2018 Year In Review

2018 was a great follow up to 2017 fishing wise and 2017 was a year the likes of which  I do not think I could ever duplicate. 

On the year I fished 52 days landing 749 fish for an average of 14.4 fish per trip. 14.4 fish per trip is down rom 16.7 in 2017. 

  My minutes per fish median for 2018 was 16.15 minutes per fish catch. I fished approximately 201.6 total hours in 2018. That figure does not include drive or prep time only time on the water. That is the equivalent of fishing 8.4 days around the clock. In other words I fish 2.3% of 2018. 

In regards to bass fishing my best five fish average on the year was 64.5” making my average keep length throughout the year 12.9”.  Remarkably last years average best five fish limit throughout the year was nearly the exact same at 64.47” with an average keeper size of 12.89”. A net increase of 0.01” on the average keep length compared to 2017. 

  As far as tournaments this year I was able to pull off two wins;one SCKBA and one WVKA event. I finished the year off with a head to head live tournament record 1230 wins and 105 losses. I finished the year with an overall 91.4% win percentage and an in state win % of 92.1%which down from an in  state win % of 96.1in 2017. 

I finished 3rd in Angler of the Year Standings in the WVKA missing 2nd by one point out of 776 points and missing 1st by 11 points. I literally had a fish break me off at the Jackson County Shootout that had I landed I believe would have given me enough points with defend my 2017 WVKA AOY title. But that is fishing and Joe Farley earned his way by me to take the top honors. I did capture the SCKBA AOY title for 2018. 

I plan to fish WVKA and SCKBA again in 2019. I am very excited about utilizing the Anglr software for my data tracking for the entire 2019 campaign. I expect to see a much deeper data dive this time next year and hope to be able to use that data to make some changes for the better. 

Fur and Fins Thanksgiving Day - November 22nd, 2018

Although quick and to the point I had a wonderful Thanksgiving morning in Grant County. I started at daylight and saw deer as soon as there was enough light to shoot. The first three I saw had no back drop and O couldn’t get a safe shot. A few minutes later I got an offhand shot at about 65 yards and made a nice hit double lunging an adult doe as the sun was rising. I quickly changed gears after field dressing my doe and went to fishing for native brook trout. I hooked several and landed a few in the course of an hour. Pretty awesome morning away from work and still lots of time to spend with family. 

November Squirrel Afternoon - November 14th, 2018

I took advantage to a rare midweek day off to go spend an afternoon in the squirrel woods. I elected to take Dad’s 870 for senimental reasons over a .22. It was a perfect day. Cool, front coming in, no wind, just a touch of moisture on the Forrest floor so you could sneak around quietly. Finding a limit was almost too easy. I sat 13 and killed 6 in under 90 minutes. I had 5 one shot kills and one two shot kill. The afternoon was so nice I didn’t want to go in so I walked around awhile longer after my hunt ended. Saw 8 deer including 2 spikes and a handful more of squirrels. I really need to find more time to spend in the woods on days like today in my overly busy life. 

Cold November Mist - November 5th, 2018

 

I only had a couple hours to fish but this place has been good to me this year when I had to make my time really count. I got to the lake on a cold misty breezy November morning about an hour behind schedule at 7:45am. I had 3 fish by 8:00. I went on to catch 10 in a shade under 2 hours, not bad for cold water November largemouth Bass. The biggest was 17.25”. Once again the Ned Rig did the heavy lifting. 

Total Fish = 10

Biggest Fish = 17.25”

Best Five Fish = 68.5”

Minutes per fish = 11.6 

Stonewalled WVKA 2018 Finale - October 13th, 2018

Going into the final WVKA event of the year I had a marginal points lead in the AOY race but I had to do well to upgrade my points total. You get to drop your lowest finish and for me that was a 12th place at Jackson County. We had falling water and a 25 degree drop in temps and some wind. I knew I had to do well to upgrade my status. I fished deep and slow all day getting only 4 bites. I did loos a 18+” inch fish that could have moved me up from 22nd to 12. But even that would not have helped all that much. I gave it my best but at the end of the day lost my streak of always catching a limit that dates back to June of 2016, probably 30 tournaments in all. On a brighter note Harper and I fished together and some how managed to win 1st place in the two man team event with only 66.5”. There is a record that may stand the test of time...lowest inches total to ever win a WVKA 2 man teams event. Interestingly Joe Farley won this event on top water in fishing stained yo shallow water even in the face of a cold front. He said he only got 6 bites but it was enough to win by a 22” margin of victory and win the tournament and most likely Angler of the Year. 

