Today was the second club tourney of the season and Pool 5a was where we fished. Not having done any pre-fishing for this tourney myself and my partner not having any real good luck on the day he did pre-fish, I was planning on a long day of struggling. We hit our first spot only to find the fish weren’t ready to play just yet so we headed up river to a spot where my partner had seen some bedding activity a few days before. We got to the area which was in 2 fow and scattered weeds. On the third cast my partner hooked into a nice 3.5# Largemouth. Not too bad for the first fish of the day and less than an hour into the tourney. We then proceeded to work this area hard before moving just up the shoreline. Right away I pitched my tube up tight to shore and was slammed by another 3# fish. After working this area with a fine toothed comb and not getting any more bites, we moved back to the spot we started at. The smallies in this area decided it was time to get in on the action. We pulled 3 more legal smallies off this spot, but the size just wasn’t what we were looking for. However, we watched and fished for 1 HUGE smallie in this spot on and off for close to 2 hours trying to get it to bite. We threw everything in the arsenal at that fish and it refused to bite. It would swirl and chase any and everything that came near, but just wouldn’t commit. 2 times it bumped our baits, but nothing you could get a hook into. After hitting this area hard we made a big move and tried a few other areas with no luck. Our last move proved to be our best decision. Originally we had planned to hit an island, but there was already a boat there so we moved on. Whoever was in that spot helped us not only win the tournament but win big bass as well. Our final area left us in a backwater bay with a small channel surrounded by a sand/weed flat where typically the bass use as a bedding area. We noticed that there were no bass on the beds, so they must be in the channel. Sure enough, that is exactly where they were. My partner was throwing a beaver while I was using a tube. Immediately he connected with a decent keeper and then another in short order. I at the time hadn’t had a bite yet in this area. Then he landed another 3# fish and I dropped my rod and grabbed the net. As soon as I got the fish in the boat, I looked over and my rod was bouncing. I quickly grabbed it and felt a nice fish thumping on the line. I tell my partner I got a decent one on so he drops his fish and grabs the net. As soon as we got the fish in the boat, we knew with our other fish, we had a chance to place in the money for the tourney. My fish went 4.9# and ended up being Big Bass for the tourney. We finished the tourney with a little over 17# with 6 fish. All in all, it was a great day on the water. I have included a pic of the big bass 
May 12, 2007 at 9:52 pm
#1216822
nice job Wats, way to school us again 
Our next tourney is on Pool 8 so hopefully I can get some time to pre-fish for that one 
