Well after getting home about 1:30am this morning I did not feel up to posting until now. I was down at lake for for the Berkley Big Bass tournament this past weekend. This was my first trip down there and I will have to say it had its ups and downs.
We arrived in Yantis Tx around 12:30pm on Tuesday. After getting everything unpacked and took a short nap we headed out to some bank fishing(the wives said no boat that day). We ended up pulling 2 small fish off a dropshot sinking minnow. We also found two dead bass that I would have loved to catch the picture I posted of the one was over 5 pounds and the other one we found would have been close to 10 pounds 
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Wednesday morning we put in and started fishing a weed bed with in 100 yards of the ramp. On my 10th cast I hooked into a monster bass on a popper. When I did see the fish it looked in the 7-8 pound range. It dove to the weed bed and just like that the line went slack. Upset I bring my popper back in only to find one of the hooks had straightend out 
I shook it off and started fishing again. We ended up catching two fish just under the slot in the next 15 min. Then we worked back to were I lost that nice fish and started working that area again. We started getting blow ups on a glow in the dark spro frog. We had to work the frog really aggresive over the weeds to get the fish to come up after it. We only ended up hooking one fish, but missed about 10 other blows. Right after that the trolling motor went out on our boat So we put the boat on the trailer and headed to the repair shop. He told us we triped that breaker and we went back to fishing another area. This area was loaded with standing timber in about 12-19′ of water. We fished the grass around the timber and I caught a small fish on a rattle trap and then I caught my biggest gar ever. I did not bring him into the boat but it looked to be about 4′ long and about 10-15 pounds. I got him on a rattle trap as well. With nothing else going on in the grass we started working the timber with crank baits. We quickly picked up 9 fish all under the slot limit, with biggest being 15 3/4″. We continued to trip the breaker on the trolling motor every time we went above the 3rd speed.
Thursday morning we headed to another spot on the lake looking for some fish on main lake points. We worked two points with out getting bit. So we moved back into a cove were I quickly picked up two 13″ fish on a rattle trap. Then we started flipping matted vegetation in the back of the coves. Just as I was pulling my power bait beast out of a hole in the weeds I had a huge blow up, I felt the weight of the fish and set the hook. POW!!! My 50 pound test power pro broke. No one saw the fish so I don’t know if it was another big gar or if it was a big bass and my line just broke. After not getting another bite we headed to an area that I found on the map. It was weed beds in about 15 foot of water. We started working that with Carolina-rigs and Texas rigs. I had two small bites on a carolina-rig with a fluke. Then we called it a day, because our wives wanted to go to the bass pro shop in Dallas.
Friday the last day of pre-fishing. We headed to the weed bed we fished yesterday. Between the weed bed and the bank there were lilly pads in about 10 foot of water. I started working a rattle trap along the edge of the pads and was rewarded with two slot fish. As I was getting ready to get a picture with the secound fish my brother hooks and fish on a popper. After a long fight we finally saw it was a really nice fish. After two attempts to get him to the top I finally was able to grab ahold of it for him. We all went nuts when I put it on the board and it was 24 1/2″ and had a weight of 8.18 pounds. I did not even catch the fish and I was shaking so hard I could not unhook it for him. This fish was blind in one eye and was also the biggest bass that any of us had ever held. 
We ended up pulling 8 more fish on rattle traps out of that area. We went back to our place for some breakfast and then headed to another area to try. We did not land any fish put did find some areas I would love to try if I ever go back in the spring.
Saturday day one of the tournament. Now this tournament we were aloud to blast off from any ramp and we could take off starting at 4:30am. We decided we would fish the weed bed from the day before. We were not aloud to fish until 6:30 and by that time we were surrounded by at least 50 boats. Just as we were about to get the best time of fishing a group of 5 deer started swiming around in the area we were fishing 
. I ended up loosing a small fish on a rattle trap and then landed a small one on a jerk shad. We only saw one other boat land a fish. So we took off to the cove we fished on Thursday. My dad pulled a nice bass out of the vegetation and then I lost another fish while flipping the grass mats. That was all we had so we headed in for the 1:00 weigh in. My dads fish came in at 1.90 and was good enough for 26th place in that hourly weigh in. We headed home and then out to find a new breaker for the trolling motor. AFter driving for an hour we found one and fixed our problem.
Sunday because of the wind I decided we were going to fish a different area of the lake. I had found a small island that had standing timber and weeds on the back side of it. We started fishing and just like my trip had been so far I lost a fish right away on a buzz bait. He got my into the weeds and pulled off before we could get to it. 5 cast later I had a huge blow up on the buzzbait and it missed. MY day was just getting better. I finally stuck and fish and landed it, but it was really short. I got that one on a jerk shad fishing it in the weeds. I switched over and started tossing a rattle trap into the standing timber and again quickly picked up 4 short fish. That bite died down and we headed off looking at more new water. My dad picked up a nice slot fish on a spinner bait 17″. After nothing else was working we headed back to the staning timber around the island. We started tossing rattle traps and again got into the fish. But they were all to small to weigh in or they were in the slot. My dad landed the biggest 17 1/2″ fish I have ever seen. It weighed in right at 4 pounds. We took a picture and turned it loose. With about an hour to go I had a monster bass follow my bait all the way to the boat. She attemted to grab it just as I was about to pull it out of the water. This fish was really close to being over the slot. 20 min later we came back to that tree and I hook into a fish. It pulled drag three times and came unhooked I could not keep a fish hooked up at all on this trip. I don’t know if it was the big bass that followed my bait but I could not move this fish at all. We ended up getting 5 more small fish before the day was up. None of use got a fish to weigh in the second day.
It took a fish of 9.72 pounds to take home 1st place. The biggest bass under the slot limit was 3.02. I fish under 16″ that was 3.02 
With the exception of all my missed chances this trip was a great time. I don’t know if I will make it back next year but I will in the near future. The only thing I will do different next time, is pay Tom Redington to be my guide for one day. 
Jeremy
