MFC Tournament, Wilson Lake@Night, August 12th 2011

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Another night tournament on another lake I had never fished. I was excited, and nothing is worse than being at work on a Friday and WAITING for 4pm. The hours seemed to drag and drag. I would check my stuff, recheck, retie, rethink. But the hour finally came and I headed to Josh's house to pick he and the Bullet up. I gotta say, nothing is as sexy as a freshly washed Yukon Denali and a freshly washed Bullet behind it.

We didn't have much of a game plan. TVA wasn't going to be pulling current, the water was fairly stable despite all of the rain earlier in the week. I believe they were pulling between 16-20,000 cubic feet a second. Pretty low amount.  The only thing that really stuck out to us was Shoals Creek. So, we had planned on hitting that first. As we pulled into the ramp, I started hearing a loud grinding noise from the rear of the Denali. I knew what it was immediately. The brake pad was eating the rotor. Great. We were a long way from home to be worried about that. To sum it up, I ended up having to replace the rotor and pad at 7am the next morning, after getting home at 445am so we could go to Auburn's Fan Day.

So, anyway, we dropped the boat in the water, while noticing that another tournament was fishing up. There were two Bullets in the parking lot, including a purple and white one, which was gorgeous. Sorry for the digression...lol. So, as the MFC boats readied for blastoff, a fellow member who was a few feet away in his boat yelled that Josh and I might want to move, as he was heading downriver and to the right. He didn't want to swamp us or hinder us by crossing in front. I chuckled and said: "That's ok, so are we." There was this hilarious moment of realization when he realized we were going where he was going, and we did the same. The light hearted smiles went away, Life jackets were strapped up, hat bills turned around backwards, and "OS" handles grabbed. (If you have to ask what that means.... well, don't ask).

so, the acting tourney director waved us and we both punched it. Now, Josh's boat is a fast boat. Don't get me wrong, but he has the wrong prop for top speed on it, we were loaded down, and he has his engine detuned to increase it's life. Regardless, it will still do around 80. The other club member was in a Ranger than could do 70s. Just for a second, it looked like it was going to be a race. But Josh trimmed it up and we were gone...though not quite far enough.

But, we were so giddy from actually using the boat as it was intended that we bypassed our first stop! We fished one cove down from Shoals Creek and after 15 minutes, we headed back.

 We bypassed the main creek point, electing to come back later. We crossed under the Florence BLVD bridge, fishing as we went. Nothing yet.
The first place we really did something was right past the bridge at this old boat ramp. The ramp was in complete disrepair. Even though we were 20 yards from the shore, the water was 45 feet deep, but jumped to 18 feet. I was throwing a Strike King 6XD in Tennessee shad. I wanted to throw this as the water was still dingy and I wanted the fish to see it, plus, it still had natural colors.

The problem was, I was hanging up in the shallows. A lot. There were big rocks submerged in 6-12 feet of water. It's just part of the game. The new Lew's Speed Spool 5.4:1 ratio bait caster allowed me to burn it down to depth, then crawl it along those rocks. Sometimes you hit those rocks and glanced off, sometimes you stuck. Usually every other cast. So, Josh had a full time job of trolling me to unstick me. As we pulled up close to the spot, I popped the line and the lure came free. A fish CRUSHED it. BAM! We didn't even have time to get the net. I swung him over and we had a NICE fish!

We fished a few more casts there, then moved down to the next secondary point.

We fished around the upstream section and then down into the slough. Josh had a hit on a shaky head, and broke it off as the fish scrubbed it across a log. The fish jumped two, three, four times trying to throw out the hook. It was so close that I could have caught him in the air. I had a set of weak hits on the Lucky Craft Sammy. we fished the down river section and started out of the pocket. I made a cast across the extended point. Again, 18 feet or so with chunk rocks. This time I was more careful to weave the crank in and out of the rocks. I stuck a rock, let it float up a little bit, and then burned the bait. This is a tactic to mimic a bait fish who discovers a bass lurking behind a rock and speeds away, triggering a reaction. Bam. Smash. The fish was on. Josh netted it, and we had another SOLID 3 pounder.



