ESPN Outdoors Bassmaster Weekend Series

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Arrived in Grove, Oklahoma around 11:30am on Friday, only to find a flat tire on my trailer. I want to extend a big thanks to the guys at Curtis Tate tires on Highway 59, I was in and out with a tire repair in about 15 minutes, that's service...

Anyway, after a short stop to visit with some family in Grove, I was off for some practice. I put in at the Cowskin area up the Elk River, right off the Highway 10 Bridge (Cowskin Bridge). I was testing a new prop, that I found out, does not work well at all on a Gambler Boat, I couldn't even get out of the hole with it, and with 20+mph winds, it was not a pleasure. So I found my way to the east side of the Cowskin Bridge, throwing a War Eagle Spot Remover 1/2 oz Spinnerbait, with no luck for a short period of time, then changed over to a Storm Rattin' Thin Fin in Red Shad, and hooked up with a 14" keeper after about 10 casts. I was thinking this wasn't going to be so bad.

I spent about the next hour and half fishing around the bridge area and docks in the area with nothing else, pitching jigs around the boat docks, rocks and laydowns. With the wind, and no prop to run the boat, I put in by about 3:45pm.

Results: 1 14" Fish on the Thin Fin on a shallow flat with a few brushpiles and a dock.

My buddy Mike, from Omaha had made the trip down on Friday night to fish the event as a non-boater, he and I got on the water by about 8:00am, from the Wolf Creek Ramp, we ran back up the Elk River to explore some historically good fishing areas for me. Within about 20 minutes, we had a double on a new Rapala X-Rap in Cold Steel Color and a Missouri Craw Eakin's jig on a chunk rock bank. Mike ended up catching another short fish a few minutes later, then shaking off 2 more, one of which was at least a 5 pounder on the Jig, water temps were around 52-53 around 9:00am.

I made the decision to get out of there and make the long run to the dam area to search some good holes I knew held some fish from previous experience, that was a long 28 mile boat ride in the 15-25mph winds that day, but the Gambler got us there in one piece, and nice and dry to boot. We fished around a few cuts in Duck Creek for about 45 minutes, then made the short run to Three Fingers Cove, we marked many fish in the area, and spent about another hour fishing around there with no luck at all.

We made the run back to Wolf Creek to take out of the water, and get ready for registration.

Ended up drawing boat number 35 in the 2nd flight, and met my non-boater, a nice guy from the Keystone Lake, Oklahoma area. Agreed to meet at Martin's Landing in the parking lot at 5:00am.

Oh what a difference a day makes, Saturday we had wind and 85 degree temps, now we had 30-40mph winds, and 34 degrees at blast off. I had decided the night before that we would run the Elk River and look for the fish from Saturday, we got to my first spot and the water temp had dropped from 53 to 47 overnight, and the northeast wind was blowing directly onto my chunk rock, figured we'd hook up there for sure. Made 4 passes on that spot with nothing, made a few more runs around the Elk River area, and my non-boater hooked up with a nice spot from a shallow dock in about 2 feet of water on a Lucky Craft Pointer 78 in Bone Color. We fished the Elk River until about 12:00pm or so, then made the run to Wolf Creek and made a quick blow and go on a windblown rock/concrete point in the area with the Thin Fin crankbait and a spinnerbait.

Finally got out of the crazy wind there and fished with alot of other boats in the Red 11 Port area until about 2:20pm, we were due back at 2:40 for check in, so we cut out of there and made it to check in with 2 minutes to spare.

My non-boater ended up with the one spot at 1lb 13oz and finished just out of the money, if I had been able to help him out at all on the shared weight format, he would have cashed a check I believe...

Next stop is Mozingo Lake in Northwest Missouri for the Woods Sporting Goods Team Trail Season Opener, then Table Rock Lake at Kimberling City Missouri, April 10th, 2005