Halls Bayou Tournament Results

Once more ole Mother Nature dealt us with conditions that made for a tough day of fishing for the Bayou Bassin' League.  It was still a better day than during our last tournament as most folks caught some bass, but keepers were hard to come by most of the day. We did have 7 boats that weighed in fishing, though none had a limit.  In my practices the last few weeks Halls had been producing some good fish for me and from what I heard everyone else too.  So like I pointed out in a previous article, The Perfect Day, you can catch fish even in the worst of conditions, but don't expect huge bags.  The conditions we found were a Barometric Pressure that had fallen the day before to 29.40 which is a little low for fishing.  It was also over cast with a chance of rain all day.  We did get a few short showers but the big rain never hit us which was our only weather plus.  The biggest weather condition we faced on the day was the wind.  The wind blew 15-20mph and there were gust that as high as 25-30mph.  This made it hard to control boats but the worst part about these strong winds is the effect they had on water movement.  Halls is a tidal bayou so like all fish in tidal bayou the bass tend to be more actively feeding when the water moving.  When you have really strong winds from a southern direction it holds the water up in the bayou.  What we faced was a very high tide with little to no water movement of an out going tide.  All of these conditions put together did make it tough, but we have great fishermen and most figured out something to put some fish in the well.  We had been dealing with poor water conditions but for the most part the water was in pretty good shape.  There were areas that were better than others but everywhere was very fishable and the temps were in the low 60s which was perfect.

My teammate and I caught fish off and on all day but we only had 2 keepers in the well at the end of the day.  There wasn't really any set pattern for the day and all the bass we caught we pretty much hit on the head with the bait.  My teammate caught both our keepers, one on a Santone Lures Rattlin' Jig and the other on a Brush Hog Jr.  As for me, I was still having issues getting hook penetration through the Creme Lures Scoundrel Worms fished on a shaky head.   I'm not complaining about the Scoundrels, they get a lot of strikes but are made from a tougher plastic than most worms.  This is a good thing as they last longer, but my normal finesse rod just doesn't have the back bone to get the job done.  Dunamis Rods shipped me one of their new Ascension Rods to fix that issue but thanks to the good ole U.S. Postal Service it didn't arrive on time.  It was at the house to greet me after the tournament and I will say it is almost too beautiful to take fishing, but fishing with it is a must!!  I'll give you all a report on its performance as soon as I'm able to get it in the water.  As far as new products go I did fish with some of the new FINS Windtamer braid on my spinning rod yesterday.  It performed very well under the high winds we faced and I'll recommend its use in windy conditions.

Now why don't we get to the results!!!  Here is the Leader Board with all the boats that weighed in fish.

As you can see Raybo and Cameron stepped it up a notch to pull down the win.  They had a late day spurt that put fish in their well which proved to be enough to take home the trophies and money.

Also with a late day spurt was Brent and Tommy who nailed down 2nd with a nice stringer.

A couple of guys that always seem to be in the mix are Mark and Doug.  This was the case again today as they put enough fish in the well for 3rd.

Mark and Doug also took the Big Redfish side pot with a good looking Red!

The Big Bass honors went to Randy with a bass everyone would have loved to have!!

Here is a picture of the Halls Bayou Trophy Winners.

Now in 4th place was yours truly and my teammate Jerry.  This is the first time we fished together but you wouldn't have known it.  We made a really good team and I'm looking forward to fishing more with Jerry in the future.

Just behind us in 5th was Jake and Brad.  They also had a late spurt catching both their fish in the last 15 minutes right in front of the boat ramp.

Ken and Ronny were 6th and also round out the teams that were lucky enough to put some keepers in the boat.

Though the conditions proved to make catching bass tough I don't think any of us would have rather been doing anything else.  These Bayou Tournaments might not have big stingers with huge weights but they do test your bass fishing skills to the limits.  We still have a couple of tournaments left on are Winter and Spring Series so come test your skills with us!!   Here are the dates and locations.

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!!!