What a crazy couple of weeks I've had. Spent the last 2 weeks in Bainsbridge Georgia, Bainsbridge is a small town on the Flint river just north of Lake Seminole. It's an 50 minute run to the main lake from the boat basin but I only had to do it once. What I like to do when ever I go to a lake for the first time is take the first day a drive the lake that way I have a good idea of where I am at all times and I get to see what kind of lake it is and the kind of structure it has. Day 2 I look at all the back water, day 3 and so on I fish the back waters. What can I tell ya I'm a back water kinda guy, lol. From there I search for my pattern. Finding fish and figuring out why those fish are there and why they are hitting my lure. Once I have that figured out I test that pattern in several spots to confirm that it is a true pattern or is it just those are hot spots.
This is what I did on Seminole and it seemed to work. By the end of my practise I had 4 spots and 2 patterns. My furthest spot was 15 minutes from the boat basin and I worked my way back from there. My first spot was the largest and I spent haft of day 1 there. I pulled 3 fish there fishing a space between the weed edge on shore and a bed of hydilla that ran for about a mile which included a 5 pound red eye. I was throwing a black with blue flake wacky senko in there but not letting it sit. As soon as my line went slack I reeled up and fired it back out between the edges. My second spot was a small grass bed that was mixed with clover but was on the edge of some deeper water. Here I was throwing a 4" watermelon red flake Xzone Swammer on the grass and swam it back. I did have a couple of blow ups in the deeper water during practise but I didn't remember that little fact till my non-boater scream for the net and pulled a 7.9 out of there lol. Well that was his limit for the day but I was still looking for 2 fish. So off to my next spot and which was about 1 minute away and had the same kind of cover but only a little thicker. And after several blow up I pulled another fish. That would be my last fish for the day, I was still getting blow ups but nothing would commit. I made it back to the weight-in on the exact minute that I was suppose to check in, I fished till the last second and left everything out on the water. At the end of the day I had 13.9 for 4 fish and in 31 place.
Day 2 I decided to fish only the 2 spots that produced for me. My first spot did not refill during the night like I had hoped. I was only able to catch 1 fish there at about 11 am. That's right I stayed and worked my spot with my pattern because tournament day is no time to try something new. Ok I was scared, lol. I went to my second spot hoping that those fish that blow up the day before would be on. They were there and hungry. I was able to limit out, but before leaving I had a fish on that will haunt me for a while. It hit in that clover that that grows on a 1/4" thick vine. I set the hook and I saw it come out of the water but when it landed I was unable to turn it and lost her in the slop. It would have gone 8 plus and put me in the top 10. But that's fishing or at least that's what my therapist tells me. So I brought in 5 fish for 13 lbs and it put me 20th spot. I'm currently in 48th spot overall and with a good finish at Santee Cooper and Guntersville I will be able to go to the championship.
I would like to thank all my sponsors especially Russell Peters, Evinrude and Bay Marine for a motor that would not quit and Xzone baits for that Swammer and JB's Fishing Depot for making sure I have plenty of Gary Yamamoto Senko's.
Take care and tight lines everyone.
