Lessons Learned from a River Bass Tournament

Dock at Lakeside Resort in Trout Creek, MT
on Noxon Rapids Reservoir

Swift river bass are known to be tough customers and fast fighters.  But the Coosa River bass are not the only ones who earn that reputation.  A recent trip to fish the BASS Nation Western Divisional was a lesson in river bass fishing in combat conditions, literally gunnel-to-gunnel with other boats.

Also posted at Fish Explorer

I qualified to fish on the CA BASS Nation State Team at the 2014 BASS Nation Western Divisional Tournament held May 20-23 on Noxon Rapids Reservoir, Trout Creek, MT, joining 10 other State Teams, each

The 2014 CA BASS Nation State Team

comprised of 12 anglers and two High School contenders.  I had a great time in a beautiful location with friendly and helpful locals that helped to make the trip one to remember.  What I did not do was catch the right fish to place well in the tournament.  But I did learn a thing or two.

Noxon Rapids Reservoir is an impoundment of the Clark Fork River in NW Montana. One end of the impoundment is difficult to run in a boat due to rapids unless you know what you are doing, but most of the lake is wide and deep with either current swept banks, slack-water areas, or a few stream fed tributary coves that flow to Noxon dam.   The event was held at the Lakeside Motel & Resort in Trout Creek, a small western town of colorful locals, hunters, fishermen, horses and mules, surrounded by snow capped mountain tops and lush, green tall timber.

My Day 3 catch would have been
good if I had caught the same
on the 1st and 2nd days.

I learned several things during this tournament.  The first is one that I have learned before but can be hard to follow at times.  Listen to the voices in your head!  My head was telling me that the quality fish were those that lived along the main flow of the current and that they could be targeted by finding breaks in the flow either along the banks or caused by grass beds and humps.  Unfortunately for me this theory did not become apparent until the last day of the event when I fished with a local who targeted the type of area I should have been focused on all along.  That day I landed every bass on a custom-made 3/8 oz. Falcon Tackle black and blue jitter-jig with a green pumpkin Berkley Chigger Craw.  Using a Revo Premier reel spooled with 15- pound Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon, on a Fenwick HMG 5 ½ foot Pistol Grip rod for accurate casting, I could place the lure right on the bank and next to each rock or piece of wood that was available to break some current. Casting to the bank, most hits were immediate but a few were hanging within 8 feet of the shoreline over grass.

The second is that these bass were accustomed to changing water temps, river flows, snowmelt runoff, or any number of factors that turned their feeding activity on and off on a daily or even hourly basis.  The common report heard after the event was that while the surface temp was usually about 55-degrees each morning that when the sun got high and the temp started to move up that the active bass would turn on when the surface temp reached 57-58 -degrees, usually about 10:30 each morning and well past the halfway point of the day.

The third lesson I learned is that fishing in a crowd is not for me.  I would rather take my shots at finding a few better quality bass away from the maddening crowd than have long drawn-out conversations about life with several other boats all morning while six boats and twelve anglers cast to a spot about the size of one of our boats so we can hopefully squeak out a limit.

By all accounts from anglers I talked to, the practice days went very well, with willing smallmouth and largemouth bass being caught and plenty of them over the 12-inch minimum but quite a few in the 2.5 – 3.5 pound range and some bruisers in the 4’s and 5’s.  Practice days were also punctuated with a few fun hours seeking out the numerous northern pike for some fast tight-line action, and/or sorting through the vast quantities of yellow perch that constantly demanded angler attention.

During practice my travel partner and I found a consistent mix of small and largemouth bass hanging tight to bluff walls over anything from 10-30 feet of depth.  They would be hunkered into the cracks of the walls and would hit a black and blue jig with a green pumpkin Chigger Craw trailer on the first fall if there was a bass residing there.  This became a confidence pattern that did not hold out during the event for many in the field, including me.

Once the three days of tournament fishing started several factors came into play that changed the consistent fishing during practice.  The lake level began to fluctuate due to area rains, snow-melt runoff, and dam operations; it dropped more than a foot, then rose and dropped a little each day, making the fish move around and not stay put for long.

Also due to runoff, the main body of the lake began to get muddy.  Each day the muddy water moved closer to the dam and turned four-foot clarity to six-inches.

The wind became a factor on spots that had been productive fishing clear water flats with light line and small baits.  The wind made it difficult to maintain line control in the open water areas and to feel very light bites or distinguish perch pecks from bass mouthing a worm.

Lastly, the fishing pressure was tremendous.  Local reports say a large tournament on this lake is often no more than 25 boats.  This event had around 70 boats including each state team and the High School teams attending.

Fishing pressure was felt most by those with specific “community holes” or spots.  One place was Doty Cove, or “the Potholes,” a small cut or cove with a long point across the front making the entrance about 50 feet wide but with 3-8 foot deep water behind it.  It seemed that at the start of each day about a 3^rd of the field were within shouting distance of each other at this spot.  Several boats would be along the riverside edge of the point, a large group would be at the very tip of the point fishing either the point or the bank opposite the point for transitioning fish, and another group would be milling about like a coffee shop book club surrounding a single spot in the back corner of the cove.

Another area was a large shallow flat with scattered humps and grass patches.  A much larger area, yet it still had specific spots targeted by several boats at the same time.  Both of these areas would produce several limits when the spots were hit at the right time, but could be barren if not the right conditions or after being pounded by dozens of boats.

These locals were better
behaved than a few
of the anglers.

Angler courtesy, when it was needed most, was often non-existent in this event.  The word was that there would not be any encroachment rule, meaning that boats were not required to stay a specific distance from another competitor’s boat, which a number of anglers interpreted to mean that courtesy on the water was to be ignored as well.  Reports were heard every day of people repeatedly casting over another angler’s line or driving their boat across the top of the fishing spot.

The most worrisome report caused by this policy is the fact that one idiotic, self-centered and callous fool, who came upon one of the Junior Teams fishing a lay-down tree that he wanted to fish, drove in on them and stated that since he had fished that lay-down before then it was his, (regardless of the fact that the other boat was there first,) jumped in front of them and proceeded to catch keeper fish right in front of the Junior team.  This policy really does need to be reviewed and revised by the tournament staff and is the cause of the only contentious encounters and conversations reported during the entire event.

Regardless of the discourtesy on the water, this was a fun event that I plan to attend in the future.  It was my 6^th or 7^th Western Divisional tournament and each one has taught me lessons and improved my fishing.  Plus the fact that I get to meet and fish with new friends from across the western states and see again friends that I've made over the years past.

At this event, the top finisher from each State earns a place at the BASS Nation National Championship to be held at the Ouachita River, Monroe, Louisiana, Nov. 6-8, 2014.  The contenders there will vie for a chance to make it as a BASS Nation Angler at the 2015 Bassmasters Classic!

Ron Welch repeats as the
CA BASS Nation Champion

Congratulations to Ron Welch, (Gilroy Bassmasters,) who will represent the California BASS Nation at the National Championship, his second trip in a row as the CA State Champion. Ron was the only CA angler with a limit each day totaling 25-14 pounds to earn the spot.  Good luck, Ron!  Also to Dejon Lewis, (Ventura County Bass Club,) who landed the tournament’s biggest fish and won the Carhartt Big Bass Award with a 5-8 pound largemouth bass.

Dejon Lewis caught the biggest bass
of the tournament at 5-8.