BFL Hoosier Division 2nd Tourney

[macgyver]

Well Saturday 5/14 was the second of five regular season tourneys. It was held at Patoka Lake in Southern Indiana. The weather prior to the tourney had been stable, and warm. Then Friday night as I was driving from work to the registration, the temps went from 81 degrees to 67 degrees, with some really bad thunderstorms. When I met my partner after the drawing he had me pumped up, telling me how he had been just absolutely loading the boat with some hawgs, and had a pattern that was really working. I slept for about 3 hours before getting out of bed, and heading to the dock to meet him. Got to the dock, at 345am, he showed up at 410am. It was pouring down rain, so the rain suit was already on. We got the boat in the water, and checked in, and then waited for the takeoff starting at 530am. We took off and went to a feeder creek first off, and started fishing. He had been using spinnerbaits the whole 2 weeks prior to the tourney. Well we didn't get any hits, so I started pitching to laydowns, and stumps. Had several little nibbles but nothing of any size, they were Warmouths biting them. I finally got a decent bite after about 1.5 hours, while pitching to a couple of laydowns that were crisscrossed. I set the hook well, and had the fish, but then also had the laydown, and snapped my 20lb Fireline, that I had just retied the night before We both continued with little nibbles and actually caught a Warmouth a piece :P We had tried buzzbaits, and spinners, and some plastics at this point. He decided he wanted to move to his next spot, so we arrived, and both grabbed our spinnerbaits. On the first cast I caught a nice 3lb 5oz LM and boated it, in some weed cover. Now I was getting fired up. We continued into another stump field, and I caught another 8"-9" dink, and the boater caught a 2lb even LM. He then caught another dink in this same area. Well we didn't get anything else from the area at all. But belive me we fishied it. At this point I was thinking OK your pattern is gone, lets try something else. Well he just wouldn't give up on it. So as the day went on, he got more and more panicky about catching fish this way, so we just started going faster and faster, until he saw a fish along the shore, which he spent probably 30 minutes trying to catch. Finally he decided we were gonna start really running and gunning. So we then went to 5 different spots flying around throwing spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits. He caught several dinks on the buzzbait, but nothing bigger than 9". We finally, with five minutes of fishing left, went to a place he wanted to crank on the way to checkin. He caught another dink, and that was it. Made it to weigh in with about 2-3 minutes to spare, with 1 fish a piece. I was disapointed about the results of the day, but at least I did have a decent fish in the livewell. I would have changed tactics, but didn't have a choice it was impossible to use plastics moving at the pace we were, I know I tried. Cranks were out of the question, since it was all stumps/wood, and all you did was get caught up, I know I tried that also. Anyway I did get some points, and am currently in 77th place in our division. My goal from the start of the year was to be in the top 40 to qualify for the regionals. Still got a chance, but I need to catch fish everytime out from here on. Not neccessarily a limit, but at least 1-2 per tourney. There were lots of fish caught, and some nice limits, the Boater side tied with 2 guys at 16lbs 4ozs, the non-boater won with 14lbs of fish. They were all fishing weed beds though not the stump fields. Well another learning experience, and this tourney was better than the last one where I got 0 fish. I just have to figure out a way to catch fish even on high gear, because I don't have a choice of where or how we fish. The next tourney is at the Largest lake in the sate, which is about 1 hour from my home. At least this time, I'll be sleeping in my own bed the night before the tourney By the way the rain only stopped for 1 1/2 hours of the 10 1/2 hours we actually were sitting on the water The temps never got higher than about 65 degrees(air), with water temps being in the lower 70's. It was a long day in all the rain, but it was better than working ;D I will be prefishing the next lake myself, so I can hopefully find some spots to catch a few, without having to solely depend on the Boater knowing what's going on. That is if he will go there :-/ Not a bad day for what I faced, heck I beat my boater ;D

Lizards