went down to fish the Ray Scott National Championship

 

saturday: started practice going to the back of a major creek and fishing a backwater pond, caught one short fish flipping, spent that afternoon out on a flat finding and fishing isolated wood and brushpiles. got a few bites and marked some piles.

sunday: fished main/mid  lake on the second day of practice, tried some shallow grass and fished into some spawning areas without a bite. moved back out onto another flat, marked some more isolated piles and got a few bites.

monday: went down lake, on some rip rap with a buzzbait and swimming a jig but only got 2 bites, ran further down lake started in some water willow, got several bites and a couple of good fish on a swim jig. spent the rest of the afternoon out fishing and finding piles.

tuesday: last day of practice, started down lake again on some different grass but no bites, spent the rest of the day marking piles.

wednesday: first day of tournament, ran down the lake and started in the water willow i got bit so well in on monday, water had come up almost 1 foot since then. water willow was under water, managed one fish. the wind was blowing and made the flats where i had found piles unfishable. caught 2more and weighed just under 7lbs.

thursdday: went back to the water willow again but only got one more fish. spent the rest of the day trying to fish piles. caught 2 good fish from the same pile and ended up with almost 8lbs. wind blew hard and mad the east side of the lake unfishable. made the cut, top half of the field.

friday: started in some brush piles  and continued to work my way down the lake, fishing more burshpiles.  ended up catching 4 for 13+ all from brushpiles and again the wind made half the lake unfishable. made the cut to the top 25 in 10th.

Saturday: started on some seawalls down the lake trying to get a big bite but no love. started fishing brushpiles again in between running my big motor to charge my dead trolling motor battery. caught a 6.71 early and a couple of short fish through the day but a really frustrating day dealing with the wind and no trolling motor. ended up in 10th, not the day or finish i had in mind, as the tournament went on it became more apparent the brushpile bite was the deal and the newer(looked “fluffy” on side imaging or 360) piles were better. Tournament was won out of brushpiles.