I don't know what happened. I have no idea. I had five by 9:00 and didn't catch another one the rest of the day. When they quit me, they quit me like turning off a light switch. But 23, 18 and 19 pounds all came off one stretch in the area I fished yesterday morning. My amateur had 18 and another guy had 19 – I didn't know he'd caught them until later.

It was still cloudy and rainy. No rain, but still real cold. I thought I could catch them all day both days, but I didn't yesterday and I didn't again today. I don't understand what happened.

I was catching them on a Storm Husky Jerk jerkbait (silver/black back) with 10-pound Trilene XT. I'd thump it down there, get it to about 7 feet and stop it. When they were feeding, they'd just eat it. I never could figure out what else to catch them on. I tried a Shad Rap, and yesterday my co-angler was pitching a jig behind me, so today I fished every inch of that place with a jig and never got a bite.

I was fishing mainly points, and I had one stretch of rip-rap where I caught several fish. There was grass in some areas, outside grasslines, typical pre-spawn water.

I fished it on a Fenwick Techna AV rod (7' medium) and Abu Garcia Torno reel, and every fish hit it on the stop. Most fish came out of 8-12 feet of water.

Larry Nixon – Day 1 2/26/2004
Three 20-pound sacks were weighed in when I got up there, and I was the 19th boat. Guntersville was alive and well, believe me. But I was worried about the little fish. They must be buried up on the river somewhere because they're not shallow. I caught no non-keepers and only a few 2-pounders, so I guess (the little fish) are still holed-up.

I'll do the same thing tomorrow. I might change up a teeny bit if it's not working well. My partner had 18 pounds behind me on a totally different lure and only had four fish. I told him what I would try in the back of the boat and danged if it didn't work. I lipped a bunch of 4-pounders today (laughs).

I'm hit or miss in cold water. Either I do well or I do horrible. I think I'm on enough fish to make the cut and go on, but I fished a couple of places today where I expected to catch a big one and I didn't. In practice I could call my shots, bur today I couldn't do that.

It will get cold again tonight. I'll figure something out tomorrow, maybe.

Larry Nixon – Practice day 3 2/25/2004
I only fished probably 4 1/2 to 5 hours today. Once it started raining hard, I called it a day.

I didn't really learn anything. I caught a fish or two, and then I thought, I know what I'm going to do for the tournament anyway so there's no sense in doing this. So I quit. I know what I'm doing from a combination of all 3 (practice) days. It's just a matter of fine-tuning a few things, and hoping it will work.

It's 44 degrees and raining right now, and it's supposed to get down to the 30s tonight. The rain may last until the morning. I don't know. It's not too pretty out there. The water is so cold right now that I really don't know what will happen. I don't know how to read it. I'm not the best cold-water fisherman.

But I really think I can catch some. I don't know if I can get a limit or not, but I can catch enough that I should be all right unless everyone just bombs them.

These fish are pretty good-sized. If a guy gets five, he'll have a big sack. You don't catch many non-keepers.

Larry Nixon – Practice day 2 2/24/2004
Yesterday I just checked a lot of old places, areas where I've caught fish in the past. It was a tough day. I only had 2 good fish yesterday.

Today I fished pretty much the same way, but some different areas, different types of water. I think I'm beginning to put together a little gameplan

The fishing is good enough that some dadgum big stringers will be caught, but it's so hard to get started that it could be really tough (for some people). I thought it was awful yesterday, but as you practice, you finally get together what you need to do. I think a bunch of weight will be caught. I don't know if I'll catch it, but I know someone will bust them every day.

I like Guntersville. It has everything a fisherman could ask for. It has a lot of fishable water, so you can get away from people and don't have to fish in a crowd. If you figure out the right little deal, you can catch fish all over this place.

This could be won two ways. Some guy could have a really good pattern down and move around, or someone could find a bar full of big ones, you know how the fish are this time of year. But I haven't found any big concentration of fish. If I catch one, I don't get any more.

Tomorrow I'll look at some more water, areas I haven't been to before, and see if what I have going will hold up. If I can just find some areas I'm comfortable fishing – I'm not too sure a guy can catch too much out of one area so I'll keep moving.