First, let me apologize for missing last week. Everything got crazy busy and I didn't get it done. I try not to miss. I take this blog seriously. Nevertheless, sometimes it can't be helped.
Guntersville is now in the past, and the Elite season is more than half gone. It's amazing how time flies in this business. It seems like just the other day we were out in California. You fish, work for sponsors and try to meet your responsibilities to your family. All of a sudden you look up and it's the middle of May. Crazy.
This was an interesting tournament. We had all that rain down here, which pushed the water up and generated a lot of current. The crankbait bite was hot all during practice. You could catch them on almost every grass point out in the main lake — just throw and crank. That's all there was to it.
That pattern held through the first day of the event. Then things changed. The water stopped rising and they stopped pulling. My crankbait bite on the main lake went to heck. It took me a while to get another pattern going, and by then it was too late to boat the kind of weight that you needed to win. What do they say, timing is everything? That was certainly true this week.
Today was especially frustrating. I just couldn't put enough big ones in the boat to get it done. As I look back on it, I realize I got a few bites that fooled me into thinking something was going on that wasn't. By the time I realized I'd been fooled, it was too late to do anything about it. I finished ninth, but that's fishing.
You know, when you get a couple of bites you have to try to figure out what they mean, what the fish are doing and how they are responding. Basically, that's how you put a pattern together. Usually I can do that. Today belonged to the fish, however. Chalk one up for them. They earned it.
I'm telling you, though, this lake is beyond belief. It's ugly good. I caught more than 75 bass a day, every day. Today I caught 150 if I caught one. I mean they just kept biting no matter what else was going on around them. They absolutely didn't care about anything except eating.
It's a phenomenal lake. If you get the chance, make sure you come down here for a few days. You won't regret it.
I'll be staying over for a couple of days doing a media event and then I'll head home for a brief rest before it's time to get things going for Clarks Hill. I'm looking forward to that one. It'll be a lot different than what we have been fishing. The change will be refreshing.
Remember, it's all about the attitude.
