My B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Divisionals Lake Powell Report

[CATCHEMCARO]

I just got home today from another great fishing trip. I qualified as # 7 on the Federation Nation state team at the begining of the year by fishing a Delta tournament. So I was invited to fish at Lake Powell with the state team at the Western Divisionals. The team is made up of 12 guys who qualified at the Delta Federation tourney. I had all my fishing gear hauled to lake Powell by one of the boaters on the state team. This way I was able to avoid checking my gear in at the airport and having it all end up in Timbuktu. Any way, I flew into Utah and drove 400 miles to Lake Powell. What a drive this was. I have never been to Utah and I really didn't know what I was in for. This state has some of the most awesome mountain ranges I have ever seen. Rock formations that are out of this world.

I stayed at the B.A.S.S. host motel, the Ticaboo. When I pulled in the party was rolling. B.A.S.S. had there full show set up and the food was cooking. All 11 state teams where there and sporting there Triton shirts. I hooked up with my team from Cali and the party began. We only had 10 guys on our team as two guys backed out at the last minute. So we're already down 6 possable limits, ouch. They gave us all kinds of cool things like DVD's, shirts, real baits that you would want and a custom Federation Nation Lake Powell Western Regionals 2007 Belt buckle. After eating they start the official pretourney meeting and pairings. This took forever.

Day # 1, I get paired up with a guy from the Nevada Federation team, Dennis Cuiffi. He had a small older champion boat, but it ran good. I didn't have a chance to get there early enough to prefish and this will prove to be a very big mistake for me. Dennis didn't have much going while prefishing as the fishing had been tuff do to a cold front that I was lucky enough to miss. By the time I pulled in the weather was warming up big time. This lake had smallmouth written all over, but what it really had was millions of strippers swimming around. The strippers are a big problem on Powell as they're eating every thing and there is very little forage for the other bass.

I'm fishing day # 1 on very little sleep and I'm just getting over a real bad cold so needless to say I wasn't on my "A" game. We fished his water for the first half of the day and I wasn't able to get any keepers just a bunch of baby smallmouth and long skinny strippers. So at 11:00 I take control of the boat and start trying to work some magic. I pulled out all my tricks and was only able to catch one 12.5" keeper smallmouth on my new shakey head loomis rod. Dennis ended his day with just two small keepers. I met my day two draw and talk fish for a while before heading for a burger, shower and bed.

Day # 2, and now I have 9 hours of sleep under me and my "A" game is on baby. My boater was from the Washington team, Paul Mckenney. He had a 18' 1990 Ranger that was very well worn.
Paul had a small limit on day 1 so we fished his water for the first half of the day, but his water died as we were only able to get one keeper each and several small dinks and a load of skinny strippers.
Its 11:00 and I take control of this old Ranger. I had been eying these boat docks all day on day # 1 and on day # 2 so I had Paul cruse us over to them. I started with a perch speed trap hitting all the sweat spots. BINGO, I nailed a 2 pound largie and an hour later another one and then another.
My boater was pitching a Sinko behind me and he landed his second fish. I lost a 2 pounder at the boat and had a few followers, but I wasn't able to get # 5 for a limit. I weighed in 8 pounds and some change for four fish.

Day # 3, and I'm hoping to fish my dock paturn again, but that didn't happen. I was paired up with a boater from Idaho, Brent Shores. Brent is a host for a TV show called "Get the net" I have never seen it. He had his camera man there too. He had a 2006 20' Triton. Brent was leading his team after day # 2 and was ahead of the second place guy on his team by 1 pound. The California team was in dead last place and even if I caught a nice limit it wouldn't have done a thing for me or the team so I gave up my water to fish his water. Brents water was 50 miles away and an hour boat ride through some of the most beautiful rock canyons I have ever seen. I was in awwww as we flew 70 MPH over glass water in these cathedral rock walls. I have never felt so small in my life as I did while going to Brents water trough those rock canyons. I don't have the words to describe what I was looking at and pictures can't even come close to how huge these rock formation were.

Brent said it would be hard to catch fish behind him and that bite's would come far and few between at this area. He was totally dead sticking a Sinko. By 11:00 he had a 9 pound limit and was ready to give me control. I hoped up front and started doing my thing with nothing working. So after a few hours of dinks I decide to give Brent the front so he could possable cull some weight. It paid off as he culled three times and was able to take first on his team and go on the the Federation Championship. I can still smell the Powell skunk, can you? Brent gave some great plugs for the SCBBBC on stage and while the film was rolling. I ended up in 116th place with a Meir 9-10 for 5 small fish. The winner from the California team was Mark "Chief " Torrez from S.Cal. He's moving on to the Federation Championship.

This was a very high adventure trip for this belly boater. I had a great time without catching many fish. B.A.S.S. put on a great tournament that was very well ran. I hope I can make the team again next year and go to Idaho. I will get there early for prefishing next time. I might even be pulling a 20' Triton behind my truck. This was another feather in the cap towards tournament fishing for me. After all was said and done this trip cost less then the Elite AM side entry fee, go figure. See ya all at C.L. next weekend.

Rich

[Skeeterman]

Good story thanks for sharing.