NSW Bassing with Ryan and Jack Jones – Berkley Junior Pro Team

On Friday the 9th of April, 56 teams headed to Lake St Clair for round 3 of the Bassin NSW  Tournaments. On Friday (pre-fish day) I fished with my new team mate Dave Williamson with little result as only a few fish were caught.

Session 1 started before day-light on a very calm Saturday morning and we headed to a steep bank near the No Boat Zone. We started by throwing surface to the edge, on 2nd cast I got 2 boils behind my surface lure but didn’t hook up. We fished surface until the sun was too high, so we moved and decided to start fishing schools of fish in deep water. I started by using my Berkley Dropshot rod with 6lb Spider wire and 2lb Vanish leader. I was using a 1/8 Nitro jighead and my plastic of choice was a 3″ Berkley Camo Minnow Grub. Our spot we thought we could catch a couple of early fish didn’t produce so we moved to a rocky point across the other side. We sounded around in 50 foot of water and found a couple of fish. We pulled up and started fishing with only a few fish on the sounder, as we started to target them more and more fish were appearing on the sounder. It didn’t take long before I hooked up to a 34cm bass that I hooked in midwater. The school became active and we landed 3 more in no time including a nice 40cm bass. We then decided to move up in the right arm in the trees to try and get an upgrade. That plan was not successful as we only caught 1 yellowbelly which didn’t help in a bass comp. We then went into the weigh master and weighed our bag of 4 fish went 2.880kg and I got to weigh my biggest fish for the junior category which is my biggest fish each session. My 40cm bass weighed only 890gms which wasn’t very heavy for its length.

Session 2 began after lunch and we started in 3rd place with a handy lead. Dave decided to go back to the rocky point where we went back to the same school of fish that we landed our 4 from in the morning. Dave stuck to camo and I changed to jiggin grub in Watermelon with the same technique. I couldn’t get a bite until I applied some of my Berkley Gulp Alive garlic spray onto my plastic giving it more scent. The scent worked as I immediately got a bite and landed a fish. The bite in the afternoon was a lot slower than the morning session only getting a fish approximately every hour and Dave and I landing 2 each. We then went in and weighed our bag of 4 bass for 2.660kg. My fish for the junior was a 720gm bass which was great with such a tough day for some.

Session 3 started at the same time as session 1 and we headed back to the same rocky point as in the other sessions and started fishing surface. Dave and I fished surface around a little bay for only 1 boil on surface but no hook-up. We drove back to the point and started doing the same thing as we were doing the whole comp. The fish were more shutdown and Dave landing 2 and I only got 1 fish. It was a 39cm bass again on a Berkley Gulp. We then weighed in our fish, 3 fish for 1.840kg and my fish weighed 860gms for the juniors. Dave and I knew we had done enough to take it out. At the presentation my Dad and brother Jack took out 8th place with Dave and myself taking the win. I also took out the junior category with my 3 fish for 2.470kg.

What a great weekend!!!!!

Ryan Jones