Well for one who's love for the sport of bass fishing far exceeds his skill as a bass fisherman (or any type of fisherman for that matter), this turned out to be a pretty decent day.

Decided to try out a new lake today, as Clear Lake is my local and I can't seem to catch a cold there anymore, much less any bass worth mention. Grabbed a buddy and drove up to Terrell to check that out. We got to the boat launch about 5:30 or so to find that there was a tournament going on today! Good times were had launching my $300 Valco next to their $30,000 Nitros! That said, there were 22 tourney boats on the water all day fighting for any spot worth anything. Good times.

First off, my buddy Joe is new to the sport and has next to nothing for gear. Some guy gave him one small crankbait and he ran that almost all day. We started out running up the south bank with Joe on his crank and myself switching between a Senko and a double prop buzzbait. Half hour down and just passed the dock Joe gets lit up with a pounder. Not five minutes later POW, a big ol' pig slams my buzzbait. I'm terrible about estimating weight, and didn't realize the scale was broken, so according to the internet, a 20" fish is roughly 4.5 pounds. First bass of the year. Ten minutes later I missed one on the Senko and that was it for me.

Man I tried everything. I tried spinners, I tried topwater, I changed colors, I was all over the board, but that was it. Nothing for me for the rest of the dang day. To top it off, a wind came in from nowhere and that lake got COLD! Talked to some of the tourney guys and it was a mixed bag for them, though they tended to be tight lipped about the specifics of their approach...not very helpful. Joe on the other hand had a dry spell for a couple hours and then pulled out another four fish while we worked towards the bank just opposite the boat launch. His largest was probably in the 5.5 pound range. Him and that crazy crank. With all the lilies and reeds around, I spent more time maneuvering the boat so he could get unstuck than me fishing at times, but it was producing. I finally broke down and threw on a crank for a few minutes, but he had lost his by now and was using the only one I had that ran that shallow, so mine was diving straight into the ground and wasting my time. By now it was almost noon and I had to get back home, so we called it a day.

Overall, 5 fish, one miss, and a big shoutout to 8the88 for being so generous with knowledge about this wonderful sport.

~Robert

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