My partner and I hit the river yesterday for ABA. It was a frustrating
start. At nine o'clock we had completely circled our favorite backwater
once and had not put a keeper in the boat. Kalib ask me why I wasn't
throwing my Hail Mary bait, and I told him I only throw it in desperation
anymore. A little while later he asked how long I had to go without fish
before I got desperate.

I picked it up and pitched it into little brush near a point, and WHAM.
First keeper. It was like that all day. Steady bites on my panic bait.
Nailed a 6+ on an undercut, and a 4+ in a pocket. The 4 hit three times
before I got it in the boat. Kalib backed up my fish with a 5+ and we
culled our small fish were about 2.5. I don't know how many fish Kalib
boated, but I boated more than a dozen keepers. We wound up with 20.3 lbs
for second place, and my 6+ was biggest bass.

Today I fished the YVRGC derby and tried to duplicate the performance. Some
folks did well. I saw several 5s and 6s waiting at weigh in, but my biggest
was only 3.4, and I had 2 1.5s to go with it (3 fish bag). I caught fish
all day long on the same pattern as yesterday, but never managed to get any
big ones in the boat. Sadly I have to admit part of that was no doubt
execution. I should have respooled that rod last night, and today I broke
off 4 fish. Also after fishing all day yesterday I was a little slow and
tired today. I probably would have boated a couple of those break offs if I
had retied more often, and thought to back off the drag a little. Oh well.
Still, I caught easily more than 20 fish today.

Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com