I can’t believe the year I’m having. I’m not blaming anyone, I just can’t BELIEVE I’m having this kind of year.

PRE-FISH 

I remember telling myself over and over,  “pre-fishing the delta does you know good”. Guess I’m just a gluten for punishment, I pre-fished my butt off. The water temperature was in the mid sixties, making it right for pre spawn, spawn, and post spawn fish. My approach had been to target pre spawn fish yet keep my eyes open for spawners. During the practice time I never found a spawning fish, at least not in the areas that I was targeting. I did find a decent  frog bite, swim bait bite  and some flip fish. Not looking for bed fish on a more consistent basis was going to cost me.

TOURNAMENT DAY 

I  put a plan together in my mind, early in the morning hit the points with current adjacent to spawning water. My thought being,  the big girls would be fattening up for the spawn later that day. After an hour with no fish I figured it was time to rethink this strategy. So I picked up the frog and started doing what I do with a frog pitching isolated weed lines and tulle pockets, twenty minutes later I put our first fish in the boat. Not the big one I was looking for, a short fish started the day and also set the tone for the day. Not another fish came in the boat till my partner flipped a senko into a current covered tulle line around 12:30, with that a 1.55 Pound bass was taken a ride.  Always keeping our main strategy as our go to at any new area changing tactics often trying to adapt to what we thought these fish wanted became mandatory. We had found some fish around bedding areas but they were not locked on beds, I was at an impasse nothing we did seemed to be right. We were catching the occasional small fish but the big ones were out of reach. Towards the end of the day I decided to fish some marinas that had calm back waters to look for bedding fish, we looked and looked but were just not finding anything. At the very end of a marina on a point near the main river channel I threw my frog out by an isolated grass patch, Boom! The water exploded a  3.95 pound bass inhaled my snag proof frog. That gave us around five and a half pounds, I was feeling that with three more fish of decent size we “might” be getting a check.  I decided to head into franks tract, filling a limit to move up in the standings became a focal point. I knew a check was going to be tough to get,  a win was out but moving ten or twenty points up in the standings would make reaching the classic easier. We ran to a couple places to find bed fish and right of the bat found a solid two Pound fish locked on a bed, my partner fished for it while I positioned the boat. He was having trouble seeing the fish so I took over and put him in after a few casts, the white tube does the job again. We searched for another half hour but never found a fish worth trying to catch. In the end we only weighed in three  fish for 7.56 pounds and finished sixty fourth. That one last fish had moved us up thirteen places two more and who knows.

This tournament was an easy one to forget. The way the winners won the tournament was not, swim baits, frogs and bed fish were the keys to success. Why is that so hard to forget? That was my main strategy all day. I guess and I mean guess, that area was just what kept us from doing well. There are always better spots to try but when you are consistent in an area during pre-fish yet you can’t put together a solid limit during the tournament, something has gone horribly wrong. Hey the seasons not over and my eyes are on the prize a classic berth and a new boat. Time to get to work!