Saturday, 10-29-11- Mike's Sat am tourney- Priest...

I decided to fish the weekly tourney out of Fate Sanders today. The day started a bit crazy. First, I left my tackle box at home, so I had to turn around and hustle to Smyrna to make it on time. Next, when I got to the ramp at Stewarts Cr, my GPS unit would not operate, and considering the fog bank I launched in, I would have a tough time getting across the lake to the take off. I asked another fisherman if I could follow him, but when we got out in the channel, his GPS cut out, so it was now the blind leading the blind. After 45 minutes of idling in circles, I finally found my way to the marina. Chris Meyer, my partner and highschool classmate, had already checked us in, and since the fog was so thick they started us late anyway.

We idled to the back of the cove at Fate Sanders to fish and wait for the fog to lift. I pulled up on a random bank, and on about the 10th cast with the squarebill, wham, fish on! It was a nice 3 1/4 lb largemouth- bonus fish for sure. We stayed in the cove for another hour, and I landed keeper #2 on the Fat John- a nice 15 1/2 " fish. We also caught three or four short fish in the area.

At about 9:45 the fog lifted, and we raced up the river. We spent an hour and a half up the forks looking for a bite to no avail, so we ran back down river to a flat where I had caught them schooling the week before. The shad were stacked in there, and the fish were chasing them. We caught five or six fish in the area including a nice 17" fish that was tricked by the Red Eye Shad. Chris caught a 12" spot on a rattle bait too.

The fish shut off around 2 pm, and we had to be in at 3:30 for weigh-in. We headed back to the starting spot, and I caught a short fish right off the bat, but that would be it for the day.

We weighed in our four keepers, and they totalled 8 1/2 lbs, which was good for second out of about 30 boats. We missed first by 1/4 lb to a tough local team.

We needed one more keeper, but it was a fun day, and we got a little folding money out of the trip ($260).

See you soon. Tight lines!

RBK