Sunday - April 20 - Day 94 - six days missed

Second day of two day Spalding County Sportsman Club tournament - Lake
Walter F. George

Got up to cool clear morning - dreaded cold front. Not much wind. We
met up at bridge and there were shad dimpling out over deep water
everywhere.

As we waited a local boat pulled up right off the corner of riprap
where I wanted to fish. Heart sank, but they went up bank, not fishing
riprap. Several of the guys said something about me having a short
run. We took off and I idled to riprap and started fishing.

No shad moving and did not see any following my bait - bad sign.
David and Mark were fishing other end of riprap and I saw them land
two. I did not get a bite. Worked all over that end of riprap - not a
bite at 9:30. David and Mark came over to “my” side - David said he
had five and Mark had three. I told them I had not got a bite and
David said they better go back to the other side.

At 10 I was disgusted to I ran a few hundred yards to a big pond area
where I got four weighing 14.75 in 03 on a similar day. No bites on
spinner bait or Senko pitched into openings in grass. At 11 I came out
and headed back toward bridge. Getting hot and sun was bright, thought
I might as well stay in shade and breeze for rest of day.

Got close and was surprised to see David and Mark on “my” side.
Decided to fish where they had been. Wind had got pretty strong and I
had to fight to keep boat in position.

Second cast with spinner bait a bass thumped it and I landed a solid 2
pounder. Felt a little better. Few casts later another two pounder
hit - two in the live well. Then got a 13 inch bass.

Made several casts without a bite so switched to another spinner bait
- silver and gold blade and white/chartreuse skirt. First cast to
same area got another nice 2 pounder. A few casts later got another
throwback, then another keeper. Then biggest bass of day hit - close
to 2.5 pounds. Limit in the boat at 11:40 - amazing how my attitude
changed in 30 minutes!

I worked that area hard with a bunch of different baits but no bites.
David and Mark came over and started fishing other side of same end
and went on down calm side. I went over to the other side at 1:00 and
caught another 2 pounder on a jig head off the point. Six keepers.
Culled smallest. Kept fishing and got a thump, landed a crappie.

Went in for weigh-in at 2. Butch had another limit and eight pounds
today, David’s limit weighed 11.99, mine 11.95. Final totals - Butch
10 @ 22.18, me 9 @ 19.16, David 5 @ 11.95 - he zeroed first day - and
Mark 4th with 3 @ 6.18 - he had zeroed first day, too. 5th place was
4.61.

Five people zeroed both days. There were four limits - and Butch had
two of them. He was throwing a spinner bait in the grass all day - I
never got bit doing that.

David made the comment that he should not have let me fish “his” fish.
Strange. Wondered if he would have stayed on bridge if he had not
heard me talking. And he went to my side when I was not there -said
they had not had a bite in hour and a half and were bored with looking
at it. Glad he made that decision!