The third day of practice managed to be even better than the second. I started out throwing my Stalker Baits buzz bait again, catching a few and getting a few more blow ups. The time frame that I was getting bit this way was getting shorter and shorter every day however and it seemed like it might fizzle out by the time the tournament started. I thought allot about the areas I wanted to look for after finding them in the grass the second day. I looked at my gps and searched out every place I could find that looked similar. The Navionics chips are incredible; and as long as you know what to look for, the map will lead you to it. Sure enough, the first spot I pulled up onto I caught a keeper. The fish were just inside the mouth of smaller main lake creeks. Once I got further back into the creeks, it seemed like I couldn't get bit. I would put the boat just outside the grass edge and cast my Texas rig ahead and toward the shore. It seemed like most of the bites were coming just inside the grass edge in about 4-6 feet of water. I don't think I ever got a bite out at the edge in 10' of water. I decided after searching around and looking at my maps that I would concentrate the rest of my practice in the mid to lower section of the lake. The water was clearer, and it had many more creeks. I ended the day catching 5 keepers, and shaking off 8 that felt pretty good.

The last day of practice would be shorter because we had to be off the water to go to the pairings meeting. I continued searching the dam end of the lake finding a few more good areas. I also fished some docks and caught one good keeper doing that; I wanted to shake the fish off, but I couldn't control myself and set the hook anyway-3lber. I ventured into a creek mid lake toward the end of the day and realized that I had seriously missed out. As soon as I got in there I knew there were fish to be caught. It was too late in the day, and the creek was just too big, so I decided to leave and check out some stuff on the way back. I fished my way out of a pocket and out onto a point. I got a bite and set the hook. A good keeper swam up with a few following. I decided to check out a few more points. I once again turned to my Navionics chip and it led the way to multiple points with multiple fish on them. One point I shook off 8 fish. Things were definitely looking up. I fished a few more points on my way back in and discovered that every laydown on the main lake had a keeper on it. By the end of the day I had found 2 new patterns and had shook off close to 20 fish. The tournament was starting in the morning and I knew if I could get them in the boat I had a good chance of making the cut. When you talk to people you always say there's a chance you won't even catch a fish, especially when conditions are so tuff; but going over it in my head, I was confident I had done well in practice and could catch at least 5 a day.

At the meeting I met my partner who happened to be a local. He said he fished the lake 3 times a week and was on them good. I told him what I was doing and he said it sounded like I had them figured out. I told him if we were struggling, or if I had my fish and he needed one, we could check out a couple of his places. I was excited to go fishing.