have a problem giving up my water to another tournament angler I don't care who they are and what tour they are fishing.

 

[ChitownLonghorn]

It was in the rules of the tournament. Stren series is part of FLW and so is the National Guard college fishing. Trust me, I didn't like it, but it is what it is.

 

[wildbill]

I honestly have no problem with conceding water to the top 10 pros, but I didn't ever run into that issue when I fished the FLW on Falcon. It's really because of them that we have this opportunity, and they have a lot more on the line than we do in the FLW collegiate tournaments.

I guess I just feel like it is a good rule out of respect.

 

[txlunkerhunter]

I know I'm about to stir up a hornets nest but... So in other words if your not in the Top 10 pros your a second class fisherman (human being) and they are Royalty. They have all the rights to what is theirs, yours and ours. Sounds kind of what William Wallace was fighting about in Braveheart. Just come in and take what they want and don't have to work for it.

 

[ChitownLonghorn]

In their defense, they were in the creek before we were......but when we arrived, they were fishing close to the bank (pretty sure they were sight fishing the bank). We started out in the middle of the creek and worked our way along the point. They started to work back towards us. We were holding pretty tight to the spot. Quite frankly, I think they saw us catching fish and moved onto the point. We didn't see them catch anything until they started working the point. Oh well.... its over with. I have one more shot to qualify for the next round. I will be fishing Toledo Bend in October...Any info helps!!!

 

[wildbill]

I know I'm about to stir up a hornets nest but... So in other words if your not in the Top 10 pros your a second class fisherman (human being) and they are Royalty. They have all the rights to what is theirs, yours and ours. Sounds kind of what William Wallace was fighting about in Braveheart. Just come in and take what they want and don't have to work for it.

No, that's not at all what I am saying. All I'm saying is that I am willing to concede water to someone that has more on the line than me. If I am fun fishing, I will always concede to someone I can tell is fishing a tournament. I guess it's not that I expect others to do the same for me, but I sure would appreciate it, so I extend the same courtesy to others.

I think the rule is fair. We get to fish for free, but the top 10 guys have to deal with 40 extra boats on the lake.

 

[Gingerbread_Man]

I know I'm about to stir up a hornets nest but... So in other words if your not in the Top 10 pros your a second class fisherman (human being) and they are Royalty. They have all the rights to what is theirs, yours and ours. Sounds kind of what William Wallace was fighting about in Braveheart. Just come in and take what they want and don't have to work for it.

First, If you check the records of most of the top 10 Stren anglers at Rayburn..........you'll find accomplished careers for one thing, anglers who know Rayburn very well too, and they work very hard at their craft as many of them fish full time.  Secondly, the college teams are fishing out of a boat owned and operated by one of the Stren Tournament participants who volunteered their time and boat to make the FLW College Fishing Tournament a success which, I might add, at this time it is.  FLW recognized that  the future of fishing is to get more young people involved and gain recognition through the sport at the collegiate level........a great move on the part of FLW.  One of the issues was that by having the College fishing tournament on the same day as the final day of the Stren tournament there would be plenty of Stren tournament fishermen who did't qualify for the top ten still around who might be willing to volunteer to help with the use of their boat...................and of course inevitably the question of fishing locations came up and, since the top ten pros had already been fishing the lake for two days of the tournament and countless days in pre-fishing, a decision was made to put the concession of location to the pros into the rules.