Elite Series in my backyard

[hullbilly]

It's been crazy watching the elite series guys prepare for the 1st elite tournament of the year in Orange, TX. There are no boundaries for the tournament, so the bayou that I live on is in play and there's been a significant amount of the guys coming through. Have been able to snap several pics from the back porch.

I grew up fishing on this bayou and I stay on fish most of the year usually, so it's been interesting talking to a few of these guys. It's amazing how much local knowledge they rely on and seek out. I don't know how a few of them got my contact info.

This morning a few of the guys got lost and ended up on our road while my wife was driving out. She stopped and asked them if they wanted to follow her to the boat ramp! LOL

Anyway,,,,if you can plan to,,,,definitely want to watch this one of television or follow how it turns out. This area is largely a coastal marsh system area where you can find large numbers of bass, but it's very tough to catch any size. You will see guys making very short runs,,,,and you'll see guys making insane runs to seriously remote area. Should be great for TV. Plus, you're going to see a lot of these guys take a serious butt whoopin. The fishing will be heavily dependent on weather conditions, as rain just tears up most all the bayous and rivers.

I can tell you that I've been on spawning fish for 3 weeks now, so the spawn will be over by the time Mid March rolls around,,,,,,at least on my bayou.

Here's a few pics

 

[Allyfishing]

Hullbilly, are they prefishing for this tourny in March? the classic is next weekend and I didn't think they had any tourny's till after the classic?

that's pretty cool that you got to meet a few of the pro's.

 

[hullbilly]

Hullbilly, are they prefishing for this tourny in March? the classic is next weekend and I didn't think they had any tourny's till after the classic?

that's pretty cool that you got to meet a few of the pro's.

The classic is the fist BASS tournament, but it's only for those qualified for the classic based on 2012 standings. The Sabine River Challenge is the first regular elite series tournament of 2013 open to everyone qualified for the elite series.

There's a "black out" period for each of the tournaments about a month before. For the Sabine River Challenge, that period began on Feb. 11th. There were elite series pros scouting my bayou as early as Nov. 2012. I'd guess most of them were guys not qualified for the classic, however, I've seen many that will be in the classic.....even fished with a couple!

Dean Rojas was here about a week ago. Mike Mclealand......Randy Howell.....Yusuke Miyazake.....are just a few right off the top of my head.

My overall impression is that when those guys hit the road, they are either scouting for an upcoming tournament or fishing a tournament.

Kieth Poche was in my hottest spawning area a couple days before the black out and he said he had smoked them. I expect he'll be back there during the tournament. My bayou doesn't get a lot of attention and the only thing that's gonna suck...is every DB with a bassboat will be on it if somebody has some major TV time while fishing here.

It's gonna be a very interesting tournament.