Table Rock Bassmaster

I got all the wind I wanted and then some. It blew like crazy. I'm baffled why the smallmouths didn't bite. I caught one smallmouth, and that was the only keeper bite I had again. Back in my pocket where I was catching all my largemouths, I had about a 5-pounder just kill a spinnerbait but never touched the hook. And it wouldn't come back on it or anything. That was the only decent bite I had on a spinnerbait. I stayed with a spinnerbait a lot today because that was the only way I knew to catch a big sack, and they just didn't bite it.

It's good to have a Top 10, but when you lead it 2 days like that and have a pretty good lead, you don't need to blow it as badly as I did. The only thing I could've done is go to another area of the lake I've never been to before, but that's hard to do when you have an area with a bunch of fish in it. I stayed with it, but they just didn't bite – and I don't know why.

I want to make those E50s. From where I started the year, it would take a pulling off a miracle. But now I think I'm barely in. If I can just stay here (in the point standings) or improve some, I'll make it. The E50s give me another shot at the Classic.

My main pattern was slow-rolling a 1-ounce Mann's Legend spinnerbait (chartreuse/white skirt) in the back ends of windy pockets. It was mostly rock – not much cover was back there. There was one cedar tree where I caught several good fish. I needed murky water from the wind and rain we had, and I got it the first 2 days. The water started clearing up yesterday and the wind quit, and that really killed that pattern.

I patterned the weather more than I did the fish. When the weather changed, it was like night and day for me.

Mann's started making that bait after I won the (Bass Pro Shops) Legends tournament on Table Rock with it. It comes with 3 blades. I was fishing one with 2 nickel and one gold blade, and another with 2 blades. The one with 3 blades is really good around aggressive fish, and seems to catch bigger fish, but when the fish slow down you're better off with 2 blades.

I fished it with a Quantum Tour Edition 7' medium-heavy rod, Quantum 600 PT reel and Berkley Trilene XT 20-pound test (clear).

I was also cranking the sides of pockets with a Mann's Baby 8- (black back, chartreuse sides, orange belly) and caught several good smallmouths with that. I also weighed 2 good smallmouths on a jerkbait fishing main-lake points.

I think I did well in this tournament because I've known the area of the lake I was fishing to have a lot of big fish, of all three species. But the area I fished needs a SE, SW or even W wind to keep the pockets churned up. The weather was perfect the first 2 days. But the last 2 days the wind quit, the night got colder, the water temperature took a hit and killed the pattern.

I spent all 3 (practice) days in that area of the lake. I made up my mind to do that. But what I didn't realize was how badly the weather could kill that area.

Paul and John are again covered in the main story.

Paul and John both made the cut and are covered in the main story.

We played the run-and-gun offense today, and got hit at the line of scrimmage. My partner and I both had zero for the day: zero keepers, zero shorts.

I fished with Marcel Veenstra, and despite the poor fishing, we had a good time and I learned a lot. This is his first year on the Bassmaster Tour and his second on the FLW. He's had some good finishes on both tours, including a 26th last week at Guntersville. He's headed to the FLW on Old
Hickory after this tournament, and I look for him to rebound. He did well at the EverStart Championship last fall there under similar cold water conditions and should do well next week.

Marcel had a tough week of practice, so today we just committed ourselves to the crankbait/jerkbait bite in hopes of coming across a fish or two. Marcel threw a Wiggle Wart all day while I threw a crankbait and jerkbait, about half the time with each.

Weather-wise it was a nice day, sunny with a decent chop on the water. Given the cold-front conditions, I'm sure the guys fishing deeper did better overall. We started out fishing clear water and gravel points. Later in the day we moved to stained water and the backs of coves where the sun was warming the water. We moved around quite a bit, and hit lots of different structure and cover, but couldn't buy a bite. I'm not quite sure what we did wrong today, but I'll be very interested in the BassFan report on this tournament.

With all the running we did, I had a chance to see Marcel's Skeeter/Yamaha rig perform, and I was quite impressed.

This is the last of two Bassmaster events that I will fish this year, and even though I have yet to boat a keeper, I've had a great time with the pros, all gentlemen of the sport: Brent Chapman and Mark Menendez at Smith Lake, and Ken Cook and Marcel Veenstra here at Table Rock. I learned a lot from all of them, and for anyone who hasn't tried this pro-am deal, I highly recommend it.

Paul is in 1st place and is covered in the main story.

John Murray is in 4th and is covered in the main story.

I didn't have any keepers today and only one short, but I still had a fun time fishing and learned a lot from Ken Cook. Ken had three today for 8 pounds plus. After a tough practice, he said he was thrilled to catch what he did today. We saw the gamut of weather conditions today, including a severe thunderstorm that delayed the launch, rain, calm conditions, fog and then
heavy wind late in the day. The water ranged from 1 to 3 feet of visibility. The variance is due to the heavy rains we've had recently, which combined with the wind made the water clarity vary from hour to hour. Water temperatures were in the 45-46 degree range.

The fish we managed to hook were lethargic at best about taking the bait, and definitely weren't in an eating mode. The bites we got were pure reaction bites, and only half-hearted ones at that. One important thing I learned from Ken today is the importance of playing fish out when they aren't hooked well. He played several fish expertly today that could easily have been lost at the boat, and left him south of the money in the standings.

