Nice win Bob! And good to hear the oil lasted til ya made it back!

John

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(Bob*La*Londe)
Yesterday BassAddict and I spotted a 3 and a 5 holding in a particular
spot. We tried to catch them, but we had already run the boat over them
twice before we saw them. Oops.
This morning in the Yuma Pro Am tournament (I didn't draw a partner so
was fishing solo) I went right to that spot and started flipping to
them. I got the 3 on right away, and was pretty happy. Then I worked
back towards the spot and made a couple flips "just in case..." BAM! The
five nailed it. I was majorly jazzed. After I got it in the livewell and
my hands quit shaking (my hands weren't really shaking, but I felt like
it inside) I decided, "what the heck." Give it one more try. BAM! Got
one close to four. Yeah that fast.
In my first 15 minutes of fishing I had 3 fish for over 11 pounds. That
was the last one in that spot, but I decided to see if it was a pattern,
and I headed up river looking for similar spots. I picked up a short and
small keeper in the next spot. Of course I headed off again looking for
the same type place. (I had one in mind)
Between my 2nd and 3rd spot I got a low oil warning off the computer.
Oops. Been a while since I filled the oil tank. I was running on the
reserve oil tank of the engine from that point. To be safe I decided I
better head back down river after my third spot.
Spot 3 looked perfect, but they wouldn't take a flip bite. I spent 20
minutes picking it apart. Then I pitched a senko up and let the current
take it through my spot. After a few tries I got a good one, but it
wrapped me up and got off. A new senko and right back to the same spot.
I nailed a little 1.75 apx. That one turned out to be my small fish of
the day. Unfortunately it was deep hooked. By the time I got back down
river it had rolled over so I put it on ice so as to not waste it.
Back down river I headed as my computer display kept telling me how
little oil was left in the reserve tank.
I flipped a bank near Fisher's and caught a couple shorts and a couple
keepers but was only able to cull once. Then I senkoed some backwaters.
In one I spent an hour chasing what looked like a six that just kept
ahead of my boat. It never spooked off, but it wouldn't take a bait
either. In the mean time I picked up several shorts and ignored some
keepers that I figured would be no help. The whole time that big one
kept cruising out ahead of the boat. It was almost acting like a
prespawn cruiser.
Back out to the current for another no help smaller keeper. It might
have culled my dead fish, but that is both illegal and specifically
against the club rules. I just headed back to Fishers' I whacked a
couple dinks in there, and one that might have been a keeper, but
Fisher's didn't show me any love.
What the heck I thought. I figured I probably had fifteen pounds so I
would not be ashamed to show up at the scales. I headed in early and got
everything setup for weigh in.
Turns out my 5 weighed in at 15.01. I did say it was gonna be really
close to 15. Guess what the one I thought was five pounds weighed? 5.01.
With my dead fish penalty I wound up with 14.81, but it was enough for
1st place... and... 1st place big fish. Woo! Hoo!
Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com