Oh, and before I go further...houses on Wilson. Wow. Apparently there is money over in Florence!

We fished another couple of casts, and I broke off a 6XD. This was the way of things. I would catch a fish on this pattern of fishing the submerged structure, but I would lose a bait for every fish I caught. As I retied, Josh trolled us to the next secondary point. Same song. Different verse. a 3rd NICE fish caught on a 6XD.

And just like that, we had what we figured was 9 pounds. Then the sun went down. Just like on Pickwick, the little bite we had found disappeared. We swapped tactics a few times. We ran all over the lake. And I mean, dam to dam. Nothing.

By 10pm, I had given up on anything but a black spinnerbait. I tied on a Strike King Midnight Special

To make a long story short, I caught a fish pretty early on the spinner bait, but it was a small mouth, which have a larger limit size at 14 inches. Largemouth are 12 inches, and while it was clearly 13 inches, we had to throw it back. Dang. A few hours later, I bagged another largemouth which did measure. Both of these fish were caught by lifting the spinnerbait, letting it flutter down, and dragging it.

We desperately tried to catch a 5th fish. We knew we would have it sewn up if we could just find a scrapper! To no avail. We motored in.

As we were running in, we noticed just how many pleasure craft were STILL out partying at 2am! We passed one in particular which appeared to be a party barge of girls who were singing K$sha. All you could hear was:
"This place about to bloww oww oww ow ow owwwwww" AHAHA!

As we motored up to the dock, I spotted a dead fish. Then another. Then another. There must have been 2 DOZEN dead fish! Even some NICE ones! Don't get me wrong. I have killed some fish. I killed one that nigh...but I did my best, and it was the only one in the club!

End rant. So, we weighed in. Didn't win, but we took 2nd with 11 pounds even, losing by a few ounces despite only weighing in 4 fish. It was a blast. I really like that lake!

Hanging with Griffin! August 7th, 2011

Wow! It seems like forever since I posted. Looking at the last post, which was the Pickwick tourny, it has been WEEKS. That isn't to say that I haven't been fishing. I have....but I haven't done any good. Well, I have been out once, and struck out. Zip. It has been FOREVER since I was blanked.....anywhere!

That really put a bad taste in my mouth, not just for Guntersville (where I struck out), but for fishing ANYWHERE in this heat. For example, the trip in question, Dad and I went to Guntersville a few Saturdays ago. We fished from 6-8:30. He caught a fish. One. I didn't have a hit. As you can see, we packed it up after 2 hours and came home.

I guess the silver lining in all of that was that we verified that the boat was working. Awfully expensive way to find that out.

With all the things going on right now like softball, kids sports, etc, it has been hard to find the time to fish. I have tried to squeeze it in a few times, without luck. But, this Sunday, things shifted around and we had some time, even though Aubree was out of town with my mom in Macon checking out Indian mounds and waterfalls.

Griffin had been asking to go fishing forever. Every time he saw a boat, or my fishing rods, he would start spouting: "Go fish? Catch fish? Ride boat?"

Now, remember that he is two. Tough to reason with him. He doesn't understand schedules. But, we got a lunch together, hooked up and drove to the Arsenal launch. We put in about 10am, which was a bit late for good fishing, but I didn't really mind. I wasn't there to fish. I was there to spend time with the family. Now, if I got some casts in, all the better.

After a good soaking in the water, I ran us just up river to some rip rap. I had eyed it before and filed it away. It is a great spot to fish on the wildcat tourneys. Not many people run down river, and those that do go to a handful of spots. This is a VERY small spot, but has all the intangibles. It has rip rap banks. I has a little pea gravel flat in the draw of it from being a field drainage. It has lay downs. It drops from 3 feet to 18 feet.

