Today, I wanted to get as far away from the rest of the field as possible, so I drove just about as far as I could go before launching at a little ramp adjacent to a big stump field.  I was worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way back, so I made sure to GPS the launch ramp.

Wow!  I immediately started catching fish on reaction lures.  I had a limit within the first hour, which included two five pounders!  I covered a lot of water and was able to duplicate my pattern through out the area.  It couldn't be this easy could it?  It never is.

It rained incredibly hard on me today, and before I put the boat on the trailer, I wanted to go back and check the area I had found.  When I got to the area that I  had started in, (limit in one hour area,) the water had risen two feet, and was now muddy.  My first thought was, "I knew it was too good to be true."  I decided to fish through it again to see if the fish had been affected.  Within ten minutes, I had a four pounder in the boat, and decided to leave it alone.

The area I fished today is definitely one of those big gamble areas.  I had to drive, by car, almost one hour to get there, so by boat, I will really be cutting into my fishing time, but I would have been culling four pounders today, it was that good.  My weight would have been over 20 pounds, and I think I could make a cut with one day like that and another day of just an average limit.

I will check the area again on Wednesday and if it is still on, I will commit to the area on day one.  Tomorrow, I will look for some areas that are closer to our launch site.  This was as good a day of practice as I have had on tour.

Slower today.  I did have 6-7 bites in the main lake region, I wanted to see what was going on closer to our launch site.  The water is clearer in the mid lake area. I did run to one of the areas I got bit in yesterday to check it out.  I got bit, and left.  This will be an area that I will run to on day one.  I have nothing to lose, even with a one hour run.

Does color matter?  Check this out.  I was pretty committed to fishing a red rattle trap all day, but after two hours, I didn't have a bite, so I switched colors.  I went to a white trap for about 15 minutes, nothing, a fire tiger, nothing, a gold, not a bite, a white with black stripes zip.  Finally I tied a purple rattle trap on, don't ask me why I even have a purple rattle trap, but bingo, I got bit.

I will be out # 46 tomorrow and I am going to commit to the big run up North.  Pre fish was poor today, not much going on locally around the ramp.  I caught a couple of small fish, I call them "rift-raff," uninvited guests, not welcome in this boat.  I am going to swing for the fences.  I feel like I have a chance, the fish still were biting up there yesterday, so here goes!