Lake Linganore October 10, 2010

Eric

2 Keepers - 10 points
First Fish - 10 points
Big Bag - 20 points
Big Fish - 15 points

3-8 lbs (2-0, 1-8) Total Bag - 56 points

Total Points for the day = 111 Points

Jeff
0 Keeper - 0 points

0 lbs Total Bag - 0 points

Total Points for the day = 0 points

Tournament YTD Results

Eric = 412.5 Points

Jeff = 439 Points

Lay Lake, Alabama 9-29

Rough Tournament. Jeff and I traveled to Alabama for business and hired a guide to fish Lay Lake on Sunday. Unfortunately the guide's wife got sick and canceled on us so we were limited to the shoreline for a few hours and we only had Jeff's few fishing rods he brought along with him.

Eric

0 Keeper - points

0 lbs Total Bag - 0 points

Total Points for the day = 0 Points

Jeff
2 Keeper - 10 points
First Fish - 10 points

Big Bag - 20 points
Big Fish - 15 points
5-0 lbs Total Bag - 80 points

Total Points for the day = 135 points

Tournament YTD Results

Eric = 301.5 Points

Jeff = 439 Points

Sign at Fort Whaley Campground

Stop 3 - Potomac River 6/20-/621

Day 2 (Half Points)
Eric

2 Keeper - 5 points
First Fish - 5
Big Fish- 7.5
Big Bag - 10

2 lbs Total Bag - 8 points

Total Points for the day =35.5 Points

Jeff
0 Keeper

Total Points for the day = 0 points

Day 1
Eric

4 Keeper -20 points
First Fish - 10 Points

4 lbs Total Bag - 64 points

Total Points for the day = 94 Points

Jeff
4 Keeper - 20 points

Big Bag - 20 points
Big Fish - 15 points
6-0 lbs Total Bag - 96 points

Total Points for the day = 151 points

Tournament YTD Results

Eric = 301.5 Points

Jeff = 304 Points

Lake Linganore 6 lb -15 oz

2010 Match Tournament off to a Good Start

Stop 1 - Potomac River

Eric

1 Keeper - 5 points

1-14

1-14 lbs Total Bag - 30 points

Total Points for the day = 35 Points

Jeff
3 Keeper - 15 points

First Fish - 10 points
Big Fish - 15 points

Big Bag - 20 points

4-0 lbs Total Bag - 64 points

Total Points for the day = 124 points

Tournament YTD Results

Eric = 80 Points

Stop 2 - Lake Linganore - April 24

Eric

4 Keeper -20 points
First Fish - 10 Points
Big Bag - 20 points
Big Fish - 15 points

1-14, 1, 0-10, 1-0

4-8 lbs Total Bag - 72 points

Total Points for the day = 137 Points

Jeff

1 Keeper - 5 points

1-8 lbs Total Bag - 24 points

Total Points for the day = 29 points

Tournament YTD Results

Eric = 172 Points

Jeff = 153 Points

Big Ones from Lake Linganore

Lake Linganore 09-28-08

Fished with my brother in law. Launched the scanoe at 6:15 am in the dark to hit early topwater. Skies were overcast with some light rain off and on.

Tried topwater and plastics for a long while with no takers. Moved over the clearer water west of the ramp and I switched to a Lucky Craft Rick Clunn shallow crank bait in Ghost Minnow. Caught five keeper bass on the outside edges of the grass in 1-5 ft of water. After losing the Lucky Craft I switched to a fire tiger Bomber 1A square bill and caught three more keepers,. My brother in law switch to a crankbait and caught 2. An awesome morning of fishing!

Younkin Increases Distance with 5th Stop 9/24

Younkin pulls well ahead of Archer on the fifth stop of the 2008 Match Tournament Trail. They met at Little Seneca Lake at 6:30 am on September 24th in neutral water for neither have fished it before. Water temperature was 74 degrees with a slight cold front coming through. The topwater bite was on while Eric landed three keepers with a popper. While Archer had some blow ups he came up short with no keepers all day. Tournament ended around 1:30 pm as fishing had been real slow for at least three hours.

Eric
3 Keeper - 15 points
First Fish - 10 points
1-3, 0-10, 1-1 lbs
3-3 Total Bag - 51 points
Big Fish - 15 points
Big Bag - 20 points

Total Points for the day = 111 Points

Jeff
0 Keeper - 0 points

Total Points for the day = 0 points

Tournament YTD Results
Eric = 359 Points
Jeff = 198 Points

Piney Run 09-19-2008

Headed over to Piney Run Lake and was on the water by 6:15. Air temperature was in the upper 50s with a stiff breeze due to a cold front. Water temperature was 73-74 degrees. I expected a topwater bite but couldn't get one except for some sunfish.

I saw lots of breaking baitfish towards the damn on both sides of the like but marked no bass. I caught this one nice bass on a 4" Berkely Power Worm in Tequila Sunrise tight on wood near the mouth of the far right cove.

She out up a great fight diving into the weeds, etc. But my 8 lb Suffix line held and she weighed in at 3 lbs 14 ounces

Maryland Lake Sizes

Below is a listing of many of the Maryland Area lakes and their sizes.

Red Indicates Lakes I have Fished

Blairs Valley Lake 32
Buggs Island (Kerr) (VA) 48,900
Burke Lake 218
Centennial Lake 50
Cunningham Falls Reservoir 45
Deep Creek Lake 3,600
Greenbrier Lake 42
Johnson Pond 104
Lake Anna (VA) 13,000 (two lakes combined)
Lake Clopper 90
Lake Elkhorn 37
Lake Frank 52
Lake Gaston (NC) 20,300
Lake Habeeb 243
Lake Needwood 75
Lake Seneca (Black Hills) 505
Liberty 3,100
Loch Raven 2,400
Piney Reservoir (not Piney Run, Piney is in Frostburg) 120
Piney Run 300
Pretty Boy 1,500
Raystown Lake (PA) 29,000
Rocky Gorge 818
Smith Mountain Lake (VA) 21,000 acres
Smithville Lake 43
St Mary's 250
Stemmers Run Reservoir 90 acres
Tridelphia 800
Tuckahoe Lake 19
Tygart Lake (WV) 1,750
Unicorn Lake 43
Urieville Lake 35
Wheatley Lake 75
Wye Mills Lake 50
Youghiogheny Reservoir 2,800

4th Stop of The Younkin-Archer 2008 Tourney - Lower Potomac River

We launched from the Charles County public boat ramp, Marshall Hall on Sunday July 14th at 6:00 am. We were greeted with a beautiful full moon and a high tide. I chose to head South to Pomonkey Creek where we fished the grass beds at the mouth of the river with surface lures. We threw them all at it and had not a one blow up. Finally, as the Sun rose and the tide started to move out we fished plastics and crankbaits from the mouth to the second bend with only a few bites but nothing in the boat

At 11:00 we chose to head to Occoquan. On the way the there we were faced with 2 foot waves and Jeff's Minn Kota fell forward braking the housing and bending a bolt. Once we arrived near the docks at the railroad bridge, Jeff was able to tie a line around the housing providing some resemblance of a trolling motor.

Things were slow as we fished from the railroad bridge to about a mile back into the river. I got the first real taker on a 4" Tequila Sunrise Berkely Power Bait ring Worm with a 2/0 Gamakatsu hook off the edge of the northern grass beds near the 95 bridge. The line used wqas 8 lb Mean Green line with a Shiamno Stradic FI 2500 reel and an older model 6' Gator rod. My second fish, a 10 oz LM, was caught on a 7" Berkely Power Worm on the opposite side at the base of the cliff at the second house with the same tackle These two would prove to be the only keepers measured in the tourney. On the way back to the ramp after fighting 2-3 waves, we again had a few casts on the grass beds at the mouth of Pomonkey and Jeff landed a large 8-10 lb catfish. We started to see other action but the heat was killing us and we called it a day at 4:00.

Eric
2 Keeper - 10 points
First Fish - 10 points
1-9, 0-10
2-3 lbs Total Bag - 35 points
Big Fish - 15 points
Big Bag - 20 points

Total Points for the day = 90 Points

Jeff
0 Keeper - 0 points
Total Points for the day = 0 points


Tournament YTD Results
Eric = 248 Points
Jeff = 198 Points

My New Rod Box Rack

Doing my weekly (and sometimes daily) reading through Bass Boat Central Forums, I was looking for ideas on building a rack for my rod box. Low and behold I came across a recent discussion regarding different designs. I began asking questions and Ronny Baker, of Texas rdblsb2@verizon.net showed some pictures of some foam based systems he wanted to start selling. I jumped on it. Ronny was excellent for he sent me templates, worked with me on numerous occasions with ideas and even held of invoicing me until we knew I had the right configuration working. Ronny sent detailed measuring instructions and delivered the units detailed installation instructions, and extra foam I used for a make-shift passenger rod rack.

