Summary: 1st tournament of the year and a large showing for 1st Solobass event ever. I believe there were over 90 entries fishing with the event due to lots of pre-tournament publicity. Weather called for 25 MPH winds, with light rain during the AM and water temps in the mid 50's. Fished two areas very slow, and realized I would probably not get a bite till sun came out and water warmed up. Approximatley 11AM I got the bite I was looking for and landed my 1st fish flipping some brush in 6ft of water. Kept trying to 2nd fish and got another bite right before weigh-in but lost it at the boat.
Date: 3/13/05 Event: Solobass Lake: Ray Hubbard Place: 53rd Weight: 0 fish
Summary: This was my home lake and I had prefished it heavily prior to the event. In prefishing I had located one small area that held some fish, and also realized several others had as well. Weather called again for 25 MPH winds out of the North as a huge cold front was expected to arrive around the time the event started. Due to conditions I basically fished one area over and over and over, with dismal results. I had several small reaction bites on cranks, but the fish never materialized for a hook up.
Date: 4/10/05 Event: Solobass Lake: Cedar Creek Place: 39th Weight: 4 fish, 6.32 lbs
Summary: Was really looking foreward to fishing Cedar Creek as lake was large enough to handle a large field of boats with many areas/patterns available for fishing. Spring in Texas....... moring of event brought 20 - 25 MPH winds that made launching difficult, so Director allow trailering. I felt this would give me a good shot at an area I wanted to fish as it was on the North end of the lake, and nobody would probably trailer that far north. The fish I had found in practice were still there, with the exception that the females had completed spawing and moved out of the area. Luckily I found some males guarding beds that were catchable and allowed me to bring in some fish.
Date: 5/15/05 Event: Solobass Lake: Tawakoni Place: 40th Weight: 1 fish, 2.37 lbs
Summary: This is the 2nd event on this lake for Solobass. I put in 2 days of prefishing and had located some fish in a couple of areas that I thought might produce a couple of keepers. Media tournament the day before Solobass took 23 lbs to win, so we figured most of the bedding fish had been picked off early. Cool front had come in night before and looked like it was going to be a tuff day. I went to my first spot and found active fish feeding in pads, but could not make them bite. Finally got one to bite and could see several others that were shallow in reeds but they were too spooky. Later on got a couple of short strikes but no hookups.
Date: 6/18/05 Event: Solobass Lake: Ray Hubbard Place: 20th Weight: 3 fish, 8.27 lbs
Summary: I wa really on a good pattern during prefishing and catching allot of good quality fish. Started off cranking some RipRap in one of my favorite areas and connected with two keepers right away that came unbuttoned. I may have been horsing them too much, but I settled down right after that and put 3 fish in the boat over the course of the next hour. Those fish really would have helped, as the rest of the tournament field was stuggling and probably could had received a check.
Date: 7/17/05 Event: Solobass Lake: Cedar Creek Place: xxth Weight: 0 fish, 0 lbs
Summary: Don't really know how I finished in this event as I had a horrible cold and had not had any sleep. I fished the first couple of hours and then called it a day.
Date: 10/22/05 Event: Solobass Lake: Bob Sandlin Place: 40th Weight: 3 fish, 5.2 lbs
Summary: 2 Day Solobass Championship. I spent a week prefishing for this event and really was putting the fish in the boat on a Trap/Jerkbait bite. 1st morning started out real slow, but then bite started to turn on. Fish were very sluggish and were not very aggressive. I lost enough fish over the course of 2 days to win the event. Lesson learned.... a subtle change in Trap color would have been all that was needed to convert lost fish to the livewell. 2nd Day front blew in and made for unsafe conditions, so I left event early and came home. At check in I learned that over 1/2 the field had already left due to wind/waves.