After fishing the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series tournament at Santee Cooper Lakes, I dropped my boat and truck off at the Blazer Boat factory in Pensacola, Fla., and flew back to Idaho. Once I arrived home, Kari and I looked forward to celebrating our wedding anniversary in June.
She suggested we take our kids, Dustin and Brook, to Florida 10 days prior to the Elite event at the Pasquotank. It would be a 17-day vacation, wedding celebration and tournament competition rolled into one trip.
We flew to Pensacola and enjoyed relaxing, exploring and hanging out on white sand beaches. Brook was working on a paper about South Carolina for one of her fifth-grade classes. That gave us an excuse to drive to Charleston, S.C., to tap into some of the state’s history and take photos.
We continued up the coast to North Carolina and were blown away by the beautiful Outer Banks where we did a little crabbing.
It was the best family vacation I’ve ever had. During the tournament, we stayed at a 130-year-old vacation rental house. That was really cool. You just don’t see historical homes like that in Idaho.
Fishing the Pasquotank
The pressure was on for the tournament. I wanted to perform well for my family, and a check would pay for our trip. Living in Idaho, it’s not realistic for my family to travel to the Elite tournaments. School and sports take priority.
It was wonderful to see how exited my kids were at the weigh-ins. They didn’t care if I had one bass in my bag or a heavy limit, they were proud of me.
The Pasquotank River is a scary event because it has the biggest tournament boundary I’ve ever fished in the Elite Series. You can run 100 miles in multiple directions.
On top of that, you have to go out on the massive expanse of the Albermarle Sound. When the wind blows, the waves are worse than on the Great Lakes. It can make for wicked long runs.
On the first day of the tournament, I had planned to boat more than 60 miles to the area where Jason Christie won the tournament. I started out heading in that direction, but it was so rough I turned around and fished close to the ramp.
I caught 22-5 that day and landed in eighth place. After the weigh-in, I patted myself on the back for what a good decision I’d made to fish close.
I didn’t feel as smart after the next two days of competition. While Christie continued to make long runs and sack heavy limits, I fished close. I caught only 7-5 on Day 2, 9-12 on Day 3 and dropped to 42nd place. However, I did move up a few spots to 23rd in the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year points standings and received a much-needed check.
My Coike experience
Going into practice days for Pasquotank, I knew I had to get in tune with the Coike style baits that have been dominating Elite tournaments. I had fished the bait a little bit but had never caught a bass with it.
The irony is a Japanese angler gave me a Coike type bait during a filming session with Evergreen Lures three years ago. I laughed at it and thought, “What am I going to do with this weird thing?” I had the hottest bait in the world in my truck for three years and never made a cast with it.
I was so discouraged about getting my butt kicked with Coike baits that I invested half of my practice at the Pasquotank fishing with it. I finally caught my first bass with a Coike on the last day of practice.
On the first day of the tournament, I caught three big fish on it — a 4-pounder and two 5-pounders. One of the keys with this bait is getting the right cadence. You pop it, it recoils back and looks so stupid you wonder why a bass would go for it.
Catching bass with a Coike at the Pasquotank gives me confidence to fish it at the final two Elite events at Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River. Smallmouth will dominate both tournaments, and Coike lures are like the dice baits that have done well on those waters.
I’ll be loaded for bear with Coike baits in a wide variety of styles, sizes and colors. I expect to sack them with Yamamoto’s Uni.
