I was down to my final day of practice. I started out the day by fishing through the area that I had gotten the bites in the day before. I made one pass, shaking off 5 fish and hooking a 4 by accident. This made me feel a little better. I still wanted to run up the river and check out the area I never made it to the day before. I ran up there and started fishing the edge of a massive grass line; and when I say massive I mean one that's 400 yards wide and 1/2 a mile long. I caught a catfish and 3 yellow perch on a spinnerbait, but no bass. I crossed a thick section of grass to an opening that had more scattered grass halfway to the shore. This is the area that I had caught them in the year before. My first cast with a senko to one of the holes produced a bass. Not a big one, but it was a start. I fished my way around the area and boated 30 fish, but none of them over 2 lbs. I didn't measure any because I didn't realize at this point that the size limit was longer than any other time we'd been here before; usually it's 12". I never measured any, so I'm not sure if they were 15" or not. I left that area and headed for the mouth of a small creek that had a good grass bed outside it. It didn't take long with my flipping stick and chigger craw and I had one over 3 to the boat. I continued down the grass line on the heels of another boat, having no further success. There were 10 boats in the area, so I left that area and wrote the fish off. I ran back down the river and fished in Occoquan bay in another massive grass flat. I ended up catching quite a few fish, but once again none were of any size. My practice time had run out and I wasn't confident I could even catch a limit. Tidal waters are funny like that though, sometimes you can have the worst practice and do well and other times you can have the practice of a lifetime and do terrible.

During the last 2 days of practice I was able to figure out when the tidal bite was; It happened at 1:15 on Tuesday, and 2:15 on Wednesday. Being that the tide usually changes by about an hour each day, I figured I had to be in my best area at 3:00 to make sure I got the good bite. Unfortunately the weigh-in began at 1:30 due to the heat and the only way I would get that bite was if I got last flight. No chance! I was right in the middle of the pack. I decided to run to the back corner in Mattawoman where I had all the bites the first day of practice. When I got there I found I that many other boats had found the same fish. There were 8 boats in a 50 yard stretch. I got right in with them but was not able to boat a keeper. There were tons of fish being caught, but I never saw one boated that went in the live well. I fished that area for about 2 hours and decided to run out to the other area I had in the mouth of the creek. When I got there I started flipping just like I had done in practice to get the bites. I was the only boat in the middle of the grass; all the other boats were lined up on the outside edge. I caught one short but that was it. The boats out on the edge however were catching lots of keepers. This grass bed wasn't very big, so I was only about 15 yards from the boats catching fish. I moved out a little hoping to get in on the action, but it wasn't happening for us. My co-angler and I saw multiple limits caught within feet of us and neither of us could get a bite. I ended up catching one 4 pounder on a chigger craw with a 1/8oz weight and that was it. I was so frustrated watching all the other boats catch fish that I went back to the area I started on. There was only one boat left there now, and the water had cleared up a little. There was only about an hour left until weigh-in, so I fished hard and ended up boating a 5 pounder and 2 pounder on a senko. With only 3 fish to weigh in I was feeling disappointed. After catching the 4 and 5 pounders I knew if I could just catch a limit I would be within striking distance of the top 10. My 3 fish weighed 10-11, not a very good weight for the Potomac. I was sitting in 60th place after the first day. All day I thought about the other area up the river that I had caught all those 2 pounders on. Should I have run up there, or was I better off staying close and using every minute to fish? It was a tough decision and I'm still not sure what the best move would have been. If I had run up there I might not have caught that 5, if I had I might have caught four 2 pounders. Sometimes decisions are easy to make, and sometimes they keep you second guessing yourself.

Wow Jess, I'm at a total loss for words, so I can't imagine how you are feeling. Keep at it, just keep at it. Mark

We saw that here a few days ago, Jess. Sorry for the loss of your friend.

Sorry to everyone who follows Tales from the Trail. I went offline for awhile there for personal reasons. Art's death really threw me for a loop, and my fishing performances suffered. I've fished 2 tournaments since my last post; the Stren Series and BASS Open tournaments on Champlain. I was plagued with bad luck in both and ended up with only 3 practice days in the 2 weeks I was there. I had motor problems, trolling motor problems; I zigged when I should have zagged...... In the end I had the 2 worst finishes I've ever had on Champlain. I'll spare you the details, but needless to say it was an awful experience. I ended up spending about $4,000 to fish the 2 tournaments and was not able to recoup any of it. I know I said I would write about the good, the bad, and the ugly, but this was too much for me to re-live. I drove home from the tournament, parked my boat, and didn't even uncover it for about 2 weeks. I dropped to 30th in points overall which really isn't too bad for my worst year ever. I would need a strong finish to keep in the top 50 and qualify for the invitational down on Wheeler Lake. The final regular season event was being held on Lake Erie out of Erie, PA. I had never been out of PA before, but I had heard that the fishing was phenomenal. I was feeling down, but was excited to be fishing Lake Erie. My goal is to make a top 10 at Erie, qualify for the Invitational, win that, and qualify to fish the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup. I like to dream big; no sense in being half assed!