Riverbassin Tournament Trail Charlotte Stop yields 2 Citation Roanoke Bass

I had eagerly awaited this stop in Charlotte but I had a problem....My best spots which were inbounds the last 2 Times in Charlotte(2011, 2013) were now out of bounds. I finished 4th both of those years and being able to hit my honeyholes surely helped. This time I was forced to fish a  section of river I had never fished.  My plan was to start off with a white spinner bait, a few topwaters and a fluke.

Legal fishing time was 6 am and by the time I was on the water it was 6:15.   My first cast yielded nothing but my second cast with the spinnerbait brought on a vicious strike.  I was expecting to have a good solid 2-4 lb bass by the fight but was a little shocked to haul in a good solid 13-14 inch Roanoke bass.  Awesome!  Citation size in North Carolina for this species is 11 inches or 1 pound and this one would make that easily.  I was so surprised(and half asleep) that I didn't get an exact measurement on this fish but it was a good start even though this fish didn't count for the tournament.
Several cast later and my bait is slammed again.  My first Largemouth of the day??.  No,  another citation size Roanoke bass at a solid 12 inches!   Not the fish I was after but I will never complain about catching big Roanoke's. 

Here are a few pictures of these fish.
The Bigger Roanoke Bass ( Ambloplites cavifrons )

The 12 inch Roanoke

A little while later I landed a 11 inch largemouth but I would need fish a lot bigger than that.   Several cast later I landed the first decent Largemouth of the day.  

Not bad but I would need bigger fish to do well in this tournament.  I ended up catching only 7 or 8 bass with the best 3 all being around the 15 inch mark.

My 3 best Bass fell to the White spinnerbait, Pearl Fluke and Zara Spook. 
I ended up with 45.5 inches which put me in 15th place. I just couldn't get that good solid 21 to 22 inch fish that would have put me in the top ten. I was still happy finishing 15th out of 38 entries since this was my first time at this strtch of river.  

 More info on this series of tournaments can be found at http://www.riverbassintrail.com/

Thanks Mack

#roanokebass

#ambloplitescavifrons

River Bassin Tournament Trail Charlotte Stop sponsered by Bass Pro Shops April 2nd, 2011

RiverBassin.com and Bass Pro put on their second year of Kayak/canoe/wade tournaments this spring with Charlotte being the first stop. Last year I placed 4th out of a loaded field or great river bassers from mainly NC, Ga, and SC. I had missed being second by a mere .26 of an inch! and was the first to check in at 1:30! This year I was determined to check in after 3 but not later than the deadline of 4:30.

This years field had slightly less competitors because of the foul weather but anglers came from as far away as Indiana. I almost didn't enter because of the cold weather and high muddy water,  but was urged on by some Friends. My river I rely on was  high and muddy so I (we) had to go to a back up to a back up river (creek) that was not as stained.

My partner this year would be my good friend Steve. We launched at approx 7 am at a toasty 36 degree air temperature though the water was a nice 51 degrees. Fish were very hard to come by and after several hours I only had 1 fish in the boat and had lost 2! Fish were hitting my trusty old spinnerbait. This is a view of the put in.

A view of the creek as I paddled upstream.

This would be my first bass of the day.

Steve picked up 1 bass and lost 2,  then I switched lures and began throwing a Cordell Spot.
I was rewarded with this monster! LOL! but,  this fish really helped me.

Finally we gave up on this spot and from my databank on top of my shoulders I hit one spot on the way back to Charlotte that i knew may give us a fish or 2. After about 15 minutes my spinnerbait was nailed by this fish! I was hoping it was not a Bowfin and indeed it wasn't.

This fish was good enough to put me ahead of some great anglers and guess where I finished?.  Yeap,
 4th again! and I missed jumping up to 3rd  by a 1/4 of an inch again. That's is just how it goes sometimes, I had lost 1 earlier that would have put me in second but probably not first unlike last year where I lost a fish that would have put me in first but you can be sure that others had lost fish too,  so I am happy with being consistent and finishing 4th.  Steve and I also finished 5th in the team standings and surely miss that fish i was getting ready to net that somehow came unhooked that would have put us in 2nd for the team standings.

