ANATOMY OF A GAME PLAN PART II
This past Saturday, "Atlantic Bassmasters, held their 3rd annual HALLOWEEN FALL CLASSIC on Lake Mahopac in south-eastern New York. For those of you unfamiliar with Lake Mahopac, its a small (534 acre), two stage fishery. The lake, thanks to the over stocking of Grass Carp 6 years ago, has no weed at all. There is a small area of lilly pads, but thats about it in the form of aquatic vegitation.

However, the lake has plenty of rock in all depths. There are two large islands and two major shoals. There are numerous secondary points, small coves, and quite a few spawning flats that are littered with rock in one form or another. The lake has a number of humps, and quite a few underwater ledges we refer to as "fingers". There are a few submerged rock walls and, oh yes...docks. I really hate those....NOT!

There, now you have been elightened and have somewhat of an idea of this beautiful lake. Over the past few years the smallmouth fishery has exploded, seemingly at the expense of the once predominant largemouth. More and more these bronze beautys have been showing up in the bags of tournament competitors at the local weigh-ins. Quite a few of the fisherman I know have changed their tactics and have begun to target the fish off the bank, opting for those depts and the bounty it holds. I however, am not one of those fisherman.

I must admit I have tried my hand at mastering fishing in depths of 25 to 40 feet but with the exception of Lake Erie and Ontario, I have not had much luck. Tried spooning....not me, tried blade baits...uuugh. The only success I have had is with grubs and that success was moderate at best. I faced the facts long ago, I am a shallow water fisherman. My idea of a hump is a one foot rise on a four foot flat. There are always fish shallow regardless of the season and it was those fish I felt comfortable targeting in the HALLOWEEN FALL CLASSIC.

This tournament draws many of the areas better fisherman. If you expect to win, you need to put in some time, do a bit of homework and get out there and pre-fish if at all possible. Overall, I spent three days on the lake prior to the tournament, with the last day being just a few days prior to the tournament (Wedensday). While the fish were not jumping in our boat my partner and I managed to come up with a good game plan, one that we felt would win the tournamenmt for us. When the fish are shallow here, he and I are a threat to win this event, and they WERE shallow.

The morning of the tournament was overcast with a light rain, but no wind. The lake was flat calm. We knew the fish, if they were still shallow, would not be too tight to cover. They should have been on the ends of the docks or edges as well as one of my favorite patterns "mooring balls" or more precisley the cinder blocks those balls are attached to. We didnt have long to wait to prove we were right. The outcome could have been a bit better in retrospect.

We were fishing fairly close to the ramp on the eastern shoreline. This shoreline had been hot the entire year and our pre fish confirmed it still was. Both my partner and I are proficient at fishing a jig and the "golden jewel" so we divided the area of responsibility. We were using my boat which made it easier for me in the front to concentrate on the areas away from the cover while he would take care of the docks and the shallows between docks.

We had not gone but a few hundred yards, when spying a beloved "mooring ball", I put down the hair jig I had been throwing and picked up my fliping rod. I made a long pitch past the ball and was suprised to see (I dont know why) the line go slack when I tried to gain contact with my bait. It was then, perhaps a bit to late that the light bulb went off in my head. FISH!!! Damn...I yelled, setting the hook, got him. The bass moved to my left as I raced to keep up with what I now knew was a her, or more precisley a "Queen". She changed directions and came back under the boat. As my partner stood there net in hand....she came un-buttoned. Lots of cussing insued. By the way a "Queen" is a 4 pounder...%^#&#&@!!!

Shake it off my partner said, hoping to calm me down a bit. We have 7 hours to go, get it out of your mind. Yeah right! The rest of our "magic" shoreline produced nothing so we made our first move to another confidence area, one of the shoals on the western shoreline close to the Hoffman House. My partner scored almost immediately on a Micro-munch jig, 1/8 oz black/blue/electric purple that "earthworm" (Craig DeFronzo) made especially for me a few years back. It was a smallmouth, a shade over two pounds. Not great but it was "one in the box". Time 9:45.

We made perhaps a few dozen additional casts to this shoal without success. Ahead of us aproximately 200 yeards was one of the many rock ledges scattered throughout the lake. Unfortunately for us, it was occupied by a pair of very good shallow water fisherman. We made another confidence move to another ledge on the same shoreline. Glancing over, I spoted Pat X and Mike DelVisco on one of the humps, just a few hundred yards away. They put two smallmouth in the boat before I could make a cast...lovely. Time to concentrate on what I am doing, not the competition.

We fish this area hard and are about to leave when suddenly I get that tell tale "tick". Setting the hook, well worrying it home anyway, I catch a 1 3/4 pound smallie on a hair jig. Where the hell are the largemouth . We now have two in the box and its only 10:15. We feel confident until Pat & Mike motor up and tell us they have 15 pounds in the well. We love getting in each others head and today is no exception. Go blank yourself I laugh and zoom off to our next confidence area on the southern part of the lake.

