With my partner out and no prefish I decided to fish to my strengths. The weather was steady and warming but the water was falling. I had pretty much everything rigged up just in case.
I started throwing a jerkbait and squarebill along with a deep crankbait on the steeper parts of the bank. Nothing seemed to be drawing a strike, so I went to a shakey head and dropshot. Without a bite I made a move up lake and threw a chatterbait along with the shakey head and jig, but couldn't get a bite going. I decided to keep moving up river hoping I would find something. I found some shallow trees and bushes and threw the chatterbait throughout the whole flat, with only one chaser. I decided to idle further up river and saw some baitfish activity on the surface and on the graph near a breakline. I threw a Alabama rig through the fish but couldn't get a strike. I pulled out the trusty Carolina-rig and tossed it around the brush and gravel drop.
At around 10am I got my first bite, a solid 2+ keeper. A few casts later I caught another one. Within a few casts I missed another one that I couldn't reel fast enough to catch up to it. I finally has a pattern and decided to work the entire flooded trees throwing the Carolina-rigged Brush Hog. Over the next hour I filled out my limit and was culling fish. They were buried deep into the trees and I had to almost drop it directing into the trees after pulling over them. The bite stayed steady until about 2pm but I decided to make a move as I wasn't culling up in weight and due to losing concentration, I was losing and breaking off fish. I went back towards the ramp stopping at each reef I normally hit. There were fish there but they were all smaller than what I had in the box. I made a last ditch effort to cull on some islands and caught two more but they just weren't big enough to cull what I had.
I finished 15th with 9.00lbs and know I cost myself a top 10 if not top 5 or better by losing the fish earlier. All in all though, I was happy with how things turned out. I went out there with a game plan of having fun and not having any ridiculous expectations. I had a great day with a limit to show and a few lessons learned as well. I almost dare not say I am looking towards the next tournament at Lake Pleasant on the 22nd of February, but hopefully my partner will be healed from surgery and will be able to join me as it will be a tough tournament.
