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