Kurt's Tourney Blog
Archive After being on the road for a few weeks during the first stretch of the 2013 Bassmaster Elite Series… I am Wwwaaayyy Excited to be BACK! This is a breakdown of how my first event went on the Sabine River in Orange, TX. Mar. 14 – Mar. 17 Sabine River – B.A.S.S. Elite Series #1 Orange Texas is a pretty cool place… Although it is small it has lots of flavor! I really liked the Cajun Cuisine and there is a lot of history in that town. I hope that someday I get back to fish the Sabine on the Elites Series. The crowds for the event were amazing! As far as the fishing, everyone knew coming in that the bite would be tough, but I like those events. I was stoked! Practice: Before I arrived in town I knew that I wanted to stay close to the launch area and fish the rivers and creeks within a short boat drive of the tournament launch site. Many anglers were looking at boat runs almost 1 hour everyday in the tournament. Day 1 of Practice I fished the up the Sabine and focused on the small ditches and canals off the main river that I thought the fish would be spawning in. That day I had about 3 keeper bites and I was pretty excited… I caught several non-keepers on an Ima Lures Shaker crankbait but a plastic worm and creature bait were producing good results as well. Practice day 2 I went to the lower end of the Sabine and I caught Redfish almost all day! LOL! They were fun but I just couldn’t find the largemouth in those lower creeks. Practice day 3 I worked the areas around the ramp and caught a few non-keepers and one nice 3lb largemouth. That would be biggest fish I would catch while in Orange. I continued to feel my best chances to do well in the tournament were going to be running up the river and get in a good long day of fishing instead of running far away to other rivers along the intercoastal waterway as some of my other competitors would. Event Day 1: 4 Bass / 7lbs 1oz –27th place of 100 Diving my Skeeter/Yamaha rig up to my first area, a little canal just off a major oxbow I was thrilled to see a lack of my competition. Many anglers decided to fish elsewhere. This would leave my areas with much less pressure and with the low number of bites available on the Sabine that was really important to me. I caught a few non-keepers at my first stop and then decided to run up to another little oxbow well up the river. As soon as I arrived I caught my first keeper. Confidence began to creep into my veins… I knew this was the place to spend the rest of my event. I would land about 10 more fish that day in that area and have 4 keeper fish to take to the scales. Off to a decent start! Event Day 2: 2 Bass / 3lbs 14oz - 39th place of 100 I went right back to the oxbow that provided my keepers on day 1 and within the first 20 minutes I Ianded my first keeper of Day 2. I figured if I could just catch 3 or 4 keepers again and get a good 3lber or so I would creep into the top 20. I was grinding and finally another hour or so passed as well as several non-keepers and I reeled in keeper number 2! On my way! I fished there for another 4 hours with no keeper bites… but then I decided to spend an hour or so where I caught that 3lber in practice near the boat ramp… so off I went. I never got another | 