I had decided that I would start practicing using a shaky head, which is a football head weighted hook that you use a variety of plastic baits on...though normally a small worm.

What's the reason, you may ask? Well, I am a power fisherman. I like to cover a lot of ground with crank baits, swimbaits, and top water. The shaky head is a proven method for catching fish when it gets tough...which has been my downfall. At this point, I have been lucky enough to catch GOOD fish when it's tough. But some days, even the big ones don't want a big free meal. These are the days I completely strike out. A shaky head works almost anywhere. You just have to take your time to use it. And, in most cases, wade through the small fish.

On one of my first casts, I threw into a laydown just on the point of the area I was fishing. I was used to the current taking it downriver, but I noticed the line going up river! I snatched it and jerked the fish completely out of the water! HAHA!

So, I quickly obtained the goal. I caught a fish for Griffin.

I won't lie. I fished a little more, all without catching another fish. That was ok. Like I said, I was there to take the family (Minus Aubree) out. We ate lunch in the pavilion in the rec area, and went back out for a few more minutes. Since I knew that I prob wouldn't catch any more fish in this heat, I put the one fish I did catch in the live well. Griffin watched him the entire time! I won't lie, I did the SAME thing when I was younger.

But, the more we ran around, the more obvious it became obvious that Griffin wasn't going to make it much longer, and soon we discovered that he had fallen asleep in Alyse's arms while driving. So, we made him a bed.

As we got ready to pull the boat out, I pulled the fish out of the livewell and held him so Griffin could see him. As usual, he wouldn't hold him. So, I said "Give him a by by kiss!", which Griffin had no problem with. Except that he flopped out of my hand and tail smacked Griffin about 5 times! Whoops!

MFC Tourney #8 Pickwick Lake, July 22, 2011

I don't know if it was epitome of foolishness, or perhaps the height of overconfidence to fish a lake...for the first time....at night....in a tournament. But, I am in the mix (somehow) for angler of the year, so every point counts on the way to getting the big check of $10 dollars (which pays next year's dues!)

First thing I did was look at last year's results. Out of the 8 or so boats, the winner had 14 pounds and there were 3 other sacks over 11.5 pounds! That was impressive, to say the least. The FLW tour was also on Pickwick, ironically out of the same launch, McFarland Park, which is just down river from the Wilson Dam.

With the old Stratos still unproven, I asked Josh if we could take the Bullet. He said that if I would tow it, he would buy the gas for the boat. Not a BAD deal....

And since Aubree loves the Bullet:

The days leading up to the tournament, I tried to find a topo map in local stores. Apparently every FLW tour member, every beat-the-pros, and every other fisherman in the world needed a map, and it took 3 stops to find one. Once I had it in hand, we studied it in depth. We didn't want to run too far, as the tournament was at night, and the lake can be very treacherous. We picked out two areas. First, the area just below Wilson Dam, and the other was the up river point of 7 Mile Island.


I figured this was going to be a Zach Taylor "Crank your way to victory" kind of day, so I bought two new Lew's Speed Spool 5.4:1 reels. You can read about my review here:

http://best5zach.blogspot.com/2011/07/review-for-lews-speed-spool-541-reels.html


We followed the stream of vinyle wrapped boats until we got to the park, unloaded the Bullet and blasted off.


Here is a cool video of us running to the Wilson Dam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4wrErvadKo



So, we ran to the dam and fished here:




There were soo many small mouth! They were practically jumping in the boat...but just not biting our lines! Talk about frustrating! There was just too much REAL bait to eat and we couldn't interest them in it, other than a few short strikes.




So, we ran down to 7 Mile Island.

