First Ever Riverbassin Tournament

Thankfully I was able to check out my first tournament ever this summer. I have had a packed summer but no matter what I had to fish in a tournament. I chose the Waco Riverbassin Tournament.

Since this was my first tournament ever, I didn’t no quite what to expect. I decided ahead of time to make sure that I had everything that I could possibly need so that I could have the best possible chance. Some of this stuff was getting a Hawg Trough, making sure I had a good assortment of lures, and doing some lubrication on my reels to make sure they were in good working condition. With all this said, the one thing that I didn’t bring that I needed to was a large rubberband. This might sound kind of crazy, but I have never used a Hawg Trough before and didn’t think there was much more to it than laying the bass down and taking the picture. Well I was in for a treat.

I started out early in the morning in my Big Tuna kayak for fishing. I knew that I would have a slight disadvantage fishing from such a large kayak, but I love the Big Tuna and was ready for an adventure. It took a while to get my first fish in the kayak, but it didn’t stay there long. After I unhooked the fish and laid it down on the Hawg Trough, I reached for my phone was about to take the picture when the fish slipped under my hand. It was flopping around like crazy and ended up poking me pretty good with it’s dorsal fin, which in hand allowed a little bit of blood to get on the kayak. Before I knew it, my first fish was lost over the side of the kayak and my adrenaline suddenly left my body. I couldn’t believe that I lost my first fish from such a simple mistake. Next time, I will no doubt have a rubberband or some sort of restraining strap in order to hold down my bass. Fortunately, I caught another fish not too long after under some trees overhanging the bank of the river. using a walk the dog topwater lure. It was a small rascal at 11.75 inches, but I was happy to get my first fish on the board. I knew that I would have to get to work, so I started to throw some different lure. I used a large square bill crank bait and soon the action heated up a bit.

After a couple of casts with the crankbait, I soon got hooked on a little bit larger of a bass. I was so worried that I would lose it in the kayak, that I left the hook in the fish until I had everything situated, then I took the hook out and snapped a photo. This fish measured 13.5 inches, which isn’t terrible, but no where near what I needed.

A little while later I would hook into my biggest bass of the day on another crankbait style lure. Unfortunately, what I wanted to be my smallest bass ended up being my biggest. She measured in at 14.75 inches, but this wouldn’t be enough to get into a place for a prize. I caught a couple other smaller fish, but these would not be big enough to help me out.

Even though I didn’t do anywhere near like I wanted, I learned a lot from this tournament. For one, enjoy the simple pleasure of having the opportunity to go fishing. Like many others in today’s world, I have an extremely packed schedule with stuff like college, having enough money, and work. One thing that never fails me though is fishing. I can be thinking about something, but once I get on the water everything leaves my mind and I don’t even realize. I really did have a pretty good time going to some of my old rivers that I use to fish when I lived in Temple, Texas which is right next to Waco, Texas. The other thing that I learned is to always be willing to go to something that you haven’t used in a while. If they are not biting, adapt to what the fish want, not to what you think the “should” want. The last thing I learned was that such a simple thing as a rubberband could help out a lot…boy I wish I would have had one.

All in all, I am happy with the results considering this is my first tournament ever. I was so excited to go fishing, and if I could have won, well that would have been just a nice bonus.