Second day at Smith Mountain Lake: Still in the lead - barely

It’s Day 2. Smith Mountain Lake. I had another good day today, but not as good as Casey Ashley, who pulled in 22 pounds and he’s right there. But I feel good.

I had a fantatic day yesterday. Caught 19 pounds. I dropped a little today, down to a little over 14 pounds. I’m still in the lead, even though I lost my margin some.

But I’m really proud, because on Day 1 I caught most of them in deep water, about 19-20 feet of water. And mostly around mid-day. I didn’t get the early bites the way a lot of the guys did.

Today I didn’t get the deep bites. They did not pull water. As a result, I wasn’t able to pull them on the deep humps. So I went to Plan B. I went up on some shallow bars. Back in some creeks. On Boat docks. All of my shallow water plans, I went to them.

I sort of ran back and forth between deep and shallow, hoping to get a few deep bites. But you’re going to have days like this up here, especially this time of year. The fish are here today, gone tomorrow. I’m just happy I was able to recover.

Plans for tomorrow? My hands are in the air. My mind’s open. I’m leading by 13 ounces. I don’t want to make mistakes.

I’m hoping my deep fish will come back. And I certainly intend to fish for them.

Maybe we can put together another 14 or 15 pounds tomorrow.

But overall, I’m having a fantastic time. What can I say?