The area we are now fishing is loaded with rock from three feet out to 15 feet. Located in front of one of the lakes largest coves it is basically a community hole, but it has a few subtleties that not everyone is privy to. There is a certain dock in the area that always holds a good fish. Its a "nothing" dock in about a foot of water and I have never seen anyone else on it, ever. Last year our largest bass a 4.02 (in this tournament) came from under it. My first cast to the outside edge of this dock was met with a solid rap. I set the hook and the bass came right at me. Net!!! I yelled, but half way to the boat the fish once again came un-buttoned. What the &**%&^$ is going on I screamed!!! Once again my partner, Kevin Cunningham tried to sooth my bruised psyche... Forget it Blue...we probably would have culled that one anyway. I now hate myself, thoroughly!

I am still muttering to myself when my partner yells "here we go". He has hooked a scrappy smallmouth on the Micro-munch jig and after a brief tussel its in the net and on its way to the box. We put the 1 1/2 pounder in with his buddies. Thats three....but not what we had in mind. Its 11:10...still time. We continue through this area, picking the cover apart. There is a boulder here about the size of a refrigerator lying out in 8 feet of water that will hold a quality fish on occasion. I make my presentation with a hair jig and immediately I hook what feels like a good fish. "Got him Kevin, I yell...before he can grab the net the fish is off. Thats THREE fish I have blown today. I can no longer keep it in. Like the fog horn of an approaching ore freighter I sound off and let it out BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!, you son...f----- ass---..mother....up the...screw......BLAHHHHHHHHHHHHH... You could have heard me on I-95, 15 miles away. My partner is nearly histerical, laughing.

I try to calm myself down as we continue to fish this area hard. I cant believe I have blown three fish. Failure to convert your bites will kill you. At the end of the pass, I suggest we make another pass. We hooked three fish in the area and I feel its worth another try. Kevin agrees, I think, so we do it all over again, but nothing doing. Its now 12:05 and time for a move back to the eastern shoreline. This area has alwasy been good to us from noon to three p.m. so we decide to do the entire shoreline of perhaps a mile or so. The wind is beginninmg to pick up a bit and has changed direction. Its now out of the north-west at 10 to 15 mph. Maybe the largemouth will move up tighter and position themselves into the wind. We can only hope.

After about a quater mile of shoreline, we are starting to question if the largemouth bite is "happening" today or not. Should we force the pattern, or make a change to fishing the edges of the breaks. At that moment we watch one of the other teams boat a 3+ largemouth out off a piece of cover in 12 feet of water. We applaud and exchange a few words. They tell us they have four fish in the well, probably about 10 pounds worth. Well, now what do we do..... It doesnt take us long to come to the same conclusion. Stay with the game plan. We continue on this shoreline for another quarter of a mile, but not a sniff. We are determined though, the best part of this bank is ahead. Or so we think...

There is a new boat house ahead that during the season was very unproductive to say the least. Unusual because of the excellent cover it provides. It sits in 6 feet of water and has a nice rock base on the sides and on the rear wall. In practice we had made a mental note to go in against the retaining wall and pitch through a small two foot opening. This was the only way in. The door was closed and it was otherwise impossible to make a presentaion.
I backed the boat up, allowing Kevin to make his presentation from the back deck while I held position. It was a great call.

Kevin pitched a Micro-munch jig in tight against the wall. He never felt the bite. When he picked up the bass was on....it was a largemouth and un-like his partner, he put it in the boat. Thats number #4. The chunky 2 1/2 pound largemouth boosted our spirits. High five time, but no celebration...too much work still to do. At this time I decided to put the hair jig down and throw a 3/16 Stanley black/blue/purple with a Cobra-Pro Craw trailer, junebug. We had time it was only 1:10

Try as we might, the rest of the eastern shoreline failed to produce another fish. With about a half hour remaining we made our last move to an extreemely shallow area more noted for its "bottom muck" and lilly pads then anything else. (thats what we would like everyone to believe) This area produces some of the largest fish in the lake and does so on a consitant basis. Just as the tournament was winding down, with perhaps 10 minutes to go, I made a pitch with the jig into inches of water next to a shallow dock.

The line jumped to the right, I set the hook HARD and was into a heavy fish. Once again, this bass swam straight at the boat, but veered towards the right and tried to get under a boat tied up to an adjacent dock. Try like hell, I couldnt get a hold of this fish. All Icould do was muscle the fish out and pin it to the lower unit of the boat attached to the dock. My partner had to lay on his stomach, reach around the motor with the net. He came up with the bass and the propeller as well. He looked at me and laughed....you have had some day....nice work. We both laughed. The bass weighed 3 pounds 7 ounces. Our total for the day stood at 11 pounds 14 ozs. Not bad, good enough for 4th place overall, but it could have been better.

The tournament results showed we were right to stick to our shallow water game plan. Most of the teams that targeted the deeper fish fared poorly, all except for one that is. Even if I had performed better (that wouldnt have been difficult), it is doubtful we would have improved our position enough to have won the event, but you never know. You cant weigh-in fish storys.

We will win next year.....right Kev.

Scully