It's a wrap

The first FLW Tour event of 2010 is in the books!  I am very pleased with my finish of 15th out of 150 and hope to better on that in the coming events.  As for the tournament, the pattern, the weather, the practice, and the bite....well here goes nothing.

I arrived into Branson MO on the first day of official practice and was excited to get my line tight...or so I thought.  FLW gives us 3 days of official practice before each event; the lake is off limits for 13 days prior to the official practice.  After finding my cabin, tracking down some of my equipment, and tying lines I was ready to hit the waters of Table Rock Lake.  The first day of practice brought clear conditions and the fishing was slow.  Only had a few bites and the quality keepers were tough to come by.  I realized quickly this event was not going to be easy.  The fish were in a funk.  The second day of practice brought cloudy, windy, cold conditions and fishing was worse.....I didn't think it was possible.  I never caught a keeper on the second day of practice.  The water temps were in the high 30's!  Never before have I had to try and coax a bass into biting when water temps were in the 30's.  Having experience with tons of ice fishing and never catching bass through the frozen water I quickly understood that they don't feed when water temps are that low.  Bass go dormant.  My mindset had to adjust.  The "whack fest" I had hoped for was not going to happen.  Instead it was going to be just the opposite.  It was going to be a "grind", as we fisherman call it.  Head down, thousands of casts, and hope that you throw the right bait with-in inches of a bass's face and he decides he will bite it.    

Day 1 of the tournament brought cold, clear conditions with light winds.  A high pressure system had settled in.  I fished the first day with Mike Wurm and was able to land one nice keeper and lose one nice keeper.  I opted to fish a Outkast Tackle 5/16th oz finesse jig in camo and crawdad tipped with a Big Bite Baits 3" craw in green pumpkin.  I had to fish it slow, on the bottom, in the submerged tree line (15-30ft of water), and on a spinning rod.  The profile of the finesse jig combined with the big bite craw was the key difference.  If you fished a large trailer/chunk it was too buoyant and wouldn't keep good contact with the bottom.  The jig had to be dragged not hopped.  After day one, I was in 42nd place out of 150 and nearly 100 guys didn't even catch a keeper.  I weighed only 2.4 but was with-in a pound of the top 20.  There was only one limit on the Co-Angler side on day one!  The 3.5 pounder I lost was really erking me. 

Day 2 of the tournament I fished with Bob Sherry and it brought more of the same.  It was brutally cold (20 degrees at blast off), clear, and high pressure.  A slight breeze picked up in the afternoon, but by 11 am or so every day the few fish that were going to bite were done feeding.  The morning run on day 1 and 2 was about 45 miles at 70 mph!  Went back to my finesse jig again and threw thousands (maybe hundreds) of casts and was glad to put one keeper in the livewell.  The fish was not big (1.14) but it got me up on stage and allowed me to hold in 40th place at days end. 

Day 3 of the tournament I fished with Ron Shuffield and it was the first morning in a week that the temps were above freezing at blast off.  The high was supposed to hit 55 but it hit close to 60! :)  The water temps still hovered around the 40 degree mark but that didn't keep me from finding a good day 3 pattern.  I was able to adjust from my jig bite to a jerkbait bite on day 3 and it payed off with 3 nice keepers that weighed 7.11.  It moved me from 40th place all the way to 15th! 

These are a few of my fish from day 3.  I fished a megabass jerkbait in and around the submerged tree line.  Most of my bites came half way back to the boat which was about 18 feet of water.  The bass would only grab it when it was paused, so the pauses between jerks were long and tedious.  Typically when you throw a jerkbait you can run it pretty quick, but due to cold, lethargic bass they liked it on a long pause.  It made the bait look like a shad that was stunned due to cold water temps. 

   

I have to give a big "thank you" to Pete and Tina for making the adventure south to come watch me at the weigh in.  You guys truely are the best of friends and I appreciate the support more than you know.  Thank you to all my supporters and sponsors.  Without you I wouldn't be able to do what I do day in and day out.  My support group should be credited for all my success.  Thanks for all the prayers, keep it up.  

Tina was also pleased to meet her fishing idol Justin Lucas.  Justin is a young pro angler that makes Tina feel all bubbly inside.  ;)  I think she was a bit embarrassed when I asked Justin if he would take a picture with her.  Nice work Tina.  BTW, Justin is still talking about you.

My final weight for the 3 days was 11.13.  It wasn't a ton, but with the condtions we faced it was good enough for 15th place finish.  I will be heading for Lake Norman in NC later next week to start pratice for the second stop of the 2010 FLW Tour campaign.  Stay tuned for more soon.  Until then, Fish On and always stretch the string!