Our first Golden hook Bassers club tournament of the year today, it is Sunday May 31st and I had a terriable start to the morning because apparently I set my alarm for 3:40pm instead of am. It is a good thing My buddy came over to my house insead of waiting for me like planned, he called numerous times and of course my phone was on vibrate so this didn't work but my dogs barking like crazy finally did the trick and I flew out of bed and got ready in record time, hooked up the boat and flew to the lake trying to make up for lost time, we made it to the boat landing on time and launched our boats. As for the fishing we got to my starting spot which was a sunken Island on Sylvia. The non-boater in my Ranger today is a guy named Wayne Rice, I started trowing a Spro Aruka shad 75 a lipless crankbait and Wayne used a buzzbait and then switched to a rattle trap and hooked a nice bass of about 3 lb's and about half way back to the boat this fish jumps and throws the bait, we joked on how that was the big fish of the day.
As we continue fishing I caught a small keeper on a Rapala DT 10 on the sharp break from 3' to about 15', after fishing this area trying to make the fish that I found prefishing bite I finally decide that I wasted enough time here and made a move.
    The weather was warming and the sun was out but it was very windy out and I was struggaling to find a pattern. Wayne and I started fishing some scattered weeds along a shorline in about 8 feet when I made a pitch with a Secret Lures MVP jig and got wacked I immediatly set the hook and swung a two pounder into the boat, I put this fish into the well and fired right back to the same spot and got wacked again and flipped another two pounder into the boat. Woohoo i'm on to something (not) no more fish along this stretch so now it's about 4 hours into the tournament and I still need two fish for my limit and hopefully get to cull the little dink that I have in the livewell out, I begin panicking a little and hitting numerous spots in the hopes of finding some fish and in the process catch some short ones(the fish need to be 12" or larger) so I went back to fishing scattered weeds were ever I could find them in about 8 feet of water and scratched out two more fish that barely measured and Wayne finally caught one that kept and now or time was up and we need to heed in. I went to start the Mercury and it would not turnover and I realized nothing was working no livewells no graphs great, this happened to me twice last year and the marine shop said they could not find anything wrong and sent me on my way, so I had to try and jump start the motor and that didn't work either so I put the trolling motor in and on 100% and hauled ass into the landing just so I could weigh in my monster bag of 6.90 pounds of bass I came in a crappy 10th place out of 18.
    Dave McCrone won the tournament with 12.01 pounds congratulations Dave, and I found out he was catching his fish in the same depth and using a jig also. Now I don't feel quite as bad knowing I eventually found the right pattern just to late.