Opening Tournament of the 2012.

WooHoo!  Heartland on Loudon Tellico, first tournament of the year.  No rain but very cold (for me) to fish.  Temperature started out at 29 degrees and got up to 43 degrees.  Wore the perfect clothes and had no problems at all.  (With enough Hot Hands a person can survive forever.)  Wind started out at 9 mph and by 11 a.m. had reached a steady 13 mph.  At 1 p.m., as predicted, the wind kicked up to a steady 17 mph and boat position and fishing got incredibly difficult.  There were 35 boats in this first Heartland and we saw many of them leave the lake after 1 p.m. because of the conditions.

We ended up in Second Place, 5 fish, 13.25 pounds, and Smallie Lunker of 3.95.  We were in first place until the end when Chris and Chris came in with 13.45.  If you are going to get beat out of First, it is good when it is someone you know and respect.  They are good fishermen and we knew when they came to the scales we might have lost our position.

Don fished a Scrounger, Swimbait, and TN Rig; I fished a Scrounger and Swimbait.   We had planned to fish a jerkbait but the wind wouldn't allow that.  Now the truth, Don caught all the fish on a hook and I caught all of them in the net.  But, with the wind the way it was, one person could not have gotten a check.  This was one of those tournaments where it was a "team event" - it took both of us to keep it going that day.

Frank's - Douglas: June 4, 2011

First Friday night tournament in three years!  It was absolutely a dream come true tournament for me.  I caught two 5 pounders - not back to back - one at 9 p.m. and one at 1:30 a.m.  The first was 5.3 and the second was 5.68.  Ended up with first (19.85 pounds) and lunker!  The weather was warm, the night was perfect - just a wonderful, great tournament.  Don caught a big 4 and a 3.  The small fish was anyone's guess, we caught so many fish that we traded that small fish out all night trying to gain ounces.  Turned out we didn't need to worry so much about the ounces, second place was 13+ pounds.  Hope we can go back again in the near future, won't be right away but we will definitely get back out there.

Two Weeks in May 2011

Writing this because we missed a B.A.I.T. on Cherokee - we never miss tournaments.  Don came home from fishing Morristown Marine on Cherokee on May 14 with the beginnings of a cold.  By Monday he was in bed and didn't get out for 2 straight days.  May 18 is fishing partner came down with a cold and went to work but came home and didn't get out of bed Thursday or Friday.  Missed the tournament on Saturday, and didn't get back to work until the next Tuesday.  Man were we sick.  It took almost three weeks to get over the thing.  We did fish Heartland Concord on May 28, but coughed and hacked through it.  Not going to write about Concord as it was not a memorable tournament - we ended up with about 10 pounds which was not enough.  That was the last Heartland for the season, we qualified for the classic.  Speaking of the classic and the Heartland.  They changed the classic date on us.  After I slaved for days to get us into the Lodge on Lake Guntersville.  I've tried for 5 years to get a room there and they are always booked.  I was so mad I could have spit nails.  Geezs, sometimes this circuit is one big cluster.

Tim Irwin - Loudon: May 7, 2011

We caught a whole lot of fish in this tournament but ended up out of the money.  We just couldn't get that big fish to kick us into the check line.  Ended up with 13+ pounds (along with a handful of others) and out of the money by less than a pound.  And this time Sonny Lee pushed us out of the money.  Had a good time and most of our fishing buds did get a check.  It's always fun to see everyone and the wind and weather were much better then forecast.  Rain didn't start until 5 p.m. so we were in the car and on the way home by the time it really came down.  Great day!

B.A.I.T - Douglas: April 30, 2011

We stunk then went home empty handed.  Only had four fish, that was all we managed to catch.  This was our first trip to Douglas in a long time and we had little time to pre-fish.  We just didn't know enough about the lake or what the fish were doing to do any good.  Guy Siler won with 20+ pounds, Charlie Raush was second with 19+.  Did win a weigh-in bag in the draw.

Heartland - Concord April 16

Took the wind fish knowledge and put it to work for the Heartland.  This time I had a baitcaster with one of the new KVD Strike King square bills.  What a difference.  I can handle the fish and get them in the boat.  That's just what I did with a 5.55 pounder too!  She came up as I ran it by a brick wall, swirled and dove.  I was able to turn her and get her in the boat.  This was a really hard day for Don - the wind was just terrible.  But we stayed in it all day and got enough for first place (15+ pounds) and lunker!  Love it when you take the knowledge from one tournament, build on it, and succeed because of it.

Gettelfinger - Months Later

Oh this is just plain embarrassing, June 8 and I am just finishing the tournament news up.  Can't remember much of it either.  I do remember we got a check, last check paid (but we got a check).  Caught my fish on a Carolina Smallie Rig.  Used my new Shimano Chronarch on the rod and it was sweeeet.  Could throw it farther than I've ever thrown a rig before.  Used a 3/4 oz sinker and the bait was a smallie beaver in green pumpkin.  Caught a ton of 16 3/4 inch Smallmouth, too bad they have to be 18 because they were fat little things.

Wind picked up during the afternoon and we started "wind" fishing.  Don had a hard time keeping the boat in position.  I used spinning tackle on rip rap and chunked-in several Largemouth.  Don caught the better fish on a spinnerbait from the front of the boat.  I lost a strong fish because my equipment was just too light to turn it when it hit close and turned under the boat.  We fixed that problem after that.  Tournament was good, beat Sonny Lee and Barefoot for that last check by less than a pound.

