humbling experience..................

     No matter how good the last few fishing trips have been, or how many big bags of bass you've caught recently, or how confident you've become, there is always the next fishing trip waiting to humble you. And that is exactly what I experienced today in a trip to Lansing.
     I accepted an invite to join Mike on pool 9 and head out after some of the good populations of largemouth and smallmouth in and around the Lansing area. We met at the state ramp at first light, dropped Mikes ranger boat in the water, and headed out with relative confidence we could find quality fish. The water table has been somewhat stable over the past few days, weather has been unseasonably warm, and no storm fronts had moved through the area, so the conditions appeared to be on our side. As we put down and idled to our first stretch of bank, Mike noticed the water color had gone from semi-clean to stained. Not sure how this would impact the bite, we started fished the flooded brush and emerging grass along the shoreline with cautious optimism. This would be the highlight of our confidence as we spent the next two hours casting and flipping every piece of cover in the area with little more than a tap or two on the other end of the line. The area had all the components needed such as log jams, smaller flooded brush, fresh green grass, and a mix of current and slack water. Yet nothing more than a missed bite or two.

      Disappointed, we loaded up and headed to another spot closer to the main channel thinking the fish had moved out of shallower back waters. Our next area had similar structure and a little more depth, not to mention a good reputation for holding quality fish. Although the water wasn't at the ideal level, we had hopes of pulling at least a few fish from this area. As we fished the area with tubes, jigs, spinner baits, and the occasional pop-r, our confidence continued to decline as we again had a bite every 50-75 yards and still nothing to show for it. As we approached the back of the cove, and yet another good looking grouping of flooded trees, Mike would stick our only quality fish of the day, a solid 2-1/4 to 2-1/2lb smallmouth. It was somewhat out of place that far back in the trees, however, it gave me confidence there could be more in the area so we continued to fish another hour. Humbly, we packed up our gear quietly, and headed down river evaluating the situation and trying to figure out what the fish wanted. Was it bait fish?, we had seen schools of bait fish. Was it current? we had fished current. Was it weeds, or wood? We'd fished both. Nothing seem to stand out as the reason for our poor fishing.

     We blew through some narrow cuts and down into an area that had two to three intersecting current flows. Again, we had timber, brush, emerging weeds and pads, and now we had rocks. We initially fished the back side of an island and after about 100 yards had one tiny northern pike as the only proof we'd fish the bank at all. As Mike took the boat down one of the cuts, we came up on a bridge and started to fish the rock shoreline with tubes and beavers. Mike got bit almost immediately on the rocks, but didn't hook up while I managed the tinniest of tiny smallmouth on a KVD 1.5 white/grey/chartreuse crankbait. There were a few more bites further up this shoreline, but no hooks ups, so we decided to check a spot or two closure to the ramp. At this point, you could almost feel the desperation between us as the conversations started to dwindle and we both spent that time trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle we'd failed to do throughout the course of the day.
     Next, we sat down in heavy current on a rocky main channel shoreline. Again throwing tubes, beavers, spinner baits, and jigs, we started to get bit. And as we quickly found out, these were 8" to 10" bass grouped together in subtle current breaks. It was nice to get bit, but by now, these fish were little concellation for the days efforts. We fished a little more of the area, then headed into the marina and fished our way to the boat dock.
     Its a little hard to swallow the outcome of the day considering the conditions were right for a good day on the water. Usually, the drive home offers a little clarity on the situation, and provides a bases for wiser decisions going forward. However, Mike and I talked our way through the entire day while we were in the boat fishing our way through pool 9 and failed to come up with any factors except one. The water clarity in almost all the spots we checked had become slightly stained compared to previous outings. This was the only real factor we could come up with that could have impacted the fish.
     The old saying, "A bad day of fishing is still better than a good day of work", still applies. It was a great day to be on the water, and as I do on every trip, learned more about the river than I previously knew. That being said, Mike and I are both competitive and the sting of a humbling day on the river won't go away quickly enough.



