Clarks Hill Elite Series

Jarrett Edwards – Days 1 & 2
Friday, May 5, 2006

Wow, can you say butt-whoopin'?! The last few tournament days have killed me.

The final few days of practice I found a few quality bed-fish around 3 to 5 pounds each. I had enough to bust about 16 pounds for Thursday competition. In practice, these fish were locked on and you could almost run over them with your trolling motor without them moving.

Well, sure enough I show up and I have the place all to myself to find out that all 11 beds are completely empty. No bank-runners or cruisers, just plain-Jane beds – no bass. I ran 31 miles for these fish and I got burned. No takers and my confidence level was dropping.

I run to my next spot upriver and miss a few on a Yamamoto buzzbait and catch a few shorts on an 1/8-ounce Luhr-Jensen Speed Trap crankbait. I figured I was totally crazy because the bass were hear the day before – what's going on here?

Sure enough, Rick Clunn – the master of bass himself – came out of the same small cut with 19 pounds. That answered my question – that man is a fishing machine. I only weighed three bass for 3-01. My execution stunk, and I lost my last two bass on a Carolina rig.

Friday proved a little better and I weighed a small limit for 7 pounds. Too little and too late for me. Honestly, I totally missed the ball this week. The topwater bite has been going strong on main-lake points, islands and shoals, and somehow I seemed to miss it in a big way.

I'm disgusted with my horrible finish and disappointed that I'll fall from my 27th in the points to probably around 50th. Although we still have 6 Bassmaster Elite Series events remaining, this tournament was critical for me in a large way.

I believe that if I would have had a Top 50 finish here, I would have made the first Major in Texas next week.

Rebecca and I have had a long, stressful week. My dog Stanley of 11 years had come down with cancer several months ago and we had to put him down over the weekend. Sadly, I was not able to be back in Colorado for the event, but he will always be with me in heart.

RIP Stanley – you will be missed.

Tomorrow morning I have some filming to do with ESPN for the Bassmaster show and then it's off to work the expo for Triton, Mercury and Lowrance. After this week we'll head back to Texas to work the Bassmaster Major for our sponsors as well.

Drop by and say hello. And truly, thanks for reading.

John Murray – Days 1 and 2
Friday, May 5, 2006

I caught 9 1/2 pounds on day 1 – mostly on Carolina-rigs and one nice one on a bed. Today I had the same as yesterday – another 9 pounds – and not enough to make the cut.

I started this morning fishing some shallow points like everybody else, with a little custom-painted Rico (topwater). I hooked a nice one and it came right off. It cut me off on a rock. Then it kept jumping with the bait in its mouth for the next 5 minutes. That killed my confidence.

I was fishing some new Berkley line that Skeet gave me. It wasn't like I was throwing light line. It just clipped a rock.

I ended up catching quite a few after that, and my partner caught a 4-pounder. I had my one shot to make the check and I blew it.

I wasn't fishing shallow enough. The active fish were in a foot of water or less, and I'm used to western fishing – the breakline, dark water.

Those fish were up shallower. You'd swear you could see everything out there, but that's where those big ones were.

I definitely want to thank Keith at Powell rods. He overnighted me a couple 734s. It's a new rod he has and it's just awesome. I needed some extras and he got them to me. I appreciate that.

Jarrett Edwards – Practice
Tuesday, May 2, 2006

It's been a tough few days on this big ol' pond. I caught one keeper each day, and both of those barely measured.

Last year here I caught them big-time in clear-water pockets near the dam in 46-degree water on a Yamamoto Senko. The last few days I've not had a bite on the Senko at all.

I'm seeing a few bass on beds, but mostly post-spawn fish and a few guarding fry. I might try to gamble on those. Actually, I don't have any other options. These fish are in the funky 3-week period where they are just about off the beds but don't yet want to eat a lot.

I've been looking for those big schools of giant largemouths that are chasing the blue herring, but have not had any success. They're are out there though. My buddy yesterday had over 20 pounds in 15 minutes.

I'm sitting at 27th in points, but I feel that I might fall here. All I can do is try to catch what bites, but right now not much is happening. Wish me well.

John Murray – Practice
Tuesday, May 2, 2006

I was looking at a 7-pounder yesterday just putting around aimlessly. There's a lot of big, giant cruiser fish that are done spawning. This thing was in the middle of nowhere on a sand bank.

It's mostly post-spawn – especially for the big ones – and it's tough. I can catch them if conditions get cloudy, but yesterday was sunny and a lot tougher.

I plan to go check out the river, but compared to last year, I'm just catching a lot of tiny little keepers.