The 3rd day of practice my cousin and I targeted the grass beds just east of Waterloo. I looked at my gps and picked an area that looked good. As soon as we got down off plane, the fish started busting. As far as you could see down the break line there were bass smashing shad. It was unbelieveable! My cousing and I ran all over finding more and more areas like that, and absolutely killed them. I was catching them really good buzzing a skinny dipper across the top. My cousin loves the spinnnerbait and threw that most of the day catching over 20 keepers. I knew with the amount of fish schooling that we wouldn't hurt them by catching a bunch, so we put a serious hurting on them all day long. Last night I said it doesn't get much better than this, well today was even better. The fishing was amazing, and my cousin brought a couple of ribeyes, some potatoes and onions that we cooked on a charcoal grill. We once again ate, drank and were merry.
My cousin was leaving mid morning on the 4th day of practice, so we went out early and tooled around. I pretty much knew what I was going to do down at that end, so when 11am rolled around, I brought my cousin back to the launch and pulled my boat out. I decided to drive up to Florence and fish up at that end of the lake for the rest of the day and the last day of practice. I stopped at the Ranger Support Trailer and talked with Spanky for awhile and then headed out on the lake. By the time I got off the water at 5pm, I had caught almost 16lbs. The fish were all along the riprap and bluff walls. I went down the bank throwing my 4" Berkley hollow belly and a spinnerbait and got bit almost everywhere I stopped. All the species were there; largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass. The fish up at this end were bigger on average, but it wasn't quite as easy as catching the schooling fish down the lake. I was feeling good about my practice. If something happened with my schooling fish, I could always fall back on these fish up here.
Edited by Jess Caraballo (11/13/0905:40 PM)
"Momma told me when I was young.... Be a simple kind of man, oh be something you love and understand" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some...." - Jason Mraz
"Give me one moment in time, when I'm more than I thought I could be. When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me" - Whitney Houston
"Im'a be what I set out to be, without a doubt, undoubtably. And all those who look down on me, I'm tearing down your balcony. No if, ands, or buts, don't try to ask him why or how can he..." - Eminem www.go-fish.biz visit my homepage
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The final day of practice I spent trying to find more bluff wall areas that held fish. The fish were definitely partial to certain stretches. There must have been current breaks under the water because above the water looked like everything else. I should have driven down the bluffs using my humminbird side imaging, but I didn’t' think of it. The best ones seemed to be about 7-10' deep against the wall. I pulled the boat out at 11am and headed back to the hotel. I stopped at a tackle shop and the guy told me they had been catching giant fish up at the Wheeler dam. That's the dam that's at the far end of Wilson Lake. I didn't practice at all on Wilson, but the thought of catching 6lb smallies made me make the 20 mile drive to the dam. I fished the tail waters for about 2 hours without a bite. I was kind of relieved since I had my game plan for the tournament already figured out in my head. Had I caught a big fish up there it may have had me second guessing myself. My plan of attack was to hit any spot that I got bit on the bluff walls that didn't already have a boat on it, and then head down to Waterloo and get a limit of schoolies. If that went well, I wanted to run back up to Florence and fish the bluffs to see if I could boat some bigger fish. I went back to the hotel, changed my line, retrigger some rods, and headed off to the pairings meeting.
"Momma told me when I was young.... Be a simple kind of man, oh be something you love and understand" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some...." - Jason Mraz
"Give me one moment in time, when I'm more than I thought I could be. When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me" - Whitney Houston
"Im'a be what I set out to be, without a doubt, undoubtably. And all those who look down on me, I'm tearing down your balcony. No if, ands, or buts, don't try to ask him why or how can he..." - Eminem www.go-fish.biz visit my homepage
I drew boat # 140 for the first day. Seeing as how I'd be at the back of the pack, I decided to run until I saw one of my good bluffs that didn't have a boat on it. About 3 miles away from takeoff I pulled in on one spot that in practice I had multiple bites on and shook of a good one. On my 3rd cast I caught a 2 pounder on a spinnerbait. I turned to go back the other way and another boat was coming up the bluff. He was headed right toward the tree that I shook the good one off on. We met almost at the tree, but he got there just ahead. Wouldn't you know, he rears back, sets the hook and lands one over three. Nice! I picked up my trolling motor and headed toward my schooling fish. It took about 30 minutes to get there doing 70mph. I set the boat down by the small island where my cousin and I had crushed them and started casting my jerkbait. There was no schooling action anywhere. I told my co-angler it wasn't a good sign. I changed over to my 4" Berkley hollow belly and caught a good one almost immediately. I kept casting around hoping the schoolies would come up, but they never did. I