It's gotta change sooner or later!!!!! and BTW You got a blackfish trip comin to ya!!!

The second morning of the tournament we were given the green light to head out onto the lake. The wind was blowing a steady 15 mph out of the west and the waves were rolling. I headed out of the bay and drove about 7 miles east to the area that I had caught the 2 fish in practice. It was a break line that dropped from 32' to 36'. The wind wasn't blowing right to drift down the ridge, so I had to fight the waves with my trolling motor to keep on it; thank God for my Minn Kota 101 with the 52" shaft. My motor is a pain in the neck when I'm fishing shallow, but when you're out in the middle of the lake in giant waves there's nothing better. I get a good bite after about 15 minutes and it pulls off. I was still pretty positive though because it was still early and I had plenty of time; it felt like a giant unfortunately. We fished the area for another 30 minutes without a bite. I had another area about a mile away that looked really good on my Humminbird sideimaging, but I hadn't gotten a bite on in practice. I decided to check it out; it was a similar break line, but in a little bit shallower. We got within a 1/4 mile of the spot and saw about 8 boats drifting it. I pulled right in on one of my waypoints and started dragging a drop shot with a 3" Berkley gulp minnow. The bait in Lake Erie is greenish looking, so I was using a similar color gulp minnow. We drifted about 20 yards and I had my first bite. I was excited to see the fish swim into the net; a 4+ was a good way to start the day. I marked the spot on my gps the minute I got the bite so I could see if there was something holding the fish; sure enough, there was a small drop there from 23 to 25 feet. The wind was drifting us straight across the break instead of along it. I like to increase my odds by fishing along the break if I can, so it was back to fighting the waves. I noticed another boat holding in the wind on the same break, but further down it and he was boating fish left and right. It took me awhile to figure it out, but once I fished that break right it was game on. My co-angler said he had never seen anything like it before. There were 8 boats around us and the other boat and I were the only ones catching fish. At one point I had 6 keepers on 6 drops. I even caught one about 6lbs. My co-angler almost had a heart attack after netting it. He thought it was an 8 pounder. It was awesome! It sure felt good to be catching fish again. The first fish I caught was the only one I didn't see on my Humminbird. Every fish I caught I saw as an arch on the screen, dropped my dropshot down to it, watched the fish swim up to my bait, and it was on. Aside from pitching with a big weight, it's my favorite way to catch fish. I caught one over 6 and almost did a dance in the boat. I really thought I could make the cut with the weight I had. We ran back with plenty of time to spare just incase we ran into any problems. My co-angler had a frustrating day and was only able to catch 2 small keepers. By the time we got to the bay we had about 30 minutes to fish, so I took him to one of the spots I had caught largemouth in the day before. I let him fish and just ran the trolling motor; I was happy with my weight and knew that if he caught just one more keeper there was a chance he could make the cut. He was unable to catch a keeper but was grateful I had made an effort to help him out. I was really happy with my day, especially considering how practice went. I thought I had a good chance at making the cut; that was until I got within earshot of the weigh-in stage. Now keep in mind, it was a 4 fish limit. I hear them calling out weights..... 23-14...... 21-10......22-15...... My hopes of making the cut were fading fast. I weighed in a respectable 16lbs; in my book that's pretty good for a 4 fish limit. Even with the giant bags coming in, my weight was good enough to land me in 14th place, just a pound and a half out of the top 10. There were 15 bags weighed in that day over 20lbs; even though I didn't make the cut I was happy to have been a part of an amazing day of fishing. Oh, and I didn't even come close to big fish; the pro side was a 7-2, and the co side was a 7-8. It was an unbelievable day of fishing. One of the most amazing parts about it was how and where the fish were being caught. There were people catching fish as shallow as 5 foot on spinnerbaits, all the way out to 60 feet where they were catching them on the bottom with dropshots. The tournament ended on a good note. I stayed to help out with college fishing on Saturday, and then drove home. The standings for the year were posted on Sunday, and I had jumped from 30th for 14th for the year. I qualified for the championship down on Wheeler Lake in November and am looking forward to fishing it. Hopefully the bad luck is behind me now.

Congrats on a solid finish Jess.

Good luck at Wheeler- have you done well there in the past?

Great comeback! Good fishing!

Here's a couple snapshots from lake Erie taken on my humminbird 997. The type of structure I was targeting was mostly slight depth changes that varied anywhere between 1 and 3 feet; I think most of them were shell beds. The first picture is of a crib with a pipe sticking out.