Bay Lake would be day 1 and Farm Island day 2.
Practice-
I arrived for the out of towner late Thursday night so I could be out on Bay Lake early Friday morning. We were staying at the Summer Breeze Resort and Ryan Ploof rode up with me after our softball games and we shared fuel costs which was great. We hung out with the guys until pretty late. The resort was nothing fancy but the price was right to be located right on Farm Island Lake which was our day 2 lake. The only problem was there was no air conditioning! I didn't realize this until we got there. Thank God it was going to be reasonably cool for the next couple days, especially for mid July. I got a little grief about it since I'm the one who arranged the accommodations but in the end I think it worked out fine.
I woke up early on Friday and was tempted to shut off the alarm and go back to bed. Especially since it was already pretty windy out. I decided to spend most of the day on Bay since I had never fished there before and had been out on Farm Island last month.
I started near the launch with some moving baits because of the wind. I worked my way down to a small slop bay that was semi protected from the wind. I ended up getting a couple blow ups on a frog and then headed off to find some other areas. There was many bays (hence the name off the lake) and lots of water to cover. I decided the best approach was to tie on a spinner bait and cover some water. It wasn't long before I hooked into a good one.
I would basically catch 1 or two fish and mark the spot with a waypoint on the GPS and move on. With only one day of practice I just had to find areas that held fish and hope to get the right bites on tournament day. Plus with the tournament the next day I needed those fish to bite then, and didn't want to wear out each area. I scouted out lots of water and dialed it into a few weed lines and some bays for frogging.
Tournament-
I was fishing this event solo and decided to start near the take off. I worked the shallows thoroughly with no luck. I headed to my next area with no luck as well. I finally found a keeper up shallow. I hoped I had found a pattern but only caught one fish up shallow. I just kept moving until I found some fish and eventually I did.
I fished a point near a buoy where I hooked into a good one. I thought for sure it was a pike by the way it was pulling under the boat. Also I hadn't felt any bass fight that much on this lake yet. It finally came up and I got the net under it. It was a good bass! I thought it was about a 4 pounder but the scale didn't agree. I was jacked because I thought that would be one of the better fish caught that day. By this time I had a decent limit and went to try to find some upgrades.
Frogging yielded a few bites but nothing that helped.
Docks weren't producing any kickers either.
I moved back and forth between my most productive areas with only small upgrades. It seemed like the longest day ever, maybe because I was solo and had no one to talk to. Or maybe because I couldn't find a kicker and I covered so much water.
Finally, it was getting close to weigh in time so I headed back to my shallow spot near the access. I was hoping to flip a kicker in the milfoil. I got a few bites but nothing that would help. Finally with about 10 minutes left I felt a good 'thump.' I set the hook and made a few cranks and it came unbuttoned. I didn't see it but it sure felt good. I think it would have helped but can't be sure. Time to head in.
It ended up that I finished in 9th place, with 10.43 lbs. My big fish weighed 2.89lbs. I can't believe that fish wasn't over 4lbs. I am not the best when it comes to guessing weights but I would have bet anything that fish was over 4. Oh well, guess my eyes were playing tricks on me. Now looking back at the picture I think I got a little over excited, which is why I like to guess on the conservative side. I did have a dead fish too not sure what happened there. This would end up being my worst finish of the season which is great because 9th place is still in the top half of the club. This out of towner was much better than last year's!
Overview-
It was a fun lake with lots of fish just not many big ones. That kind of fishing is fun for awhile until you need a bigger bite and just keep catching the same size fish over and over. I always wonder in lakes like this if people kept some of the smaller fish if that would help produce bigger ones. I wish I had more time to practice but that's how it goes. It's tough to get away to practice for lakes that are two plus hours away. Its also tough to get dialed in practicing for one day the day before. But it's the same for pretty much everyone else so it's an even playing field. I just feel like if I could squeeze in any extra practice it would give me a slight advantage.
I'm not sure what else I could have done, I definitely fished hard and left it all out there. I guess the only thing I could have done differently is fished where the big ones were. The weedlines were producing pretty good and shallow areas were good too. Who knows?
Results
Weather
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