Pickwick Elite Series

John Murray – Competition
Friday, April 30, 2010

> Day 1: 5, 12-05
> Day 2: 5, 11-10
> Total = 10, 23-15 (76th)

I'm licking my wounds again. Both days I went up to Wilson and the fish were just shallower than I thought they'd be. I'd caught a couple of decent ones in practice (offshore) but all the ones I caught in the tournament were a pound and a half or 2 pounds.

I ended up catching a couple of nice ones – I had a 4-pounder on a football jig today. I was catching about 50 to 60 fish a day.

If I had it to do over again I probably would've stayed on Pickwick – there was a lot of stuff there I didn't see. I would've liked to spend a couple days down there.

A half-ounce football jig and a Carolina rig with a Brush Hog were my two best baits for the bigger fish. You could go to the bank or to any dock with a shakey-head or a dropshot rig and get a lot of bites, but maybe 1 in 20 was a decent fish.

John Murray – Practice
Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Catching fish is not a problem – this is as many fish as I've seen in any lake, ever. But you're going to have to catch the 3- and 4-pounders to do well because there's going to be a lot of 10 1/2-pound limits.

I caught a 3-pound smallmouth, a 3-pound largemouth and a 3-pound spot (Wednesday), but those were the only three good ones I caught all day.

I've got a couple of little plans and I'll mix it up between shallow and deep. I haven't dialed in on how to catch the deepest ones yet, but I think I need to concentrate more on that type of water.

I've seen some on beds and there's some deep ones that haven't spawned and some other ones that seem like they have. There's so many fish that I think they're just going to keep coming in waves in all directions.