Entries from April 2007 ↓

I wanted to sight fish all day. But we had cloud cover and wind, and if you’ve ever sight fished you know that two things you don’t want are cloud cover and wind. But I gave it a shot and even caught a limit. Then I went out to the river ledges and I brought in a 7 pound, 15 ounce Purolator Big Bass. Click below to hear about my day on Guntersville lake.

Well, I’m at Lake Guntersville, back in my home state of Alabama where I actually know how to catch a fish. It’s competition day and here I am working on a blog. Not what you’d expect.

B.A.S.S. actually cancelled today’s competition. They felt there was some life-threatening weather here, so instead of fishing we’ve got a day to relax and get our tackles ready for tomorrow.

This could work to my benefit, because my plan for this tournament is to sight fish for spawning bass. They make a spawning bed on the river bank. And like I’ve mentioned before, you first have to see them. Then you have to go in there and watch them, and then react to what they do. It can take, gosh, up to an hour before they bite.

The way to ordinarily fish this lake is to fish the river ledges. And if I have to, I’ll do some of that. But I hope to be able to sight fish.

It’s been a strange spring. It was cold until late in the spring and, for whatever reason, the milfoil - the grass that’s predominant around here - just hasn’t grown. It’s low out in the water and I guess that’s why the river bites are scarce. … Now if you get bit, it’s a good one. But those bites are few and far between.

I’ve got a couple of places on the main river that I’m gonna look at, but my play is to sight fish. I just don’t think I can catch a limit out there on the river.

But, hey, we’ll see how it goes.

I couldn’t believe I didn’t make the cut at Clarks Hill. That’s my kind of lake. I caught more than 13 pounds the second day, and that should have been good enough. But it wasn’t. And I wasn’t the only one on the sidelines. There were some real good anglers that didn’t make it. I was still a little shocked when I made the video that you can see by clicking on the following link:

Well, I’m having to say it again. It’s not what I was hoping for.

I had a real tough first day, and a great second day. When I came in to weigh my fish, I thought I’d made the cut, but in in the end it wasn’t enough. I lost a couple of big ones I should have had. But even with what I had - 13 pounds, 5 ounces - I would have been in great shape if I hadn’t had such a bad first day.

This lake was fishing tough. Two weeks ago there was some cold weather and things changed. Normally, fish should be schooling everywhere on those points, but they’re not. That’s why so many guys are struggling.

I found a few good areas today, and I was really looking forward to making the cut and fishing on Saturday, because I thought I had figured some things out. But it didn’t happen.

 I need to have a few top twelves.

Just finished up with a day 2 practice. Had a great morning. I got to fish with a veteran sportswiter named Bill Baab. He’s a longtime outdoor writer. He writes for the Augusta paper.

He’s done a lot of stuff and it was a pleasure to be with him. He’s covered 17 Bassmaster Classics, he told me.

You can spot those old veteran writers. They know exactly what to ask and they’re always a lot of fun to be with, so that was a treat for me.

In addition to that, I got on some fish today. I’m excited about a little deal I found on some secondary points. I was able to find some fish real shallow. Some were 2 to 3 pounders. I would think if that holds up I can catch about 15 pounds a day, and that will be good.

It was a tough day in some ways, though. The deep bite was off. It was calm and clear. I was hoping the sight fishing would pick up. But most of the fish I saw, well all of the fish, were small.

And they were mostly bucks. The females have already pulled out, it looks like. So my hopes of finding the big fish on the beds are gone. That’s not going to happen.

Anyway, the fish are super shallow on the secondary points. If that pattern holds up, I’ll do pretty well in this event.

It’s Monday, first day of practice at Strom Thurmond Reservoir on the South Carolina-Georgia line, better known as Clarks Hill. Boy, what a day it was. It was cold and the wind was blowing gusts 30 to 40 miles an hour. If you want to try to keep your hat on in tough conditions, try fishing when the wind’s blowing 30 or 40 miles per hour.

But we only get two and a half days of practice on this Elite Series tour, so you have to put in the practice time.

I did find a few fish. The weather’s been cold, and they’ve kind of been knocked back off the beds. Of course, some of them might still be there, but as windy as it’s been it’s hard to see.

I found a couple of bucks, no females. Caught some cruising in the center of the pockets. Caught those on a rattletrap, small crank bait. Really, that’s about the best thing I’ve got going now.