Below are the results of my small investment.

South Platte River and Park, Denver Colorado

While on travel, I fished for a couple of hours on Tuesday May 20, Air temperature was 85 degrees and I believe the water temperature was low 50's. I fished the small lake and the river near the parking area off of 470 which is below the Chatfield Lake dam.

I tired to get some feeding smallmouth bass but no takers. Water in the river was running fast as a result of the mountain snows melting. Both the lake and the river were extremely clear. I could not find an area I didn't see the bottom.

Beautiful area though. I would definitely go back and fish the main Chatfield Lake.

View Larger Map

3rd Stop of Younkin_Archer Tourney - Lower Potomac 5/9/08

Launch Point: Smallwood State Park

Boater: Jeff Archer

3rd Passenger: Customer of Jeff's pre-fishing for FLW Tournament

Fished: 8 am - 6:00 pm

Weather: Mid 60's with very heavy rains the night before. Mostly cloudy throughout the day rain showers. Winds picked up in the afternoon to 10-20 mph. Tides were very high with flooding and mud increasing throughout the day.

With the winds calm early in the morning and the heavy rains having just stopped before we launched, we decided to run down to Mallows Bay in search of pre-spawn and spawning bass. There were all ready a couple of boats fishing in the bay. Winds were calm with heavy clouds so we chose to focus on topwater. Jeff had one blow up on topwater and that would be the only activity on top all day. Back in the bay we saw lots of feeding fish on the plentiful bait fish. Had some bites and Eric caught a nice size yellow perch on a Rick Clunn Lucky Craft 1.5 crank bait. BUT NO BASS. We were shocked.

We then moved around a little and fished Blue Banks with no luck while the wind beagn to pick up. We headed back towards Mattawoman with a quick stop at Chickamuxen in the Northern mouth of the river and the guest caught one bass while we all had a few bites in the shallow protected bay. Lots of bass boats on the grass beds in the center on the creek.

Headed to the no wake zone of Mattawoman and fished the first hard bank with no takers as the tide began to move out then tried the pad fields with no takers.

It was getting late so we headed back to the ramp and hit our Jeff and Eric's hot spot at marker 5. The water was remarkedly clear with no mud. Started catching them on the light grass just west of the marker. And had consistent bites until 5:30 or so. Jeff did best with a purple fleck Gulp shaky worm rigged Texas Style.

Mishaps: I would have taken the tournament having 2 fish in the boat to Jeff's zero if I had stopped at 2:00 when we dropped the guest fisherman off at the ramp to get to his tournament meeting. Only other mishap was that Jeff's one year old Kistler $220 rod broke while he was casting and caught my line. The rod spilntered right in teh middle of it.

Results:

Eric

2 Keeper - 10 points

First Fish - 10 points

1-13, 1-10

3-7 lbs Total Bag - 55 points

Total Points for the day = 75 Points

Jeff

4 Keeper - 20 points

Big Fish - 15 points

Big Bag - 20 points

1-3, 1-13, 1-0, 3-0

7 lbs Bag = 112 points

Total Points for the day = 167 points

Tournament YTD Results

Eric = 158 Points

Jeff = 198 Points

Happy Senko Da Mayo - Fishing the Upper Bay 05/04/08

Launched the ole' Ranger for the first time in 08 at the new Wilson Point Marina on Middle River at about 6:45 am. Accompanying me was my brother in law and up and coming fisherman, Guy. Air temperature ranged from 65-75 and cloudy to clear skies with light to medium wind with some gusts. A beautiful day for bass fishing in the upper bay. Water temperature ranged from 65 to near 70 in the back of the creeks.

Mishap: All went well except...when I tried to start her up she ran for a minute then stopped. I checked the usual-gas tank levels, tank selector, kill switch and finally the bulb on the fuel line. We pumped it and pumped it and could not get a flow of gas. I even took off the hose and sucked for a while but got nervous so I stopped. Finally I decided to disconnect the hose from the engine and opened the valve on the hose with a screw driver, held it high and pumping finally worked. A good lesson learned. Hold the hose high to break the vapor lock. After that 1/2 hour fiasco that, all systems worked perfectly for the rest of the day.

