Lake Norman Re-cap...

Things didnt go quite as planned but there are some good things I can take from the tournament, I will get into that in a minute.  Alot of minor stories to tell but Im not really in the mood for all that. I stayed with a total of 8ish guys, some were very cool, some not so much but as much as I want to, Im not going to call out the "ultra douche" of our bunch and only say that the guy has some issues. I will however give a shout-out to my freinds, guys I hung out with all week this week and all week in florida. It was good times and our bunch had alot of fun despite my outcome. Luke Gritter, who has himself in contention to make the Elite Series, again, this year after another strong finish at Norman (40th), Adam Hock of Kentucky who cracked us all up with his "I just glued my fingers together" story and  Kyle Kempkers who rebounded nicely on day two with a 10lb bag which moved him up nearly 100 spots in the standings.

On to practice and the tournament....

It took me a few days but I figured out a reasonable pattern for largemouth but the bites were not plentiful although they were usually either a quality fish or a buck bass. On the other hand, the spotted bass were insanely easy to find and even easier to coax into biting but they just werent that big. You had to sort through 5 to 10 spotted bass for every keeper.  Im sure that sounds difficult but Its not, there are millions of spotted bass in Lake Norman and you can litterally catch hundreds a day. Every once in awhile you get a truly quality spotted bass (2.5lb to 3lb) so if you hit it hard and you can get a limit of spotted bass that includes two of the quality fish youve got a decent start which is generally 7.5lbs to 9lbs depending on the quality of your fish. My plan then would shift gears and I would spend the rest of the day looking for a big female that was looking to spawn. I say "spawn" with hesitation because these fish were going in all directions. We had post spawners, prespawners, and fish that were locked on to beds, so essentially, I was looking for prespawners or a random bed fish (there wasnt many  of those in the area I was in).

My plan actually worked beautifully, my execution was not beautiful in the even the slightest of manners. All along, I decided that at noon, I was done fishing for the spots regardless of weight (I was certain I would have a limit of fish by then so a big largemouth or two would be a nice supplement). At 10am, I had a limit that consisted of about 5.5 lbs (this is what im talking about, 5 fish for 5lbs was what you had to deal with, the difference would come with the quality fish). at 10:30 am I landed a 2.5lb spotted bass that pushed my bag up to 7lbs and at 11:30 disaster struck.

I whipped a shakeyhead worm up behind a dock and feel the tick, followed by a slow swim away from the dock (typical bite from a spotted bass). I set the hook and its on, spots tend to dive down instead of surface immidiately but this fish did not, it came up, did a head shake, went back down, then came up like a rocket, shot out of the water 4 feet and that was it. A three pound spotted bass lost which would have been a nearly 2lb cull. If your counting that would have put my bag at that time around 9lbs, which was exactly what I expected.

So I regroup and follow my plan. 12 oclock roles around and its time to hunt for some largemouth. I had been finding them at the backs of long narrow coves combined with a certain kind of dock. I took the time to mark EVERY dock that matched my pattern which turned out to be 26 freakin docks out of probably a 1000 in the area I was working the night before and I went to work. I knew that if I got 2 bites doing this in 4 hours that I would still have a chance to rebound because I usually got a really quality fish, it just took longer to do so.  At 2ish, I flip behind one of the docks I had marked and she hit it, came up twice and that was it. Another 3lb fish gone. For those good with the math, that would have been another nearly 2lb cull pushing my bag to around 11lbs which would have been good enough for top 15 after day one.

What a nightmare...

Day two went exactly as planned as well but I never got the bite I needed in the form a 1 big spotted bass so at 12, again, I left the spotted bass for the less plentiful but bigger largemouth with less then 6lbs. I managed to get one 3lb spawned out female that gave me a 2lb cull and put my bag at just under 8lbs.  Day two didnt consist of disaster, the fishing was much harder and I still managed to make it work, it just wasnt good enough.

The things I have learned and feel good about?

I feel good that my plan was solid and that it would have worked if not for a few unfortunate incidents. I know deep down that losing those fish was not my fault, I did nothing wrong, they didnt come unbuttoned at the boat, nothing I could have done differently would have put those fish in the boat.

I feel good knowing that I managed to be consistent, catching loads of fish each day despite terrible weather (blue bird skies, high winds, nasty cold front). I also feel good knowing that I got my limit both days when alot of guys didnt, even though both my limits were small.

I also worked my ass off for those fish. I caught prob 10 to 15 keepers each day, culled numerous times and caught at least 30 to 40 short fish as well (14 inch minimum at Lake Norman).


All in all,  Im not ready to jump off a bridge like after Harris Chain, Im already preparing for Alabama and I cant wait for my next tournament.

Almost forgot the love I got in the photo gallery. The second one is of JVD, Luke Gritter, and myself. (Im on the left, Lukes on the far right, JVD in the middle, some other dude in there that I dont know) JVD and Luke are close freinds, they actually are roomates back where they live in Kalamazoo Michigan...

S.T.P.