Jeff Stegner’s Latest

FLW: PICKWICK

Been sick-as-a-dog since getting back from Alabama. Combined flu, head cold, chest cold. Whatever. Just don’t want to have it again! Today is the first day I’ve been able to drag myself out of bed...except for the storms last weekend.

My wife will be traveling with me on this trip. Easy drive (7-8 hours). No pre-fishing partners lined up. Consider bringing my boat and poking around Pickwick and Wilson for a couple of days. Have done this in the past, but always a debate with myself. Is it really going to help? Or potentially hurt someone else? Decide not to. So we arrive in Florence late Monday afternoon. Check-in at the Knights Inn. Stayed there before. Older motel, but still a nice clean place. I’d stay there again.

Drive over to the ramp. Wow! Sure looks like they are pushing lots of water! Current is boiling pretty good there under the bridge. Launching and parking will not be a problem. Lots of room. Head over to the local Wal-Mart for a fishing license and sandwich/snack items. Unpack my rods and tackle. Put together the basics I know I’ll take but wait for the rest until I talk to Day 1 partner.

Sleep late Tuesday morning. Step outside and surprised to see a several boats still in the parking lot. Must have a solid game plan. Meet up with a good friend and fellow co-angler for some lunch. He’s been there for several days and reports the fishing will most likely be pretty tough for most of the field. Matches what I’ve already heard. Not at all what I needed to hear, but I’m here and have to focus. Drop by a local tackle store, Gray’s if I remember correctly. Always nice to see what different stores around the country offer.

Registration time. Head on over and do the check-in thing. Dinner is pretty darn good and the dessert table is even better! Meeting starts and goes as usual. Luke Clausen gets some time up front to talk about his recent Classic win and plenty of applause. He’ll be in the spotlight. Not having much if any practice time for this T can’t be good, but at least he is toting around that $500k check!!

Pairings start. Boat 1, 2, 3...40. Well, not in the first flight. 41, 42, 43...hey was that my name? Nah, just the one that sounds real close....61! Jay Yelas! Good. Step outside and find him. Quick chit-chat. Meet where? When? What? Coming straight from the Classic, he didn’t get much practice. Yeah, but Jay, you were IN the Classic! Looks like we’ll be making a long run down into/past Yellow Creek area. Glad they announced the phone number for Mississippi fishing licenses. Back to the motel. Pack the final items for fishing shallow...jig, crankbait, spinnerbait and a shaky head. Bedtime.

Day 1. Meet Jay near the Yamaha service trailer, toss in my bag and rods and we get in line. Launching moves along quickly. I’m off to park; he’s off to boat-check. Neither takes very long at all. We have about 20 mins to the start of takeoff. Jay starts getting out some rods and I take note of what he has tied on. Good! I have the right stuff. Time for a prayer and National Anthem. Blast off!

Run about 40-50 minutes all the way down into Yellow Creek. Uh-oh. We can’t get into the little side creek he wants to start in. Water level has dropped...can’t idle in, can’t troll in either. Oh well, we fire up and go further into Yellow Creek. Lots of riprap. Crankbait. Spinnerbait. Jig. Shaky head. Nothing. Nada. Move around several times but the result is the same. Nothing. Already mid morning.

Run back to the mouth of Yellow Creek. BAM! We hit something solid. Well, the motor is still running and the prop is still there. Lots of good looking areas. Still nothing. Lots of other boats running around. Noonish. My nerves are starting to sing. Make a little run back up the river stop for gas and pull off into Bear Creek. Water is getting skinny and there are lots of stumps. Different set of nerves start singing! Pucker time!

Pull off onto a little flat that has a few boat docks, several stumps and a little channel. There is some baitfish activity! Crankbait. Spinnerbait. Jig. Finally, Jay catches a short fish. Pale. Not surprised given the water color. Sun is shining. Water is warming. Baitfish activity increases. Crankbait. Spinnerbait. Jig. Just keep alternating. Swish! Jay brings one to the boat on a crankbait. It’s a keeper! Not much time left before we have to run back. Crankbait. Spinnerbait. Jig. Smack! tug tug. I got one! To the boat, in the net. It is short. Plop back over the side. Couple more casts apiece. Well, time to go.

