1st Stop Women's Bassmaster Tournament Trail- AND THE WIND BLEW!!!

I had a personal goal set for myself. I have always wanted to see what it was like fishing in the front of the boat during a tournament. So, when the Women's Bassmaster Tournament Trail had their first stop at Lake Lewisville I thought here is my chance. I signed up to fish as a Professional.

Being from Garland, TX, Lake Lewisville is only about 40 minutes away. Since there are so many great fisheries nearby we don't fish Lewisville very much. It is more of a pleasure lake than a fishing lake. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few "hawgs" caught out of there, but you have to compete with the pleasure cruisers and jet skiers.

I feel like if I can fish Lake Lewisville while the wind was blowing as it did then everything else will be uphill from here.

And the wind did blow. We had 20-30 mph winds. It was difficult holding the boat still while trying to fish certain spots.

On the first day, I was throwing a DD crankbait and I thought I was hung up on something. Maybe a stick or some underwater trash. I kept reeling it in not knowing what it was. It just felt like dead weight. I kept reeling. Then finally she showed herself. Yes, it was a fish and a very nice one. She was at least a 5 1/2-6 pounder. She came up out of the water and threw my crankbait out of her mouth. I am haunted by that moment still and will be for a while. Ten minutes later I was throwing a Carolina rig and landed a 2 lb.14ounce fish.

I struggled on day 2. My front depth finder stopped working around 10:00 a.m. I must have jolted something loose after going across the lake with the high waves crashing. I felt like I was driving blind all day. Amazing how important my Lowrance electronics are. It was 1:15 and I just landed a keeper. I caught 6 fish in this one spot, but only one measured.

All and all it was a great experience. I caught fish both days, fought the wind and proved to myself that I could do it. I felt like a kid again learning something new.

So, off we go in a week to fish Lake Norman in North Carolina for the 3rd stop of the Wal-Mart FLW Tour.

Stay tuned for more fishing adventures.

Stop #2-Lewis Smith Lake, Jasper, Alabama

We knew that the fishing was going to be a challenge when we learned the creel limit was 15 inches. Boy, were we right! Factor in fishing clear, clear deep water where water depths reach over 100 feet deep. The fish that we caught were definately suspended.

We were able to bring our boat and practice a few days. Finally on the last day of practice we figured out something. Hector caught 3 fish in 10 minutes. They were solid 2 1/2 and 3 pounders. The fish were suspended off the end of boat docks this day.
Now we were just hoping the guys we drew out were doing what we had figured out.

That is one of the many challenges fishing out of the back of the boat. Being able to adjust to different fishing conditions and not being able to share information that we knew. This is a new rule this year with FLW. It is more competitive for the boaters not being able to gather information from the co-anglers.

On Thursday I lost a really nice fish around 9:45. I was using 6 pound test and I must have had a nick in the line. When the fish came unbuttoned I felt sick to my stomach. I knew that fish would come back to haunt me. At least I managed to catch 3 keepers on that day. On day 2 we had some major storms. There were even tornadoes in Birmingham. The sky was black and the rain fell hard. I was grateful to have caught my only keeper that day. It was a nice spotted bass weighing 2 lbs. 5 ounces.

I ended up in 39th place. Hector finished in 56th place. We both managed to get a check! Woo-Hoo!

Tune in next time for more Tournament Tales!!!

Keep on Fishin'