well we fished our first tourney last weekend...

it seems it is the only time we get to go fishing these days...anyway...

we fished Worster Lake at Potato Creek State park in Indiana...and it happened again!

I spent all winter reading this and that...and apparently I did not learn anything because again we went out and again...just one keeper. This lake seems to be a problem for us. Everytime we go out we catch small fish. I know there are big fish in the lake cause I weigh the gorgeous limits in at the end.

Now admittedly there are some really good fisherman in our club that I would likely not beat no matter where we fished ( i know...not the right attitude to have)...but when I go other places I do not have a problem with catching keepers. It is something with this lake. Something about my style or lure choices seems to produce a good number of shorts but not many keepers.

Anyone else ever has this problem with a certian lake?

I got so tired of seeing 13 inch fish.

Our results...

water temp 53-58

air temp 56-75

water stained

sunny

thin, non emergent weed cover

2 fish-11" caught on a chatter bait

5 fish 13"-13.5" 3 caught on a gray Fluke, 2 caught on a 6" white speckled Senko

1 fish 14.25" caught on same Fluke as above

I see you included all the stats of the fishing conditions except for what I think is the most important.  What depth were your fish from?  It's helped me alot to figure out where the fish are depth wise because then you can exclude a bunch of water that will produce fewer fish.  big

ooops...

all our fish came from 4-6 feet off of deep water ( 7-10 feet) drops.

most of the guys will not share specifics of their catches but I know a keeper or three came from this same depth/location

Texoma has had my number lately, I seem to struggle there while others make it look easy.  Watching other guys weigh nice fish when my sack is light drives me nuts!  When this happens you know they were biting but maybe not where you were fishing.  A couple of thoughts for you on this:  Do you know if the fish were spots or blacks?  The lakes I fish here that have good spotted bass populations can give you a bad reading on where to fish.  Here the spots are heavy feeders and don't really mix in with the blacks that much.  You could get a bunch of bites, land several small spots, and still not know the depth or pattern to fish to get the larger blacks.  Also, did you prefish the tournament?  It makes a big difference in my results and may help you as well.  I'm usually pressed for time and only get about a 6 hour prefish but it tells alot even if you don't catch much.  Knowing what water not to fish is almost as helpful as knowing what to fish.  Talk to other fishermen while your there, ask the marina operator how the bite has been.  It all helps.  The temps you mentioned would tell me the fish were in early pre spawn (at least around here) and may have been a little deeper like 8-12'.    I like the chatterbait as a  search bait in the stained water but the fluke and senko are a little slow to cover water when your not sure where the fish are.  A crankbait might have help cover more water that depth and had enough vibration to be found in the stained water.  I hope this helps a little.  big

bighead asked...

Do you know if the fish were spots or blacks?

Blacks.

Also, did you prefish the tournament?

No. We probably should have though. We are the directors of the circut on this lake...and frankly we probably would not travel that far to fish if it werent for that. Not that it is a million miles or anything...but far enough to be difficult between work and our other junk going on.

We had thrown a crank to locate already. It is also why my wife ( team tourneys) was throwing a chatter while I was throwing the fluke/Senko. We try to cover the water both ways and use dissimilar lures until we get into the fish.

thanx big