Wednesday, March 16, 2016
> Day 1: 4, 6-11
> Day 2: 5, 9-14
> Total = 9, 16-09
It was another bad tournament for me. The lake's fishing like it normally would in mid-April and I came in with too many preconceived ideas that it was going to fish like it normally does in the middle of March. I tried to catch pre-spawn fish from the shallow, dirty water and it did not work. It did in practice, but everything cahnged so much this week with the 80-degree weather and all the fish going on beds.
Where I was they were on the beds, but in the dirty water I couldn't see them and they became super-hard to catch. It's really hard to catch the females unless you're looking at them.
(On day 2) I picked up a spinning rod with a wacky-rigged Senko and had 20 keeper bites, but they were just all small ones. I abandoned everything and fished new water after day 1 was such a disaster. It's just a terrible way to start the year.
I may be mathematically out of making the Forrest Wood Cup after two tournaments. I don't think I can make it even if I win the last four. It's just ridiculous and I need to get things figured out.
Practice Recap
I've had a little virus so I've been a bit under the weather, but I'm battling. I was glad to have (Wednesday) off.
This will be a fun derby. We've had chamber-of-commerce weather and all of the flowers are pollenating and the trees are blooming – spring definitely sprung during practice. There's a lot of fish moving up to spawn and I imagine there'll be big bags caught off the beds (on day 1).
I remember the first time we came here in 2011, I started on the beds that year and I had five 3-pounders marked. I caught the first one, then there was a boat on every other one. There were like a hundred guys running the pockets.
I may look around a little during the day, but sight-fishing isn't something I'm going to focus on. I think I can catch some good ones other ways. I looked a good bit during practice and there was eye candy everywhere, but I didn't find anything over 2 1/2 pounds. I'll do something else and then maybe check a few pockets.
