Hello everyone, and welcome back to another STO blog on this wonderful Sunday! This one is written by Small Town Outdoors own, Tate Schwab, and he tells the story of when he fished New York for the first time last year in a KBF event. Enjoy the blog, and remember to SUBSCRIBE, SHARE, and FOLLOW along with our blog and social media’s!
My first time ever fishing in New York was during a NYKBF event that they were hosting on Conesus Lake in 2018. I had never been to this lake before this tournament, and never got to pre-fish it. I went into this tournament not knowing what to expect. I just knew I wanted some more experience fishing in tournaments.
Lines were in at 6:30 a.m and I was feeling good about where I launched, which was down on the south end of the lake. There were only a few people that launched down on the south end. I always try to go to a place where there isn’t many people launching from because it’s either going to be a blessing or a very long paddle. This day it turned into a very long paddle.
It was mid-summer and there was a lot of vegetation and cover down on the south end of the lake, so this led me to think that it was going to be a successful part of the lake.
I tried and tried the cover, and the docks, and they just weren’t working for me. I ended up paddling the whole way up to the middle of the lake to try different techniques and hope I could find a pattern of some sort. Needless to say I didn’t find a pattern.
At this point I was very upset with how things were going. So I paddled out to the middle of the lake to just relax and take in everything that was around me. Once I got calmed down a little, I started looking around to see what really caught my eye. I found a row of docks, so I paddled up to them. On my way to the docks I was thinking “okay what am I going to toss this time? You know what, I am just going to go with what I know and nothing fancy”.
As soon as I made this decision I started finding some small mouth bass tucked up under some docks. This was way later in the afternoon and quite a few people had their limit. Luckily I came in with a late limit, but a decent one at that, and ended up in 8th place.
I was very pleased with the 8th place finish. Especially since my day started out the way it did.
This tournament taught me how to mentally fish, to never give up, and just keep on casting and trying everything you got!
From us here at Small Town Outdoors, remember to find the outdoors within.
