Rusty

saturday: went down to try and find some fish for an upcoming tournament. spent saturday midlake, started the day fishing the outside grasslines, caught a couple on a MOAB buzzbait. ran around and looked at some more grass edges and mats. started flipping some docks and got a few bites. ran around looked at some more grass and mats, got stuck in one mat when the motor overheated, took a while to get out.  flipped a few more docks and got a couple more bites. went back the grass and mats with no love. sunday: ran up the river and fished my way down river with topwater. caught a few spots when i got around rock without grass. caught a couple of largemouth around grass. got back down the river and went into a big creek and spent the last couple hours fishing grass and mats without any love.

Brian, Collin and I went over to try and find some off shore fish, spent pretty much all day looking. saw scattered fish here and there but couldnt get a bite. mixed in a little grass mat fishing but still no love. back to the deep, found one little ledge/point(13-15') that had a few on it and actually got 2 bites, i jumped off a spot at the boat and Brian caught one. tough day for us.

fished the friday night derb with Gray, spent what was left of the daylight hours out deep on a place that had LOTS of fish on it but could not get a bite(later found out that there been a LOT of live bait fishing going on, on that place). after dark we fished around some grass, finally caught one keeper on a worm and Gray missed a couple. literally caught one keeper all night.......ugh! this is what i get when im not out there staying on the fish.

went over to fish the song writers tournament, ran around on friday pretty much committed to staying shallow although i did look at some ledge stuff. fished a bunch of grass with no love but did get a few bite on topwater bites throughout the day around rock. Brian(my tournament partner) spent 2 days looking out deep and found a few schools of fish and a mayfly hatch down the lake.   so we ran down the lake to try and take advantage of the mayfly hatch, not a sniff. started jumping out to the ledge stuff, 2 catfish and a white perch. started fishing isolated brush and targets, still no love. at 1030 we pulled the plug and ran to teh area where i had gotten the topwater bites. one 6" meanmouth was it, spent the rest of the day running that topwater pattern and it just never happened.   talked to a trusted fellow competitor that informed us that the current and the fish got right on the lower lake around 1030....UGH!!!! took 3 for 20+ to win

went up the river to explore some new water, started the day covering with the RW Series V-Twin and pretty much never put it down. caught fish pretty much all day and caught some good ones, most were relating to rock and wood that was close to deep water. the fish i caught shallower were relating to wood. best 5 would have been 23+lbs, was good day  

fished the ABA Open Series, started out deep and caught a couple of keepers. went shallow to try and catch  some better fish, flipped around shallow wood and caught a few more fish, finished out a limit and culled once or twice but never got a good bite. ended up with 9+lbs, took 23+lbs to win

fished the thursday evening derby with Collin, started on a deep school of fish and stayed on them the entire time. caught 7-8 fish, of the fish we caught, caught one almost 4lbs on a crankbait and the other 2 on a ned rig(one of which Collin caught). ended up 5th with 9+, took 12+ to win  

went down for the ABT100, spent the first day trying to find and fish isolated deeper cover for a big bite but never found it(caught 2 little fish). spent the second day fishing shallower, grass and docks. caught several in the morning on a frog in the grass and then caught one good fish(3.5lbs) around a shallow dock. game day we committed to an area where Brian had gotten several bites over 4lbs. started the day with a frog in the grass and caught several and missed a couple. spent the rest fo the day flipping and throwing a frog around wood and grass. ended up with 5 for 10.59lbs and 28th place.  took 15lbs to win  

fished the monday evening derby, started on a deep point/hump, there were fish there just ahrd to get them to bite. managed to catch 3 keepers and lost another. 2 on a spoon(at the same time) and caught one and lost one on a ned. spent the last hour plus fishing deeper structure trying to get a BIG bite but it didnt happen. took 12+ to win with 7+ for bf.

went up to fish the bfl, never been there, no practice and it showed. started the day with a flat on the way there. once the fishing got started i ran a couple of marinas looking for shad spawn, saw a few shad doing their thing but didnt get a bite. my coangler caught on short on a spinnerbait. moved off the marinas and fished down a bank with a jerkbait, caught a short smallie. moved out to a bridge and rolled some baits around to columns, had one knock a bait but didnt eat it. ran down the lake to the dam(like a 5minute run, small lake). fished down the face of the dam without love. moved out to a hump and drug a bait around but without a bite. moved over to steep main lake bank, fished down through there with a glide, no love. rounded the point into a pocket and picked up a twitch bait, had a good fish rise up out of a laydown but not eat it. threw a couple of  other baits at that fish but couldnt get it to eat. moved out to a couple of long points leading into spawning areas and drug a c-rig and ned around but still no love. finished out the day fishing windblown main channel banks with a glide and swim jig but still no love. tough day of fishing for me.