KSA Shimano Cup Report – Andong Oct 7th

[Bassinkorea]

Last Sunday, October 7th was the final points tournament of the 2012 KSA (Korean Sportsfishing Association) season. Prior to this tournament I was sitting in joint 13th place out of 89 other Pro anglers, and I was only 10 points behind the Top 10 place. I was also leading the rookie of the year standings by about 20 points. I knew all I had to do was catch a decent limit of bass on Sunday and I could possible get into the Top 10 in my first year.

I arrived at Andong around noon on the Friday before the tournament to get a feel for the lake. I wanted to check out the lake water levels, clarity and water temperatures. I launched my boat on Friday afternoon and then prepped all my rods and tackle ready for Saturday's practice session, then I relaxed for the rest of the evening with a few friends.

SATURDAY PRACTICE;

Practice hours on Saturday were between 6:00am and 5:00pm and I wanted to spend that entire window on the water searching for as many patterns as possible. A friend of mine (Mike) came along with me on Saturday and were fished everything from shallow grass, shallow open water, coves, deep rock walls and points, but the only decent pattern we could find was in the shallow coves with grass and weeds. Unfortunately, all the fish we caught were small fish and also small numbers of fish, so I was beginning to worry about tomorrow's tournament. We caught them various lures, spinnerbaits, senkos and jerkbaits.

I was also seeing big schools of bass on my fish finder in 3 ~ 4 meters / 10 ~ 15 foot of water, so I dropped a metal jig straight down under the boat and quickly caught one of the fish I was seeing on the screen, here's a photo of what they were....



Here's some photos of the better fish caught on Saturday....









SUNDAY TOURNAMENT;

I arrived at the starting area nice and early (just before day break) and I drew #25 for my starting number. The lake looked beautiful, calm, no wind and a little cloudy, then as the daylight approached so did a heavy fog. This delayed the start until at 8:15am. Here's a shot of the thick fog at the start.





Eventually, we all got away and I arrived at my first spot with nobody in the area. The fog had fully cleared and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the water was flat calm. I started fishing my first spot, but nothing, not a single bite. I was getting very concerned. I moved to another spot close by that had some tree tops sticking out of the water close to the shore and quickly caught a small keeper, which helped my confidence a little, one fish in the livewell. A few minutes later I caught another but it was a short dink. I moved to another spot, again with no luck. Then, I was moving to another spot and saw a small cove with a couple of twigs sticking out of the water, so I decided to fish it. It had some brush under the surface and I was retrieving my SureCatch Sniperspin spinnerbait over the brush when a fish hit it hard, almost pulling the rod out of my hands. It was a heavy fish and I had to keep it out of the trees and brush. I hauled it to the boat with my MH SureCatch Powerbraid rod and 15lb line and got the net under her. It was the biggest fish I had caught for some time. The bass weighed 2,250g / 5lb and was well over 50cm / 20inch.





Only 2 bass in the livewell and I was feeling a lot better, but time was running out. I moved to another spot and found another great looking cove. It had everything, deep water, shallow water, grass, trees and BASS. I put my Sniperspin past some small twigs in the water and another big bass hit the spinnerbait, but as I was bringing it in I could see another 2 big bass swimming along with it. I got the fish in my net and quickly into the livewell and then tried to catch the other 2 bass that I saw following, but they weren't interested.



With almost no time left at all I tried another cove, caught a small fish, but it jumped and threw my hook. With three bass in the livewell, I headed back to the ramp for weigh-in.

My 3 bass weighed a total of 4,520g / 10lb. I finished 9th on the day and won the Big Bass of the day prize for my 5lber.



Overall during the 2012 season, I collected enough points to get into the Top 10, finishing in 7th overall and also won the rookie of the year title.

Not bad for my first year at this Pro level.

[Pferox]

Congratulations BK!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[OCBassman]

Sweet BK Thats Awsome. Congrats man 

[Donald Garner]

Steve

Congrats on the Big Bass Award for the tournament; Your Top 10 finish for the year and winning R.O.Y. award 

Thanks for sharing the pictures with us also 

[bass1cpr]

   Congrats BK ! Good job on making the top 10. Rookie of the year and Big Bass  that's the way to finish out the season. You've got their attention now.

[Ron Fogelson]

Congratulations Steve!   

[COUSIN-IT]

See BK you did figure something out at the mouths of coves.Congrats on the catch and 7th place for the year.

[Bassinkorea]

Thanks a lot everyone 

The Korean Bass Master Classic will be held on the same lake on November 18th and that is when they will award my Rookie of the year prize.

[d.branch3]

Love the story, congradulations

[Mike Cork]

Congratulations Steve, this is awesome

[Smallie_Stalker]

Congratulations BK on all of the accomplishments you made in just one year. Great job with the pictures also. Nice shameless job of plugging the tackle companies as well  lol.  Just kidding! Looking forward to hearing how you fished and hopefully won the Classic in November. 

[bassindude]

Great job Steve.  Very nice looking bass.  Jim

[Fish_myster]

WTG Steve!! 
hard work keeps paying off

[Bassinkorea]

Thanks again everyone!!

Chip, good to see you around here