BRADY'S BLOG: No-fish day is okay as Day 3 partner wins Idaho state title
POSTED May 13, 2011 / 8:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - Final day. I drew a very nice guy from Idaho named Josh Polfer. He was around the same age as me so I figured we would have a blast. He told me he had some fish that he caught during practice way up the Colorado Arm, which was about 30 miles upriver. He hadn't gone back to that place yet 'cause he wanted to save it for the last day. 

He was in first place for his team and fourth overall and told me that he wanted to make it to Nationals so bad, so I thought to myself "If that was me I would want my non-boater to help me out a little." So I told him "I'm just gonna fish behind you and I'll let you  go wherever you want."  

He got his five fish and was ecstatic! We were giving high fives left and right! I ended up with no fish, but felt good about letting someone else live their dream to be one tournament away from the Bassmaster Classic. He almost got teary eyed! Awesome moment. 

When we came in it turned out he didn't even need to catch a fish and still would have made it. He ended up third overall and I ended up 91st out of 142. I'm happy with how everything went. Such a  great experience for being the first woman from WA state to qualify!  I'll never forget this experience. 

Thank you to all the amazing people at Fishheads Lodge where we stayed, and congrats to Aaron Echternkamp for making the nationals for Washington.
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: Weather puts fish on the move at Navajo Lake on Day 2
POSTED May 12, 2011 / 8:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - Day 2 of the Divisional I drew a guy name Brian Day that was from California. He was a pretty fun guy - the first thing I thought when I saw him was "That's Harry from Dumb and Dumber!" I wanted to ask him if he was pulling his boat with the Shaggin' Wagon! 

The day started out pretty well as I caught two fish right away on a Jackall crawdad-colored crankbait and one on a cinnamon/black-flake spider jig. Only one was 12 inches. The day became very slow after that and I was getting a little frustrated about not getting any bites. 

Around noon I finally caught another keeper. I was feeling a little more confident at this point, but I knew I only had two more hours to catch three more fish.  This lake is so different: The fish have moved up and down so much because of the weather changes we've had. 

I ended up with only two fish for 2.6 pounds, but I'm ok with it 'cause I knew there's always tomorrow.  Everyone is struggling on this lake.
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: Putting it all together as Western Divisionals begin in N.M.
POSTED May 11, 2011 / 8:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - Day 1 of the Western Divisionals. It was pouring rain when I woke up, and I was not looking forward to fishing in the rain at all. I was thinking, "Man it would be nice if they cancelled the tourney today..."

When we got down to the launch, though, it stopped raining - YAY! It was still only about 37 degrees, so I was in layers and layers of clothes. My boater, Tory from Wyoming showed up with a fish-and-ski Triton, which was the best day to be in that kind of boat because it has a full windshield. Yay for that on a windy, rainy day.

We started up the Francis Arm on Navajo, and thought for sure tons of boats would beat us. We were boat 38, so we were evpecting not to get first water, but when we went in there, there was noone in there! What?!? We had that whole slough to ourselves for two hours.

We worked a bank with sand and large boulders at first, and Tory caught a 3 1/2-poundlargie on a beaver jig. Shortly after, I caught a big smallie on a hula grub in green pumpkin which weighed 3.5 to 4 pounds ... woop woop! I was happy to have that fish and said to myself "I'm happy with one fish and will be ok if i dont get a limit," even though I wanted a limit.

I kept throwing my hula grub all day to get three more small fish, but I was happy with that because i knew it was better than alot of other people.

This lake is tough and with our cold front last night, the fish definately moved.

At the end of the day, I weighed 6.6 pounds to put me in 5th for Washington and 39th out of 116 anglers. We're in third place in the team standings after Day 1. Yay!
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: Prefishing comes to a close @ Navajo: "This lake is tough ..."
POSTED May 10, 2011 / 9:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - I woke up sick with a sore throat yesterday. I think it was just allergies, but I couldn't swallow, so I thought it would be better for me to stay in one day and not wear myself out.  

