I had five bites today, nothing spectacular, this is a big lake and covering water is an issue.  The water temperature is cold 49-51 degrees and with falling air temperatures, it could get colder. I cannot get a feel for what this lake is capable of yet. I didn't set the world on fire with my fish today.

Tomorrow, I am going to the dam and I will crank rip rap and I will also back off a little and see if I can find a better bite.  I am a little confused, the lake size limit is 12" but there is talk that the tournament will require a 14"-15" size limit.  If that happens I could be in trouble, I don't think I caught one beyond 13" today, the fish seem to be on the smallish side.

3/02/05 Pre Fish Day Two 

I got a few more bites today including one about 4 and half.  The bigger fish came off the bank in a little bit deeper water, in a pre spawn type spot.  I will definitely spend my time tomorrow looking for some bigger bites.  I am feeling pretty good about being able to crank a limit, but will need a better fish to do something special in this event.

A couple of days ago I wrote about my experience on Guntersville the final day.  I needed a good bag to get a chance to move up.  I made a big run to where I thought I would find some better fish and when I got to the spot, the conditions had changed. I made a slight adjustment, but that didn't produce, so I went back to fishing my "sure thing," which means my limit producer.  I fell back on what I thought was a safe mode to be in.  As it was, it wasn't safe, it didn't produce enough bites for me, and I left Guntersville feeling frustrated.

What really frustrates me is that when I discovered that the water had fallen, I immediately had an overwhelming feeling that I should go and fish the ends of docks, as that is where the fish that had been in 1-3 feet of water would likely pull off to.  I didn't make the adjustment, my instincts told me to make and I didn't catch the fish the way I could have.  I don't know if I would have them as good as Zell Rowland did, but the troubling thing to me is that I had an intuitive feeling that I should go and flip the edges of docks, and I didn't listen to my intuition.

I went to safe mode instead of attack mode.  At this point, I am way back, and will need good finishes in my last three events to have a choice.  I am going to concentrate on my thoughts while I am fishing each day, and if an idea comes to me, I am going to act on it, instead of ignoring it. Zell Rowland was able to free his mind and to fish his instincts.  This week it is my turn.  I have already proven that I can crash and burn fishing safe, it's time to turn my fortunes over to my intuition and just go fishing.

It's show time.  I have two things going on, and inside worm bite that produces 13" keepers and an outside crank bait bite that seems to work better when the water temperature comes up in the middle of the day.  The outside fish are better fish in the 2 1/2 to 3 pound class, but they seem to bite when the water warms.  It has been so cold at night that the water temperature falls, and I just think the mornings are slower.  I believe the bigger fish are moving shallow to warm themselves in the mid afternoon, that is why I think my bigger bites have come later.

I plan to crank my way into the inside areas where I have caught the worm fish, just in case there are some takers.  I expect to worm fish for the first three or four hours and then to move to the outside and crank.  I am very happy with the way my Lamiglass reaction rods are handling the cranking that I am doing.  I have plenty of leverage for hook sets and the rod takes care of the fish, really wares them our well, which makes putting them in the boat easier.

I think twelve pounds a day will put a guy way up there.  There are a lot of fish in this lake and they are biting.  Someone will catch them good, I am convinced.  I am hoping to get a limit and add a couple of 3 pounders  to it.

Day 1: 5 fish 8-12 (68th place)

I was a little surprised by the overcast conditions we had today, which just goes to show that it is always something.  The patterns that I had established during pre fish were bright sun based.  The worm fish that I was so sure about were on brush piles, which with the cloud cover, those fish were not tight to brush.  When I arrived at my first spot, the fish were actually busting shad in the middle of the pocket.  My co-angler caught two of those on a fluke.  I felt certain that those fish would eventually land back on the cover, and when I returned later in the day, I was able to catch the fish off the brush piles.

I am close friends with Frank Ippoliti, the angler who is leading the tournament, in fact, we actually practiced together.  As I mentioned, I was aware of the crank bite that he is on, but he is doing it a little bit differently.  He is fishing a shallow diving bait on spinning tackle, in fact he is using a Lamiglas Rod that I lent him.  He is burning that crank bait, and the bites are coming from fish that are totally reacting.  He throwing the crank bait up on shallow points, and burning it.  The cold water kind of goes against the fast retrieve, but the fish are wanting it that way.

Today, I am going to the crank fish first, kind of going at it the opposite of yesterday.  The forecast calls for warming, and bright sun, which makes me think the worm fish will be on those brush piles during the afternoon.  I also think some bigger females may move up to those piles to warm themselves.

Day 2: 5 fish 5-14 / 14-10 (78th place)

I went to my cranking areas and gave it a real honest effort, the fish just didn't bite, I know now that the bait was moving very quickly and towards the backs of creeks, with the bait, the bass moved as well.  With about and hour and half left, I abandoned my search for bigger bites and ran to my limit spot where I caught a modest limit in about 40 minutes.  With the remaining time, I tried for one big bite that never came.  All in all, I didn't fish chicken, I did the right thing, and it just didn't work out.  I missed the money by 8 oz.

I stayed in town the next day and ran way up river, just to go fishing, take a look around, took out my flipping stick and slayed them.-go figure.