Lake Not-So-Good to me

The 2nd stop of the FLW tour at Lake Norman has come and gone.  As far as I am concerned, I would like to forget about it all together.  I struggled on a lake that is choke full of bass.  After 3 days of competition and many hours of fishing I only managed to weigh 2, 3, and 2 fish respectively.  My total weight was 11.11 and was good enough for 92nd place out of 146 anglers. 

I can tell you that I had a great practice periods.(3 days)  Even the guys I was rooming with were getting tons of bites and catching lots of fish.  I really thought there was no way you couldn't catch a limit.  Fishing held true to it's name, fishing not catching!  The high suns and slack water on the first day made for a tough bite.  I also allowed myself to get frustrated early on day one and my mind got the best of me.  The bite during practice seemed to be best when it was cloudy and the fish would spread out and crush a jerkbait.  The first day of the tourney the high suns drove the fish to feed on the bottom and they held up tight to the docks....even with adjusting late in the day I was not able to boat enough keepers to scrap out a limit(5 fish). 

This is my road roommate and good friend Eric Schultz who was able to catch a nice limit on day 2 but struggled on day 1 and day 3.  Had he been able to catch a limit on day 3 he would have managed a nice check, top 50 is needed to get a check.  He missed a check by about 1 pound.  He finished 61st.  He fished with Bryan Thrift on day 2 who would go on to win the tourney on the pro side! 

This is me en-route to the bump tank with not enough fish in my weigh bag.. :( 

I am back home now in GA and am going to take some time to fish Lake Lanier and also prepare for the next tour stop in TN at Fort Loudon-Tellico outside of Knoxville.  Lets hope my next tour event ends in a better result.  I need to crush at this next tourney.  I will have some good pictures and stories from the next two weeks on Lanier.  Until next time, Fish On!  Stretch the string....