Fishing was slow. Spent most of the time fishing in Frog Mortar Creek in M.R. No bites at the police ramp nor the grass edges heading back into the creek. Finally headed back as far as we could go into the creek and Guy nailed a 1.5lb big mouth on a green Senko like worm. That fish would prove to be it for the rest of the day. Even after running to the Gunpowder and fishing Foster Brook and the large bay on the left as you enter Dundee. I did catch one nice Pickerel and we did find a significant amount of bedding bass in the back of Frog Mortar.

2nd Stop of Younkin-Archer Tourney - St. Mary's Lake

It was a beautiful day on the 2nd stop of the Younkin - Archer 2008 Match Tournament. Tourney was held on April 14, 2008 at St. Mary's Lake, a 280 acre electric only impoundment in St. Mary's County, MD. There were only three other boats fishing in the lake.

Location: St. Mary's Lake
Water temperatures: 62 degrees
Air Temperature: 50-55 degrees (following a 65-70 degree temperature the day prior)
Sky: Sunny in the am with varying clouds and wind in the afternoon
Water Color: Medium visibility with greenish color
Mishaps: Minimal - except for Eric's fishing rod almost flying out of the boat on the way to the ramp
Primary Patters: Lizards on grass line and wood and Medium Size Topwater on 0-2 feet on upper end of lake.

Results:
Jeff: 1 Keeper LM - 5 pts
First Fish - 10 pts
0-14 - 14 pts
Total Pts 29 pts

Eric: 2 keeper LM - 10 pts
1 - 3 - 19 pts
1 - 13 - 29 pts
Biggest Fish - 15 pts
Biggest Bag - 20 pts
Late Penalty - (10 pts)
Total pts 83 pts

Notes:
- New late penalty of 5 points if more the 15 minutes late to meeting point and 5 points for each 15 minutes thereafter.
- Increased first fish from 5 points to 10 points.

2008 Match Tournament 1

A cold day on the Upper Potomac starts the 2008 Match Tournament season. Jeff lost one small mouth bass and Eric caught one catfish on a power bait grub.

River was very high and muddy due to heavy rains the prior week. Water temperature was near freezing except at the out-take of the Dickerson Power Plant which had a reading of 50 degrees. Lots of catfish being taken by anglers from shore.

No major mishaps, except for the significant amount of water entering the boat from a small break in the hull. Bailing with a manual bailer that had a broken hose was required throughout the day since there was no bilge pump.

All in all a nice day to start the 2008 match tournament season.

2008 Younkin-Archer Bass Fishing Match Tourney Rules

The following rules applies to all match tournaments held in 2008.

1) A fishing trip must consist of 4 hours in order to qualify for tournament.
2) Fishing can occur from boat and/or shore as long as each fisherman agrees.
3) Points will be accumulated for each tournament and the fisherman with the most total points wins the 2008 series.
4) Any injuries caused by the other fisherman that prevents his competitor from continuing to fish will result in a disqualification for that day and a forfeiture of that day's points for him.
5) Only fish from the black bass species qualifies for points. This expliclty excludes catfish, snake-heads, ducks, crabs, shrimp, bluegill, crappie, musky, sunfish, suckers, trout, perch, and striped bass.
6) For each fishing tournament day, each fisherman will have two one hour periods in which to choose the specific fishing location.
7) There is a $100 entry fee with all winnings going to the fisherman with the highest point total at the end of the year.
8) Point System

• Each Full Ounce - 1 point
• Biggest Fish (in weight) - 15 points
• Per fish -5 points
• Biggest Bag (in weight) - 20 points
• First Fish - 5 points

8) Results will be reported on this site for each tournament

My Winter Tackle Reorganization

I spent many hours reorganizing my tackle this year. I fund tackle in some many different places. This resulted in some great findings. For example I discovered I have over 75 spinner baits. Ones with rust have been discarded and may have received new skirts. I did this for all of my tackle and now have a great system, with a set of bags for the car, one dedicated to small mouth bass, a box dedicated to saltwater, a non-boater bag that has representation from everything yet can be customized by selecting up to 4 - 370 sized boxes and 4 Falcon boxes. I invested this year in new flip-sider and Falcon specialized cases for all hardbaits and terminal tackle.

Tight Lines!