Wissota E50

I fished a lot of little spots where smllmouth congregate today, but I caught just one fish. It was frustrating because Kevin (VanDam) was fishing the same general area I was, and I saw him catch two of his fish. He was throwing a different bait. I was fishing cranks and worms. So I had the wrong bait. I maybe could have had a couple more fish.

But anyway, I felt good about practice, and felt I'd picked the right area. The one I did catch I caught spit-shotting a little 4-inch Berkley Power Worm.

Tomorrow it'll be clear and sunny, so they might bite the worms better. It's just a tough, tough tournament. Whenever you're looking at 5 pounds to the make cut, sometimes it's just a lucky bite too. You can't think too hard in a tournament like this. You just have to go fishing

The practice rounds have been pretty tough. I caught like one 3-pounder each day, and a couple of smaller keepers. I was catching two or three keepers a day – which is about par with the rest of the guys.

It's a real tough bite. There's very little largemouth habitat in this lake, so I concentrated on smallmouths. I was trying to fish current breaks.

This lake fishes more like a river than a lake, with little turns, eddies and current breaks the smallmouth are relating to. So that will be my strategy: hit main-lake points that are hit by the current. I'll fish those little places where the smallmouth congregate.