Grand was fishing really tough this year due to colder temps through out the winter than normal. Locals were reporting huge shad kills pryor to this event. This really makes the fishing tough due to the fact that the fish have an abundant supply of food with little or no energy spent for feeding.
After finishing in 15th place three weeks pryor in the BFL with only two fish i set out to find something that was going to produce more numbers. The first day of practice i never had a bite, i did fish the coldest part of the lake but these were areas where i have done really well in the past this time of year. The next day i went up the river and located what i would describe as a 15LBS jig bite. I left this water alone for the next three days knowing that was where i wanted to start. I did catch some fish in other areas the next two days of practice, but they were not the caliber of fish i was on up the river.
Day one of the tournament i went up the river to the jig fish i had found in practice. Everyday in practice i wouldn't get bit untill afternoon so i grinded it out untill 2:30 fish only a few short stikes and one keeper. I decided to abandon those fish with just 1 hour left to fish. I moved to my secondary spot throwing a jerk bait and caught three more and just ran out of time. Ended up in 67th place for day one.
Day two i was alot better for me. I went to the that spot first thing in the morning and threw a jerkbait. I had a limit around 9:00 and kept thinking i needed to go back to the river jig fish. About 10:00 my co-angler hooked up with what ended up being the Big Bass for the non-boater side, a nice 6.5. So at that point i decided to stick it out at that location and maybe i could boat a big one and move up. Every fish i caught from that point on were just bank runners, i was culling ounces when i needed to be culling pounds! I did have a couple fish i hooked up with that i wasn't able to get in the boat but thats fishing. I did move up 27 places to finish the tournament in 40th and cashed a good enough check to cover my entry and expenses.
