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Pickwick Elite Series

Brent Chapman – Day 2
Thursday, April 7, 2011

B.A.S.S./Seigo Sato
Photo: B.A.S.S./Seigo Sato

> Day 1: 5, 12-02
> Day 2: 5, 16-12
> Total = 10, 28-14 (55th)

Luckily it wasn't a horrible finish. We recovered a little bit today so that helped points-wise.

I did exactly what I did yesterday. I went flipping and kept the flipping rod in my hands all day and caught today what I thought I could catch each day. In hindsight, I never had a big bite all tournament. I just never had a big bite. The weights overall were about what I thought they'd be. I probably caught 60 to 80 fish in 2 days, and just thought I'd get fortunate, but I never got a single 4-pound bite. To tell you the truth, I don't know what I would have done differently.

That current stuff is a whole different ballgame, so I don't know how it'll hold up, but I think there were too many people flipping. There's a few key areas and I don't think the fish are getting a chance to rest. I think with half as many people beating up on them they're liable to catch them tomorrow.

I'm not sure what happened to the big bites, but I'd say the big fish have not moved up. I'd have thought they would have by now. But to tell you the truth, a lot of those 2- and 3-pounders look like females. They're just fat and probably full of eggs. There may not be as many big fish as we think in this lake, because they should be moving up. They should be here. We're definitely not seeing as many 4-pound-plus fish as we thought.

The night after the tournament ends, you're kind of bummed you didn't make it, because making those checks is so important. But in hindsight you have to look at the big picture. It's still a decent finish and we should still be okay in the points. Hopefully we can go make it up next week at Toledo Bend.


Brent Chapman – Day 1
Wednesday, April 6, 2011

> Day 1: 5, 12-02 (72nd)

I had a lot of bites and everything, but I'm still kind of just shaking my head. I don't know what I did wrong. It started out a little bit slow for me, but then I got a lot of bites. I just had no big bites at all. I caught everything that bit – just no good ones.

I caught mine flipping and it looks like the females showed up for everybody else who was flipping today. I simply don't know what happened. I had the flipping rod in my hand all day and fished areas where I got a couple of key bites in practice. So I'm a little frustrated that I didn't get any big bites. At the same time, it's worse when you go out and have the bites and don't put them in the boat.

Tomorrow I'll start out doing what I've been doing, and I'll probably keep flipping, but I'll expand my water some. I'm going to run some new water – some of the stuff I fished last year. I'm not going to do anything crazy. I know what I'm doing is right.

Brent Chapman – Practice Day 3
Wednesday, April 6, 2011

The conditions were real different today – clear and cold – but I still had a fair amount of bites. I tried some different water, got a lot of bites there, but the water had definitely gotten muddier in a lot of places.

With the factor of Wilson being not available to fish – we can only be on Pickwick itself – I think it's probably going to fish pretty small. But with some fish getting on beds and everything, it should be a really good tournament.

The water level actually came up a couple inches by the dam, but I think they're supposed to let some water out. We'll see.

I pretty much know what I'm going to do, which is the same thing I've been doing all year – flip a little 3" Tightlines UV Beaver. I've got two or three different places I want to fish and hopefully I can just get in there and hunker down and get five quality bites.


Brent Chapman – Practice Days 1 & 2
Tuesday, April 5, 2011

B.A.S.S./Gary Tramontina
Photo: B.A.S.S./Gary Tramontina

I'm getting lots of bites, but I don't really know what kind of bites they are. The few that I caught were 2-pound fish, which to me says that a lot of those 1 1/2-pound fish we caught last year are 2-pounders now. Every fish you catch is about as fat as it can be. They're super fat, so they definitely haven't spawned yet. I think a lot of the fish are wanting to spawn, and probably some are. I just think we're going to catch a lot of weight here.

I hate to say this, because I don't want to jinx anything, but the bushes could really use a little less water. I think the lake's a little too full right now. A lot of the bushes I'm flipping have 4 to 5 feet of water, and I'd like to have about 3. I think if we could lose about a foot of water, it would make the fishing even better.

Now that the cold front's through, today might be a little tough with bluebird skies, cold and wind. Even tomorrow morning might still be a little tough. But once the front is through I think we'll have some pretty good fishing.

I plan to fish south today for my last day of practice. I wanted to go there yesterday, but with the wind, I stayed up closer to the launch. There really wasn't any grass down there last year, so I don't expect there to be any this year. It certainly didn't hurt the fishing last year. And I assume there's probably some sight-fishing down there, but I don't expect it's going to dominate this event like it did in Florida. I'll get a better feel for that today, but there are just too many other things working right now.

What's odd is that it seems like whenever we come to Pickwick lately, we get these major weather events. Yesterday was pretty sunny but everybody was getting off the water at about 2:00 because of the major storm coming. Those who didn't get off early paid the price. I was sitting at the boat ramp watching them come in after the storm and it was real rough out there. The wind really kicked up and the guys who didn't get off in time took a beating. But it wasn't like last year. That was brutal.

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