Mike Cusano and I fished the Cashion Rods Bracket Tournament (team event) and had great day with crankbaits. Before I get into how we caught our fish let me first describe the bracket tournament format.

This event is limited to 40 boats (two-man teams) that are broken down into 10 brackets of four boats per bracket. The event is run in two rounds; round 1 the morning session 6 AM – 12 noon and round 2 the afternoon session runs 1 – 4 PM. Teams have to win their morning bracket to advance to fish round 2. Each two-man team is fishing for their best five fish limit in order to reach the afternoon session. For the afternoon session all weights are zeroed and the teams return to the lake for a three hour fish off (seeking another five fish limit) to determine the final standings.

We had a combined three and half days of practice before the event. My Nitro bass boat has been out of commission for trailer repairs and Mike was going on vacation until the day prior to the event so he let me run his ZX250 Skeeter for the practice period while he was out of town. Our plan was I’d look around from Tuesday – Thursday and Mike would link up with me on Friday morning for the final day of practice.

I can easily say this was by far one of the weirdest practice period I’ve ever had. I started fishing shallow and worked my way out to 21 ft. and I never could find the bass. I knew Mike had some stuff on the North end of the Lake and I’m pretty familiar with the mid-lake area so that’s where I focused my efforts to no avail.

I fished top waters, swimjigs, chatter baits, jerk baits, rattle baits, jigs, t-rigged chigger craws, tubes, Senkos, the Drop Shot and deep crankbaits. Try as I might I just couldn’t locate anything that sparked my interest. I caught one 10” rat on a Senko and another on the drop shot, then I caught two nice fish in the afternoon by pitching a t-rigged chigger craw under boat docks. Nice fish for sure… but the problem is I needed good fish in the morning before that afternoon boat dock pattern was even an option. Using the drop shot I caught plenty of pickerel, perch, rock bass and even a few pumpkinseed, but try as I might I couldn’t find the bass or generate any bass strikes using horizontal presentations.

All three days of my practice period I fished with bright hot sunny skies, temps in the eighties and little to no wind. When I linked up with Mike on Friday for our final day of practice I described my practice period as this giant old guy just leaning hard on my shoulders all day long, pressing down on me, no relief in sight, and no bass bites to speak of. In short I had a horrible practice period and we had just this final day to find something for the tournament.

Mike asked if I fished any of his waypoints on the north end of the lake, which I hadn’t so that’s where we focused our efforts. We also discussed the weather forecast of strong S/SW winds for tournament day and decided we wouldn’t be fishing anything to the south.

August 5, 2017 Fishing ReportCashion Rod Bracket Tournament, Cayuga Lake

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Mike had some areas that were shallow and a few more in the 9-21 ft. zone he wanted to check and with wind forecast for our final day of practice I was hopeful we’d get a few bass bites to help steer us in the right direction.

We caught fish on the ½ oz. Keitech Model II Casting jigs, dressed with Chigger Craws or a Rage Tail Menace (grn pmp) and a T-rigged Senko and a few more on crankbaits. Mike fished a Normans Little N or a Fat Free Shad and I fished the Lucky Craft 2.5XD or the 3.5 X-18 bothlures in MS American Shad or Citrus Shad. The majority of my fish came on the MS American Shad.

Round 1: Mike started us of off with two quick fish on the Jig and the Senko and I added a keeper I caught on Lucky Craft 2.5 Squarebill. We were fishing in approximately 7-11 ft. and then Mike added another fish and I added one more which gave us a small 9 lb. limit for the first 40 minutes of the round.

We moved to stop #2 which put us in the 12 – 19 ft. zone and went to work with the deepcrankbaits to cull six times to reach our 12.67 lbs. that we’d ultimately weigh-in. When we weighed in we had no idea which teams were in our bracket, but we felt pretty sure our 12.67 lbs. wasn’t going to be enough to make the cut for round 2, so we tossed the boat on the trailer and walked over to watch the rest of the weigh-in. As we reach the trailer area the Tournament Director, JJ Elmer, tells mike get your boat back in the water because you’re fishing round 2 .

We were supposed to fish round 2 from 2- 5 PM, but the afternoon forecast was for 20 mph winds with a thunderstorm so instead they sent us out to fish from 1-4 PM . We had just enough time to put on our rain gear as the lake offered up driving rain with 2-3 ft. whitecaps.

As we arrived to our best spot of the day we committed to the crankbait bite and again within 35 minutes we had our limit and we started culling. I fished my 2.5 XD on the TFO GTS 794-1 on Ardent 6.4:1 Apex reel loaded with 10 lb. mono and I fished the 3.5X-18 on the TFO Pacemaker 7’10” Med Hvy on Lews reel 5.4:1 spooled with 10 lb. mono.

We caught LMB, perch and pickerel on the crankbaits and when that bite finally tapered off Mike cast out an umbrella rig loaded with Keitech swimbaits to see if any bass wanted that. Within about five or six casts he’s hooked up but it turned out to be a chunking hard pulling crappie. We fished one final area that produced only small bass or pickerel and it was time to head to the weigh in. We were the first team to weigh-in and we had 15.55 lbs. that ultimately put us in second place losing out to a nice 17.70 lb. limit. We took home $1,000 for our 2 place finish.

Here are a few photos of the trip.

August 5, 2017 Fishing ReportCashion Rod Bracket Tournament, Cayuga Lake

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August 5, 2017 Fishing ReportCashion Rod Bracket Tournament, Cayuga Lake

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Nice LMB caught under a dock on a Chigger Craw

August 5, 2017 Fishing ReportCashion Rod Bracket Tournament, Cayuga Lake

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Stout Crappie on the Umbrella Rig w/ Keitech baits

August 5, 2017 Fishing ReportCashion Rod Bracket Tournament, Cayuga Lake

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Our big fish for round 2 caught on the Lucky Craft 2.5XD

August 5, 2017 Fishing ReportCashion Rod Bracket Tournament, Cayuga Lake

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If you’re interested in reliable quality gear for your next fishing adventure please give these company’s a look

www.luckycraft.com www.therodglove.com www.tforods.com

www.keitechusa.com www.basspro.com www.ardentoutdoors.com

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TFO GTS 794-1, Ardent Apex Reel & Lucky Craft 2.5XD

TFO Pacemaker 7’10” Med Hvy, Lews Reel & 3.5 X-18