Drop off plane and idle up to check-in boat. Just one bag please...nerves are singing. Just as we clear the check-in boat they are calling out bags #2. What? That is the number on the BAG I just got. Looks like weigh-in will go very quickly. We find a place to tie off, bag up Jay’s fish and head up to the tent. Wow! There are only a couple of guys in line. I sign the weigh in sheet and head off to get Jay’s truck. A quick check of the leader board shows 10-something leading the co-angler side but falling off fast into the 3 pound range. Nerves singing-I really should have checked my one and only fish to see if it was a Spot...oh well. I get the truck and Jay is already waiting at the ramp. Pull him out and head straight to the service trailer. Looks like it is new propshaft time! There is my wife. Say my farewell and good luck to Jay. Grab my stuff and put it in the van.

Back to the weigh in tent to meet my Day 2 partner. Joel Richardson. He is staying at the same motel, just a couple of doors down. That will make it easy in the morning. He’s not around so I get his phone number off the list and watch more of the weigh in. It is going quick, but a zero is still a zero. My nerves are wreaking havoc. A co-angler buddy is on stage. Matt has a 6+ smallie! Beautiful fish. Big bass of the day and lands him in 10th place. Good for him. Still haven’t seen my Day 2 partner so I call his cell. Uh-oh. He’s being towed in. No sense talking right now, I’ll call him back later. Back to the hotel. Shower and out to dinner. Back to the hotel. After awhile Joel pulls in. Some kind of gas/tank problem but it is fixed. Quick chit-chat about tomorrow. Locking up into Wilson. Bedtime. Nerves and all.

Day 2. Wakeup and get some coffee. Joel is up and around so I drop my stuff in his boat. Another co-angler is riding over with us and he is in first flight so we leave early. Again launching goes quick and easy. Find a place to tie up. Lots of time before takeoff. Joel says we’ll be around some rock and somewhat shallow, 0-8ft. I have a crankbait, jerkbait and shaky head all ready to go. Lots of dock talk going on. Looks like about 6 1/2 lbs is 10th place and 1 1/2 lbs is 75th place. Wow! Even just one fish will go a long way in points for this tournament.

Prayer, National Anthem. Blastoff! They are holding the lock at Wilson for all flights. We idle in and tie up. More waiting. Nerves. That is a long way up (90-some feet). More time that my bait is not in the water. Nerves. They announce that the lock will be open at 2pm, after that it is ’take your own chances’. Finally we are up at Wilson level and the gates open. Everyone idles out single file. Blastoff all over again. We run within sight of the Wheeler dam, drop off plane and idle over to a rocky bank. Some natural, some manmade. Joel starts with a crankbait. I drop the shaky head in and around the scattered wood and larger rocks. Shake shake shake. Nothing. Alternate with a jerkbait. Nothing. Switch from a trickworm to a finesse worm. Shake shake shake. Nothing. Switch to a beaver. Nothing. Even try a wacky worm. Nothing. Nerves are really starting to sing now. Already mid-morning. We move to another area that has a couple of flats with grass. Some live and some dead. Joel is running a spinnerbait. I’m tossing a crankbait on the edges and a beaver in the thick. Nothing. Swim a jig. Nothing.

It is now noon-ish. Make a move to a big open bay area. Drop the trolling motor and just go. Cover as much area as possible. Nothing. Crankbait. Jig. Shaky head. A few docks, but mainly just flat bank line and a few scattered pieces of wood. Other boats are running and gunning. I rig up a baby Paca Craw on a shaky head. Hey! A bite! rat-a-tat-tat. But it is a bite. Something is at least looking at my bait! We move out to the center of the bay to a small manmade rock island that has a huge electrical line tower sitting on it. And sitting on the tower were at least 50 or more cormorants. What an ugly bird. We fished around the little island. Big rock at the water edge with a quick drop to about 11 feet. Crankbait. Paca craw. Nothing. We had gone all the way around. Joel said one more cast. So I was leaning over from the back deck putting my rods under the console and those ’ugly birds’ decided to spook and fly away. And we all know what birds do when they fly. I was suddenly pelted by little tiny milkshakes. One expertly aimed missile dropped right in my ear. And I mean right IN my ear. YUCK! Suddenly lake water didn’t seem too cold to wash the side of my head. Joel got a good laugh out of that one! Oh yeah, did I mention in the beginning that I have been sick every since? Probably got bird flu or something. Anyway, those birds are UGLY.