       










  

Products and techniques to this point in the season

     It's been a different sort of spring this year on the Mississippi river with water levels starting out high and never going below 3'-5' above normal pool levels. Because of the high water levels, the cooler than normal water temperature, and the consistent current, its been a struggle finding and patterning fish. However, it has been a decent spring for quality fish and with that being said, I'd like to take a brief moment to discuss some of the tackle I've been using this season, and what lures have been consistently taking fish.
     I made a switch to fluorocarbon line in early May and have to say I am very pleased with the results. 15lb Vicious Flurocarbon has limited the stretch I was getting with monofilament and has also helped get the plastics I've been throwing down quickly. My main concern was how it would cast, and between my Pinnacle Inertia's and Abu Garcia Orra SX reels, it has been smooth and fluent.
     It's hard to pick a single lure that has produced the best for me this season on the Mississippi river. My personal favorite and go to lure is the RC Tackle 4" black with red flake tube. I''ve fished this lure in every condition this season and it has almost always produced fish. Along with the tube, I've fished a jig made by a friend of mine who started River's Edge lures. This jig is a brown/orange/watermelon combination with a papi craw brown and tan trailer. There was a day in early May where I would estimate I fished this lure 90% of the day in many different situations, and couldn't keep the largemouth and smallmouth off. Another bait I was introduced to this season was the Reaction Innovation Sweet Beaver in watermelon and red. When weighted correctly for the conditions, this bait has produced fish in heavy, heavy current, which is almost everywhere given the river levels this spring. Personally, up until the last week or two, I haven't had any consistent luck on spinner baits and chatterbaits. I've caught fish, but nothing as consistent as a tube, a jig, or a beaver. However, the last 2 to 3 weeks have been a very hot spinner bait bite, and it took a butt kicking by my boating partners to change my perspective. I'd been throwing a larger profile spinner bait, and this was apparently my issue because once I was guilted into putting on a low profile spinnerbait, I began increasing my hook ups. Specifically this last weekend in which the majority of my fish came off a spinnerbait. I usually throw a Stanley Vibrashaft spinner bait in various color combinations, but this spring has shown me the profile of the bait can become as important as any other aspect of the lure.
     As far a techniques and patterns go this season, it's been all about current. Deep water areas that usually hold pre-spawn staging fish have anywhere from 3' to an extra 6' of water on them with heavier than usual current. So getting the bait down to the fish has required a heavier weight for plastics, a heavier jig, or even a heavier chatterbait or spinner bait. Along with the consistently higher water this spring has been the junk floating at all levels of the water column. This has made crankbaits, rattle traps and even some top water lures hard to effectively fish. But when the water conditions have been right, I have taken a few fish on both rattle traps and crankbaits.
     The really curious thing to me this spring has been the amount of good quality fish we've caught in stronger than normal current. I mean kill your trolling motor batteries in a few hours fast current. With this much high water and current all over the river, one would think the fish would like enjoy a break from swimming so hard. However, it almost appeared the opposite of that thought process this spring. I've fished in current I never would have considered previously, and found consistent concentrations of quality tournament fish. If I had to take one lesson away from the season thus far, it would be to never overlook an area because of the speed of the water. If the area has all the right factors, make sure you give the spot a chance. Chances are, the fish are their.   




     

Memorial day.........

     My introduction to the Mississippi river began when I was old enough to walk, and I've been in love with this river ever since. My grandparents owned a summer home in Harpers Ferry and I can remember spending almost every summer weekend with my grandfather on the river fishing for everything from blue gills and crappies, to walleye and northern pike. So every Memorial Day, I spend at least part of my day fishing the Mississippi river allowing it to take me back to much simpler times in my life. And this last Memorial Day was no exception as I spent another day on pool 9 with Eric, a fellow Northeast Iowa Bass angler.

     We started our day on a large section of backwater fishing shallow weed beds. Eric began by throwing a spinner bait and I began by alternating between a pop-R and a spinner bait. Even at 5:30 in the morning I was quickly reminded of the forecasted winds for that day as we had more than a few waves chopping up the back of the usually quiet lake. It took roughly a half hour before Eric boated our first fish of the day which took longer than either of us expected. The emerging weeds and shallow depth looked like a perfect spawning area, but to our discontent, the first stretch we fished did not hold fish in any concentrations. We moved deeper into the back of the lake and found a few defined weed points and slightly deeper water. These points held a few fish as we both got bit around the same bush on a tube and a jig, but came up empty. We fished the area out with only a a few dinks to show for our efforts and decided to try another area with more current and considerably more weed growth. This new area didn't take long to produce as Eric boated a solid 2+lb largemouth on a spinner bait withing minutes. Shortly after that I boated my first keeper that exploded on a Berkly pop-R just outside the defined weedline. The whole area looked like it should hold fish with a shallow weed flat out of the current, just 20-30 yards away from a deep secondary channel. We again caught a few more small fish (and one enormous dogfish) as we finished this area, but nothing that would help the cause, so we strapped down the gear and decided to head down river.

