Murray Elite Series

Brent Chapman – Day 2
Friday, May 13, 2011

> Day 1: 5, 09-03
> Day 2: 5, 07-13
> Total = 10, 17-00 (63rd)

The last couple of tournaments, I underestimated the weights. Here, I guess I overestimated and probably fished a little more aggressively than I needed to. I was talking to a couple of the pros this morning, and in a tournament like this – especially if you're relying on the herring spawn – those first couple of spots are really key to getting a decent bite early. Both days, I never had a fish until 9:30 or 10:00. I should have just slept in.

Then I was scrambling around trying to put five in the boat. Each day I had one 3-pound bite. Everything else was little.

For my starting spots, I didn't have some special, magical spot. I was just kind of running a pattern. I had places where they'd been busting bluebacks, but I'd pull up there and not get any bites. I just never got the momentum going in the mornings like I needed to.

This puts a lot more pressure on us the final two events. I finished better today than I thought I was going to, but realistically, unless I win one, I don't know what I need to have to make the Classic. We'll see. Maybe I need two Top 10s. But this is four tournaments in a row without cashing a check.

It's probably the worst slump of my whole career. It's really humbling and like a punch in the stomach. We'll go home and take this time off and regroup and get back to making this fun again. We'll come back with a vengeance in these last two.

Brent Chapman – Day 1
Thursday, May 12, 2011

> Day 1: 5, 9-03 (63rd)

I'm still just shaking my head. Are we really on Lake Murray, when West Point blew this place away as far as first-day weights?

You know, as fishermen, we think we know a lot and all that, but today showed that we fishermen as a whole still have a lot to learn. There were some decent bags caught, but what's weird is I didn't talk to anybody who caught fish before 10:00. That was the predominant deal here and it sounds like it just died. It's a crazy puzzle.

What I can say is that after today, I could care less if I ever see another striped bass in all my life. You always hear people say that stripers ruined their spot, and that's what happened to me this morning. I was hoping there'd be some bass in with the stripers – the area was just prime – and I stuck with the schooling deal until about 9:30.

Then I had to do something to put some fish in the boat. I ran up the river to my backup stuff and caught 7 1/2 pounds in the first hour and 15 minutes. I really thought there'd be some better quality up there. It didn't pan out, but it was better than nothing. The sixth or seventh one I caught up there was guarding fry – it was my best one at 2 1/2 pounds – so I ran back down the lake to where I'd seen a bunch doing that. I fished an hour and a half. Nothing. With 30 minutes left I pulled up to some docks and caught a 3-pounder on a shakey-head. It helped.

It's definitely not where I want to be after the first day. We're in striking distance though and the weights should jump around a bunch tomorrow, so we're going to try to mount a big comeback.

Brent Chapman – Practice Wrap-Up
Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Practice wasn't real good from my perspective. I wish I could say it was good – I've seen a fair amount of fish, but they're just cruising around these points. If you don't catch them first thing in the morning, it's tough. It can just really frustrate you because it's so hard to get them to bite other than first thing in the morning.

The fish aren't as far along as they were last time we were here, and overall, I think fewer points are good. Last time it seemed you could run more of a pattern and catch one here, then one there. Now it's more about the spot – which point's good and which one isn't.

Typically for the last day of practice you have something and you're able to go and expand on it for a few hours. I thought I figured out something late the first day, but I went back to key areas of it yesterday and couldn't get anything to happen.

I have a feeling some guys are going to catch them pretty good though. We're at Murray – there are too many good fish and too many good fishermen. I think it's going to take some pretty solid weights to get paid and make the cut, but a lot of it depends on the weather. If we get 4 days of bluebird skies and no wind, it could make it a little tough.

Brent Chapman – Practice Day 1
Monday, May 9, 2011

Once again I realize that I really don't like blueback herring. You always hear about how Murray used to be, and you look at how beautiful the flooded bushes look – the shallows just look awesome here – and this time of year, you should be able to flip the bushes. But it seems with the blueback herring in the lake now, the bass don't care about the bushes anymore. I'd heard that, and it seems true. It's interesting how bluebacks can change a fishery – as high as the water is and how beautiful the shallow water looks, the fish still relate to the blueback herring. It took me most of the day to come to that realization, and now I'm going to make the most of it.

I'm not saying there won't be some fish caught in the buckbrush and willows – there are still some spawners and some fry-guarders – but it's not the Lake Murray of the '80s and '90s I remember reading about when everybody used to flip them out of the bushes.

I tried to do what I wanted to do today and it didn't work. When I started fishing the way I probably need to be fishing, I started to get a few bites. So I'll try to expand on that tomorrow, try to stay in the clearer water and really try to find as many spots as I can, because this is really going to be a spot deal. You have to find the right areas and just keep moving back and forth on them until they pull up and you hit them right.

The lake's about as full as it can get right now – any higher and the water would be up in people's yards – and in the afternoon the water's about 75 degrees. It looks like we've got some pretty decent fishing weather this week and I'm definitely ready to get back on track. I finished 67th at West Point, but didn't fall as bad I thought in the points. We're definitely still in the hunt and just need a good tournament here.