Today was the last day of prefishing and I ended up going out with Tony Lind again (who i absolutely love to fish with). We knew we only had bout 6 hours to fish because we had to be in town for our meeting and briefing to see who we are paired up with.

Tony and i fished until about 1 p.m. - I caught 2 fish on a crawdad Jackall crankbait right away and then switched to a hula grub in green pumpkin for the rest of the day. Using the hula grub, Tony and I decided we wouldnt sore lip the fish so if we got a bite, we werent going to set the hook. We wanted to be able to go back and catch those fish again. We both had several bites, which I hear is good for Navajo Lake.

This lake is tough!

We went to the briefing and my parents met me there. They came all the way down from WA to support me! LOVE THEM! It was so nice to see them, because I'm starting to miss home for sure!

They had our team leader introduce all of our members and it was so nice. Tony was the speaker for our team, and when it came to my name he said some very nice things, and that he got the pleasure to fish with me. He told all the guys to watch out because i was a good stick. :)

I got paired up with a boater from Wyoming, Tory Thomas, who was a really nice guy. We discussed what we wanted to fish and where, and it seemed to me he was fishing the same stuff that I've been fishing. Sounded good to me. Ready to go!
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: Jerkbait pays off on Day 3 of prefishing for Fed Nation
POSTED May 8, 2011 / 9:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - Today we switched partners for prefish. I fished with Ron Mace, who placed third in the FLW Western Division tournament on the Columbia in 2009.  

At the end of every night we all have a little team meeting and talk about how we all caught our fish. We So decided to go with the majority and fish some shallower slopes with boulders.  This lake is very very deep - up to 260 feet deep - and it's actually down 30 feet from high depth. Ron and I started out on a flat with large boulders on it, and i decided to throw a Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 112 jerkbait instead of the Rat-L-Trap that I've been throwing previously. I was told by several people that they were biting on jerkbaits, so i felt confident.  

About 30 mins into fishing  i caught my first smallie, a keeper. I ended up catching three before Ron got one, and as I sat down to eat lunch I joked with him that he'd better catch one while I was sitting out. He he!  Right then he had a good bite ... but it was another dang pike. He did pull in a smallie shortly after that, and we ended up with six smallies and two pike.

Not the best of days, but judging by how it's fishing for guys from the other states, I'll take whatever I can get. I guarantee there will be a lot of people with no limits.   

We decided to call it a day around 4 p.m. today: Enough of the wind and not catching fish.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 40-mph winds, so we're talking about staying in for the day. We'll see what happens. :)
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: Lake Navajo getting even tougher as wind starts to blow
POSTED May 7, 2011 / 9:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - Fishing was really really tough today. It got windy, and there is nothing worse than fishing in the wind.

Tony and I started on some new water and decided we were going to fish something different than we did yesterday, just to see if we could pattern something out. Right away I got a nice bite on a Rat-L-Trap, but it turned out to be another pike ... darn things. Those things are fiesty. They twist and roll  and sometimes slice your bait off, and then you're screwed.

I decided to change to a drop shot with a brown Sniper Snub and caught a smallie about 1.5 pounds.  Small but still a keeper - I will take it for sure! Tony and I found a nice flat that we saw three smallies on.  Two of them looked like they were trying to bed, but would not eat anything we threw at them. We threw a drop-shot, tube, llizard, spider jig, everything, and they had no interest in what we were throwing at them.  We also saw a 5-plus-pound smallie cruising around in the same area: I would LOVE to catch that fish at the tournament.

We ended up structure scanning a bunch of areas to find similiar stuff and still nothing.  I can't quite figure out these fish .We ended up calling it a day around 3 because the wind sucked so bad.
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: First day of pre-fishing for BASS Federation on Navajo Lake
POSTED May 6, 2011 / 9:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - Today was our first day pre-fishing Lake Navajo.  As we were driving to the lake, I was feeling a little anxious (but yet excited) to fish a new body of water.  It was gonna be 10- to 20-mph winds, and I hate fishing in the wind. This lake has lots of little canyon sloughs off each side of it, though, so we were able to get in those out of the wind.

