Today was the day of the first River Roads Junior bass club tournament. I have been prefishing for this tourney and I knew that I was ready to go out and stick some lips. The fish I was on I knew were going to be the bites I needed to possibly win the tournament. Launching at 7:00 in BC’s boat was a rush..I was fishing with Ryan Welch as my partner and he was not at all interested in his spots after I told him about the fish I was sticking elsewhere 
well we went for a 20 minute ride and finally got into our area, probably the last ones to finally arrive at our final destination. I had control of the trolling motor to start, and I was going to throw a swim jig but Ryan quickly broke off a very good fish with a tube. That is when I knew that the pitching bite was going to be on. I threw a baby brush hog and put the first fish in the boat: a 3.10 largemouth. We fished this stretch and it wasn’t long before welch put a keeper in the boat. I knew his was bigger than mine but I didn’t relize just how big it was until weigh in. I think it was just over 4 lbs. congrats Ryan. We fished the whole bank but we knew there were still fish so we fished it back and the fish were on a tear by this point, the wind finally starting to get up. I think Ryan threw back like 3 different fish that ALMOST bumped 
But thank god they didn’t for my sake when we left the area I had 2 solid 2 lbish keepers and my “Kicker” 3-10 largemouth. Well This turned out to be my final number. I was confident but later Ryan Managed to snare one more keeper that wasn’t huge by any means but still bumped 14″. We had a long run ahead so we got out of there and back to the landing to make the 11’o clock weigh in. As it turned out, Nobody had a limit in the brief 4 hours, for us it was more like 3 when you consider idle and run time but that was the decision that I knew we had to make. It paid off and Both Ryan and I finished well. My buddy Carson Weighed in 3 fish for 7.83 lbs. It was his first bass outing of the year, Not a bad one at all! I ended up weighing in my 3 fish for 7.10 lbs and Ryan won the tournament with a little over 8 lbs for 3 fish. Ryan Really had a good kicker..I knew that all I needed was one more fish but 2 would have helped. Unfortunately, I had the opurtunity TWICE, but did not capitalize on either time. It cost me the win here but I am not done yet. I got 3rd place and felt good putting our “Team” On a group of fish that took 3rd and first place. It was just a matter of who caught the hog and it was Ryan’s lucky day today! Congrats to Ryan and Thank you to all the boaters who took time today to take us out!
1st place- Ryan Welch-8.??
2nd place-Carson Dockham-7.83
3rd place-Cade Laufenberg-7.18
4th place-Tony Hundt-5.88 lbs
5th place-Micheal ?? -4.4lbs (1 fish, big bass)
It was a fun time had by all. There were a lot of zeros brought in, but I know it was a tough time out there. Once the wind picked up, a lot of guys struggled to keep the bait in the strike zone. That is why we stuck ’em up before the whole pool was white caps!
After the tournament, I got home, rigged up the boat and put in at goose island. Justin and I wanted to get out and see if we could fine some more fish. The trouble was so much wind that my trolling motor couldn’t go against it in some places. We were forced to find backwater with little wind, lots of weeds, and wood, and sure enough, there were fish everywhere in a few of these places. We probably caught around 30 fish between the 2 of us but the keepers were tough for sure. I caught a keeper smallie within a few minutes of starting, but it was just 12″er after 13″er after 12″er 
Justin ended up getting a 2 lb smallie later in the day. Not a bad start to a good weekend..Even got a little sunburned today, as well as found some new areas!
I will have my pictures from the tournament as soon as possible, or maybe Todd can post some?
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