Land of Lincoln PVA Bass Tournament 2006

Rend Lake ~ Sesser, Illinois

May 19-21

I was back fishing in my home state and feeling pretty confident about catching some fish at Rend Lake, near Mt. Vernon, Illinois. I came early to do some pre-fishing with my buddy and when we pulled up to the docks we were in for quite a surprise. The water was high, and I mean HIGH, like “never seen it like this before” from the local fishermen high! Well, no matter how high, there were still fish down there, if only you could find the right way to finesse them to your line.

I tried going out on the lake a few days early to get some fishing in but the weather wasn’t cooperating, the cold front moved in and the fish hunkered down. It was going to be a tight tournament if the weather didn’t ease. At the Friday night meeting we were all jabbering about the height of the water and swapping stories of other lakes and other fishing times. It was a great time and some of the stories were “Whoppers”!

Saturday’s weather dawned gray and overcast. It cleared up after we hit the water but the fish remained stubborn and hard to reach. I fished my arm off all day Saturday, running up to the rip-rap, and casting my lures. All the fish I hooked into were small; the smart, larger ones were still laying still. And laughing at me, no doubt!

On Sunday my Captain and I were determined to catch the bigger fish. We ran through the same places, used the same lures and I hooked into the Grandma fish. This time I thought I had the Big Fish of the day, it weighed almost 5 lbs! Since our luck, or weather, seemed to have turned we spent the day hooking in the fish and keeping the best of the pick. With 1 hour and 15 minutes before we needed to check in we decided on one more cast and caught our 5^th keeper fish. This gave us a full bag to weigh in. while in the line of boaters waiting to weigh in, I could overhear the size of the bags of fish coming in but no one seemed to have one to touch ours. We weighed in at just over 11 lbs and my big one was 4.74 lbs! Yahoo! Unfortunately someone else came in with a 5 pounder and that won Big Bass!! However…..we came in 2^nd place overall with 11 lbs 4oz! The next place was 4 pounds below our total!

What a great time! The sun shining, the fish hiding and the guys trying to out talk each other stories! I invite you all to come and participate in the Rend Lake Tournament or one of the other PVA Tournaments. It is a great time! The next one is in September in Oklahoma. Call your chapter or check the pva.org website for more information.

   In the mean time…….

                                 Keep on Fishin’

                                 Charlie Johnson