I arrived at Beacon Harbor at a lil before 4:00 friday eve. to see Steve, Chris aka CZ and FIT allready there. I set up camp and rigged my boat quickly to get on the water for a lil scouting. Darce and I headed out from about 5:30 to a lil after 7:00.The main reason I wanted to get out was to check out the new bluegill bait I got from 3:16 lure company and thanks to Cameron for the hook up. It turned out the tide was never right and neither were the fish this weekend but I can tell you this lure will catch fish, a lot of fish and big fish as well. I was able to get blade fish buzzbait fish and flipfish. The reaction fish were not as big as the flipfish and the flipfish would be easier to find. All the decent flip fish came in the hyacins (sp) with docks, this was a lot like the old days at holand tract. The thing about hyacin fish and docks they dont really get into set pattern until its hot. I was on the water earlier on sunday then on saturday and both days the bite got good at about 9:30-10:00am.

Day 1
I had noticed the day before only about 5 spots on incoming tide where fish would hold up in the hyacin. I begin picking apart a dock with about 12ft of hyacin on it. There is only 1 spot on this whole patch that should hold fish and as soon as I got to it I flipped the reaper and let it slide through the stuff. A fish picked it up and you could tell by the bite it was all ready moving away from me. As soon as I set on her this fish just f$%# me up. It made a super strong run away from me under the hyacin and dock. She actually pulled me 2-3 ft before I began kicking against her. My only hope was to horse her out and thankful for the Castaway FR76 flipp'n stick 25lb big game and the new Okuma Nitryx 250 reel, I was able to get her to roll over the stuff and into open water. Getting my 1st look all I see is PIG. I look around me to be sure there is no snags she could get into and try to wear her out a bit. Everytime she would get into sight I would say (loudly) thats a F'n PIG..OMG. The 1st time she got near my pontoons I reached over the side shoved my thumb down her throut and pulled her into my lap, open the well and shoved her in. I just leaned over my knees looking at the water shaking my head in disbelief. I then started to kick out of the cut I was in dancing and singing the flipreaper song...."and thats why they call me flipreaper...i'm back, i'm back"....lol...its a take off of an Eminem song, "thats why they call me slam shady"....lol. Rob will understand it better then anyone, he has had to witness the song and dance a few times :)...I tried to relax and fix my reap, but had to call Rob 1st. I told him I had one probally going 12. I didnt get a good look at its belly because of how fast I put it in the well, but I did see a huge head and shoulders and close to 30" in length. In the end it went 10lbs 11ozs and super skinny. I soon got back to fishing. I proceeded to the next patch and got a dink. By this time IFISH wanted to follow me and hook up as well. I got another keeper out of the next 2 holes putting 3 in the well. After getting nothing out of my last hole I went further to look for more but found none and wasted to much time. I then decided to hit the duck blind cause it was similar to the stuff i was fishing and I did get a fish off it friday, sure enough #4 smash's the reap way back in the stuff but gets Okuma'd and is in the well. I ran out of water and went in with 4 fish and a big dawg. 1st day weight 15+lbs and big fish.

Day 2
Started at the same spot and caught 2 dinks right away where i got the good one the day before. Today was diffrent all my holes wouldnt hold any fish. Only thing I could think of was I fished them to early in the morning and the fish hadnt come out from under the docks yet or the BNT'rs had beat them all up : ) Either way I figuered I better cover some water and find more of the right stuff. It was after I got passed Sugar Barge that I relized how close I was to sandmound. I knew of some areas in there that would be the same as near the porthole so I oared up there to find some fish. The 1st few spots were just not right but the next one would be. I flipped the reap back in hyacin and got hit hard. I set and felt a little weight then the fish was up and out of the stuff completely soak'n me....gotta love kickboating....I grabed her jaw and threw her in the well...about a 2.5lb'r or so..Its late in the day but its a fish...I dropped the oars looking for the next patch and found one. As soon as I pitched the reap in the stuff my line almost backlashed, this fish grabbed and ran like a stoned homeless guy at a buffet. lol I ripped her head and felt weigh. Once again after horseing on her she came out of the stuff. I grabbed her quickly and threw her in the well. This fish would later go 4lbs 3oz's and missing Sal's day 2 big fish by 1 ounce. I was running out of time. I made a last minute attempt to hit some buzzbait water I have in sandmound and didnt get bit. I now had to rush back to weigh ins. I did stop and hit all 3 good holes on the way back for nothing. I had time when I got back to the weigh in area and hit the duck blind again. I pulled my 3rd and last fish of the day off that blind. I caught a fish off that blind 3 days in a row and I am sure it got hit by at least 10 guys both days and probally produced fish for some of them as well.