     On our way down Eric punched the boat into what is usually a clear water feeder creek, but was surprised to see milky stained water throughout the area. We fished this area quickly, as Eric noticed the water temperature was almost 10 degrees cooler than our other stops, and with no luck and headed down the river a few hundred yards to the top of the Winneshiek. As the boat spilled out of one of the canals, we were greeted with another bass boat sitting one the area we intended to fish. So, we made short work of the area we had left to fish and decided to continue our trek down stream in search of more consistant fishing. We fished the top and bottom sides of a few points on our way down stream with a few fish here and there, until finally we found a solid concentration of fish. This area consisted of another feeder creek spilling directly into the river with 2' inside the creek spilling into a 3'-5' flat with a few large tree stumps barely sticking out of the water. Our first positive sign was bait fish holding behind each of the logs blocking the current. Just at the mouth of the creek we found the fish feeding aggresively, and biting on everything from spinner baits and crankbaits, to tubes and beavers. To be honest, the area was loaded with fish, but they were mostly 10'-12's. However, I did take my best fish of the day off a black with red flake 4" tube. This 2-3/4 to 3lb fish came directly in the mouth of the creek in about 4' of water. And, as we could see when we buzzed a spinner bait behind the current breaks, they were feeding on the bait fish holding in the area.

     As fun as consistantly catching fish can be, Eric and I both wanted to keep searching for bigger fish so we put the poles down and quickly traveled around the corner and into a partially flooded island cove out of the wind. Eric quickly noticed all the activity in the area, but realized it was carp and other rough fish making all the commotion. Regardless, the area looked solid with shallow, but cleaner water and fresh green grass patches springing up to the east of our boat and an immature lilly pad field to the west of the boat. Eric blanketed the weed line with a spinner bait and swim jig and I pounded the small lilly pad field with a modified Stanley Vibrashaft spinner bait. Eric quickly swept two solid 2-1/2lb fish into the boat and I added a third keeper minutes after that. As we made our way between the weeds and pad field we would pick up a keeper every 10-15 minutes, but what made this intriguing was the fact we were catching no dinks. These were solid tournament fish. As we made our way into the very back side of the island we were in very skinny water and spooking fish as we went. At first we thought these were the carp we'd seen jumping and moving around earlier, but Eric and I both realized these weren't very quickly when he hooked into a solid 3lb largemouth and I boated another solid keeper on a Rivers Edge Peanut Butter and Jelly Swim jig. This area was being used for spawning and the pad field on the outside was a staging area near deeper water. Even though the fishing wasn't fast and furious, we continued to pull quality fish from this area until my watch told me it was time to be getting back to the vehicle and heading for home.
     Eric and I began the day struggling to find consistent fish in areas we both thought would be holding various stages of spawning fish. But as it often plays out, we needed to move around from spot to spot to find areas with active fish. Even though we caught fish in two main areas, it was clear this was two different kinds of "active". The mouth of the creek had fish in the feeding mode with schools of bait fish holding behind almost every log and current break. The shallow weed flat and adjacent lilly pad field had larger fish, but they were reacting to baits in and around spawning beds. Regardless, we would have had a solid bag of fish on any tournament day, and in the process, learned a lot about how the fish were using the two different areas for different purposes.

