Lanier Practice

Fished Lanier yesterday for the first time in close to 20 years. The lake is currently 5.6 feet above full pool and that is down a couple of feet from a week ago.
Managed to catch a limit but not pleased with the size. Making a location and tactics change next week. Lanier is a huge lake and it takes several days to check different areas and there are always several ways to catch them. Just got to get the right ones...
Below is a pic of one of the few areas of rip rap I saw all day. The lake is so high unless you know where it is you won't know where it is. You can also see that most of the docks are not accessible from the bank.

Norman Recap

Fished the Anglers Choice inaugural NC Trail tournaments at Norman last weekend. We ended up with 10 and a half day one and 9 and a half day two. The frustrating thing is we were doing the right things but just couldn't get in the right areas or get our timing right. I spoke with several guys who did real well and a crank bait and chatterbait was the bait of choice. Andy had gotten on a good bite Friday but I guess the weather moved those fish off to deeper water and we couldn't find them.
Excellent run trail with fantastic payback for the entry with a chance to fish for a new Ranger in September.
Heading to Lake Lanier on Saturday to begin prefishing for the second stop on the PBC trail. Lake is 5.6 feet high and most ramps are closed. Should be an interesting trip!

Murray PBC Tournament Report

The tournament didn't turn out like I hoped but we had a good showing as far as points go. 115 boats will be fishing this trail and they will pay 11 places per tournament. A few less places than the normal 20% but if you get in the money you will get a good check.
We blasted off boat 7. Would have loved to have been in the last flight. Our check in time was 3:00, last flight was 4:15. Could have really used another hour to fish.
We ended up with 4 fish for 14 1/2 pounds.  Caught two good ones on our second stop, one about 10:00, and the final good one at about 12:00. We needed some sun but it didn't come out until late.
Final two flights moved us from top 10 to 24th. It took 20 lbs to win so we were one big bite away. Another keeper would have went a long way in the points as well.
Next week I will be at Norman practicing for the Anglers Choice tournament which is two weeks away. New trail for this area so hope to see a good turn out. I will report back next weekend on how practice goes.
Also want to put a plug in for the Ranger Z521C. My partner has that boat and we used it for the tournament. I ran the boat all day and was extremely impressed with the ride and power. Fully loaded we were able to hit 70 and the boat drove absolutely perfect.

Murray Practice

Spent the past two weekends practicing for the first PBC Trail tournament at Murray. Spent yesterday almost exclusively idling and looking for spots off the bank - I didn't fish any of the stuff I normally would. This is what I looked like for about 6 hours yesterday....

I did manage to catch one fish off the two places I found that I like but it was the wrong species and an ugly one at that...

Looking forward to the tournament. I expect conditions to change a good bit between now and the tournament on February 1st. Water temps will cool and unless we get a good bit of rain I expect the water mid-lake and up to clear somewhat. Still two weeks to prepare...for now I am going to fish Lake James tomorrow and see if I can get on some smallmouth. Sure hope to have some good video to share tomorrow afternoon.

Next Saturday Andy Greene and I are back at Hartwell for the CATT Championship. Putting all our eggs in one basket...hero or zero.

Christmas Break Report

My family and I enjoyed a great Christmas together and, being off for two weeks, I was able to fish 9 days out of the 14. It has been a long time since I have fished 4 days consecutively but I had a blast.
Andy Greene and I fished three tournaments during the break. We fished the CATT trail at Hartwell one Saturday and finished third. We caught our fish on jigs, creature baits, crankbaits, and Arigs on main channel structure. We have struggled to catch the quality we need but feel if the water temp will fall a little more that our weights will go up.
My son and I fished Murray for stripers one day. We only managed 2 keepers and we caught 10 I think but I want to share something that happened. We, along with about 5 other boats, found stripers in one area. One of the other boats was really catching them and the rest of us were catching one every little while. I kept looking at what they were doing and exactly what they were using and realized they were using a single swim bait. I sat down and started going through my tackle and the guy in the back of the boat catching them asked me if we had any swim baits. I told him I had some 3.5s and then he asked about the size jig heads I had. I told him 1/8th was the biggest so he idled over and gave us a bag of swimsuits and heads like they were using. And, it made a difference in the bites we were getting. I appreciate those guys taking time to help us out. I do not know their names but they were from Kings Mtn., NC.
The rest of the time I spent at Lake James. I have known James as the Dead Sea for as long as I can remember but I have more confidence to catch a big bag there than anywhere else right now. I spent several days just looking for new places and only found one. We fished two tournaments and finished second in one with 16+ and third in the other with about 12. Those smallmouth are a ball to catch and there are always a few largemouth sprinkled in.
It is time now to focus on Lake Murray in preparation for the first PBC tournament of the season. I think it is critical we get off to a good start in the points. The top 100 have the chance to fish for 50K this October at Hartwell.

Hartwell Reports from 12/14 and 12/21

Fished tournaments the past two weeks on Hartwell. Two weeks ago fished a benefit tournament for a family who lost their home in a fire. Big 20 pound sack took first place and then it fell to 13 and down. We finished 5th I think with 12.51. We were .15 out of the money. We caught quite a few fish but could not get the big bite we needed. Focused on wood cover on the main channel flipping jigs and plastic. Caught fish on Arig as well in some ditches.
Yesterday we fished the second CATT tournament. Fished same pattern and caught fish but once more could not get a big bite. Had a couple of snafus that might have cost us a little weight but those things happen. Had 10.10 as I recall and 15 won and there were lots of 12 pound bags. Been close but haven't been able to seal it yet. Back at Hartwell this coming weekend. Planning to practice this Friday and hope to be able to expand our area. Will report back next weekend. Good fishing!!

Treble Hook in Thumb

Fished solo at Hartwell today and ended up with a treble hook in my thumb. Not the first time this has happened and I tried to explain the process I used to remove it on video but, after reviewing the video, it was apparent I did not do a very job so I am going to explain the process here. Hopefully this will help someone down the road who is not familiar with this method. The first step is the most difficult - removing the hook from the fish. You have a death grip on the fish with your free hand while trying to take the hook out with the hand that is impaled with a hook. Once the fish is free, the next step is to cut the split ring on the hook attached to you to free the hook from the crankbait. Next, cut the two free hooks close to the shank, leaving you with a single hook in your hand. At this point I got a length of fishing line (25lb) and tied the two ends together securely to prevent slippage. I took the line and placed it through the steering wheel, leaving a portion below the wheel. Next, I placed the line between the hook and my skin and pushed down firmly on the hook eye with my free hand. Once I got to this point I quickly jerked my hand downwards away from the steering wheel and the hook popped out painlessly. I have used this method before when my myself and have used it several times on other folks. It has always worked flawlessly.