I look forward to reading how Sal got his fish he was on a much better bite then I was.

All in all it was a great time. Barry and Mathew of Beacon Harbor are great guys and they really made us feel welcome. Joey and Mitch had this thought out and it all went smooth. Good Job.The casting contest was fun as well. Next year we will be getting sponsor backing and making this as good as the Clear lake Open.


flipreaper out

CONGRATS, John
That's what I call a detailed FISH STORY! :)

Chris

Ran like a stoned homeless guy at a buffet,thats classic.congrats

Catching a double digit on the delta in a tournament. That must have been awesome :) I know that song you were talkin about. I've heard you singing the flip reaper song before lol.

Good job Mr. Lake! What size weight were you using to punch through the hyacinths? Any more details about the bait (size, color, mfgr, whatever)?

Thanks for the detailed report -- how about some more reports from the other guys that did well?

I didn't do too great -- I flipped a couple of squeakers out in Frank's (in the tules) on a black/red tube on Saturday. Bites were few and far between for me. Didn't fish Sunday...

I was using a 3/8oz bullet weight with a 5" delta money reap. It is a custom reap that if you want to see ask me at the next tournie. Its similar to a black and red reap but with brown in it. I dont like using weight to much heavier because once it falls through the water it sinks pretty fast. The 3/8oz is hard to get through the stuff for sure. I would say on average about 1 in every 3 flips I made actually fell through and into water, you have to be patient fishing this way something I am not much of unless I believe that this is where the fish are going to be.

Funny (not-so-funny?) you should say that. I got my big (lost 10'er) bite at around 9:45 on Sunday -- right on schedule, according to your read for the day, huh?!! Although it wasn't under any hyacinth, I *did* have to push a big patch of it away (maybe 10 feet by 10 feet), to get to the area behind the big covered docks, where it appeared no one else had gone to the trouble to get there.

She was laying right at the base of one of the elevated walkway pilings, shooting for the area beneath the docks themselves, once she got hooked, to try & get away -- a battle she ultimately ended up winning, unfortunately for me!

Anyway, it appears your analysis was dead-on, brah! How the heck do you *do* that?!! :D

Thanks for your captivating report. I saw the 11-pounder, it was awesome. Some querries:
What is the name of the blue-gill lure, and what company markets it? You seem to perceive
key spots in the hyacinth where bass hold. How do you tell? What criterion--deep in? Finally,
I could fish Saturday only, and I decided to go frog fishing all day, with sad results. I wondered
about trying a frog in the green hyacinth, but it seemed too difficult to work a frog where
there is no flat mat. Nevertheless, there are little spaces and holes. Any thoughts about
frogs in that kind of cover?
Still learning--
Rocky

I have heard of some guys fishing frogs in that stuff but I would prefer to use a flipp'n bait. I would imagine you would get a lot of blow up with little hook up's. Also being further away from the mat with a frog you would have a much great chance of not even being able to get the fish out. Lets put it this way that big fish would have been just a fish story if I had it on the frog.

As far as knowing what holes are key holes comes down to 15 years of delta fishing experience. Its kind of hard to explain but I will try. I prefer the hol on the back side of the dock's at its deepest point with current moving under it but not moving the hyacin. Then I look for a pilon that supports the dock. Now picture fish face 1st into the current using the pole as a current break under they under the hyacin. I also prefer the fish's hiding spot to not have a hole to flip into, the harder it is to get the bait in there home the better chance there is one waiting underneith. That is the perfect spot, its got extra oxygen some depth a current break,shade and they can sit and wait for food.

The bluegill is made by 3:16 lure company. Get yourself one but after Rancho :) here is a link that should help

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpageSWM316-MFBG.html