told my co we would fish for 15 more minutes and then check one more spot down on this end of the lake. I casted out where the creek arm made a swing toward the island and had the rod almost ripped out of my hand. I fought the fish to the boat and my co netted it; it was the biggest largemouth I had ever seen at Pickwick. Now bear in mind, that I never caught anything over 3.5 in practice. At first I thought it was over 6, but as the day went on it shrunk in my head. No more takers on that spot so I ran to where we had been camping. I started fishing and another boat set down literally within feet of my boat and started fishing. The school I had been looking for erupted about 25 yards from my boat and his. We both headed at them, but they went down with the noise from the trolling motors. That was the school with the big boys. There were at least 2 4's and one over 3. I felt really aggravated that I drove all the way there just to have someone ruin it for me. Disgusted I decided to run back up the lake and fish the bluffs. Within minutes of arriving on the bluffs I had a limit and was culling. The current was ripping so fast that I would start up current and drift with it casting my hollowbelly parallel to the bluff, reeling it against the current. My poor Co-angler was screwed, but after convincing him his best shot was to cast out the back of the boat, he landed 2 good smallies behind me. The only problem was that the fish were much smaller than the ones I was catching in practice. I fished them hard for the remainder of the day and was able to catch 12-14 which was good enough to put me in 19th place. My big fish weighed in at 5-2 and almost took big fish. With just 10 people to weigh in, Mark Rose brought in a giant over 7 and bumped me out. I was in good shape to make the cut, so that made me happy. I had a good practice and my first day went fairly well. I made good decisions and lost only 2 fish. I figured if I could catch about 14lbs I'd be in. We'll see what happens!
"Momma told me when I was young.... Be a simple kind of man, oh be something you love and understand" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some...." - Jason Mraz
"Give me one moment in time, when I'm more than I thought I could be. When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me" - Whitney Houston
"Im'a be what I set out to be, without a doubt, undoubtably. And all those who look down on me, I'm tearing down your balcony. No if, ands, or buts, don't try to ask him why or how can he..." - Eminem www.go-fish.biz visit my homepage
The second day we had a 2 hour fog delay. I was in the second flight, and my already short day was getting shorter by the minute. I decided to run straight to where I caught the big one the first day. I ran down there and lost a good one in the first 10 casts. My co-angler caught a 2 pounder and then the bite turned off. I ran to the other spot that the guy had come in on me the day before in hopes that the school might come up again. I picked up a jerkbait and caught one about 2 pounds, but that was it. There was no schooling action, so I decided to make the run back up the lake to the bluffs. It was awesome! I realized that with the strong currents, my bait wasn't making it down far enough. I put a 5/16oz head on my hollowbelly and went to work. Unfortunately I didn't figure out the heavier weight thing until too late. I was able to catch 15 or 20 keeper smallies that weighed 12-4. When I weighed in I was in 6th, but I steadily dropped as the later flights came in. I knew I wouldn't make the cut so I started for home. My wife called me to let me know I finished in 16th place. Now, last year that would have won me $16,000; this year however with the economy the way it is and sponsors not giving as much I won a measly $4,000. I did make money on the trip, which is always a positive, but I was once again sooooo close. I missed the cut by just 2 pounds, and 10th place paid 16K. I think I could have done well that last day since I had figured out how to catch the bigger ones in the current. I'm pretty sure that if I had spent all day on those bluffs that second day I could have caught 15 or 16lbs. I read the articles about how the top 10 caught their fish, and the only one not fishing bluff walls was Mark Rose. I found the right pattern and fish to make the cut; it just didn't happen for me. It was a good learning experience though, and I feel like I'm getting better and better with every tournament. Leaving the season on a positive note feels good. If I don't get a team deal with FLW I won't be fishing the FLW Tour next year. If that happens, I'm hoping to find a sponsor that will pay for me to fish the FLW Eastern Series. At the least I'll be fishing the Stren Series again, and the Bass Opens. I think Berkley has reconsidered my sponsorship with them which is awesome. I should find out about that in a few weeks. I hope 2009 was a great season for everyone. It was a great learning experience for me and I'm looking forward to 2010.
"Momma told me when I was young.... Be a simple kind of man, oh be something you love and understand" - Lynyrd Skynyrd
"I reckon it's again my turn to win some or learn some...." - Jason Mraz
"Give me one moment in time, when I'm more than I thought I could be. When all of my dreams are a heartbeat away and the answers are all up to me" - Whitney Houston
"Im'a be what I set out to be, without a doubt, undoubtably. And all those who look down on me, I'm tearing down your balcony. No if, ands, or buts, don't try to ask him why or how can he..." - Eminem www.go-fish.biz visit my homepage
you do........ 
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