The batteries were a go this morning. I was happy to have that problem solved. There was a place that Dusty and I had fished at the end of the day yesterday that I wanted to fish more thoroughly. We pulled up and something seemed different. We fished for about an hour and then decided to check another spot that we had gotten bites on the other day. Every day the tide is changing about an hour; so if you have low tide at 8am when practice starts, you will have almost the exact opposite tide the day of the tournament. It's much more difficult to catch the fish at high tide. We will be fishing this tournament with an outgoing high tide almost all day. I don't think we will see low tide during tournament hours. Since we found the fish during low tide, I wanted to see if we could get them to bite when the tide was high. It didn't take long. Within the first 30 minutes there we shook off probably 25 fish. We were flipping the small grass mats with 1oz weights. I knew I had seen similar grass in the area that we had fished the day before, but when we fished it first thing this morning I didn't see it. We ran back over to the other spot and I realized that we had stopped fishing right where the good grass started. We fished through the good grass and shook off about 15. There was another boat about 50 feet away and we got to talking. He told us he had caught a few, but they were all small; I didn't believe him. He left and I told Dusty to swing away if he got bit; if we caught one over 3 we would leave. It took about 5 minutes before I set the hook and dragged one over 3 to the boat. I'm starting to feel good about this tournament. I just need a good boat number so I can get to the spot first. In a perfect world, this might have been what happened. In my world, I draw boat 155 in a field of 158 boats. Sweet! What are the chances I get up there and no one is on the spot? Dusty got a good draw, which is good because he was getting a really poor attitude about the tournament. He's fishing with a local who was leading the first day of the FLW Tour the last time they were here. With a little luck Dusty and I may both make the cut. I had to take a picture of this creek we fished in today. Dusty caught one bass about 10" long. It looked like every bass in the river should have been in there.

It's one thing when you go into a tournament and you've had a bad practice; you go into it with low expectations. It's completely different when you absolutely smash them in practice. I ended up catching 10.5 lbs and am sitting in 102nd. I don't know what went wrong. Hopefully I can salvage my year tomorrow; there's nothing worse than starting the year in a hole.

The second day of the tournament was no better. I don't know what happened to the big fish. It was no problem catching a limit, but the big bites were scarce. I was a little stubborn during the tournament, I knew I could probably throw a senko and catch some better ones; but I didn't. The tournament was won flipping, and what's worse, Dusty and I fished the winning spot in practice and only caught little ones. At the end of the day I weighed in just under 10 lbs and fell to 116th place. That's the worst finish I've had in 3 years in a Stren tournament. Dusty didn't fare much better finishing in 75th. We had to stay around on Saturday for the College fishing. I took two college kids from Pennsylvania out. It was an interesting day. Dusty and I drove home and decided to leave this tournament behind us and focus on the upcoming events. I leave for the final FLW Tour event on Champlain this Friday. Maybe my luck will change there.

FLW Tour #6
Lake Champlain-Plattsburgh, NY
Water Temp: 69
Spawn/Post Spawn

It was really nice to have a short drive; it took about 4 hours to get to Plattsburgh. I arrived at about 5 in the evening and got most of my tackle ready for practice. I had to change all my Potomac River stuff for light spinning tackle. There are people fishing for largies here, but Dan is only fishing for smallies. The first day of practice was kind of a feeling out process. I only caught 3 keepers and Dan caught only a few more. We were fishing pretty shallow, not fishing deeper than 12'. The fish didn't bite for us, and the wind only made matters worse, gusting over 30mph. The second day was quite a bit better. We started to get clued in by the end of the day. I was able to catch a limit that weighed about 16lbs. Dan caught a few good ones, but not the ones he needs to win. We fished allot deeper, down to about 25'. Today was the third day of practice. It went allot better. We finally figured out the depth the fish were in and went to whacking them. If you threw a tube or dropshot you got bit. I was putting a hurting on Dan on a Stalker Baits Erie green finesse tube. This went on until Dan asked me for one, at which point he went to crushing them. By the end of the day I had close to 19lbs and Dan had about 18. It will be interesting to see what we find tomorrow. A cold front went through this evening and dropped the temperature 20 degrees in 10 minutes. Hopefully the tournament will go as well as the 2nd and 3rd day of practice for me.

In the first post I listed that it was spawn/post spawn. The first day of practice I caught 3 fish off beds, but since then I haven't seen another. I think it's the very tail end of the spawn and bedding fish won't play a role in this event. I have heard rumors of the Ty area being on fire. I love grass fishing and wouldn't mind making the run down there, but I've been having so much fun catching big smallies on tubes and dropshots that I kind of want to stay up North. I ordered a bunch of Stalker tubes yesterday and had them overnighted. The mini tube is a killer drop shot bait on Champlain and Erie. In all the tournaments I've fished as a Co-angler up here, I've never had someone I was paired with make the run down there. My last day of practice wasn't as good as the second two. The thunder storm was a little worse than yesterdays, but we rode it out in style ducking lightning and catching smallies on just about every cast; luckily for us, the hail was just small enough that it didn't hurt. You can see the hail all over the water in the pic.


Click to enlarge...

We fished shallower grass flats and didn't get many bites. We also fished super deep, down to 35'. It's amazing all the different depths you can catch fish at this time of year. In this practice, I've caught 3+ lb smallmouth anywhere from 3'-30' deep. I ended the last practice day with about 15lbs; a great bag on most bodies of water, but just about average here. I couldn't even guess what will win this tournament; you can catch fish so many different ways. You can count on this though, there will be some big bags brought in. It sure would be nice to win one close to home. As far as big lakes go, Champlain is as close to a home lake for me as it gets. I would rather win this tournament than win Co of the year again, but winning both would be even better.