Wheeler Bassmaster Southern Open

I caught 6 1/2 pounds and stayed in 27th place. I only had 3 fish again today, but I had 7 bites: two peanuts, two that came off after I hooked them and I have no clue how or why, and I caught three. My partner had a limit. He caught 5 that weighed 10-13. I fished the same area gain today, all day.

It's a deep area 15-20 feet deep, with scattered rock. Usually the water's pretty clear, like I'd say 3-4 feet visibility. I guess due to all the rain they had recently visibility was down to only about 2 feet. I think that made it a lot tougher. Every other time I've fished that area it's not a problem catching 5 fish.

I was fishing mostly a dropshot with a Kinami dropshot worm in bleeding red shad, and I had a 3/16-ounce lead weight and No. 4 Gamakatsu dropshot hook. I used a 6' 6" Shimano V-rod, med-action, Shimano Symtre 2000 reel and 8-pound Triple Fish fluorocarbon.

I think the dirty water was making the spots suspend, and harder to target. I tried cranking through them, using a topwater and all kinds of stuff, but a dropshot was the only thing I could catch them on.

I had 3 fish that weighed 6-13. Yesterday I had 6 bites, and today I had 5 bites and two of them were short. I fished the same area, fished it kind of the same way. I knew it was going to be slow and tough, but it was very slow. It looked like the water dropped a little bit, and I think it may have come up a little during the day.

I wish I could've caught two more, but at least I made the cut. I'm going to go do the same thing I've been doing tomorrow, and if I don't have a bite by 11:00 I'm going to make a change and try some different stuff. My goal here is to make money and gain some points.

It was a little tougher than I thought it was going to be. It took me all day to catch five. The conditions didn't change. It was just really slow. I was hoping it would be a little bit better.

I lost one that was maybe a pound and a half or so, which actually would've helped me a little because I weighed in one that was just touching 12 inches.

Tomorrow I'm going to go back and do the same thing I did today. I know there will be a couple less boats in there, which will probably help a little bit.

I caught two small keepers and about 30 shorts in about 4 hours. I'm not going to fish that stuff in the tournament. It's just backup stuff in case my stuff goes to pot.

It's tough. I won't lie. The water has come up at least 2 feet in the past 2 days, and it's gotten very stained from what it normally is. But I did catch 4 keepers today and had 2 more on, all in one area. It was the area I was counting on, and it looks like it still has some fish in there.

I feel like I can catch fish if I have to in that one area, but I know I can't win the tournament there. But if everything goes right, I could make a Top 10 there.

Wheeler is way tougher than it was in June (at the FLW). Then you could go almost anyplace and catch fish. The water color was good everywhere. But now the creeks are really stained from all rain we had 2 days ago, and it's tough.