Club tourney last night on Douglas. 8PM-7AM. Had 7 boats show up, 13 people.

My boater and I had fished Friday night, found a few good spots, figured out a good pattern. We blasted off first and had our spot to ourselves despite the four other tournaments going on that night.

We got a couple of small fish to start off with (12" minimum length), then went a while without a fish. Then I got into them. 9:30-10, I put three keepers in the boat, the biggest being right at 2 lbs. So I was feeling quite good.

Then it went downhill from there. I couldn't buy a bite. From 10-3, I only caught one fish. Had several fish almost to the boat before they pulled off the hook. I think I had 6 or 7 fish get off in that time period. Finally put a decent keeper in the boat just after three, then another dead period. Was talking on the phone around 4:30, hooked a fish, got it to the boat. Net was in the water, ready to swallow the fish when it jumped, threw the hook back into the boat and swam away.

I got three more fish over the next two hours, but all were an inch short. Ended up finishing 7th with 6 lbs. (took 11.5 to win).

My boater, OTOH, was the exact opposite. He couldn't buy a bit before midnight. After midnight, he couldn't help but catch fish. He ended up with a limit, total weight of 7 lbs.

We ended up catching 25-30 fish, 12 keepers.

Learned a few things on this one, such as having the same rig tied on two rods so if you break one off you can keep fishing if they are biting.

I'm inching ever closer to the top, although it is rough going since some of these guys have been fishing these lakes for longer than I've been alive. That said, I can guarantee you none of them were fishing what I was...

You just got lucky and tried something when nothing else was working, but I do believe it is better to be lucky than good.    Even at that it was way better than the one 1.5 lb keeper I had, and I was fishing with one of the guys that has won the most in the club (you should see all the trophies and plaques hanging on the wall in his gargage) and we couldn't get on'em, at least we did move around and not set in one unproductive river arm all night this time.  I do believe the spots we were fishing would have been extremely good if the lake wasn't so low, he showed me a few place 8-)s on the graph that most people don't know about.

Not really, as I suspected after my trip down there two weeks ago that the presentation would work.  I confirmed it Friday night after trying a couple of other presentations.

Wasn't the only thing that worked, as Homer showed.  We were fishing the same water, same presentation.  I was catching fish, he wasn't.  He switched to his usual presentation, started catching fish.

They were wanting a very slow presentation Sat. night, at least in our location.

and I was fishing with one of the guys that has won the most in the club (you should see all the trophies and plaques hanging on the wall in his gargage)

I have more respect for Alan than just about anyone in the club.  If he had more time to fish, I don't think anyone would beat him.

and I was fishing with one of the guys that has won the most in the club (you should see all the trophies and plaques hanging on the wall in his gargage)

I have more respect for Alan than just about anyone in the club. If he had more time to fish, I don't think anyone would beat him.

Agreed.

They were on a very slow pattern for us as well.  And their must be something about that grape firetail worm he was fishing and gave me, he has 3 cases of them.