Smith Mt. Elite Series

> day 1: 5, 11-01
> Day 2: 5, 22-00
> Day 3: 5, 14-08
> Day 4: 4, 9-10
> Total = 19, 57-03 (11th)

(Note: Murray was included in BassFan's front-page coverage on days 2 and 3.)

I'm really happy that I made the Top 12 cut on a lake I'd never been to before. But it's frustrating when you don't catch them well on the last day. But I needed the points to get back toward the Classic.

The fish actually bit better today for me today. I caught quite a few, but only seven or eight keepers, and I lost a couple. I caught them mostly on the dropshot again, but I also caught a few on a Basstrix swimbait.

I just didn't get any big bites. I never had one big bite all day. That was the big difference. I'd been lucky every day to get one, but I didn't today.

I was staying in the main lake all week and pretty much fishing outside points. I was right out there in the traffic, and it was keeping things stirred up. It just didn't seem to work too good for me today.

I was fishing depths from 5 to 15 feet, which was actually pretty shallow. I dropshotted a 6-inch straight-tail Roboworm in oxblood.

> Day 1: 5, 12-10 (24th)

I think a lot of guys used up their bed-fish today. I know I used a lot of mine. When I started this morning, I went right to a 2 1/2-pound male and caught it right off. Then I went around the corner and caught another male, and it weighed 3 1/2. And there was a female with him twice his size. She never would commit. I stayed there for an hour and a half and she never came in. That would have made my day.

After that I just scrambled and junk-fished. I caught a couple more bed-fish, a couple on jerkbaits, and looked for some bigger ones. I saw a lot of big fish swimming around that wouldn't bite.

At the end of the day, I found a 4-pounder. I had it bite three times, and missed every one. I spent 2 1/2 hours on that.

I really don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. The structure bite isn't going for me. Everything I have is shallow right now.

This is an interesting little lake, but it's been hit or miss for me. I've caught some 2-pounders, but they have a real penchant here for chasing stuff and not eating. I've seen some really nice fish – up to 6 pounds – but I don't know if I can catch them. They'll chase it all the way out from docks, but they don't seem to want to commit. From what I've seen, it's possible to catch 18 to 20 pounds, but catching them's another story.

I think it's going to be a finesse deal, with some topwaters too. I've got two totally different patterns going. One's basically a spawning pattern, one's totally a post-spawn pattern. One or the other should be pretty good, but I still haven't caught any really good ones.

A good day for me would be 11 or 12 pounds. I'd be pretty happy with that. I think if you catch 9 or 10 pounds you're going to be way down. I think you'll really need a 4- or 5-pounder to pump your weight up.