Monday, April 11, 2016
> Day 1: 5, 11-02
> Day 2: 1, 2-03
> Total = 6, 13-05 (141st place)
I don't know what in the world's going on with my fishing. I only caught one bass today. I didn't lose any, so I don't have that excuse. Everything I was doing just dried up and went away. (On day 1) I caught about eight keepers cranking a Yamamoto Chikara square-bill, but today they wouldn't bite that. I tried a lot of other things after that, obviously.
When stuff like that happens I don't have an explanation. I don't understand what's going on. I have a good practice, and then things change and I don't adjust. That's three times in a row this year, and this one is especially disappointing because I think it's the first time I didn't finish in the money on Beaver. This has always been a good one for me.
I threw a spinnerbait some today and I pitched a jig around, but I couldn't get anything to go. I fished the same area I did (on day 1) and there were no other boats around. I stayed there until noon and I didn't have a keeper bite, so I bailed and ran to other stuff. I tried to make a late rally, but I only caught the one fish for the last 3 hours.
The fishing's been real good late in the day and I was in the last flight (on day 1) and I caught three at the end of the day. (On day 2) I had to be in at 3:15, so that hurt a little. My primary stuff evaporated and I didn't have a lot of time to scramble and find something else.
I'm disappointed because what I was on in practice was good. What changed was some of the water cleared up a lot from practice. It's settling down all over.
Practice Wrap-Up
It looks like I'm going to get a pretty good pitch to hit and I hope I can put a good swing on the ball. It looks like a fastball right down the gut. I'm pretty excited to get started and with the way that I've started out the year, I'm due for a good one.
The lake's fishing really good. Several patterns are working and fish are biting from one end to the other. There's bedding fish at the dam and the mid-section is real muddy and there's a good bite there. The upper end is a lot clearer than the mid-section, but fish are biting there, too. There's a whole myriad of possibilities.
Going in, I've got three different patterns and areas that are working, which is unusual, but that's what you're looking for. You never know if one of your spots is going to be covered up with boats or blown out, so it's good to have a lot of options. Sight-fishing won't be one of the options for me – there's a lot on beds, but there's other ways to catch them. There'll be some good bags caught on the beds the first day.
I don't look for it to take too much more weight than normal to do well. A lot of times practice is good at Beaver, then it tightens up during the tournament. It's not a super-phenomenal bite right now, but it's as good as this lake has ever fished when we've been here. We'll see some bags in the upper teens the first day and several in the mid-teens, then they'll start coming down like they always do.
I like what I've found, but I still have to go out and turn it into a good bag. I've got enough options and one of those three patterns and areas should be working. I can't see all three of them drying up.
Practice – Day 1
Beaver's actually a lot different this time than any other year we've been here – it's funny how we come here every year and it's always a different playing field according to the water level and the clarity. This year they had a bunch of rain in December and January and the lake was high and flooded for a long time. They've pulled it back down to full pool and it sucked mud all the way down toward the dam. It's all settled now and there's a foot or two of visibility all over the lake. It sets up better for a shallow fisherman and it opens up the whole lake to somebody who wants to fish shallow like I usually do here.
I had a pretty good day today. I caught a 5-pounder, which would've been nice to catch in the tournament. The fish were biting a little bit – it was cloudy and breezy, so it was a good fishing day. From what I hear the weights here have been bigger than normal this spring, probably because the lake's got some color in it and the fish are up where you can catch them. I don't know about sight-fishing – there could be some clear water down by the dam, but I didn't go that far down today.
