The fish was in extra-clear water in the creek I caught fish in last year. I went in there in practice and it was super-clear. You could see everything on the bottom, and you couldn't get a bite in there. But then I went there today and caught one that weighed 2 pounds. Maybe a fast reaction bait got him to react to it. You never know whether it was just one fish or what.

After the tournament is over I'll go out and see how some guys are catching fish for the FLW recap show, and maybe interview a couple of guys. After I recap the winner, I'll head home for 3 days, then fly out for Bassmaster University on Saturday and Sunday, then go to Guntersville.

Day 1 2/11/2004
I never had a keeper bite. I caught trash fish – flounders and crappie, everything but bass. I had a great day out there fishing, but it was a miserable day. The water is coming up so much that it covered my little place up. I stayed in there and fished until around 1:00. Two other boats were in there and they didn't catch any either. Then I went looking around, though of course looking around down here is like looking around in a swamp.

As far as tomorrow goes, I know where another canal is and I'll probably spend the day in it. I hope it's not flooded. We'll see what happens. This is one you don't recoup from. It's very difficult to find an area to fish. And it's flooding so bad so fast, even guys who caught them today might find fresh mud tomorrow.

Some fish were caught today. If you get in the right little hole, you're subject to catch some. But when it starts spreading out down here, you better have a special little hole.

I'm disappointed and madder than crap, but you can't do anything about it. You have to forget what happened today, and hope something better happens tomorrow.

1 day prior 2/10/2004
We were like drowned rats out there today. Terrible, absolutely terrible. It's just rotten out there. I stayed out a pretty good bit. I just went out, ran around and checked a couple of places. I had a bite, but didn't jerk. I guess tomorrow I'll just go fishing, if there's any fish out there to catch.

You never really know out here. It doesn't take but just 2-3 boats in some place to really screw it up. I only have one area. It's a pretty good ways off, and it's the only place I had a bite. If I go in there and 3-4 boats in there, I'll be in real trouble. One was in there today. But you never know whether they got a bite or not, or how they're fishing or anything.

It will probably be terrible, but a bunch of fish will be caught. This place is huge. You have to be in the right little old cut or canal, but it's hard to find anything like that.

My hand is doing great. I'm getting the strength back in it. I threw a spinnerbait 2-3 hours yesterday. I guess you build your fishing muscles back pretty fast when you fish as much as we do.

2 days prior 2/9/2004
Really I haven't seen that much. I found one little old area where I caught 3-4 keepers, but other than that I haven't done any good at all.

This is my second day out here. Yesterday was a nice fishing day, just cloudy and cold all day long, but I didn't really find anything – just that one little area I had four bites in. If I don't find anything else, I'll live and die there. I've had no bites today at all.

It's really been messed up here. They had all that rain, and now it's coming out of the woods. The water in some canals is crystal clear and you can see everything on the bottom, and in the next canal it will be pure mud. It's mixing in some areas. The water level is higher than it was last year. It's not bad – it's a good fishable level, but so much of it is messed up. And it's ultra-cold water for south Louisiana, in the low 50s.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back down to that one area I fished yesterday and see if I can find maybe another place or two I can find some confidence in to fish. I'll also learn my way in and out a little better. It wasn't easy to do. This place is pretty huge. You can wander around here forever and not find anything.