Ever have one of those days when everything.......

went just right? Well, yesterday was not one of them!

I fished my next to last club tournament yesterday. Both clubs I am in have a
two club tournament the first Sunday in December to end our year, so I have one
left. I am in first place for the year in the club that fished yesterday, and
could guarantee first for the year by finishing in the top 9.

I had gone to Sinclair on Thursday to check it out and was real disappointed. I
tried to find deep fish down the lake and found lots of shad and fish around
them down 20 to 25 feet deep, but could not get them to hit anything I tried.
They ignored several kinds and colors of worms Carolina rigged, several baits
on drop shot rigs, crankbaits, spoons and jigs. I finally caught one 12 inch
bass on a Carolina rig.

The surface temp was 66 to 69 degrees and the water has a heavy stain in that
area. I tried a bunch of brush piles from shallow down to 30 feet deep, and
fished several docks with crankbaits and worms. Not a bite. My attitude for
Sunday was not great.

Sunday morning dawned cloudy with some rain sprinkles as we launched, with the
weather guessers promising rain all day. I decided to run up Little River and
fish shallow docks, brush and riprap to try to find something. I kinda thought
about throwing a buzzbait all day hoping to catch a decent fish or two.

By 9:00 AM the clouds had burned off and it was mostly sunny. So much for the
weather forecast.

For over two hours my partner and I did not get a bite. The water up the river
was 60 to 62 degrees and a good color, you could see a crankbait down a foot or
so. There was no breeze and it started to get hot early.

At about 9:30 I started down a shady dock covered bank throwing a buzzbait and
a bass exploded on it. I almost fell out of the boat when it jumped, but
managed to get it to the net. My whole attitude changed when I got a good look
at it in the net - I guessed 3.5 pounds.

We fished everything for the next five hours and both of us landed a throwback.
We could not get bit around docks and brush or on rocks. Nothing seemed to
work. I wondered if anyone was catching fish.

They were. At weigh-in there were four bass over 4 pounds each and two five
fish limits. It took five weighing 12.4 pounds to win and he had big fish with
a 4.27 pounder. My 3.71 pound bass placed me 10th out of 12 people! My partner
was the only zero and I was the only one with just one fish.

First and second place was from the same boat and they culled fish - catching
them around docks on crankbaits up Little River near where I fished all day!
Others caught fish on worms and spinnerbaits around docks.

Another club was weighing in and Larry Lewis hollered at me. He is the state
federation president and the person I bought my Skeeter from. He won his club
with five weighing about 11 pounds - said he had 17 keepers, all on worms
around docks up Little River.

I have no idea what I did wrong. I feel completely incompetent. How in the
world can folks fishing all around me catch limits and me and my partner get
three bites and one keeper? I HATE days like that.

By placing 10th I remain in reach of the guy in second place - if I zero the
last tournament in two weeks and he wins, and gets a limit and big fish for the
club that day, he will tie me for the year. After yesterday, that will probably
happen, or I will get sick and miss the tournament and he will beat me for the
year!

Fritz is coming next week to fish with me for the week and maybe he can help me
figure out Jackson for that last tournament a week from Sunday.


Ronnie

http://fishing.about.com