Over the past few weeks that I spent in Alabama, one of the things that I have been telling people is that I think I would rather have six months of winter than six months of the summer heat that they get in the southern United States. Having just spent the past three weeks fishing in Northern Alabama, the daily temperatures approached or surpassed 40 degrees Celsius every day.
The second of two tournaments over a three-week span took place this past weekend at Lewis Smith Lake, a predominately spotted bass fishery in a deep, clear water reservoir. I have fished at Smith a few times in the past, but those visits were all during the winter months so it was a new adventure this time around. The hot weather does slow the fishing down a little bit but from a fish catching standpoint, this lake is full of fish, it’s just tougher to catch bigger bass over three pounds in this fishery.
Nearly everybody in the field caught limits but those who could add some two and half and three-pound bass to those limits were the anglers who made the top 50 cut to fish on day three. The weights were as tight as I can remember in a tournament, with ounces separating dozens of anglers through the middle part of the field.
I enjoy getting to fish for spotted bass. Much like the southern anglers enjoy chasing smallmouths up north, we don’t have spotted bass in Canada, so they are unique. They also have a good attitude, meaning they are aggressive in nature and they like to chase your baits down. They’re fun to catch.
I ended up having a decent tournament, finishing 40th. Anytime I can make the top 50 day-three cut, it’s a good event. I’m slowly crawling up the points list, with two tournaments left. I’m still a few points outside of the top 40 in points to qualify for next year’s Bassmaster Classic, so I have to finish the season strong. The final two events take place in New York in August.
The tournament season starts to get ramped up across the Sunset Country region this weekend, with several long-running tournaments taking place. I’m fishing the Shoal Lake Big Bass Classic this weekend. It’s a tournament I’ve fished since I was a little kid on one of my favorite bodies of water. After spending a few weeks fishing some tough bodies of water in the south, I’m excited to get on Shoal Lake and just catch a bunch of fish this week.
On Lake of the Woods, the Kenora Walleye Open is once again a loaded field with over 100 teams. It’s always exciting to follow because of all the big fish that are caught. To win, teams are going to have to include some 30 plus inch fish in their limits.
Finally, the Lake Despair Castin’ for Cash bass tournament is taking place Friday and Saturday on the Despair chain. This is always a fun weekend at Lake Despair Lodge. Good luck to all of the anglers competing this weekend.