1st club tournament

     After having the first club tournament of the year cancelled due to high water, we were finally able to have our pool 9 spring tournament out of Lansing. I was excited to get an early jump on the mornings fishing but was quickly deflated by the site of 25+ bass boats lined up at the state ramp in Lansing. Bass World Sports was having a tournament out of the same ramp, so I knew right then and there the river was going to be crowded. Our club members put their boats in, wound our way through the other tournaments staging boats, and put up on plain headed for our first spots. My partner for this tournament had prefished the lower end of pool 9 and was confident in our ability to find fish, with the only question being size.
     As we dropped down near a quiet shoreline, I was excited about the prospect of calling up some early morning fish on my Berkley Pop-R, while my parnter started the morning throwing a scailed down spinner bait. We were on a flat of about 1-1/2' to 2' of water with 3+ feet of water just beyond the other side of the boat. The water was slightly stained from the rain the night before with moderate current on the shoreline timber. The water temperatures where 63-65 degrees. As we fish further down the shoreline I had a few hits on plastic but no hook ups, but Dan was also getting fish hitting the spinner baits but not eating. We both agreed we were on a spawning flat with fish either sitting on or guarding beds. Shortly after that conversation Dan hooked up with his first keeper of the day, a solid 1-3/4"-2lb fish. I continued to alternate between the the pop-R and an RC Tackle Beaver with nothing to show for my efforts. As we made our way down the bank, Dan would occasionally get bumped on the spinner bait and quickly used a follow up soft plastic bait. The fish would appear to run off with the bait but would not get hooked, so this re-confirmed the fish were guarding beds and only carrying off the baits versus truely eating them. After about 200 yards, we turned around and worked our way back up the bank and Dan managed to boat two more keepers and some dinks while continuing to get bit on the spinnerbait. We entered an area just north of the shoreline we started on only to find the creek feeding this area had muddied up the water. So, we decided to head offshore near some emerging grass flats. This grass was in extremly shallow water, but bordered 3'-5' of water. This was where i hooked my first keeper of the day on a spinner bait. Normally this wouldnt be that interesting of a side bar, but the fact of the matter is i casted into the wind, got one whale of a backlash, and when I managed to untangle the mess, and start realing in the line, there was a solid bass on the other end. Needless to say, that was all the amunition Dan needed for a day of ribbing about deadsticking a spinnerbait.
     With a solid limit on the board for Dan, and one pure accident on the board for me, i agreed to tie on a custom spinner bait that seemed to be the ticket for the early morning bite. And oddly enough, the first stretch of rock bank we went down I nearly got the rod jerked out of my hand by to very agressive smallmouth. This was enough to convince me that slow rolling a spinner bait was going to be a big part of my afternoon.
     As we crossed over onto a rock bank with decent current and varying water depth from 2' to 6', we started to find active fish on a variet of lures. Dan was alternating between spinnerbaits, tubes, jigs, and an occassional crankbait, while i was throwing mostly black RC tackle 4" tubes, rattle traps, and a Rivers Edge jig. We caught fish consistantly for the next two hours with Dan culling out a few fish and me finishing out my limit and upgrading a little. The magic depth consistantly holding good centrations of fish was between 3'-5'.
     Early afternoon, we decided to start looking for some bigger fish which meant heading back up river and out of our wind protected lower end. And with that being said, i can truely say the last couple of spots, and the periodic short rides up the river were a real challenge. We consistantly fought 3'+ waves with some rollers reaching 4' or better. This made for some tense moments and a real appreciation for a being in a 20+ foot boat that handled the conditions quiet well. Between these short boat rides, we managed to catch more fish, but nothing that increased our overall team weight. And with some of my fish barely crossing the 14" limit, i knew this might hurt our chances at a win.
      We entered the Lansing state ramp marina and fished our way to the boat ramp with little more than a few lost lures thanks to some overly agressive shallow water Northern pike. So we loaded up the boat and had to settle for a 3rd place finish. Dan had over twelve pounds and I had slightly less than 8lbs running our total to 20lbs. Not what we wanted, but considering the dropping water levels, and the limited prefishing, we were content with the results. It took 23+ lbs to win our club tournament with big bass being a little over 3.5 lbs. Overall, a very enjoyable day of fishing, and a reality check for me regarding my stubborness in staying with baits i want to catch fish with, versus fishing with baits I have proof the fish are agreesive with.

A day off.........

     After attempting to take a day off from work here and there, and never having it work out for one reason or another, I was finally able to get a Friday off. A long time friend had just purchased a new boat, so we decided to venture out on pool 10 with his son Ryan to try and figure out what the bass were doing with the decreasing water levels. After a short map session, we decided to start our morning up the Wisconsin river and see if the smallmouth were starting to school up and feed agressively after having so much water available to them over the last three weeks.

