MBC Super Teams - Feb. 23 - Bartlett Lake

I had fished a tournament the week before and found the squarebill bite decent, especially later in the day. My partner and I hoped that would be the ticket. The cold, muddy, rising water continued to be a problem at Bartlett. We started off on a short run almost directly across the lake, staying in the less muddy and only stained water. The morning bite was slow but produced a solid 3.26lb largemouth, it was caught on a KVD 2.5 squarebill. After another short fish we made a move towards the marina and continued to throw the squarebills shallow and the 5XD and 6XD on steeper banks. We worked a few coves all day which produced fish throught the day but we could only manage 4, or so we thought, that would keep. At the end of the day we measured on of the fish since it barely kept earlier in the day, it shrunk just enough that we had to toss it back. Well that one fish made all the difference as with its weight we would have finished 2nd instead of 8th. We did take big fish honors though with the 3.26. The squarebill bite was the right idea, as most of the teams besides the winners caught all of their fish on crankbaits. The team that won said they caught their fish early on crankbaits but found an area that they caught over 30 fish on jigs which proved to be outstanding. The next tournament should have some heavier weights as it will be held at Apache Lake.