Total Fish Caught = 2

Biggest Fish = 13.5”

Best Five = 22.5” 

Order of finish 22nd out of 43

Minutes per Fish = 240*

A Quick Minute at Moncove with the Girls - October 8th, 2018

Really as an excuse to go eat lunch at Cheese and More the girls and I enjoyed the scenic drive over to Monroe county on our way to Moncove lake. We fished and paddled about for around two hours. We caught a couple fish and ended up seeing a couple big grass carp. 

October Almosts - October 6th, 2018

Jared and I floated 6.5 miles from Glynn LYNN to State Line Falls. We started  off at daylight and finished up abound 12:30pm. The water was about 18” too high to be able to fish those middle river ledges that were so productive for big fish last month. I caught my biggest Fish of the day on a whopper plopper. I lost two 18 plus inch fish on a magnum fluke. By 10:30pm the sky got high and bright and it was Ned or nothing. Even then the Ned was only productive for 11” fish. Still a beautiful float despite it being unseasonably hot like mid 80’s for middle of October. 

Miles Floated = 6.5

Total Fish = 17

Biggest Fish = 15.75”

Best Five Fish = 68.5”

Minutes per fish = 16.1

Last Push WVKA Online

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The last day of WVKA online season I spent on Moncove. I only had 2 hours and 15 minutes to fish before I had to leave to get to Avery’s basketball game. But the first 35 minutes were productive enough to justify the trip. I caught 13 fish total and three quality fish. 

Total Fish Caught = 13

Biggest Fish = 17

Biggest five fish = 77.5”

Minutes per fish = 10.6

Rainy Weekday at Moncove- September 18th, 2018

Today wass a rainy solo day on Moncove spent trying to upgrade my WVKA online standing . I worked the Ned rig on my usual spots and caught the usual suspects. Quality fish but nothing giant. This lake consistently produces quick 70 inch limits but it is hard to break the 75” mark. I did see a bunch of giant Asian carp up working shallow today for the first time. Other than the carp I only saw one other angler. I did however learn that my 10 year has pd rain bibs have given up the ghost. 

Total Fish Caught = 8

Biggest Fish = 14.25”

Best Five Fish = 66.75”

Minutes per fish = 22.5

September WVKA Online Fish Roundup - September 11th, 2018

Stan and I hit Moncove today so that I could try to get a few points out if the final WVKA online tournament of the year. The bite with the Ned rig was very solid early and then fell off sharply around 9:45am. I found the pattern to be the fish were hanging only on babksvthat had a steep angle of entry to the water or basically banks that had deeper water nearby as opposed to flats. 

Total Fish Caught = 8

Biggest Fish = 15”

Best Five Fish = 69.75”

Minutes per fish = 26.25

Summers County Slam II / Battle for the Bluestone Cup September 8th, 2018

Every once in awhile you have a day on the water you will never forget. And today was the perfect time to have a career day. WVKA, SCKBA points for AOY were on the line as well as SWVKA being here for the three club battle. Jared, Harper and I shared the day in which we adopted an ultra marathon float mentality floating 11.5 miles on the New River in 7 hours and 20 minutes at normal water levels. I started off slow but then caught a smaller limit on 5” flukes, I decided then to switch to bigger boats and I am sure glad I did. I ended up with three fish that averaged over 15” each and two citation smallmouth over 20”. Before the day was over I set the WVKA scoring record at 85.5” won big bass, top 2 man team with Greg Nahodil, 1st place out of 114 anglers from theee different clubs, walking away with over $900. SCKBA won the battle for the cup by a mile by having 8 if the top 12 anglers in the field and all of the top 5. Harper won a $1,500 Bonefide Kayak by way of the Gunter’s Invitational event with his 6th place overall finish. I could not dream up a bigger better day. Big stage, big fish, big baits, = big results on this day. 

Miles Floated = 11.5

Total Fish = 34

Biggest Fish = 21.0”

Best 5 Fish = 85.5” (WVKA Record for now)

Minutes per fish = 12.6