     We started our morning near the railroad trussel on a short stretch of bank with water levels near the bank around 1'-2' sloping into 10'-12'. Terry and Ryan started the day fishing Stanley White and Chartruesse spinner baits while I followed up behind them with an RC Tackle Brown and Tan Beaver. It didn't take long before the RC Beaver got bit but I failed the seal the deal with the hook set. A cast or two later, Terry had our first fish of the day, a 1-1/4 lb largemouth. Very quickly Ryan followed up with similar sized fish and quickly after that, I sank the hook into a solid 2+lb fish that came very close to the bottom of the water column in 8'-9'. We continued to fish our way up the bank edging our way closer to a point where we had been seeing active feeding taking place. After watching the bait fish getting chased, I was confident in our ablility to take a few fish off a Berkly Pop-R, but after a dozen or so casts, that pole quickly got put down, and the flipping stick got picked up. We continued around the corner and onto a rock wall with 7'-10' of water and good current coming out of a flooded lake. This had the makings of a solid transition spot for smallmouth coming out and largemouth going in. To our delite, the smallmouth were there, and hungry. Ryan and I both caught fish immediately while Terry had a few bites, but couldnt hook up at first. However, he would have the last laugh on us as we got to watch him set the hook on a solid 3 lb smallmouth he quickly boated. We continued to fish the rock wall picking up a small fish here or there, but nothing like the solid fish Terry caught earlier. So we fished out and around the rock wall, packed up our gear and headed to our next few spots.

     Because of the recent high water, the bass have had to fight the Mississippi river current almost anywhere they go, however, it has been in some of the strongest currents we could find that the fish have been in good concentrations. So we stuck with that plan for the next few spots, but had little luck finding anything more than a dink her and there. So, by late morning we decided to hit a few back water lakes where we thought we could find fishing using the entrances as highways to and from deeper water. In one of sloughs bordering the Wisconsin side, we headed into a shallow, but large, backwater lake only to find a bass boat in the entrance. Quietly going by the other boat we decided to fish a grouping of dead lilly pad stems where we had found fish in weeks past. After about 45 minutes, this philosophy was quickly put to rest as the water levels where barely reaching 2.7'-2.9', and we hadn't had a bite. So, we decided to head out of a flooded opening at the south east end of the lake. As we trimmed up the big motor and pulled up the trolling motor to glide through the shallow opening, Terry noticed bait fish getting chased within feet of the boat. So I quickly threw a spinner bait in the area and got crushed, but was unable to hook up. Terry let the boat drift through the opening, which was only about the length of the boat wide, and turned us around so we could cast at the targeted area. What a spot this turned out to be. The smallmouth were stacked up behind the base of three large trees feeding on a school of bait fish. And for the next hour, we were catching fish at will. Spinner baits, chatter bait, tubes, jigs, crankbaits, and beavers got bit with rectlessness by an agressive group of smallmouth. The current was howling through the cut, but the fish were holding in a very defined area and if you landed in that 5 yard circle, you got bit almost immediately. Ryan took the biggest smallmouth of the group on a Rivers Edge Chatterbait weighing easily over 3+ lbs with a wide range of sizes coming in the 30 or more fish we took off that spot before the action finally cooled off. Needless to say, always keep your eyes open because sometimes, the fish will give themselves away.

     After the barrage of fish we'd recently experienced, it was hard to believe it could get much better than that, so we considered calling it a day. But since we had a lot of water between us and the boat ramp, we decided to check a few other areas on our way back up river. For Terry, this was the right idea, because he landed the largest fish of the day in a small back water area near Johnson slough. This 3-1/4 to 3-1/2 largemouth slammed into Terry's spinner bait after he made a cast to the base of two intersecting trees in about 2' of water. This was a pre-spawn female with a good size belly which led us to believe we might have been in an area with more females making or sitting on spawning beds. But no suck luck as we fished the entire area with only one other small fish to show for it. But our day wasn't over as I had one more stretch of bank i wanted us to fish before we quit.

     The shoreline I wanted to check was in a secondary channel with current on a flooded rock and small tree bank. It took two cast of my pumpkin green RC Tackle Beaver before we found eager fish. I pulled in my largest fish of the day, a 2-1/2 lb largemouth followed quickly by smaller, but equally agressive fish. We never found another solid fish on that bank, but given the time of day, i believe the quality of fish would have increased had we been there first thing in the morning.
     Regardless, we had an excellent day on the water with a vareity of fish coming on a multitude of baits and techniques. Spinnerbaits and plastic beavers and tubes brought us the majority of the fish, but overall, the placement of the bait was the real factor in getting the fish to react to the presentation.

