In each newsletter, we will be featuring a fishing story that has been submitted by a Kistler customer or pro staff member. This month's story was submitted by Robert Nelson of North Salem, New York.
My fishing story happened on June 10, 2007. I was fishing the Connecticut Bass Federation's second tournament of the year on Candlewood Lake. It is a day of fishing that I will never forget!
My sister was just married the night before the tournament, so obviously I had had very little sleep the week before the tournament. I arrived at the tournament extremely early because I was not able to sleep after unloading all of my sister's wedding gifts from my truck when I got home from the wedding. Once at the tournament, I was looking at my rods in my rod locker and I decided to retie my rods. When tying my baits, I decided that since it was a cloudy and misty morning that I would tie on a Zara Spook for some possible topwater action.
Once the tournament started, I was running to the north end of the lake where there were some post-spawn smallmouth that had hit spinnerbaits earlier in the week. I had fished a mid-week tournament and the fish were all over my spinnerbait. I fished until 11:00 without a keeper fish. I was starting to worry a bit, but I still had until 3:30 to be back to the weigh-in.
I decided to go to a spot where, in the past, I had success. While approaching the spot, I saw smallmouth busting on the surface, chasing bait. It looked like bluefish busting bunker in Long Island Sound. Just as I was slowing down to put my trolling motor in the water , two boats went by the spot and I thought that they would stop on the spot before I got to the fish. Lucky for me, they both continued up the lake and I had the spot to myself. I had a Zara Spook tied on my Kistler Helium LTA's 6' 6" medium/heavy rod and a Zoom Super Fluke on my Magnesium TS 6' 9" medium/heavy rod.
I picked up my Magnesium and threw the Super Fluke as far as I could. The second my bait hit the water, the fight was on. I wrestled my biggest fish of the day to the boat on my first cast on that spot. The fish would continue to rise and chase the bait, but they did not want to hit my Super Fluke any longer.
I saw the fish there and I knew that I had to find a way to catch them. I picked up the Zara Spook and the smallmouth hit that bait for the rest of the day. I was able to catch many smallmouth over 3 pounds and they were easily landed with my Kistler Rods. I sat on that spot for four hours, until I had to head back to the weigh-in. I felt good about my catch, but you never know how everyone else did that day. I ended up with 5 smallmouth that weighed 18.49lbs and won the tournament!
I thank Trey Kistler for developing a rod that is so light and sensitive. I know that using Kistler Rods has made me a better angler. Thank you Kistler Rods!
-Robert Nelson, North Salem, NY
If you have a fishing story about using Kistler Rods, please send it to us and maybe your story will be in our next Kistler Newsletter.