[Wild Bill]

Well, I am home safe from our adventure at the Gary Yamamoto Open Series National Final, and I had an AWESOME time despite the dang near freezing temps and high winds we suffered there, leading to very tough fishing conditions. Sadly, the 80 degree/sunny days that werre there the days before I arrived dissappeared overnight, leaving us with a cold front/showery/windy conditions.
Al and I struggled to get keeper sized fish [12" for spots and meanmouths, 15" for Lms and Sms], as did almost all of the entrants, both in pre-fishing and during the tourney, with us weighing in only three bass total for the two days, putting us way down in the pack, and WAY out of the money. Sadly, I am still among the "bass-boatless". I made many new friends there, and met some great folks that I have been 'chatting' with over the internet for some time now.
Over 16 pounds took the new Champion boat, with one team getting edged out by just a few ounces for second place.
Despite getting 'spanked' and given fishing 'lessons', I had an awesome time and would do it again in a heart-beat. My personal thanks to my team memeber and boater Al Hager, with whom I shared this great adventure, as well as to Gary Yamaoto Custom Baits for bringing this format to us all. It was a hoot to participate in. I had great fun, enjoyed great cammaderie, and learned some new stuff which make me a more proficient Bass angler.
More to follow, but I must get to work now......

 

[Wild Bill]

Huge thanks also....

to all the guys here that gave me great encouragement and well-wishes before my departure....You are all the greatest, and I really appreciated it !! Sorry I could not bring the Champion home for all of you to enjoy....

 

[dodgeguy]

sorry you did'nt win it.glad you had a good time.:beerchug:

 

[joe p]

welcome back, big guy

hey....at least you got to fish Beaver Lake....tell us your patterns and the winning teams too....

:beerchug:

joe

 

[Lpbassman]

Hey Bill,
Look on the bright side of things. Your not winning the Champion means you'll just have to fish with me a few times next year! LOL
Glad you had a good time anyway.

 

[Wild Bill]

Working patterns at Beaver

Well, I can;t say we set the world afire catching bass of any size, but we did catch some despite the dang cold and windy weather.
Beaver is a huge lake with tremendous amounts of rock, coupled with much standing timber in the waters. It is a dammed laked that they generate power from, too.
The air temperatures had plummeted hugely the night we had arrived, going from highs the day before[actually most of the prior week] of 80s, dropping to the low forties the day we arrived to fish it, coupled with wind.
I knew a few patterns that I thought would work from my past fishing adventures at Table Rock which is just downstream from the dam of Beaver, as both lakes are extremely similar in composition. One would be drop-shotting the 20-35 foot depths of 45 degreed slopes, or dragging C-rigs in the same spot, as well as working Rocker-head jigheads rigged with Hula Grubs in craw colors in those same areas. Another would be working the outside edges of the submerged cedar trees with jerkbaits, but since we were limited to utilizing Yamamoto baits only for this event, we worked EWG weightless rigged senkos there . We also dragged some senkos out from the shoreline, again rigged weightless on EWGs. Laydowns going into the water were keyed on heavily, with several fish coming frim them too. Those were the patterns that I knew in advance......
On our last day, as we were fishing, it was the start of deer season in ARK, and the hills had many hunters chasing deer. About five minutes before we had to dash to the final weigh-in, a hunter in a boat approched us and asked how we were doing, and we told him we were fishing the Yamamoto open Final and STRUGGLING to get fish of any size. He clued us into a pattern I never knew....
He told us at that time of the year, the fish sat tight to the trees in about 20 feet depths, nosed tight to the trees. he told us to pull alongside any trees, especially ones that did not rise out of the water surface, and to drop a bait tight down along the main trunks, letting it hit bottom, then jig it a few times. If a fish was there it would hit he told us on the first few jiggings, otherwise to move to the next tree. DANG, this good ole boy knew his stuff, as the next three drops along the trees for me produced three bass on consecutive drops, and one for Al. Sadly, not one was a keeper, and we had to get on the pony and run for the weigh-in, as time had run out on us, and we were not able to exploit this new-found knowledge to any help. But I have now shared it with you all, and I can attest it WORKS, based on my short experience with it....Hope it helps you all...
At the weigh-in, the winning team{beaver lake residents] told us
that they had been c-rigging senkos and cut-tails in two feeet of water, especially alongside BIG boulders. The big fish weighed by another guy, was caught early morning as Stripers and Lms mixed together were busting surface on a shool of some baitfish. We never saw such activity ourselves, only random blow-ups, which we did try to parlay onto fish , but NADA......

 

[ChenBassHead]

Wild Bill- At least you were given the opportunity to compete in an event like that! Congratulations on getting to go to Beaver Lake! By the way...what are meanmouths? A nickname for another member of the black bass family, maybe? Again, congratulations!

Zach

 

[JOHN G]

Bill, sounds like a fantastic experience though! as you said, you learned something valuable and can apply that next time on that water!

 

[Wild Bill]

Meanmouths...

as described to me there at Beaver, are a cross-breeding of a Largemouth and a Spotted Bass. They looked very similair to the Kentucky-Strain Spotted Bass, with the exception of an unusual high hump behind their head, kinda like a buffalo[of the western plains, not the fish species].
One way to differentiate the Spotted Bass from the largemouth specie is to look at the rear hinge-point of the fish's mouth. On a LM, the hinge-points are behind the eye socket, whereas on the Spot it is slihtly in front or even to the eye [same as on Meanmouth]. There are also a small tooth pattern on the tongues of Spots and Meanmouths that almost looks like a tobacco stain in color.
Now, in my past, I have fished Table Rock numerous times, and caught what I was told was MeanMouths, and they looked different than the ones this trip. I was told at Table Rock they were the natural crossbreed of Smallmouths and Spotted Bass. They looked Like Kentucky Spotted Bass markings, but had a orangy-bronzy tone to them all over, white at the belly, to me resembling, but not identical to a Smallie. It also had the Smallies 'attitude', which anyone has to just love to have on their line.
Who can get clarification on this for us????? I have seen both species.....of crossbreeds, I believe.
Spotted Bass, LMs, and Sms and forms of Meanmouths all inhabit both Beaver and Table Rock.
If I was to go to one or the other, by choice, hands down, I would choose and recommend Table Rock, based heavily by the tremdous trips i have had there, and other things too, such as I have heard Beaver has a reputation as being 'stingy with fish'.

 

[bass 64]

Meanmouths

As far as I know a mean mouth is cross between a largemouth and smallmouth. I know that smallies and spotted bass hybridize too but I guess any version of a cross between the three bass species would qualify as a meanmouth. Any one have any pictures of any?

 

[earthworm77]

Bill, check that, I also heard that meanmouthes were crosses of LMB's and SMB's.

 

[Wild Bill]

If Meanmouths....

were crosses of LMs/Sms, then we would have them all around us, right.....but I have only ever caught them in MO and ARK, where Spotted Bass thrive.....
We need someone to find a link to MOs DEPT of Fish and Game, or the oone from ARKANSAS, or such, to verify this issue for those of us who care to learn the answer....Who is computer-savvy enough to handle that task.????