March 31: Pre-Fish for Gettelfinger

Ugly weather, cannot believe it is the last day of March.  Left the house at 8 AM even though we got up at 5 AM, normal time.  Weather was so unfriendly that Don was in no more of a hurry to get out there than I was.  Temperature at 8:53 AM was 39-degrees.  I wore the same clothes that I have been wearing but combined the green coat with the grey bibs thinking the green coat was warmer.  Good to pre-fish because you find out important things like, it is actually colder than the grey coat.  Also added my Bomber hat which I wore over my Doug hat.  Had four Toastie Toes left and tried to use only one of them but had to get a second pair out around noon.  It rained at 2, 2:30, and 3 PM.  Had my Bugaboots on and my feet were still cold.

Got some new high blood pressure medicine to treat my Raynaud's and it actually worked!  My fingers did not get white one time!  It is unbelievable.  All these years I have suffered with this and there has been a cure out there.  Now I am going to have to learn to live like a normal person.  There are many things I have done to compensate that I will not need to do any longer.  It will be interesting.

Dollar count at the end of the day - Don 0, Nancy 2 (first and most).  My dollar jar is looking good next to Don's empty one.

Back to work tomorrow and then the tournament is Saturday.  Forecast is for better weather, and Don reports much better weather today.  He is also catching a lot of fish today.  Forecast: Saturday, Partly sunny, with a high near 62. Calm wind becoming west between 10 and 15 mph. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.  Hourly breakdown:   6 AM- 42 (will feel  like 38).  9 AM- 45 ( feel like 41). Noon-56, 3 PM-61.

Carolina Rig, Crankbait (Bandits, Rapala, DT10, Homemade).  All on Rig.

March 26: The Bill Williams

Forecast all week was for 80-75 percent rain.  Did not think there was any way out of getting rained on all day.  Even the forecast the morning of the tournament said the rain would come in around 6 am, lightly, and then turn to a long soaking rain at 7 am thru 5 pm, turning into thunder and lightning then.  Not a cheery thing to think about or make you want to fish in all day.

Got up at 3 am, and out the door by 5:45 am.  Wore almost all the same clothes as in pre-fish (I mean the exact same clothes).  Did wear my summer grey bibs and changed to the grey jacket because it is a rain suit.  Could not wear the grey sweatshirt under it all because I had too many clothes on.  Also traded in the tennis shoes for my Columbia Bugaboo Boots.  Put the full foot warmers in them and used 3 pairs of hot hands.

No rain all day except for a sprinkle around 1:30 pm.  Unbelievable.  Kept all the clothes on because it was cold.  Brought a thermos of split-pea soup, delicious and warm, which I ate about 1 pm.  It warmed me from the inside and kept me going the rest of the day.  Rain started after the whole thing was over, even the weigh-in.  How lucky was that?

Caught so many fish this day.  Used my new Shimano Chronarch, rigged as a Smalley Rig, Fluorocarbon main line and Mono on the tag line, with an Owner 3.0 worm hook.  Tag line was about 1-ft. long.  Bait was a smally beaver which worked very well.  Dipped the tail and I believe that attracted the Smalleys.  Brown fish had to be 18" and I caught 4-17" and a couple-16".  In hopes of catching a LgMouth keeper, changed to a larger beaver and did not dip the tail.  Caught one almost immediately but just over keeper size (14").  It did go in the livewell.  Don had all the "keeper" luck.  He caught a 2 lb. and a 4 lb. green fish, both in the same spots I caught the browns.  We ended up with about 6 pounds but did not weigh them in; let them swim at the ramp.  No sense in stressing them with handling and no water once we found out it would take 13 pounds to make money.

As cold as it was and as tough a day as it was, I still had a great day.  Caught so many fish, just no size to them.  Weather has been fluctuating along with water level so drastically the poor fish don't know what to do.  They want to spawn but the weather is holding them back.  The 17" Smalleys I caught did not have a belly on them and their fins and belly were perfect so they hadn't been making a nest.  Many times two fish would go after my lure so they were hungry, acting more like fish getting ready to spawn.


After the tournament, we went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries in Lenoir City - best Cheeseburger I've ever had.

March 25: Pre-Fish for Bill Williams

Weather on TV and computer this morning reported 41 degrees.  Don's pick-up truck reported 39 (I'm going with the truck).  Fished none of the areas Don planned to fish in the tournament except for the 5-fingers area.  Some pecks and bumps but no fish there.  Went up Tellico, fished the grey house (0), pocket across from it (2 - N1 keeper and D1 non-keeper).  Moved up to the Clear Creek area (0) and on to Spring Creek (5 or 6 non-keepers).  Brought out a white and black RS which caught several non-keepers.  Got colder the longer we were out there.  Not a real fun day but knew it was going to be the better of the two.

Clothes:  Green Coat, Champion Sweatshirt, Leather_TenS, LE_LsT, bamboo LngJ's, DulFleece, Cab_WindS, fleece-lined Khakis, fleece socks under regSocks, gloves (brown spandex under leather) Car_Hat.

Left house at 7:45 so got a later start. Minus fishing - 1,200/day