MARINER POINT BASSMASTERS SPRING OPEN TX

[finfinder]

It's that time of the year again for the annual Mariner Point Bassmasters "Break the Cabin Fever" Spring Tournament.  This years tournament like always is at Mariner Park, Joppatown on April 7, 2012.  Join us for a great day on the water.  Following is the entry form.  If you have any questions please call Fred Gerring at 410 272 2820
We look forward to seeing fellow UB'ers there again

finfinder

[finfinder]

Just a reminder that the Mariner Point Bassmasters tournament is THIS Saturday.  If you are looking for some Big Bass I have it on a reliable source that a 20+lb bag was taken on the Gunpowder this week.  Hope to see some fellow UB'ers there.

finfinder

[worm_man]

Spoke with Ray who is fishing the event.  He said his partner is on BIG FISH.  I can hide a banana under his console and cancel that out.
Worm Man

[finfinder]

I'll buy the banana for you 

[hockeyref]

Tom i would be there but Team outcast has first club tourney on Potomac so i can't make it. That will also leave the other 6-7 guys that fish it from outcast out to. Good luck

[finfinder]

Tom i would be there but Team outcast has first club tourney on Potomac so i can't make it. That will also leave the other 6-7 guys that fish it from outcast out to. Good luck

No problem Ref hope you do good on the Potomac.  Maybe you can catch us on the fall TX on Conowingo. Last year we had two twenty pound bags up there ?

Tom

[Nitroman1]

Results???

[finfinder]

Coming very soon, waiting on Debbie to send it to me.  But I do know the winners had a 16lb + bag on a pretty windy day.

[Baybass]

The play by play......and detailed "fishing report"   

Another great tournament from Mariner Point Bassmasters....only problem was the weather forecast which had freeze warnings that night, and high winds 20-35mph 48 hrs prior to the tourney and during the tourney.  Water temps had dropped a few degrees, and a high pressure system had them slightly off the "bite" we were on prior in practice Sun, April 1st, when my same partner and I had 4 for 19+lbs, including one 6lbs 8oz and one 5lbs 7oz.  We pulled out at 2pm without the 5th fish, but were confident in the area producing some kicker fish again come the following weekend of the 7th.  We did not catch a single short fish all practice or during the tournament.  The buck bass were already shallower, but I knew the females eggs were not yet fully mature enough to begin moving into the spawning areas, which we were VERY close to.

The main river (Gunpowder) was a mud hole April 7th with high tide scheduled at 9:30AM and low at 3:40pm.  The issue with the morning tide was that it fought against the NW winds which made the tide impossible to move in, and there was no water movement into the river for the high tide.  To make matters worse, the low tide started to pull out at 10:00am and that combined with the NW winds 20-35mph, blew 4' of water out of the canals/laydowns/creeks/docks that were my backup pattern in a southwest river as well as close to the RRB.

During pre-fishing we stuck two BIG females (6.8 and 5.7) holding in deep water 7 to 10' on a rockpile the size of a SUV, with a bunch of wood lodged along side of it.  We also managed one nice "dock fish" that same day, and one "concrete slab" fish for 4 total in the range of 18.5 to 19.5lbs.  The tourney weather had the main river areas muddy and full of whitecaps and water falling so fast I heard a few were barely able to get out of a particular creek leading to deeper water.  We stuck to our main river kicker fish in the deeper water, even being forced to anchor and eventually use the 2 spare trolling motor batteries we brought along.....the murky and churned water must have pushed my fish shallower to ease their ability to feed, or they were still there, but with lockjaw.  Also the "pink moon" otherwise known as the "spawning moon" was at 99% visibility and basically full that day (the 7th) which would normally push a ton of bass shallow in search of bedding territory, however I figured with the falling water temps and high pressure, the moon would not have played a roll in the fish movement over the weekend of the 7th. 

Water temps at launch were 54.5 to 55.5, and did not budge all day until we found a few protected pockets of docks WAY up in a river where we found 61 to be the highest temp all day.  I abandoned my windy and muddy main river pattern at 12 noon with one fish 4.1 in the livewell and we had 3 hrs to find a few more which we did.  We got two 3lb fish in this dead calm warmer water, snapped one off, and lost a small male at the boat that was up on a bed in 2' in the back of a creek pocket.  These were the only bites we had all day, and I'm lucky I was able to borrow a "tin boat" to even get back into these tight areas for these last two fish we caught with 30 min to spare till weigh-in.  We ended up with three for 10.31 I believe, 3rd place out of 4 boats.....    I know another club had a tourney the same day on the Potomac which had a major impact on the number boats and the weather may have also made a few teams back out last minute from registering at the ramp as we did. 

First place was 16 and change, second was 11 and change, third was 10.31 (us) and 4th I believe was 7 or 9....I forget.  Big fish was high 4's and there were 3 brought in over 4lbs I believe.  Winner also took BF too.     Great sack for a day with conditions like that...congrats to anyone who managed a few fish over 15" that day.  My big mistake was not retreating back to my backup pattern up in the protected rivers fast enough.  The fish we did catch back in the creek pockets were BURRIED under docks with brush and it took multiple casts to the same area to get them to hit.  They would not touch ANY plastic we threw at them and needed a specific reaction bait placed onto their nose.  We also saw some crappie on the beds where these bass were.  We also saw a bunch of beds abandoned.

Thanks again to Mariner Point Bassmasters and Finfinder (Tom's Custom Rods) for fixing my "other brand" custom rod in time for the tourney.  That rod caught my 2 fish, and I have an order coming for you from my VA crew.  My partner enjoyed his first "real" bass tournament and yet again, got the pig from behind me.    So far he's caught 3 bass from the upper bay weighing in at 16+lbs.....I think he's done fishing the VA lakes....

Pics below were from April 1st pre-fishing....

http://www.baybass.com/photogallery1    (photo # 16 was my small bag of 3 fish 4/7 of 10.31lb) (photos 17-20 are larger pre-fishing photos of the 4 caught 4/1 including the pigs) 

[attachment outdated - deleted by admin]

[fishinjim]

Great report, Baybass!

[greg hall]

Nice report I know at least 5 or 6 would have fished it if not for club TX,I had to work so I couldnt do either,