We had expected it to fish like Hobb's Island on Wheeler, and we were more correct than either of us thought! Although the point didn't produce any fish, we thought about it, and realized that the "smaller" side of the island( smaller distance between the shore and the island) would have more current, and was probable the better choice to fish. We fished the rip rap banks without a hit, but as we passed it, we noticed the depth shoot from 18 feet to 3 feet, even though we were 20 yards off the bank.But I wasn't hitting bottom with a crankbait. Upon observation, we realized that there was an underwater rock ledge that shot from 18 feet to 3 feet. We scooted off of it and back into deeper water, choosing to concentrate on this, rather than the island itself. Almost immediately, it paid dividends. Josh hooked a fish, and while it wasn't small, I didn't bother with the net. It was a good thing, as I had a hit! It jumped, and we had a good one on! I had snagged it on the Strike King 6XD in Powder Blue

It hit as I crawled it through the rocks with my new Lew's Speed Spool.

Every time I brought it through those rocks, I had a hit. The problem was, that was 1 out of every 3 casts, as the massive bill on the 6XD would get hung. I swapped to a Series 3

That made all the difference. From 8pm-9pm we caught fish after fish, both large and small mouth! However, I seemed to be missing the big fish. I was getting hits from them, and they would either jump and throw the hook, or lose it at the boat. It seemed the big fish weren't getting stuck on the tiny hooks on the series 3. And they are small! But every time I threw the 6XD, I got hung, and that was the end of that spot.




We took a break and decided to eat dinner. That turned out to be a mistake, as a boat moved in on top of the spot. That usually isn't a big deal, as most people drift, just like we did. So, we motored upriver, above them. They didn't seem to like that, and they whistled and shined lights at us. It wasn't that we were too close to them as much as they had decided they weren't going to drift. That's their prerogative, of course, and we made the mistake of getting off a spot.

Bad news got worse, as our big fish died on us, not for a lack of trying. We tried a few more places without any luck, other than bad luck, as we lost at least 50 dollars in baits between us. I even went to throwing a shaky head! That's how slow it got!


We went into the ramp early, with a good sack, minus one smaller fish. As luck would have it, I culled it with a good fish which I caught on my swimbaits!

We started the weigh in promptly at 2am. It took 13 to win, and although our 10 wasn't enough, it was enough weight for second. But, because of the dead fish, we had to take 3rd. that sucked, but considering that neither of us had ever been to Pickwick, especially at night, we couldn't complain!

I can't wait to get back to Pickwick and get back on the smallie/largemouth mix!

Review for Lew's Speed Spool 5.4:1 reels

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****Updated 2/13/13****

                                                                   


It's been a year and a half since I bought these two reels. I lost one in the bottom of Wilson Lake, but I am still chunking the other. After a year and a half, not much has changed except the price. Prices on these have gone up by $40 almost everywhere, which puts them right at the dollar figure of the Citica. Now, at the time, Citica didn't offer any other gear ratio other than 6.2:1, which put this reel in it's own class for cranking. That has changed now. While the reel is a great reel, it doesn't cast nearly as far as the Citica, not by a long shot. It's still a very tight reel that I really enjoy. It has definitely held up to miles and miles of cranking. But, considering the new price, you have a tough decision to make on whether you should buy a Citica or a Lew's. It still excels with larger crank baits. In fact, I'd venture to say that it is better for controlling a Stike King 6XD. It struggles with smaller cranks.

ORIGINAL POST

Months ago...February, I believe, Bertus was at Goosepond in Guntersville and saw a new line of reels. Lew's had just come out with a new reel for 2011 and the price was just right for him to buy one and try. At $85 dollars, new, it was $40 dollars cheaper than a Shimano Citica E, which has been my personal favorite.


Here is the Lew's :

Here are the specs:
MODEL BEARINGS GEAR RATIO IPT* LINE CAP.* MAX DRAG WEIGHT
TS1S 9+1 5.4:1 23 120/12 14 lbs. 8.3 oz.

Now, granted, I have all Citica's in the 6.2:1 ratio ,so the specs are not really apples to apples. But, I needed a 5.4:1 for crank baits. Having a slow ratio crankin' reel would allow me to get the bait down to the depth and then crawl it along, easily deflecting it off rocks. The fast ratio reels, in my opinion, are harder to make go slower than to make a lower gear go faster.