We make another move (away from the birds) further back in the open bay where the creek starts to narrow down. There’s some visible grass that comes off a point and continues out into deeper water. Wind is blowing across pretty good. Crankbait. Joel sets the hook and brings one to the boat. It is short. Work back and forth several more times. Nothing. There is a dock just on the inside of the point. Joel moves in and pitches a jig around the poles. Bam! hookset! Another short. But this is the most (and only) action we’ve seen all day. He’s working the poles with a jig and I’m tossing a shakyhead/trickwork and shakyhead/Paca craw. We work around the dock. As we go around the outside, I noticed there was visible current against the poles. Must be dropping water out of Wilson. Joel makes a pitch to the next dock. I pitch back underneath the first dock. Backlash! Dang. As I’m peeling out line the rod tip jumps and the line I’ve peeled out starts leaving. I’m trying desperately to wind up all the extra line. But I still have the backlash and little coils are getting caught on everything from the star drag and reel handle to my shoe laces. Finally I get all the line wound up and sure enough the fish is still swimming. BAM! set the hook! Dang this fish is pulling good! Joel makes his way back with the net. I get the fish up and it’s a good one. Netjob, it’s in the boat! Oh yeah I’m on the board! Wasn’t pretty, but what the heck. I pick up my spinning rod and toss the shakyhead/trickworm back under that first dock. BAM! zzzzing. Hey this is a good one too! Joel is back there again with the net. Scoop! Now I have two identical good fish. I put on a new worm and toss back under the dock again. Bam! no drag on this one. Joel is back there with the net mumbling something about ’lucky’ I’m mumbling something about being ’pooped’ on. Short fish, not a Spot (I checked this time!) Needless to say, we camped on that dock for awhile. Nothing. Went on down that bank working each dock carefully. Came back and camped on that first dock again. Nothing. What we figured out was there was a logjam underneath that dock and the creek swing was right underneath about 8 ft of water. Too bad we didn’t have more time. Gotta go. Time to leave and catch the lock at 2pm.

Good thing we did too. There was a tug with a triple barge waiting just above the lock. If we hadn’t locked down with the rest of boats at 2pm there wouldn’t have been enough time left to have waited on the tug/barges. Glad to have some time in the lock to sit down and eat finally eat some lunch. Seemed like it took forever to drain all the water out but finally the gates opened. BLASTOFF again.

We ran down a couple of miles and pulled up on the upstream side of a creek point. Along with several other boats. I stuck with the shakyhead trickworm/paca craw. Joel tossed a small jig. Hookset! Joel has one on. It is staying deep. Yup, it’s a large drum. The boat behind us pulls up a drum too. Here comes a boat working out of the small creek. It is Sam Swett...and he has passengers. Another boat had broken down and he picked them up. Sam and Joel chat for a minute (team mates) and then Sam is off for check-in. Nothing more there. We run back up towards the ramp area and pull over on a bank for some last minute casts. I’m tossing the shakyhead. Joel tosses out the little jig. BAM! hookset. He’s got another one on. Another drum. Couple of cast later BAM! Another drum. He caught 3 maybe 4 drum right there within the last 10 minutes. Why couldn’t it have been smallies? Time to head in.

We drop off plane and idle up to the check-in boat. One bag please. (This time it is mine!) There’s my wife up on the hill waving and taking pictures. I hold up two fingers, more pictures quickly ensue. By the time we find a place and tie up, they are already calling bags #4. Another quick weigh-in. Walk up the hill, stand in line, get on stage, and Charlie still can’t pronounce my name! And I have bird poop all over me. Who cares! I have two nice fish! 2 fish at 6-15lbs. Good enough for 26th place. And I was darn thankful to have them!!

There is no woulda, coulda, shoulda about this tournament. I had 4 bites and caught all 4 fish (wish I had checked that one fish on the first day...) It was just a plain tough tournament. Now there are 10 pros and cos that would argue that point, but for me it was tough! Some more good points and another good check. Really enjoyed fishing with both my partners. Great guys. Looking forward to the next tournament at Beaver Lake...lots closer too!