Grant County 2-man

     A week ago, a friend and fellow tournament angler and I decided to take part in the annual 2-man Grant County open in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. We both knew we would have limited pre-fishing time, however having just come off the spring Iowa State Tournament, we had a good feel for pool 10 and since the tournament is always well run, thought we'd spend the entry fee and just go fishing. Eric and another friend of mine spent the Friday before the tournament pre-fishing pool 10 and found fish, but not in great quantities, with the exception of one spot, and that would be our starting spot the morning of the tournament.
     As we came around the corner to our first spot, the air was quickly let out of our sails as we saw another tournament angler sitting right on top of our spot. So, we drop in just below and started fishing while politely keeping our distance. Eric managed a solid keeper shortly into our day off a spinnerbait, but the thrill was short lived as we watched the gentleman fishing the "sweet spot", set the hook on three keepers within moments on each other. The spot we needed to be in was fast moving current with a ledge gradually dropping from 2'-3' into 11'-12' of water. A combintion of largemouth and smallmouth would move up the ledge, actively feed, and drop back down. The spot was roughly 10-15 yards long and was not large enough for two boats to effectively fish, so we decided to head up around the corner and into a protected lake to try and find some spawning and posting smallmouth and pre-spawing largemouth. This led us into roughly two hours of exploring with little more than one more keeper that exploded on a Berkley Pop-R in a quiet cove. As we made our way back out of the lake, we were disappointed to find yet another boat on the spot we were seeking and decided to head to other areas in search of fish that would put us in contention.
     Eric and Rick had found fish two days earlier in a back water lake enlarged by the flooding Misissippi river, and as we entered the lake, we were suprised to count nine other boats inside the same area. However, we decided to drop the trolling motor and start fishing the outside of a dead lilly pad field in 3'-4' of water. It didn't take Eric long throwing a colorado bladed white and red shirted spinnerbait to boat a 2-1/2 lb and a 3-1/4 lb largemouth quickly helping the cause. We thought this might be a pattern, but after an hour of nothing else but an 8+ lb northern pike on a rattle trap, we moved out of the heavily bass boat ladden backwater and took a short drive to a smaller lake with similar topography.
     Shortly into fishing the smaller back water pocket, I hooked into a solid 2lb largemouth off a Rivers Edge white and blue chatterbait and added him to our livewell. We continued to fish into the farthest end of the cove where the water became clear and calm. The area had all the components for holding fish including standing timber, laydowns, buck brush, and most importantly, bait fish. We fished everything we could throw at with no luck until Eric hooked up with a keeper near the transition between timber and the dead lilly pad field on a spinnerbait. Before it was over, he had caught several fish, but only one keeper. The action was fun, but time was getting short and we needed two more keepers to fill our limit. So, we decided to start spot checking our way back to the weigh in.
     As we fished our next spot with no luck, we decided to check a heavy current spot we'd seen on our way down the river earlier in the day. This spot had a slight current break in the form of a small rock point and it was worth the stop as I pulled a solid 2+lb largemouth off the first cast with a brown/green/orange Rivers Edge flipping Jig with a papi-craw trailer. After 15 minutes with no luck we ran to one last spot and made a series of casts with spinnerbaits and chatterbaits in flooded backwater filled with timber and sparse lilly pad stims. With the clock winding down on our day, we packed up one fish short of our limit and headed to the weigh in.
     Of the eight fish limit, we weighed in seven fish for 15.91lbs. We need the eighth fish to give us a chance at cashing a check, but as hard as we fished, it wasn't meant to be. We caught fish on spinnerbaits, jigs, tubes, and rattletraps, in heavy current, dead water lakes, in shallow and deep water. Which tells us the pattern was a little hard to dial in on given the high water level, the varying stages of the spawn between smallmouth and largemouth, and the immense fishing pressure of the last three weeks on pool 10. Regardless, we were happy with our efforts.

A tale of two days.............