I threw a jerkbait for 90 percent of the day, and alternated between about six different baits, trying to find something they would hit. I varied my retrieve throughout the day, but to no avail. The one fish I did catch (about 14 inches) was only hooked on the rear treble so a jerkbait probably wasn't the best way to go today, hindsight being 20/20 of course. I also threw a spider grub, shakey worm and a jig a little, but had no bites on any of those.

I'm fishing with Marcel Veenstra tomorrow. Oddly enough, he lives about 10 miles up the road from me in Michigan. He didn't have anything today either, so we'll be starting fresh tomorrow. The weather tomorrow? Anyone's guess. It didn't do what it was supposed to do today, so who knows? I'll be ready for some "by the seat of your pants" fishing.

I'm looking forward to another good time, and hopefully more fish.

(The BassFan Army co-angler for this event is Ryan Said, who hails from Wixom, Mich. His first fishing day will be tomorrow.) There's still a good 4 inches of ice on the lakes back home, so any chance to fish this time year is real treat for a Michigan boy. Add to that this being a Bassmaster Tour event and that I'll be fishing with Ken Cook tomorrow, and you have the makings of an incredible experience.

This will be my second event as an amateur, and my first time on Table Rock. Traditionally Smithwick Rogues and Storm Wiggle Warts dominate here when the fishing is good, with hula grubs and 4-inch worms picking up the slack when the fishing is tough. The weather here has been dry and gradually warming over the past 2 weeks, but tonight at tournament registration a huge storm came through with buckets of rain. The rain is expected to last all day tomorrow, which could change patterns drastically. It should be an interesting tournament and I expect to learn a lot from Ken tomorrow.

I had a legendary day – I caught two. I was happy. I just wanted to catch fish. I had two keepers and four shorts – a little more action, at least.

All I'm doing tomorrow is what I caught them on today. I just can't catch them any other way. I'm going for two fish. That's my goal tomorrow, two keepers. Some of the western lakes I've fished have been like this.

Actually I'm fishing one fish. One fish means a lot right now, to get the points. After that I'm just going for it. But one fish in the box will be a major deal for me.

I had kind of a bummer day today. I caught one, the only bite I had. It seems like my bite's going away, but I haven't been back to the stuff I did the first day. I'll go there in the morning though.

It seems like everyone's singing the blues, but I'm sure someone will really catch them.

It seems like the rain and weather are really affecting what the fish are doing. Shad are everywhere, and you can't catch a fish around them. Evidently the fish are staying deep.

I'm 0 for 2. It was a beautiful day, the best one we've had in months. I fished down-the-lake areas because no one was down there. I was fishing deep again, just to make sure those fish weren't down there. I'm pretty sure they're not, at least for me.

I know some shallow fish are going, especially on windy banks. I saw them today. I saw a 7-pounder in a tree. But I really didn't find any spots or areas yet.

I'll keep looking tomorrow, and start running some patterns. It's just tough. I know some fish are in the lake, but I can't figure out to catch them. Sometimes you're just not on it, and sometimes those are your best tournaments and other times they're your worst. It's just a matter of keeping your mind open and keeping after it.

Tomorrow I'll probably take my deep-water rods and lock them up in the rod locker so I can't fish them. I'll fish shallow. I'm comfortable fishing shallow, but this place has so many good-looking areas deep that I can't believe I can't catch them out there. You'd have (those areas) all to yourself.

I didn't have near as good a day today. I caught three good ones. I tried a little different pattern today because with no wind I couldn't get any bites doing what I was doing (yesterday). So I found a way to maybe get a couple of bites in case something like that happens again.

It looks like rain will fall on us tomorrow. I don't know what that's going to do.

I've never fished here before, and it didn't make too favorable an initial impression. I fished deep a lot today, and I never really caught a keeper which is 15 inches on this lake.

Tomorrow I'll fish a little more shallow and (run) the other way. We had real high winds today, and it was hard to work anything properly. I fished fast, and I'll probably have to slow down a little. I'm sort of lost so far. I'll just pick an area and try to get something going.

I've heard stories about this lake for years, and I figured that a spot lake this time of year, it should be easy to catch them throwing worms, shaking them and stuff. But it didn't work today, so tomorrow I'll have to change techniques.

I caught four keepers today, and the wind was blowing so hard you couldn't hardly do anything. The wind blew 30 mph all day. It was awesome. It just blew.

It wasn't cold. It was in the 50s (air temperature) and even got to 60, I think. But the wind was just horrendous. If this lake wasn't laid out like it is, you couldn't even have gotten on it today. The lake doesn't have enough straightaways to get rough at all.

Last time I fished it was the last time we had (Bass Pro Shops) Legends tournaments here. I won it, and then the next year Denny (Brauer) won.

The water temperature on the main lake is 44-46 degrees, and the coves and pockets and things off the main lake are running 46-49 degrees. We're supposed to have a 59-degree day tomorrow with light wind, so the water temperature will come up. That will probably help.

The lake went through that virus. It was an awesome lake, one of the best lakes in the country, and it's coming back. Some 20-pound stringers will be caught, but if you catch a limit of keepers you should have a pretty nice bag because they're healthy fish. But catching a limit might be tough.