ABA Candlewood Lake Recap 4/22/17
Wow what a month. I don’t even know where to begin. Let’s start from the beginning and I will make it bulleted for easier understanding of how terrible my luck is:
• April 14th - Week prior to tournament - Maiden voyage/practice: I discover the morning before I’m going out for the first time of 2017, my less than a year old cranking battery has crapped out. So in a pinch, I run to good old Walmart and grab myself a $100 Everstart to hold me over. Luckily no issues there and it worked however I knew it wouldn’t hold me over for the year. That following week I go back to Deka, located here on Long Island, they do right by me and swap it out for a brand new 31 series AGM. What caused the original cranking battery to go bad? Unknown of course
• April 12th – Driving casually to work. Out of literally nowhere I hear an intense clanking sound, uncontrollable shaking, smoke coming out of my hood, and my truck shuts off. Awesome?! Now I’m thinking I’m dead in the water (you like that reference don’t you). Now you’re expecting me to now fill you in on the details of this bizarre scenario involving my 2010 Toyota Tundra CrewMax below…Unfortunately, this all will be explained further in a separate article because that’s how bizarre and interesting it gets. Sorry guys. I will throw you a bone though; I got a loaner. That story begins however with how in fact I got into that loaner. I can’t spoil all of my juicy articles in one entire post. That ruins the fun.
• April 21st – After my last minute preparations which no matter how hard I try to avoid this scenario (always happens to me) I discover that my boat adapter length (one that plugs my lights into my truck) is too short to reach the newly positioned 2017 Toyota Tundra 5 way connecting port.
o Being so intelligent and all, I of course didn’t check this earlier in the day and now it’s 7:30pm. I rush to get to Pep Boys before they close at 8. They have nothing.
o I scramble across town to Auto Zone which closes at 9. I get there at 8:30. Although they didn’t have the extender piece I needed, the amazing manager of Auto Zone was handy enough to splice my plug for me from a 5 way assembly kit they offered for sale since it was getting late. Plus, who’s going to deny being offered money under the table for something right? Awesome, now I’m set. I don’t get home until 9:30.
o I back the truck up to the boat go to plug it in and I realize the dude over at Auto Zone spliced a male end to my plug instead of the female end! Now I’ve got two male ends touching. Unfortunately, my adapter and plug don’t swing that way and it requires me to now splice a female end onto the plug. Please keep in mind people that I’m happy if I can hammer a nail in straight. You see where this is going.
o Clearly I have no conception of what I’m doing so I scramble to text a few buddies and pray someone is around to help me. HUGE shout out to my buddy Andrew for allowing me to swing by his house at 10pm to help me with this. Of course this takes him 15 minutes and it’s twice as good as what Auto Zone did. I don’t get home until 11:30, don’t get to bed until 12:30 and wake up at 3. Hooray for 2 ½ hours of sleep!
• April 22nd – Morning of event – 2 Red Bulls deep and I still didn’t realize that this tournament wasn’t being held out of the typical boat launch. So now I have to drive all the way to the other side of the lake to get to the correct boat launch. Make it there just in time, launch my boat, and realize I left all my sunglasses in my truck and it’s too late to go back and get them.
Okay let’s talk fishing now as that’s what this article is mainly supposed to be about. As from the events above, I was simply content enough that I was able to get to the event. Pre-Spawn/Spring time fishing is one of the most challenging times of year. Why? Because every day, every hour, conditions are changing and so are the fish. So I was essentially running blind (literally & figuratively since I had no glasses). So I went with my gut and what I love to do and what works for me personally during the spring – Fish fast, run & gun, and throw reaction baits and let the chips fall as they may. Besides if you can’t trust your gut, what can you trust?
Now not to toot my own horn here but you can clearly see my luck is beyond terrible. I’m waiting to be struck by lightning at any second or waiting to get that rare disease that has yet to be discovered. But despite all the situations above, I fished the cleanest event I have fished in a long time. I caught 15+ fish during the event. Didn’t miss a bite and got every fish into the boat which is impressive when fishing treble hooked baits.
I am happy with my performance however I wish I could have gotten the one fat girl in candlewood who wanted to take a boat ride with me for a few hours. I needed one big bite to put me over the top. But that’s fishing. I know I was in the right areas I just didn’t happen across the one I needed. Could I have slowed down, thrown a hair jig or other finesse presentation and done well or better? Possibly. However I wasn’t confident enough to fish slow given the situation and sit for 2 hours on one spot. Plus this wasn’t a team event; it’s me, myself, and I only. Let’s get down to what I threw for this event and the equipment I used:
Jerkbait:
• I threw this 90% of the time and most of my fish came off this. My normal color I throw on this lake is a Purple back, Chartreuse belly. In fact I throw that most anywhere in the country. What it looks like to a fish, I have no idea but it looks sweet to me. One day I will discover what this odd color combination looks like to them.
o Equipment – 6’9” M Micro Guide Big Bear Rod paired with a Lews Tournament Pro G Speed Spool (6.8:1) with 10lb Hi-Seas Fluorocarbon. Side note – I’m a huge fan of micro guides. I feel they increase my casting distance and sensitivity immensely. Plus Big Bear’s guides are amazing. I highly recommend trying them out if you never have and see for yourself
Swimbait:
• Swimbaits are a big player at almost any event in CT, especially Candlewood. I was excited to try out the Picasso Smart Mouth Plus Fish Head Jig. This by far is the best swimbait head I have ever used. The quality, design, and durability are unparallel. They offer these jig heads in a variety of weights and hook sizes. I prefer my hooks to be on the smaller size as I’m throwing 4” swimbaits most of the time. So a stout 3/0 hook was suitable enough for me. The head color I used was their “Blue Glimmer” pattern which really resembles an Alewife. I only threw this for the last hour or so of the event as I was looking for a kicker but I do regret not picking it up sooner. I won’t make that mistake again.
Spring time can be the toughest time of year for some, and the best time of year for others. Fish are everywhere right now. My suggestion is to think about how you like to fish and apply that to your local body of water. This is also a great time to practice new techniques you have never tried before as your catch rate will be pretty high. I appreciate all who took the time to read this article. Maybe no one besides me will read it. But hey, I enjoy writing so here it is. Stay tuned for future articles and until next time, Tight Lines!
