After finding that wad of smallmouth the second day of practice I was a little more at ease and decided to run over into the Inland Sea and practice the whole day there. I started out fishing some Smallie spots that I'd done good on in the past, but there was nothing doing. After about 3 hours of nearly no bites, I decided to run over into St. Albans bay and look for some largemouth. I started fishing down the shore that I caught them so good on last year; the shore where I got pulled over and lost an hour of my fishing time thanks to the wonderful officers from the Vermont Marine Patrol. The matted grass was nowhere to be found and the grass on a whole was sparce at best. I continued down the bank throwing a spinnerbait. I came to a dock and threw the blade down the side and WHACK! the fight was on. A largie well over 4 had smashed it and was trying to break me off on the dock supports. I wrestled him out with no problem thanks to my 15lb Trilene Fluorocarbon. Of course if that had been during the tournament, the line would undoubtedly have broken.

The best part about this dock wasn't that it had a giant living on it, but that 3 other largies over 4 were trying to eat the spinnerbait out of his mouth as I was fighting him. Jackpot! It was the only dock within a hundred yards, and the grass that was usually there was gone; they had no place to go but under that dock. I was once again winning practice, which always makes me nervous. I continued down the bank and into a backwater that looked more like the Potomac than Champlain.

I got out my frog and skinny dipper. My first cast with the skinny dipper produced one over 3. Nice! I continued in further and ended up fishing probably a half mile of the stuff. The fish really weren't very big in there, but I did have one close to 6lbs follow the frog all the way out to the edge of the mat. It was fun catching them on a frog even if they weren't that big.

I headed down the lake to some humps to look for smallie again. The spot was a disappointment, but did produce 3 over 3lbs; it can be sooooo much better though. It was nearing the end of the day and I decided to stop off at one area on my way back in. It was a largemouth spot really shallow and up against some cattails. The water was crystal clear and about 1-2' deep. There were some mats made up of broken cattails on the surface that looked really good. My first pitch up into a mat with my chiggger craw sent a jolt up my arm. I reared back, set the hook, and out flew one close to 5lbs; they don’t have much of a chance when you’re fishing with 25lb fluorocarbon. I unhooked him and tossed him back. 3' away in the very next mat I caught a 3+. Another 2 feet away I shook one off, and on, and on, and on for 100 yards. It was the most insane flipping bite I've ever had; with the exception of my practice at Potomac earlier this year. There was a fish in just about every mat (which were mere feet apart). I had found the mother load!