Anyway, the opportunity to purchase a few of these reels came up a few days ago. I bought two. Now, I didn't pay full price, but I paid pretty close to it.

So, I fished them for the first time on Pickwick, where I used them almost exclusively. On one, I fished a Strike King Model 3 crank on a 7 foot fiberglass rod. On the other I fished a Strike King 6XD on a 7'11 fiberglass rod.

The first thing I can say is that the texture on them is perfect. It has a rubber type coating which prevents slipping. That's something the Citica's don't have, and I have had problems with in the past.

The size was perfect, and my hands fit perfectly around them.

The cast was OK. Now, I admit that I am VERY conservative on my cast control. I set my reels up so that I can cast with the flick of a wrist instead of hauling on it. So, the range seemed to be limited, but that may have been because I had it set real tight.

The retrieve was very good. As you will read in my Pickwick post, I had to fish these from 3 feet to 18 feet within 2 feet, then over a rock pile from 18 to 3 feet, then back down to 18 feet. This made it a constant speed change. Slow to Fast. Fast to a crawl. Crawl to lightspeed. The reel handled it perfectly.

I had ZERO backlashes on the reels.

For the price, they simply can't be beat. I was always saying the same thing about the Citica's...but now you can get a comparable reel for $40 less.

Thursday Night Wildcat, Ditto Landing July 7th

Whew. Been a busy week and a half! Just got back from the beach and had a blast! I'm sure my wife documented the trip, or will, on her blog:
http://lovewithoutendamen.blogspot.com/

Anyways, before we went on the trip, I fished the Wildcat tournament. Since Josh  bought his Bullet (which I have yet to fish out of), I assumed he wanted to fish with his friend Anthony. So, I asked Bertus if he wanted to fish with me. Of course, Bertus is a much better fisherman than I, and Josh, for that matter....why hadn't I asked him to fish sooner! We made a 20 dollar side bet with Josh and Anthony.

First things first: my rectifier/regulator has been friend for months. Which means that the motor doesn't recharge the batteries while it's running. It hasn't been a big deal, really. But starting on July 3rd when my wife and I went to Guntersville (for about an hour, and it wasn't worth blogging about), I started having issues getting the boat to start without killing the batteries. I just assumed that I hadn't charged the batteries very well. The next day, the 4th, the boat ran great all day but suddenly the batteries (all 3) died about dark. Again, chalking it up to over use, I put the boat on the trailer. I charged the batteries all week leading up to the tournament. That afternoon, I knew we were in trouble. The first battery wouldn't start the motor, and the second had problems with it. Had Bertus not paid already, I would have said it wasn't worth wasting money.

The current wasn't very heavy and the water was fairly stained. However, we HAD paid and we felt obligated to fish. The boat ran well and we ran to the lower point of Hobb's Island.

It has a long point with some select chunk rock adjacent to the channel. Good smallie spot. The long point itself is about 100 yards long and is less than 5 feet deep in most spots.

I elected to throw crankbaits(go figure). I went with chartreuse/sexy colors in order to get some visibility. Because the area had been fished a lot fht e last few days, I went with a silent square bill made by Xcalibur. My rationale was that the wide wobble would sent a good strong wake, the color would give it visibility, and the lack of rattles wouldn't spook the smarter fish. I hoped to bounce the square bill off the chunk rock. With it being silent, I was hoping to trigger reaction strikes.

For the ledge fishing, I selected a Strike Kind Series 6XD in the same color scheme.

Bertus ran the trolling motor and I ran the back. About 2 casts in, I bounced the XCalibur off a rock and snagged a fish. I worked it to the boat, and it jumped and tossed the bait. AGG!!! This happened the last couple of times I had been to Ditto. I had assumed it was from weak strikes on the back hook and had swapped to a red front hook. Looks like it was still happening! It was a nice bronze back smallie. Not huge, but big enough! And it was fat!

