Halls Bayou Tourney - 11/22/2014

The Bayou Bassin' League held their second fall/winter tournament on Halls Bayou on 11/22/2014.  There wasn't as many boats in this tournament, but that was likely due to the weather forecast and also there was 2 saltwater tournaments also on that day.  The hard rains never came during the fishing though we did have a few showers.  The biggest problem we had weather wise was the wind and I do mean we had wind.  It blew most of the day but got worse later in the day with reports of 20mph with gusts as high as 35.  This didn't stop any of us and I'm pretty sure we all fished hard all day.

After talking with folks they all caught fish all day long just like my son and I.  The only problem was that most of the fish caught were just under the 14 inch minimum. However as with all tournaments there were some of the teams that found keepers and some that found more than others. I guess you could say my son and I were in the middle of everyone.  We did catch fish early on Santone Lures Rattlin' Jigs and in fact I lost one pretty good fish due to a failed knot.  I still haven't found a braid to fluorocarbon knot I trust.   My son put our first keeper in the well on a Santone Rayburn Red Jig, but it was a Redfish for the side pot though it did make us feel better to know we had something.

I finally switched to a Throw-n-Thunder Lures White on White quad blade Spinner Bait named "Money".  I was hoping that it would be true to its name and get us in the money.  Well it almost did just that.  It didn't take long to get the first keeper for the day which turned out to be our best bass and 2nd best for the tournament.  I also found out that a lot of folks also caught bass on white Spinner Baits early.  Also from what I heard it seemed that our gameplan was sort of backwards for the day.  Spinner Baits early with worms and jigs later in the day was what got the big stingers. However "Money" did get me a nice 26 inch Redfish that I thought had a good chance of winning the side pot.

Enough with what my son and I caught and lets get to the results and pictures.

Once more Chad and Tyrone were able to put together a limit of fish which was the only limit for the day.  They were also able to bump me out of Big Bass and also won the side pot for Big Redfish.  I gave them my congrats as everyone else did, but I think all of us will be following them around the next tournament, just kidding.  These guys are some great Bayou Bassers!!!  Fact is they had so many fish they had to ask a couple of young men to help them hold them for a picture.

Now Mark and Doug upped their game a little from our last tournament and jumped in for 2nd place.

 

Here are the winners with their Trophies.......they were awesome trophies by the way.  Congrats again to Chad, Tyrone, Mark and Doug, way to go guys!!!

Now filling the 3rd place and the last money slot was a couple more guys that normally have good stringers, Dennis and Dwight.

Mike and JD finished 4th

My son Josh and I were 5th and proud to make the top five in this group of fishermen!!!  Josh was off reviving our Redfish so he could be caught again as this picture was taken.

Speaking of my Redfish it did give my new Spinner Bait rod from Dunamis Rods a full test.  I was a little worried with all the redfish in the bayou it's lighter action wouldn't have the backbone to handle them.  Well I have no worries any more, it did an awesome job fighting and landing this good red.

 

For those of you interested in fishing some of our Bayou Tournaments you can click on this link for the Bayou Bassin' League website for more information.   You can also go to their Facebook page by clicking here BBL Facebook  to see more pictures and stay up to date on things happening real time.   There are still a lot of great tournaments this fall/winter and we would enjoy having more teams come and try their hand on these bayou bass.

December 13, 2014 - Clear Creek - Egret Bay Boat Ramp FM270
January 17, 2015 - Dickinson Bayou - Dickinson Hw3
February 21, 2015 - Austin Bayou - 2004 Bridge Ramp near Danbury
March 21, 2015 - Buffalo Camp Bayou - Lake Jackson (Launch TBD)
May 16, 2015 - Sabine River - Beaumont Area (Launch TBD)

Before I end this article I have to once more extend thanks to our BBL Sponsors Hook Spit Tackle, Choice Pipeline & Bear's Flooring for Sponsoring the BBL!  Without their help and sponsorship we wouldn't be where we are today.  Hook Spit is allowing the BBL pre-tournament meetings to be held at their store and has also provided store gift card for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishes as well as providing gift cards for raffle! Choice Pipeline & Bear's Flooring has stepped up and is provided the trophies for the tournaments this year!

If you are interested in sponsoring the BBL you can contact Jake or Ken on the BBL website or just send me an email at BHOAdventures@gmail.com and I'll put you in touch with them.

Until next time, Tight Lines and Take a Kid Fishing!!!