We headed back to Table Rock Lake in Missouri, a past tour stop, but one that we’ve never fished this early or when it was this cold. The water was still in the 30s. I entered practice not knowing what to expect, but I knew I had to keep an open mind. Only having three days of practice is something I’m still getting used to. It requires all of us to dial things in faster and fish more on instinct.

I spent the first day of practice in areas where I’d caught fish in years past, but with an eye toward determining where they’d be staging and how far out they were still holding. Jerkbaiting and throwing a football head jig I had three bites all day, but two were great big ones. I had caught them in years past on a crankbait, but I knew that bite was off so I didn’t really mess with it.

On the second day of practice I elected to head up the river to look for some bigger groups of fish in the trees. In my effort to step it up this year, I’ve committed to trying some new things. As I said above, I really want to keep my mind open. So I went way up the James and White Rivers. If I found something, I could spend the rest of practice expanding on it. If I had to fish back down the lake during the tournament, I pretty much knew where I was going to be and how I’d catch them. I never really got on the right creek or the right tree line on that second day, though. I had two bites, they were both big and both came on a jig, but that wasn’t enough to keep me up there. Then again, I knew that if the weather continued to warm up, it still might be an option.

I practiced the third day in the mid-lake section, near the mouths of the rivers. The weather was staying consistent – consistently bad – and just getting a few bites was a chore.

Now that FLW allows the whole field to fish the first three competition days, I wanted to start out the tournament in my comfort zone and just grind on it the first day, so that’s what I did, and I had two bites. The first was a short spotted bass that I just couldn’t get to touch the line. The second was a 4-14 largemouth. It came farther back in my area than I had ventured during practice, but I knew that there weren’t a lot of fish up.

On the second day, we finally got a weather change. It was slick and calm with sunshine. Typically, that’s a dirty water deal. When there’s no wind, the jerkbait bite in the clear water gets tough and so does the jig bite down there. I started off jerking and told myself that if I didn’t have a fish in the livewell at 10 o’clock I’d head up the river. But as 10 approached, I kept backing off, out to 35 feet of water, and I started catching fish. I caught my first keeper and then time started getting away from me. Eventually I decided that I’d be best served by staying and expanding my water in the 30-35 foot range, and I got another keeper for my efforts. I was surprised that those two fish actually moved me up in the standings.

Moving up in the standings was a double-edged sword. I knew it was tough and I was getting some bites, but I knew I had missed out on the deal up the river. Still, Stacey King was fishing my area, just a different way, and his one bite that day weighed 6-03, so I knew the big ones were around.

When we launched on Day Three, the river was still in the back of my mind, so I made the decision that if I didn’t have a fish by 9:30, I was pulling the trigger and making the run. That time came and I had three fish already, all on the jig in 30+ feet of water. I had figured out that they were relating to rock shelves on secondary points and I felt pretty good. Now it was just a matter of getting a couple of big bites. I pretty much knew that it would take a miracle to get into the top five to get to fish the fourth day, but I could still gain some valuable points.

I caught my fourth and felt really good, but then the bite just stopped – for me. My co-angler caught a 6-02 on a jig, the only bite he had all day. I had picked up the jerkbait for just five minutes and he vacuumed the big one up behind me. It’s one of those things that just happens, but it didn’t feel good. To prevent that from happening again, I put away all of my rods except the jig stick, but I never had another bite.

Looking back, it was just a tough tournament. Practice didn’t tell us much and the conditions were brutal. Sure, there were some good catches up the river, but I’d bet 100-120 out of the 150 anglers were up there and a bunch of them didn’t do anything at all.

A few equipment notes: My key bait in this tournament was a Lunker Lure Finesse Jig, as it has been so many times before. I threw mainly 3/8 ounce in the Cumberland Craw color. I used 12 lb. line on a US Reels Pro Caster, which allowed me to make exceptionally long casts. That’s critical when you’re fishing deep because if you make short casts by the time it gets to the bottom you only get to retrieve the bait a few feet before you have to reel it up again. Also, the 7:1 gear ration takes up a lot of line in a hurry. Finally, my 7’ extra-heavy Carrot Stix rod allowed me to feel the subtle bites in deep water – the fish definitely didn’t wallop the jig and I’m sure that I hooked a few fish that others would have missed, which is critical in an event like this one.

Next it’s on to Lake Norman, a body of water that historically has not been very kind to me. I’m ready to turn that around this year. They’ve had a lot of precipitation there this winter and maybe it’ll play to my strengths and be a good prespawn dirty water bite.

39^th place

7 fish, 18-01