What is going on here?

Pre-Fish

New month same Folsom. My partner practiced on his own one day then we practiced together the day before the tournament. We put together a small plan for both days. We knew what we were catching at Folsom was not going to give us a lead or even a top five but it might keep us relevant for the Delta. We had been fishing the Delta well,  we had a solid crankbait bite with a decent senko bite as a follow up.

Tournament Day (Day one)

Folsom was going to be tough, I had found that a Pro Worms six inch strait tail worm in (oxblood red flake) with an LBS Tackle brown Darthead would catch a limit. Except for the early morning swimbait I threw, the worm was going to be my bait all day. We started up the north fork, all year this had consistently been the better part of the lake for us. We found fish between eighteen and twelve feet of water. Unlike the month prior catching fish was not difficult catching keepers was the chore. I worked around the big island first catching a couple keepers on a rock pile. Slowly draging the worm along the edge of the rock pile seemed to be the way the fish wanted it. later in the day Jeff pointed out a samll flat near a point and a creek channel that he had caught fish on. There had been a couple of boats fishing the area but had left so we headed over. Three casts later I put our third fish in the boat. It took another hour to get bit again, it was worth the wait a nice three pound largemouth bass ate the worm. I continued to catch keeper fish all small ones for another hour till just before weigh in  time.

We finished the day with a weight of 7.33 for five fish that put us in 16th place for the classic well within striking distance With the Delta to go. Feeling good just need to have our bite hold on the Delta.

Tournament Day (Day Two)  

We launched out of Stockton, nice warm day beautiful to fish in not so much for catching. A long run to our first spot, we get there a little early but we could catch a nice bag of fish in minutes when it turns on. After our second pass around the island with no bites we start to worry, has our bite disappeared? YES! I felt like someone flipped a big switch. Not only did the fish stop biting the crankbait they just stopped biting all together. We ran through all the baits on all the places we had fished in practice. Nothing was going our way. We decided to start over new areas with baits that had been working. I ran towards B&W there are several points in that area I felt might hold some fish.  We fished into Perry’s, I make a cast to the secondary weed line in front of the docks with a LuckyCraft BDS 2.5 (Red craw). A two pound largemouth bass hooks up first bass of the day. We worked through the area awhile longer with no fish, we move to the main channel. I continue throwing the crankbait, I hook another two pound bass as I swim the bait through a small grass flat. That would be all the excitement for the day.

We head back to weigh-in heads held low. A 4.64 pound bag of fish in the boat. I’m not really sure what happenedd out there, not sure why the fish shut off. I just know that it was a bad day and next season can’t get here fast enough.

This season has been one of my toughest. I lost something, I need to find it before next season. A confidence that I always have a little bit of swagger, bravado, cockiness maybe even some mean. The edge I normally have has to be put back, the confidence the patience all these things were missing complacency took there place that has to end. Next season I get back what I lost. No I take back what I lost!