Here is a view of the "weigh in" stage at Bass Pro in Charlotte probaly about 1 hour before the actual weigh in.

Also, a big congrats to Catawba who had caught a winning stringer but didn't enter the individual competition.
Great stringer on a bad day. Congrats Catawba.

To see the official results see the link below.  Mack
http://www.riverbassintrail.com/recaps/2011-recaps/charlotte-wrap-up-article/#

Bass Pro Tournament June26, 2010 Charlotte

Bass Pro In Charlotte along with Basserdrew and riverbassin.com have started kayak/canoe tournaments with one of the stops this year being Charlotte. This is a catch, photo, and release tournament and since you could fish almost any river withing 100 miles of Charlotte I decided to enter. I knew that some topnotch fishermen were going to be entered so my goal was to be in the top 10, and possibly top 5 and if I was lucky enought to be in the top 5 I knew that I may have a shot at at 1st but I would have to be lucky and others would have to be unlucky. I chose to fish a creek/river that gives up a lot of fish in the 2-4.5 lb range with a few (not every trip of course) 5lbers and it has given me 2 fish in the past that were 8lbs 12oz. This is where I started as we had to take a pic of our creek/river with "legal light".

Here is my first fish of the day.

One big problem this am. I was catching alot of fish. Probaly caught 25 plus but most were 12-13inches so after the first 4 or so I was not catching fish good enough to bump my first 3 pics out of contention. Finally this fish, 7th that i took a pic of, but problay the 20th fish I caught bumped pic # 2 or 3 out.

Then after a few more small fish this fish bumped my 3rd pic out. This fish was caught on a buzzbait.

All in all a great morning as a lot of fish were caught, mostly on buzzbaits, a few on a magnum torpedo and a few on a fluke. On my way back to Charlotte I was confident I would be in the top 10 but thats all I knew. Like I said a lot of very good fishermen were in this tournament.

Namely, Sumtershoaliefan, Redheron, Toba and others. I started my intenet fishing on georgiariverfishing.com where I am sure Basserdrew, Sumtershoailfan and redheron did as well.

After final tabulation I came in 4th. Very happy with 4th but I missed being 2nd and winning a nu-canoe by 1/2 inch. Oh well. I did lose 1- 4lber that could of won it but thats fishing. 1 guy lost a 7lber so you never know.
Here are the final results of the Charlotte Tournament
Official Results
Angler Inches

1. Robert Dainton 55.75

2. Caja Ormand 52* (20)

3. Todd Braswell 52* (18.25)

4. Mack McCorkle 51.75

5. Lance Coley 48.75

6. Drew Haerer 47.75* (20)

7. Ben Adrien 47.75* (17)

8. Michael Troxell 47.75* (16.75)

9. John Japuntich 46.5

10. Joey Sullivan 45



Here are the final standings for True North River Basser of the Year after the 5 tournamnets.  Tied for 10th place is not to bad after only competing in in 1 of the 5 tournaments
TRUE NORTH RIVER BASSER OF THE YEAR


FINAL STANDINGS
Angler Points

1. Lance Coley (Calera, AL) 270

2. Ben Adrien (Johnson City, TN) 240

3. Sean Brodie (Milledgeville, GA) 220

4. Hal Lambert (Marion, SC) 170

5. Josh Tidwell (Attalla, AL) 160

5. Brian Conway (Thompson, GA) 160

6. John Japuntich (Americus, GA)* 110

6. Robert Dainton (Pittsboro, NC) * 110

7. Tim Emberton (Nicholasville, KY) 100

8. Jon Freeman (Mcdonough, GA) * 90

8. Caja Ormand (Shelby, NC) 90

8. Justin Wallace (Bowling Green, KY) * 90

8. Will Dalton (TN) 90

9. Richie Gudzan (Birmingham, AL) * 80

9. Todd Braswell (Albany, GA) * 80

10. Mack McCorkle (Cary, NC) * 70

10. Glenn Anderson (Hampton, GA) 60

10. . Erik Trent (TN) * 60

10. Blake Condo (Cleveland, TN) 60



Mack