I’m hopeful the weather will straighten out and it’s supposed to. Maybe we can catch some fish on those long clay points. Clarks Hill is kind of famous for fish schooling up post-spawn. They’ll get out on those long, clay points and chase blueback herring.

It seems like a large portion have spawned, but there’s another big group that hasn’t. I haven’t caught any post-spawn, but there are some out off those points. They seem weary, that could be the post-spawners.

All-around it was just a tough day. I found a little, but that’s what it’s all about. You got out and try to figure things out, they you put together a plan and try to execute it on tournament days.

Clarks Hill, Strom Thurmond, rattletrap, crank bait

I was thinking a little more about Don Wirth, who writes for Bassmaster.

It’s interesting to me to see the difference in the younger fishing writers and the ones that have been around awhile. The younger ones barrage you with questions. The older ones are more inclined to just hang back and listen to you.

When I take writers out fishing with me, I’ll usually ask them before we go out what they want to gain from their time. Lots of times the older writers just want to watch how I find fish, and see what I do when I find them.

I’ll talk to them about some of the things I do. I might tell them, for example, why I change from a rattle trap to brush hog, or why I might choose to go toward shore when I do. Sometimes it’s little stuff like that, other times it’s more technical.

When we go to tournaments, we need to spend time practicing. So it’s not always good to take people out with you. But we still do it occasionally, because spending time with journalists is good for our sport.

When we’re at Clarks Hill, I’m planning to go out Tuesday morning for a couple hours with a writer from Augusta named Bill Baab. I haven’t met him, but I understand he’s awfully knowledgeable and he’s been covering fishing for a long time.

I’m looking forward to it.

The only bad thing about that is that he’s the one that will be asking questions. Bill Baab was probably fishing Clarks Hill when I was a kid, so I should be asking him questions. But BASS rules won’t allow it. We can’t ask ANYTHING.

Oh well, it should be fun anyway.

I’ve been taking care of business for a few days after the three early tournaments. Now I’m just getting ready to go to Clarks Hill on Sunday. We’ll start practicing on Monday morning. I think it’s going to be a good tournament. I haven’t fished a lot on that lake, so we’ll just have to see how it goes.

I took yesterday off, though. I went fishing with Don Wirth, of Bassmaster Magazine. It was a lot of fun.

He does a feature every other month called “a day on the lake.” He follows you through your day. You fish for seven hours, You go to a strange lake, somewhere you’ve never been. They write a story about it.

We went to a little lake in West Tennessee, Pine Lake, between Memphis and Jackson. It wasn’t a bad day. My best five weighed about 14 pounds.

This kind of water in middleTennessee is a little more like what we’re going to see at Clarks Hill. We’re coming off the west coast trip where the weights almost aren’t realistic. Those fish are huge. At Clarks Hill, normally we’re searching for 12 to 15 pounds a day. You won’t won’t see those 30-pound sacks that had out west.

Talking about Don Wirth, you know, that was really nice being on the lake with him. Bassmaster Magazine is kind of the Time Magazine of the fishing world, so it was nice to be able to do the story.

Well, this wasn’t what I hoped for, but I feel the same way I did yesterday.

I gave it my best shot, and I knew when the wind picked up I was going to have get a few breaks. I didn’t get the breaks and I didn’t make anything happen myself, so I’m out of this one.

Oh well, there’s another tournament coming up in a few weeks… Clarks Hill.

It’s Sunday morning and I’m just sitting around planning the rest of the day, trying to figure out whether I’m going to be able to fly out of here today. Instead of fishing, I’m spending this morning returning the phone calls that piled up on me during the week.

It’s difficult to run a business and compete on the Elite Series tour. I hope to get to the point where the tour is my full-time business. That way I could take about three or four weeks and go to Lake Amistad or out here to California and learn how to fish with these swimbaits.

But I’ll tell you this. It was a great tournament. And what a lake. I’m looking forward to coming back.

Day 3 at the Golden State Shootout wasn’t everything I hoped it would be.

I had a great deal of success on day 2 and thought day 3 would bring me some luck sight fishing. Well… it didn’t work out that way. Click the play button below to hear my thoughts on the downsides of sight fishing in this audio clip.

Click Here: