May 2011 Results
Greetings fellow CSBA Members! I hope you are all enjoying plenty of time on the water given that most of the fish in the lake are on the banks right now!
On May 7th CSBA hosted our third club tournament of the 2011 season on Smithville Lake. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, highs in the 70’s and plenty of sunshine! Smithville has been getting consistently better over the past few years with catch rates and bass sizes continually increasing. 10 boats and 17 fishermen caught a total of 29 fish weighing 76.29 lbs! To put that in perspective, the May Smithville tournament in 2010 we caught 16 fish for 36.88 lbs. If my figures are correct that’s an 81% increase in number of fish caught and a 107% increase in total weight!! Good numbers, great job everyone!
Tournament morning anglers arrived at the W ramp greeted by a beautiful sunrise, mild temperatures and a ramp FULL of canoers! After a bit of negotiating around the ramp traffic, our anglers made their way to their sweet spots and it was game on. Water temps were in the low 60’s and the lake was fairly muddy, even by Smithville standards.
Taking the win on Saturday was the Ace from the Back Deck, Bryant Haddock. Gentlemen I can speak from experience when I say that any boater who has Bryant in the back of his boat had better bring his “A” game that day. Because if you don’t catch that fish first, you better believe Bryant will! He’s proved that more than once since joining our club not that long ago! Bryant weighed in 4 fish totaling 13.58lbs with a 5.12 lb kicker for non-boater Big Bass! Bryant reported catching all his fish before noon on the Camp Branch side of the lake on a black/blue Baby Paca Craw off laydowns and pole timber near the bank in less than 2 feet of water. He credits his partner Mike Powell’s excellent boat handling and guiding skills for putting him on the fish! Great job Bryant!
Continuing his run of top finishes Gary Parker took second place honors for the second tournament in a row with the day’s only limit weighing 11.97 lbs. Gary reported catching his limit flipping black/chartreuse tubes in areas above the W bridge. Nice job Gary!
Rounding out the paying spots in 3rd place was new member Bryan Penrod. Bryan had been a member of the club a few years ago. He returned proving his skills on this lake are not to be taken lightly! Fishing by himself, Bryan weighed in a nice 4 fish sack tipping the scales at 11.45 lbs, including the day’s boater big bass a nice 5.38 lb Smithville toad! Bryan reported fishing the main lake and Camp Branch areas fishing soft plastics in 6 to 8 ft around timber. Nice job Bryan and welcome back! Bryan and Bryant’s 5 pounders are our first fish over 5 pounds this year and Bryan’s fish takes over as our big bass of the year to date.
Looks like our Club President had an itch!!!!