     The 2011 Iowa State Spring Federation Tournament was held this past weekend in Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin dispite the 15'+ water levels. And by my own admission, I did not expect the bags of fish being brought to the scale to be what they were. And simply put, they were incredible. The day one leader had over 18lbs followed by numerous 15lb-16lb bags of quality largemouth and smallmouth. Day two did not have an 18lb bag of fish but did have the consistant 15lb-16lb bags with more 12lb to 14lbs being weighed in than I ever imagined.  Dispite the lack of boat ramp acess, and the high water, I would consider the tournament an overall success. My time on the water this weekend was a tale of two very different days.
     Day one of my spring state tournament started before the last boat left the marina and without our boat ever getting on plain. My boater for day one pre-fished near the marina and had some good fish in a small stretch of 2'-6' of water bordering on a 15' ledge. We spent the majority of our morning going up and down this stretch of bank throwing everything from a 12'+ crankbait and rattle traps, to jigs, tubes, spinner baits, and shakey heads. The only thing we had to show for our efforts was one 3lb fish my boater caught midway through the morning. Dispite the high winds, rain, and even more high winds, we grinded away on this bank until late morning. Finally, we made a short run up river into a flooded bean and corn field adjacent some river backwater. Spent roughy an hour with no luck and decided to make a run down river to try and change our luck.
     After a 5-6 mile run, we dropped down off plain and slowly made our way through flooded timber back to a new bank bordering the train tracks. This is usually dry land, but we needed to find slower moving water, and this was one of those areas. It produced my only fish of the day, a 2.53lb largemouth taken on an RC Tackle black with red flake 4" tube. But with time running out, we had to weave our way through the flooded timber in order to make it back to the weigh-in in time. As we pulled into the marina, I was watching closely as other boats were bagging their fish, and I knew somehow, we had missed opportunities elsewhere on the river. As I mentioned earlier, consistant bags from 10lb-15lbs were being brought to the scales. I do however, want to make it perfectly clear that I had only myself to blame for this situation. I was unable to spend the time prefishing I should have and as a result, could not add any insight to help my boater and I find better quantity and quality of fish. Day one result..............one fish for 2.53lbs.
     Day two was a complete reversal of day one, starting with a cold run down the river and a drop down into very heavy current. At first the current was so fast I questioned my ability to keep any lure in the strike zone long enough to be affective. However, my concerns where quickly laid to rest as my boater set the hook on a solid 2lb largemouth on his second cast. And another on his third cast, and another on his fourth cast.......and.......oh, by now you get the point. My boater had made seven casts and caught five keepers. In that mayhem I managed to catch two keepers and shortly after caught my third. The only complication we had in the first half hour of fishing was sharing the net. In the next few hours I filled out my limit, mostly on various beavers, and a Rivers Edge Jig with a papi craw trailer. All while my boater continued to catch quality fish almost at will. Despite the fact that the wind was blowing so hard we had the boat pointed down stream with the trolling motor on almost high just to keep us in place.
     I specifically want to mention what I consider two acts of incredible sportsmanship witnessed throughout my day two on the water. The spot we were fishing had a very defined sweet spot which the heavy current made difficult to fish affectively. As the morning played out another competitor had come up behind us and spent the better part of an hour with only one fish to show for it. As we conversed with them, my boater asked how many they had, and the answer was bleak. So my boater asked me to come up to the front of the boat where he asked me if we should bow out of this spot and let them fill out their limits. I thought this was an awesome act of sportsmanship and was glad to be apart of it. So we lifted the trolling motor and moved over to the other shoreline.
     After roughly an hour and a half, we saw the boat leave and wave a "Thank you" as they departed our area. So, we made our way back over to our original starting point and almost immediately began catching fish again. As the time to weigh-in grew shorter, another boat joined us and had the unfortunate opportunity to watch us continue catching fish and tossing them overboard. And as he had done with the previous boat, my boater asked these gentleman if they had their limits, and they said no. So he turned to me and asked the same question he asked me three hours earlier. "Should we give this spot to them and go fish somewhere closer the weigh-in". And again, I was happy to say yes and be apart of his act of sportmanship. So we strapped everything down, and headed to waters closer to the marina.
     My second day on the water was different from day one in many ways. I had two boaters who where very fun to fish with, and would gladly fish with either gentleman again. However, even having 12.52lbs of fish to weigh in on day two pailed in comparision to watching a contender give up his spot not once, but twice to fellow competitiors who had not yet filled out their limits. This kind of sportmanship is why I love this sport so much. I had a fun 2011 Spring state tournament, but will take more than two weigh in slips away from the experience.