Guess it was no way to practice - as a matter of fact, practice may have
hurt me.

I started the tournament on a bank a local guide told me about - a
client had lost a 7
pound plus fish there earlier in the week on a topwater plug. We
stopped there a
few minutes after six and I caught a 13.5 inch throwback on a
spinnerbait on the
first pass off the rocky point at the end of the bank. Second pass I
got another 13.5
largemouth and a small hybrid on a crankbait. Next and final pass
produced another
13 inch throwback largemouth. Partner threw a buzzbait the whole time
without a
hit. I also tried Pop-R and buzzbait but did no good.

We ran up to the place I caught five keepers in the tournament two weeks
ago and
worked the seawalls and docks. Finally got a 2.5 pound keeper on a
spinnerbait on
a dock post. We kept fishing them until about 9:00 then I went to my
favorite
rockpile. Got a bunch of hits on a Mag2 worm and drop shot but could not
hook up,
then finally hooked one - a 14.5 inch keeper. We fished that area for
another 30
minutes but no more bites.

Two weeks ago I had four shallow fish before 10 and got one on a deep
point after
lunch. The day before the tournament I had caught a good 3.5 pound bass
off a deep
point at 10:45 so we decided to abandon the shallows and go deep. First
point we
stopped on my partner got a 14 inch keeper on a Carolina rig and I got a
13 inch
throwback.

We went to the point where I had caught the 3.5 the day before and
started fishing it
at 10:30. I got three short fish there - they were THAT close, but did
not touch the
14 inch line. We stayed on it for over an hour but never got a keeper.
Spent the rest
of the day - 4 hours total - fishing deep points and that first fish my
partner got was
it.

Day seemed perfect for shallow fish - heavy clouds and a fair amount of
wind. Now
I am second guessing myself - thinking I should have stayed on the docks and
rockpile all day. I placed 9th with 2 weighing 3.7 pounds - only took 5
weighing
7.2 to win, one limit out of 19 folks. Big fish was 4.2 pounds and he
took second
with 6.7 pounds, third was 4 at 6.4 pounds and fourth was 5 pounds.
Pretty tough
day for most of us - winner had fish on top and worms, second came on worms
except for big fish on crankbait and third came flipping jigs to docks.
He said he
had on two other keepers that he lost.

Maybe I guessed wrong. As Rich said, sometimes you don’t need practice.
I placed
second two weeks ago without any time on that lake in over two months.
I keep
thinking that one 3.5 pound bass would have put me close to first. But,
one more
keeper would have moved me up to about 5th.

Amazing how easy it is to guess wrong when it comes to bass fishing -
for me at
least!