Tony caught 3 smallies right away and I was feeling overwhelmed, then suddenly a big bite! Woop woop! Caught a 2.5-pound smallie on a sexy-shad Rat-L-Trap, and from what I hear it's good size for this lake.  I was pumped! 

I fished with it a little longer then decided to switch to a drop shot. That's when I caught a pike. A freaking pike!  Dumb fish likes a drop shot. I then put on a pink Sniper Snub and bam! Another smallie!  Yes!!!  

The day then got a little slow. This lake has lots of boulders and trees, so lots of structure. The hard part is that it all looks the same.

At the end of fishing I caught four smallies, biggest around 3 pounds and Tony ended up with six.  Crappy day, but good from what everyone else was telling us. We will see how the next four days go.
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: Day 2: Stretching out the final 10 hours to Navajo Lake, N.M.
POSTED May 5, 2011 / 9:30 p.m.

NAVAJO DAM, N.M. - I actually felt pretty good today waking up in Twin Falls on 4.5 hours of sleep as we headed out to fill our bellies with some grub before our 10 hour drive ahead of us. 

This part of the drive was beautiful: Lots of gorgeous rocks and mountains ... I can't even describe it. My favorite little town was Moab, Utah: Neat, neat town with lots of cool little shops and activities. I really want to stop there on my way home. 

I was a little sleepy about 5 hours in so I decided to take a little nap, but woke up to Tony telling me "You're missing all the beautiful sights." I got up and started taking some pictures and just letting it all soak in. I was amazed we didn't see any deer or anything on this part of the trip.

Final destination: So after about 10 hours on the road, we finally arrive to our destination. "Yaaay!" is all I can say. The little cabins we're staying in are awesome, and I cannot say enough great things about how nice the people are here at Fishhead's San Juan River "odging.  There are 8 rooms - two buildings with four rooms in each - and the way it's set up is so neat! The place has clear lights strung up on everything to give it a summer feel. 

After we all got settled we went over to the restaurant attached to the lodge and I cannot explain how excellent this food was. I had a steak tenderloin wrapped in bacon ... Bomb!  All the guys had ribeye and all said it was amazing.

Everybody was beat after dinner so we all crashed for the night.

First day of pre-fish tomorow!
-N.B.

BRADY'S BLOG: "This opportunity that I have ... is so surreal to me."
POSTED May 5, 2011 / 12:30 a.m.

TWIN FALLS, Idaho -Today I started my journey to New Mexico with 11 other great anglers from Washington. Destination: Navajo Lake and the Federation Nation Western Divisionals.

This opportunity that I have to go down and fish representing the first woman to make the Washington State team competing in the divisionals is so surreal to me. Words cannot even express how I am feeling.

The first step: We got on the road from Tri-Cities around 5 p.m with plans of staying in Twin Falls Idaho. I jumped in the truck with Tony Lind, who is one of the nicest guys, and followed Gene Batey, Mitch Ratchford and Chase Ratchford.

This part of the drive was probably the most boring because its all familiar land. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the next part of the drive where I haven't been.

Today we did see lots of wildlife including antelope, elk and deer. So cool...I could just sit and watch the animals all day. I was surprised at how much snow there still was, especially in the mountains...incredible for May!

Day 1 ends: We finally arrived in Twin Falls around 11:30 pm. I was exhausted and so ready to sleep. We didn't want to spend alot of money for a few hours of sleep, so we stayed at a "roach" hotel. I was laying there thinking "I'm sure glad I brought my own pillow. I don't think this room has ever seen cleaning supplies or a vacuum.

One thing that made me laugh was there were three beds in my room ... what? Just something I've never seen.

I'll be asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. Goodnight.

P.S., What about Bob?: One of the funniest moments was when we saw a sign that says "Beautiful Lake Bob". This "lake" was so tiny, you could anchor your boat in the middle and cast all around you and hit the shore. This thing looked like an irrigation pond. What are these people thinking naming it "Beautiful Lake Bob"? I mean, Lake Bob would be just fine ... anyway, great moment.
-N.B.

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