2 casts later, landed a short large mouth on the same bait. Few casts later, a THICK large mouth, although he was about a 15 incher. Bertus stayed with his C-rig, casting to the point and dragging to the ledge. We noticed that his hits were coming on the ledge, even though we were sitting on it. We backed out a bit and I went to the 6XD. We found that the fish were suspended, making it almost impossible for me to catch on the crank bait. I went to the C-rig, had a few bumps, but nothing made it to the boat. The bite died quickly and we elected to fire it up and move to the upper point of Hobb's.....but the batteries wouldn't start the motor. !!@#!$%@$%@!#$!

All we could do was troll. That wasn't all bad, I told Bertus, as we were on the point, and on the other bank was a long rip rap run with a turbine inlet. So, we trolled. And trolled. And trolled. Until we got to the turbine.

As soon as we got there, we noticed bass busting shad on topwater. We went to throwing topwater. I threw a Zell Pop.

We caught a few short real quick, and one keeper. Even though we KNEW there were more fish, we couldn't get them to bite. And why not? There was a TON of hatching baitfish. Can't compete with that. So, with an hour left, we drifted down the rip-rap bank towards Ditto. It was like a Funeral March. Dead motor. 2 fish. And a somber drift.
About 100 yards from the inlet to Ditto, we suddenly started getting bites. One after the other. With 10 minutes left, Bertus single handily filled the livewell! It wasn't a big limit, but it was a limit!

I speed trolled the boat onto the trailer and we weighed in 6 pounds. We weren't going to weigh in at all. After all, if we caught a limit on luck, certainly others would catch monster sacks. But, we weighed in and watched others pack the boats and leave. Others weighed in 4 fish. I'm not going to brag, but We made 4th place. And that ain't too bad. We only lost by a pound, and didn't spend any gas to do it.
Josh and Anthony, however, ran all the way to the dam for 4 fish. But they welshed on their side bet! Double or nothing, they are now saying....

I guess you can't catch fish at 80mph! Until next time!

Ditto Landing, June 29th 2011

Alyse has a half day off every week on Wednesday. She asked me if I would take her out on the river. Of course, I was delighted to comply to her request. She met me at the Army Rec ramp with Sonic hotdogs and tater tots!

We launched the boat, idled out to the channel and gunned it for some good shade. Pulling up in some shade across the river, we ate a nice lunch together...something that we rarely get to do. Afterwards, she asked me when I was going to start fishing. Since it was the middle of the day, the water dingy and *relatively cold* at 80 degrees, blue sky, I told her that I wasn't really looking to fish.

After she goaded me into it, I picked up my rods and dipped the trolling motor...   :-)

I wasn't expecting to catch much, considering the conditions, although that I did noticed they were pulling GOOD current...maybe 3mph, so MAYBE we could catch some fish. I fished some rip rap banks next to the Army ramp without luck. We ran up right past Ditto Landing, on the opposite side of the river, where there is an intake for a pumphouse.

I found a little bump in the rip rap, which stuck out about a yard past the rest of the rip rap. There was a little top water action, along with some flipping shad which keyed me in on the area. I threw the sammy a little, without a hit. So, I picked up my crankin' stick with a Rapala DT-7 in Bleeding Olive Shad

First couple of casts,nothing. But we drifted just down river from the spot and I cast upriver, pulling with the current and had a SOLID bump, got him to the boat and he shook off. No big deal, really. It happens. Next cast, another hit...this time got him to the boat.
Nothing big, just a small keeper. I stepped on the trolling motor and positioned us back on the same spot. I repeated the cast and caught several more. But for every fish caught, one shook loose at the boat...it was like they really weren't stuck. After a few more casts, I was getting head butts, but not hooking up.

Hot and sweaty, I gave up and we flopped in the water. It is much more fun anyway.

I went up to the point of Hobb's and fished several more rip-rap banks.

