Troy Stokes Fishing

Gun Lake Opener

Fri, 29 May 2009 01:30:00 +0000

This past weekend, May 23rd, I decided to test my skills and enter into a team tournament, as an individual contestant. I pre-fished the day before and found that the majority of largemouth had already spawned and were guarding fry. I quickly deducted that it would be easy to catch a limit shallow but that I might have to go deep to catch some bigger fish. I had some success fishing deep, but the fish seemed to be about the same size. Gun Lake is known to have big weights from spawning smallmouth in the spring and so I decided to hit the sandy rocky edges out in the lake. It was windy and overcast, so I could not see beds very good but I did catch a few smallmouth on a jerkbait. Once again the smallmouth were about the same size as the largemouth I was catching and so I decided that it would probably be to my advantage to fish largemouth all day.

The tournament was from 6 AM- Noon, so I was up very early in preparation for take-off. For my start spot, I decided to hit a small area that I felt had some quality fish. In about ten minutes I caught a limit of keeper bass and was excited because now I could focus on catching a bigger fish. I hit a few areas that I felt could possibly hold a big postspawn bass, and I culled out a few fish, but not the big bass I was looking for. I continued catching keepers throughout the day and adding ounces to my weight but I just couldn't seem to get that big bite. I stayed shallow most of the day and hit a few key areas that had some deeper water and could hold a big postspawn bass. I finished up the day with 9.76 lbs. good for tenth place. It ended up that the smallmouth gurus had found the bigger spawners and had caught limits of fish averaging two pounds. It took thirteen pounds to win the tournament, but I had one of the biggest bags of largemouth weighed in. Overall it was a great day out fishing, and since there were forty two man teams competing against me, I really had a respectable finish.

-Troy Stokes

Early Spring Fishing

Sat, 16 May 2009 19:50:00 +0000

Fishing in the spring always seems to be one of the funnest times to go bass fishing, since during this time of year there is a great potential to catch lots of bass and usually a few hawgs. This past week I went fishing on a small private lake in an aluminum boat and this scenario was never more real. I started throwing a centipede on a large flat with lily pads growing in clumps all over it. When the sun came up I could see some sand spots and tried to target these areas with the centipede. This plan worked great and I ended up catching around fifteen bass in the two pound range. As the day progressed it became very cloudy and the centipede bite started to die down. To compensate for the clouds I began to throw an all white chatterbait through isolated lily pad fields and weeds. On my second cast I caught a nice three pounder and continued to throw it with much success. As it got later in the evening the bite slowed down significantly and I decided to look for some bass staging in the deeper water. It didn't take me long to find an isolated area that had some good weeds growing off from an underwater point. The bluegills were all sitting on top of the weeds soaking up what was left of the day and so I knew the bass would be close by. I decided to throw a jig, which is my go to bait for bigger fish. On my first cast I hooked up on a big fish, but it came off before I could see what it was. Not more than two casts later, I hooked another big fish, but this time I got it in the boat. It was about a 4 1/2 pound largemouth bass! This was exciting because this time of year when you catch one big fish there are usually more there. I released the bass and on my very next cast I caught a three pounder! As I had thought there was a school of big bass sitting out on this deep weed point and I probably caught ten bass within ten minutes that were between three and four pounds. By the time I stopped catching fish from that spot it was time to head back in and I think a good estimate would be that I caught about fifty fish that day. I had only fished for maybe six hours and it was a spectacular day out fishing. I uploaded some pictures from this day in the photo gallery, so take a look for yourself at some of these big springtime bass.

-Troy Stokes

FLW College Fishing Opener

Sat, 16 May 2009 19:38:00 +0000

The FLW College Fishing Tour had its opening tournament for the Central division on May 9th, 2009. The tournament was held on Kentucky and Barkley lakes in Gilbertsville, Kentucky. As you may know already, I am the president of Collegiate Bass Fishing at CMU and was competing in the tournament with Kevin Finkbeiner representing Central Michigan University. Going into the tournament I felt very confident since I had competed in some large tournaments on the lakes before and conditions were looking to be good for shallow flipping. The water temperature was about 66 degrees and the water had been rising for a few days previous to the tournament. In these events pre-fishing is off limits for the entire week before the event and so I had to use only my previous knowledge on the lakes to devise a game plan. The weather in the morning was comfortably warm and I was able to wear shorts and my jersey for take off. We were boat number two and immediately ran to a spot that I was confident that we could pull out at least a few keepers. Well much to my surprise we got to the spot and I realized that the water had risen so much the past few days that we were no longer able to get to the spot due to an obstruction. I decided to fish the perimeter of the area and caught a few small fish but was not able to get to the key areas that would hold the numbers of quality bass. I then decided to run to an arm in a nearby creek and fish some good bushes and trees. Once again this area only produced a couple small fish. I saw a three pounder cruising around the perimeter of a bush but was unable to get the fish to bite. The rest of the day we hit key areas that I had previously caught quality bass, but were unable to hookup with any keeper fish. Flipping deep into the centers of the bushes seemed to be the most productive pattern of the day but we could not find the bigger fish that we needed. Overall it was a good day out on the water but we just could not seem to find the quality fish that Kentucky Lake holds. Only two teams out of forty weighed in a limit of bass, and the winning team had twelve pounds and fifteen ounces. The weigh in proved that it was a very tough day out on the water since most teams had only caught one keeper bass. I would like to thank Central Michigan University and FLW for making the college tour a great tournament. It was very organized and professional, and I can't wait for the next FLW College Fishing tournament, which is held on the Detroit River. For a full list of results and press release from FLW, visit www.collegefishing.com

-Troy Stokes