Smith Mountain Elite Series

> Day 1: 5, 16-05
> Day 2: 5, 7-09
> Day 3: 2, 3-14
> Total = 12. 27-12

What it comes down to is I didn't branch out enough. I had a lot of fish in my area that I thought might get more aggressive with the weather, and I just stuck with that swimbait trying to get one big bite each day. (On day 2) I snagged a 5-pounder outside the mouth and had to throw it back, and today I didn't get any big bites at all. I hardly got any bites today.

I did a lot of sight-fishing, but the areas I had just didn't have the fish. There were a few around, but they were tough to catch, or they were too small. I never did find the big ones like I did the first day.

We had wind the first day and that was helping the swimbait bite. Without the wind, they wouldn't bite it.

On Monday we had super-strong sight-fishing, and then when the wind came it kind of graduated to a buck-fest and it seemed like a lot of the big ones left. If we get wind on the first day, there should be some big bags caught on swimbaits and jerkbaits. If it stays calm, then the sight-bite should come back and that would be the most fun.

Wind means everything here. That, or the lack of it, determines how you need to catch them. I'm going to go practice because I don't have anything too strong going. I don't want to get caught up in what was going on the day before or 2 days before because it'll probably be different.