Thursday, I finally fished my first tourney of the season, the 2nd annual Imperium Cup.  Blasted off in a pretty small field of 28 with cloudy, windy conditions.  Temperature had dropped from 32C(89F) to 13C(55F) overnight and reached a daytime high of 17C (62F).  Being a tournament that relies on big smallies to win, I was nervous about the weather change.  Started out fishing a largie bay skipping sticks under docks and casting tubes out into deeper, sparse weed growth.  We put together a quick limit, but nothing better than 2 lbs.  Headed to a shoal nearby thats known for bedding smallies.  Saw 5 beds, caught 5 fish all on a flick shake dropkick minnow.  The smallies from here were all smaller males, females were nowhere to be found.  Headed to a reef about 5 miles away and the wind was blowing pretty good.  Chucked some spinnerbaits around to no avail.  Hit another key area of mine and again, didnt even see a fish.  Decided to brave the weather and make a 14 mile run to an area I know had good fish.  I cracked my hull a couple years ago and being in the same boat in bad weather on big water still makes me nervous.  Arrived at our spot and after a couple minutes, I cast to a boulder on a sand flat and set the hook on a 4 pounder, good choice to come here.  Probed my way around the area and managed 3 more bites before it was time to leave, all good 4+ fish including a 5-10 smallie.  Needed to get rid of one more fish but wasnt able to.  Weigh in was tight, with the winners weighing 21-6 including a 6-1 largie they got 5 mins before weigh in.  2nd place was 21-5 including a 6-4 smallie they got on their second cast of the day.  We placed 3rd with 20-11.  Lots of people in the 14-15 lbs range.  Heres some pics of the top 3 teams.  Had a lot of fun that day!

Sweet!

Excellent report and tourney strategy.

Very nice!! Congrats on the good finishing spot!

Always listen to your gut!

 

Congrats!

Congrats on the 3rd place finish!

 

Now I just have to figure out if the tournament's sponsor is advertising their prices in Canadian or Yankee Dollars. 

Congrats!

Yea those are great fish, nice weights and great pics! Nicely done!!

Congrats nice feeling to do that well