Ryan Wood Fishing: Lake Jordan, Mean Spots, and Humility

"It's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble, it's what you know that ain't so."

It was Febuary 27^th, 2009- I didn’t sleep the night before and I met my partner John at 4:00 a.m. and the weather was turning sour. All of the warm rain over the past week had raised the water temperature and John was excited because that would turn the fish on. We stopped at Waffle House which is sort of a ritual to a lot of tournament fisherman. I knew John was going to be fun when he told the waitress the I would buy her a new set of teeth if she married me.

At the lake most boat had launched when the bottom fell out. I have never seen it rain so hard and they pushed back the tournament two hours. We launched right below the Dam and water was moving like the Colorado River. The water was up about 3 feet, it had been raining all week as well. Water was in peoples yards, all over the ramp parking lot, everywhere. So we get to our first spot and John starts wacking’em right away. He was throwing what looked like a Muskie Spinnerbait. It had a giant #7 Colorado blade, big chartreuse skirt and a trailer that was a chartreuse twin tail grub. It was so foreign to me. I was throwing a swim bait with a big paddle tail that dipped in Chartruese dye.

Looking back, I had no idea what to do in fast muddy water and John was spot on. Not sure why I loved swimbaits so much, I think it was because I threw them growing up and I could catch Bass, Redfish, Specks and everything else that swims with those suckers. John made fun of me a lot and even called me “swimbait” for a while. In fast muddy water you have to throw something that has a big bright thumping profile so the fish can find it. John was throwing a tank and those mean Coosa River Spots were choking it. He had 5 fish by 8:30 a.m., he helped me put together a spinnerbait like he was throwing and I threw that for a while but didn’t have any success.

I was asking questions non stop and John was focused in like a laser beam. “What should I be throwing John?”, “Not that Swimbait?”. He would say”Your going to have trouble with that line.” Apparently 12lb test monofilament was no match for these Spotted Bass, on his rods was 50 lb braid. Leaves and sticks were stacked up everywhere like mats of weeds and he kept saying “You can’t just throw it out there randomly,you have to make a good choice on every cast.” He had the fish dialed in and I just wanted one stinkin fish to save face.

The only time John was quiet was when I spilled chartreuse dye on his carpet. A lot of chartreuse dye at that. I also packed 100 pounds of tackle and a bunch of rods, which made moving around the boat difficult. After 15 minutes of silence and feeling like I just dropped a baby. John broke the silence with “Do you have any Grey dye you can spill to cover those stains?”

At the end of the day John had 13 lbs and was the only person to weight in 5 fish, he won. I goose egged, and learned I didn’t know as much as I thought. My job as the non boater was to go get the trailer so we could get the boat out of the water. I hadn’t backed up a trailer in 10 years. That was the most embarrassing part. After just about getting stuck, some local guy told me to get out of the truck and backed the trailer down. There were 100 people out there and none of them knew me but they all knew instantly that I was incompetent at backing up a truck and trailer. My world was turned upside down and I would over compensate the next couple of tournaments which didn’t really work either.

Lessons Learned and to do’s-

1) Don’t go to Waffle House with John.

2) Fast muddy water makes the Spotted Bass get up against the bank and you need something they can find to catch them.

3) I needed to carry a rain suit instead of a 100 pounds of tackle.

4) Light weight rods have limited applications in bass fishing.

5) You don’t need anything under 15lb test line in muddy water.

6) Don’t bring jars of dye in other peoples boats, I now carry markers made by Spike-It and they work just as well.

7) Swimbaits are not the most versatile lure in the world.

8) I needed practice backing up a trailer.

9) I needed way more time on the water and that was the only way I was going to get better. No amount of reading or TV shows were going to help me until I actually put the applications into practice.

10) I was good with a net, just put it in the water and let your partner bring the fish to you. Don't stab at the fish.

11) Try to figure out how the fish are relating to cover so you can make good decisions with every cast.