It was April 14th, 2018. My grandpa and I were getting ready to fish our fish club level bass tournament together. The derby was held on Lake Arbuckle. The lake is made up of 3,828 acres and is located in Frostproof, Florida.
My grandpa and I had prefished the lake the day prior to the tournament. It was our first time ever fishing Lake Arbuckle. We caught a several bass, including one close to five pounds, giving us confidence going into the next day’s competition.
On the morning of the tournament, my grandpa and I began fishing around some flowing water at the mouth of a creek on the west side of the lake. We caught two small keeper fish on topwater baits before relocating to a grass line on the opposite side of the lake. There, we caught a couple more small bass flipping creature baits. However, we were struggling to get a hold of a big fish.
With just a couple hours left in the tournament day, the two of us headed to a field of lily pads near the boat ramp. My grandpa quickly caught a four and a half pounder to fill out our five fish limit. We caught just one more small bass after that before we had to call it a day at 3pm and weigh in our catch.
My grandpa and I didn’t do as well as we’d hoped in our first bass tournament and weighed in only 9.65 pounds. However, it’s the first of many tournaments we’ll fish together in the coming years.