I found something that seemed to matter. All my hits were coming off of multi-level rip rap, as in, under water layers of rock. If it was a single rock layer under water, I didn't get hits. But, if there were multiple layers, there were fish on them. I was having to crash the crankbait on the rocks to trigger hits. I don't think they were activly feeding, but instead, ambushing prey of oppurtunity.

Oh, and I caught this guy....

In the end, I only fished a little bit and spent the rest of the time relaxing with Alyse, which was much more rewarding!

MFC Tournament #18, June 18th 2011

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As the pre-tournament meeting drew close, I was very up-in-the-air about how to approach fishing it. Did I want to bring a ringer....someone that knew how to ledge fish? Did I bring dad to fish plastics on shallow transition zones and get my guest pass back? Did I go through the draw...as a boater or non boater? I still had questions about the integrity of the motor on the boat, and just to make sure it was running right, I took Alyse and the kids, Josh and Emily out on the boat after our softball game on Thursday night.

Since it worked well, I knew I wanted to enter as a boater. I decided that the ratio of boaters to nonboaters left a good chance that I could draw out and bring whomever I wanted to without burning a guest pass. It didn't happen that way, but I did draw Jack, the Tournament Director for the club. Can't go wrong when you are fishing with the guy that runs the weigh ins, right? This was decided to be a 3 fish tournament and run from 5-1pm. 10 boats entered it ,with standings for Angler of the Year VERY tight! I entered at 3rd in the standings, back from the leader by 5 points. This was a must win...or at least a must keep Mark from winning, else he would be hard to catch down the stretch!

Again, with the weather hot, ledge fishing was sure to be a factor. But I just don't know how to do it. I can't fish water deeper than 10 feet. I want to learn, but learning during a tournament is a recipe for disaster!So, Jack and I came up with a game plan:
We would fish shallow in Mink Creek, a place that I had done fairly well in, hoping to get a quick limit. Factor into that, at least 2 MAJOR tournaments: The TOC Coaches Kick Bass tournament, plus several other large scale tournaments, and it would be tough to fish water that hadn't been fished. So, I hoped that our first spot, 500 yards from the ramp, would produce.

We ran the short distance into Mink. I started with the Sammy, hoping for a quick top water bite. Jack threw an assortment of lures, including Skinny Dippers and a Pop-R. I bagged 3 fish within the first hour, but they were ALL short. Right at the 14.5 inch mark. The sun started coming up and it became evident that we might be in trouble, even at 630-7am.

Already, the gears were turning in my head as I heard literally hundreds of boats screaming down the river. I hadn't thought much past fishing Mink. If the bite were indeed deeper, I didn't have a chance. However, I did think....what if I could find some REAL shallow spots within 30 yards of deep water, which may not get fished much? With the rain having past the night before, perhaps the fish were tight to cover and shallow....having been driven up from the ledges. But where would I find an area with cover, in shallow water, adjacent to deep water? I thought of a place that I had success early in February, where the fish were trying to escape the deep water to come shallow to feed. I had alot of success on this spot, which I hadn't seen many boats fish.

I also knew there were some drains coming out of the rock retaining walls. Whether its a cold lake with warmer rainwater coming out of the drain, or a hot lake with cold water, I always seem to find fish on these spots. So, I cast to the drains. I was still throwing the Sammy...which had been the only bait that had worked thus far. You may recall that last weeks tournament, a bad tie on my part cost me the first place and my favorite Ghost Sammy. I couldn't find a replacement, but Dick's had there for sale for $12. I had swapped the front hook for a VMC red #4 on the front and was fishing on braid.

First cast, nice keeper. Finally, we had something in the live well. I targeted the second of the drains and cast to it. Twitch Twitch Bang. But the fish short struck it and I couldn't get it hooked up. But...maybe we were on to something. I put the rod down and picked up my swim baits, hoping to get a second chance bite. Nope.

