I guess I made the right decision to fish the Top Six and not the Southern
Classic - really hated to miss that trip and hope the two never conflict again.
Sounds like you guys had the usual fantastic time and actually caught fish this
time!

Thanks for the nice comments - yes Warren, I was using your old trolling
motor. And the competition is fairly tough - as was the fishing. We had 85
teams, about 500 people there. The winner ran away with it - 31 pounds. Second
was 23 pounds - I placed 7th with 9 keepers in two days weighing 17.9 pounds.

There was no off-limits this year so I went down on Tuesday, arriving at after
lunch. I fished for about 4 hours that afternoon and got on shallow fish on
Senkos - caught 6 or 7 keepers, the biggest was 6 pounds or so. Also had a 3
pounder, but those fish were right around Lake Point and I knew they would get
beat to death in the tournament.

On Wednesday two guys from my club came down to help me. They fish the lake a
lot and build brush piles on it. They were not fishing the Top Six. One of
the places they showed me was a series of brush piles on an old road bed
running across a huge flat. 200 yards from the bank the water was only 6 feet
deep.

We got a 5 pounder and another 17 inch fish there, and caught about 9 good
keepers that day. They showed me about a dozen places that should hold post
spawn fish.

Thursday I fished a few hours - had ridden home with the club members to get my
truck. I was camping in my motor home and did not want to be stuck with only
it. I again found a few shallow fish, this time on a Carolina rigged lizard.

Friday was registration day and after that I went to Walmart and spent about a
hundred dollars - that is why they like us coming to a lake for the top six -
500 fishermen spending money! I again fished for a few hours and caught a few
more fish, the shallow pattern seemed to be pretty good.

Saturday and Sunday I checked out some new spots, spending most of the time out
on the river channel looking for deep fish. Seemed the further I got from the
bank and the deeper I fished, the smaller the bass. I did not find anything
that really interested me. The guys in my club said the shallow bite was way
off, and a big tournament weigh-in that day seemed to confirm the fishing had
gone down hill drastically.

Sunday afternoon I drew a partner from a fairly local club but he said he would
go whereever I wanted - he really did not have anything to go to. My second day
paterner was from all the way across the state on the coast and was not real
familiar with the lake.

I will post the two tournament days in a follow - up message.
Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com