As B.A.S.S. Federation Nation anglers our ultimate dream is to qualify for the Bassmaster Classic through the amateur ranks. Sure the camaraderie and competition at the club, state, and divisional level is a big part of it, but in the end what we are all striving for is a spot in the Bassmaster Classic. The B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Championship is the last step before the Classic. Do well there and you are in! Fortunately for me I was able to qualify for the BFNC at the Ouachita River held November 3-5 in Monroe Louisiana. Just getting to this point was a big accomplishment as the process of qualify is a long road through various tournaments. Unfortunately for me I was unable to capitalize on the opportunity. I really struggled on the Ouachita River and ended up weighing 11 bass for 12 lbs over the three day competition. This placed me 42 out of 54 anglers. In actuality you do not have to beat the full field though. There are six divisions and the winner of each division is awarded a Classic spot. I was in the Northern Division fishing against 8 other anglers and of course did not fair well there either, finishing 8th out of the 9 anglers and far short of my goal.
After the practice period I was pretty confident that I had an area where I could at least catch a limit. Although I had a couple of decent bites I knew finding the better quality fish was going to be a real challenge for me. I was boat 10 on the first day so I figured I would be able to get to my limit spot first and sure enough I did. The area was a creek, or bayou as they call them, off of the D'Arbonne Bayou. The fish were all the way as far back as I could go before a small bridge blocked the way. With the idle zones and the stumps back in the creek it took a good 45 minutes to get back in there but even with the water temps dropping rapidly the fish were still there. The action wasn't as fast as I had hoped for but I was able to get a small limit before noon. All of those fish came on a small 1/4 oz chartreuse and white Strike King spinnerbait slow rolled along the wood cover. It didn't feel as though I was going to get any big bites in this area though so as soon as I had 5 in the box I headed out to check some other backwater areas off the main river. I knew these areas wouldn't produce many bites but I also felt that I could get 1 or 2 bites in the 3 lb or better range from at least of them. My afternoon was uneventful until my final stop where I went as far back into one of the lakes as I could and the shad were going crazy. There were seemingly millions of shad flicking on the surface in the shallows. It seemed to be an ideal situation and I quickly put my best fish of the day in the boat. It was a little over 2 lbs and also came on the little Strike King spinnerbait. I fished around for awhile longer but with a 30 minute run back to the ramp I had very little time. My 5 fish limit for 5 lbs 13 oz had me in a respectable 26th place out of the whole field but there was a big problem. My Division leader was in 2nd place overall with a massive 14 lb 1 oz bag.
Going into day 2 with such a large deficit to overcome there was really no choice about what to do. I had to abandon my limit spot and fish for bigger fish even though I really didn't have an area I felt had a concentration of them. I started in the area where I ended day one and also fished several of the other backwaters off the main river where I had gotten bigger bites in practice but nothing happened. I went all morning fishing those areas and only came up with 1 small keeper on a chartreuse/black back Strike King KVD 1.5 crankbait. Towards the end of the day I decided to quickly hit my limit area with the little time I had left and just hope to find a big bite back in there. That didn't happen but I was able to add 2 more small keepers on a black/blue Strike King Rodent before time ran out. My Division leader struggled on the day but my 3 fish for 3 lbs 1oz only had me sliding further back.
On day 3 I was totally out of contention so I just decided to go fishing and try to have some fun. I started back in my small fish just to get some bites to start the day. The fish were actually biting really good and I caught more fish than I had any of the other days but most of them were short. I did pick up 3 keepers on the black/blue Strike King Rodent before deciding to just go exploring. The rest of the day was unproductive as I never had another bite. My 3 for the day ended up weighing in at 3 lbs 2 oz.
Even though the fishing was tough for me the week was still pretty incredible. Every competitor fished out of an identical brand new Skeeter ZX 200 with a Yamaha SHO 200 on the back. That is an impressive boat/motor combination without a doubt. Seeing 60 identical rigs parked in 2 rows in the boat yard is also something you don't see every day. The B.A.S.S. staff was also great. They handled everything that needed to be done as far as backing boats in or dealing with any boat issues. All we as competitors had to do was just go fishing. Jon Stewart, the Tournament Director, runs a great tournament and I hope to be fishing more with him. I'll sure be trying as hard as I can to get back!