As I stared at the sky in anger, I noticed the may fly hatch. They hadn't been there when we started...it was like they JUST hatched! The fish started hitting topwater around us, but I couldn't get them to bite. And why would they when they have a free meal! I did catch another short fish. So, we left the spot with one good fish in the live well. Out of too many options, I headed to a ledge that I had penciled the night before. It was close to an old honey hole, so I thought...if I can't catch the ledge fish, at least I can waste my time where I have caught fish before. We motored over to Church House.

 I fished the up river most island on a really nice looking ledge. The Hummingbird 798 with Side Scan was marking fish like crazy!

I threw mostly a t-Rigged brushhog, but threw the crank bait a little too. Not much luck. But, we did have some excitement when a boat cut us off. I don't mean they went around us to get to a spot first, they went under us...right where we were casting...like we weren't even there. Same boat did it to other members of our club too.

So, frustrated, time running out, I thought the best chance we had at filling 2 more slots was in shallow water. So, we motored over to the lower most island, where I had caught a lot of fish. We made a pass quickly, moving from the lower most island, to the middle little island, to the upriver island. The only thing I caught was a nasty gar! I was really excited, as I thought I had a bass who was wrapped around a log. Turns out, it was just a 2 foot long gar....I didn't show him mercy as I retrieved my lure.

It was 12pm now, with an hour to go. One fish in the livewell. We motored back down to the lowermost island, fishing the little cove on the backside. I cast the sammy shallow, up against some reeds. BLAM! Big fish hit it. I had him on until it jumped and threw the sammy about 15 yards. I had Deja Vu of last week. All over again. At least I hadn't lost anything that time around......

I threw a little more to the middle of the cove and within a few casts, had a hit with a solid hookup. It was a measuring fish, but as soon as I had it in the boat, I knew it was in trouble. It was bleeding bad. The lower hook was sank in the underside of the gills. I went to work trying to save the fish, taking off my Costa Del Mar Zanes.

I laid them in the seat as I worked on the fish. When I freed him, he dropped in the seat, nosed under the glasses and then easily flipped them out of the boat and into the water. Gurrgle Gurrgle. $200 gone. Sigh.I can't have anything nice, it seems.

So, I did the best thing I could do. I picked up the rod and cast it. At the time, I thought about how asinine it was that I was throwing top water, on a clear day, at noon, in 90 degree heat and 85 degree water. But, hey, if it works....

And it did. Quickly caught a GOOD fish...I estimated at the time that it was between 3.5 and 4 pounds. We drifted to the center little island...1215 on the clock. I threw tight to cover...literally into the downed trees from the Tornadoes...and was rewarded with 2 identical fish. Suddenly, I didn't feel so bad.

About 5 minutes later, on a similar cast at a downed tree, I came up with a monster.
"Money fish!" I yelled at Jack. I prayed that the knot would hold and it did. We boated it, threw it in the front live well. with 45 minutes to weight-in, I told Jack that I would continue to put him on the fish, but I was going to concern myself with the health of the fish. I iced them, and we decided to head in early.

I thought I had no less than 12 pounds in the livewell. Although I was happy to say I culled all 3 fish so late in the day, I knew that one big fish would undo everything we had fought for all day. I watched the guys weigh in and listened to their tales about it being tough. These guys are terrific fisherman, but the sacks were coming in small. It wasn't that the fish were small...it was that they were skinny.

We weighed in our fish...coming out with 8.82, which was good enough for 1st! The next weights were 7.14 and 6.81.

The competition for 3rd was amazing, as three different boats had 6.81, 6.61. 6.43 respectively! But I just couldn't get over how skinny the fish were. Like I said, I didn't think we had anything less than 12 pounds! And that 5 pounder I thought I had....3.34 pounds!

So, I am back in the mix for Angler of the Year, although I don't know how. I am sitting in 2nd, but my luck won't hold THAT long. These guys continue to amaze me. Sometimes you join small clubs so you can be the big fish...well, we have nothing but big fish in this club, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

I believe that I caught 11-12 fish. 5 of those were short. I culled another 3-4. All fish were caught on a Lucky Craft Sammy.
Here is where my keepers came from: