James Niggemeyer – A Busy Three Weeks

I have been on the road for just a day over three weeks. I’m a little bit tired, it’s good to be home, but It has been a really good three weeks.

Last time I talked to you guys I went to Bass Cat to pick up my brand new Bass Cat Cougar FTD powered by a Yamaha SHO 250 horse power. It’s got dual Power Poles on there; Humminbird electronics; fully outfitted – that’s the Tour Boat for 2012. So, I am really excited about my new boat.

I met with the folks from Strike King and Ardent at the Kentucky Lake Strike King Writer’s Conference and had a good time meeting with those folks.

From there, I went back to Bass Cat and had my Power Poles mounted up and from there I moved on to the Table Rock Central Open; the final tournament of 2011 for the Central Open BASS Division there and had a really good tournament. I really felt like I was on the kind of fish to win and unfortunately, it just got tougher and tougher for me. I was in second place after the first day and

I was behind a local guy who had won an EverStart Tournament two weeks prior, but I had a big bass; a 5-12 that really anchored my weight that first day. The second day the bite really fell off; I ended up with three keeper fish until the third and final day the fishing was super tough – I only had one keeper bite. I was able to boat that fish and I fell to fourth.

I caught most of my fish shallow, the way I like to catch them; and on a jig. I scaled down; I was throwing lighter line. I was throwing 12-pound-test Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon on a seven foot Legend Extreme St. Croix rod medium heavy and I coupled that with an Ardent XS 1000 casting reel and was able to fish a lot of shallow cover as well as some boat docks, and it ended up being a good event.

Overall, it was a really good tournament; especially for my first time fishing an event at Table Rock. I felt like I fished really well; I feel like the fish I found were really the right kind of fish.

Kevin Short really blew the whole tournament out! I just want to congratulate him; he’s a good friend and a strong competitor on both the Elite Series and the Opens.

You know, that event, finishing fourth there put me in second place for the points division in the Central Open overall. So, it turned out to be a really good year for the Central Open; normally, that would have qualified me for the Bassmaster Classic, but the recent change on the Classic qualifiers only goes to the anglers that win individual events. Mark Tucker was only guy to win a Central Division Open and go to the Classic.

Yeah, just the same, it was a really good year in the opens for me; finishing second in the points overall.

Hats off to Chris Zaldain from California; a strong competitor from there this year and looking forward to seeing him out there on the Elite Series next year as he has made his intent to fish the Elite Series well known.

As you know, that was a really tough event and nobody caught a limit every day and not a single person got a limit every day. The only person that caught two limits was Tommy Martin and he finished, I believe, second in the event.

I was able to stop in Kansas City on the way home and visit a place called The International House of Prayer, It is a really incredible place where they have 24-7 prayer and worship. It was a place that I have been hearing about, and have really wanted to go and worship there. I was able to do that. It is a missions organization as well, that is really doing great things for the Lord.
I didn’t get to spend that much time there, but I had a really good time; I felt like I was ministered to in a really great way.

Because I’m on the road so much, I don’t get to go to church as much as I’d like. Being able to go to IHOP was really refreshing and I’m glad I got to do that.

I went to the Texas Bass Cat Owners Tournament here on Lake Fork. I won’t be fishing it this year, but I plan to attend it and at least I will be there for final day weigh in.

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