Atchafalaya Basin FLW

I fished the same way all day today. I only caught 6 keepers again, but I had a lot of good fish short-strike a spinnerbait that I saw, so I know 3-4 more decent fish are in the main are I'm fishing.

It's supposed to be overcast, windy and rainy tomorrow so that will change from things. Today it was sunny and then got a little overcast and the breeze got up. The fish came on and hammered a spinnerbait well in one area.

I have an area I've saved where I think I'll start in the morning. It's a risky deal -- there's really shallow water getting to it -- but I think I'll go there. I can catch 13-14 pounds pretty quickly there, but I'll be going blind: I don't know if anyone's fished there or not.

(Crews had 4 fish for 11-00 today and 24-12 total. He finished in 22nd and got a check, but was 2 1/2 pounds out of the cut.)

I only had 4 fish today, but I didn't lose any that I confirmed were bass. Not like yesterday. I just had 4 keepers today, but I caught 15 or 20 short fish. I'm not sure why. I only caught 3 short fish yesterday.

I was fishing a canal, and was just fishing a 1/4-mile stretch of it, back and forth and back and forth, all day. There was clear water back there and no boat traffic. I went in there in practice and stuck two fish, one over 4 and one over 3, then I had 5 more bites in half an hour. I knew a good concentration of fish was in there so I just decided to camp in there and do the best I could.

The deepest water was 6 feet in the middle and the banks were pretty sharp- sloping. One bank wasn't as steep as the other, and that one had more fish on it. But the steeper bank had more stumps on it. I don't know why more fish were on the other side, to tell you the truth.

I was pitching a variety of soft-plastic baits. I'd make a pass pitching a Mizmo tube (black/blue), then I would go back through it with a fat 4-inch ringworm in green-pumpkin. This afternoon I actually ended up catching 2 keepers on one of those Wave Worm Tiki Sticks (watermelon). It's kind of like a Senko. They gave them away at the Bassmaster pre-tournament meeting, and I was using them (laughs). I was pitching on a 7-foot medium-heavy Shimano V rod and Shimano Calais reel with 20-pound clear Triple Fish line, their regular mono.

I'm very happy with how I finished, but at the same time to be so close to the Top 10 and not make it is frustrating. All it would have taken is one more fish. I weighed in 9 fish, and was just a little over 2 pounds out of the Top 10. Just one more decent fish and I would have been right in there. But that's fishing.

(Elias is in 20th with a 12-14 limit.) It was a pretty good day. I picked around, had 8 keeper bites and caught 6. I only lost 1 fish. I broke him off on a spinnerbait because I hadn't retied. It was about a 3-pounder. It jumped 5 or 6 times, then broke off. Made me sick.

I caught half my fish today on a Mann's Titanium Classic spinnerbait and half on a Mann's It (creature bait).

I didn't have any idea how well I'd do today. I had a couple areas I'd had bites in, but I didn't know what was in there or what would bite. I don't know what I'll have tomorrow. I have two areas I haven't fished. They might have some possibilities. I'll just take it from there.

(Crews had a 13-12 limit and is in 13th.) I finally made a smart move, a good tournament decision. I felt like I'd found the right fish in some of these other tournaments, but I just hadn't fished them correctly. I hadn't made the right decisions whether to stay or go -- you know.

Today the biggest thing was that I fished really slow in an area I knew fish were in, mainly because I hadn't really caught much anywhere else. I'd found those fish and decided I'd stay in that area all day, as mind-numbing as it was. My co-angler had 3 keepers and is in 8th place, and he lost a 3-pounder and broke another one off. I lost a mule this morning.

The water is warming up big-time. When I left my area this afternoon, the water temperature had jumped probably 8-10 degrees over the course of the day, from the low 50s to 61 when I left.

I'm going to catch as much as I can tomorrow. I'm not going to hold back at all. I'll worry about it when I make it. I have one other area I think has some really good potential, but it's like 50 miles from where I was today. There's no way I can fish both in one day, which is good.

I kind of had this area to myself. Curt Lytle came through, but he didn't catch any, and another boat made one pass through there. That was it. I'm going to go back in there and stake my ground.

It's actually gotten hard here if everyone's telling the truth. I've had a hard time. I caught a 4 today, which is better than I did yesterday but isn't near what I'd thought I'd do. I came down here for a day before Seminole and thought it would be pretty easy, but it's not.

The water level is low, but the night before last it rose really quickly. It got cold and then it rose about a foot and a half. It kind of messed the bite up. Normally it takes 14-15 pounds to get a check (in local events). It took like 10 1/2 pounds to get a check in a local tournament this weekend. Of course 19 pounds won it, but the way people talked, that was kind of a fluke. The guy ran into some schooling fish.

The weather is getting nice and the water is warming up so I'm sure it will take a lot of weight to win.

The guys who just got here are fishing through areas that probably have a lot of fish. The guys who have been here a week or so know the areas to be in so if they go back (to those slow areas) they'll catch them. I'd probably catch 12 pounds if I went out there right now. I think the areas I've been in have better fish in them, they're just not biting right now. I haven't really worked anything really hard yet, but this is a place where you usually catch 25-30 fish during the day and I'm not doing that. I have to get my numbers up.

I still close my eyes and see those fish I lost at Seminole, but I'll get over that.

I fished until dark, and it was tough. That's the best way to put it. I only caught two keepers and had two fish really close to being keepers. I shook off 4-5 fish. From what I'm hearing, before it got cold on about Friday or Saturday, it was good. It's tougher than last week. But it's supposed to warm up and the weather is supposed to stabilize a little. They say sunshine makes these fish bite, and when it got sunny today I got some bites. I did catch one a little over 3 and one close to 4 today.

This is the first time I've been here, and I'm just running around like a chicken with my head cut off. There's way too much water to fish. My theory here is to run until you see water that looks good, fish it for half an hour to an hour, then run to another area and then look there. I want to try to cover as much water as possible. If I can go into an area and get few bites really quickly, that's where I'll go (in the tournament). But I hadn't found squat until this afternoon. I found one other area, but it has a lot of boats in it.

I fished from about 2:00 today until dark, and caught a 2-pounder and 2 1/2 pounder. I wish I had those the other day (laughs). If feel a little bit better now.