WOW! Am I glad that tournament is done. That was THE most brutal bite I have fished through in 20 years of tournament fishing. We thought going to Old Hickory for our regional was going to be tough, Dardanelle made that look like a fish factory. Mary and I rolled into Russellville on Saturday night so we could be on the water right away on Sunday morning.
Day 1 - Practice - We got on the water 6:30 and put the boat in on Illinois Bayou and fish the lower end of the lake today. I started the day fishing a shallow crank along a stretch of rip rap while Mary was throwing a 1/4 oz spinnerbait. We fished roughly a half mile of this rip rap bank without a bite and I knew we had a tough bite on our hands. The water conditions didn't help anything either with the region getting 6'' of rain the week before we arrived and the lake was still coming up and the Corp. was pulling it hard to get it back down. From the rip rap bank we headed for some off shore structure as every where I looked there were 2-3 boats on every bank. We fished ledges for the next 6 hours and never had a bite! Deciding maybe we should go look shallow again I looked for some shallow grass to flip with an 1/2oz Outkast R/T jig while Mary was throwing a 1/4oz Outkast Pro swim jig and this brought the same results, not a bite. I had to check in for the tournament between 4-8pm at the place where we would take off from and wieghin at so we ran over there at 4 and checked in. On the way out I decided to fish the rip rap wall that protected the marina with the shallow crank again while Mary was chucking the spinnerbait and finally Mary caught a 14" Spot. I noticed that the shad were very tight to the rock and some cases right up inside of it and this was the first bait I had seen.
Day 2 - Practice - I decided to move up to the mid lake area today and put in the Piney Creek area. I really want to make a deep bite happen and headed for the mouth of large bay that had a really good creek channel that made some nice inside turns along with some nice points that I thought would hold some fish. We started on a main river ledge with a C-rig and a football head. The bottom felt right with either rock or muscles on it but not a single bite. We moved farther into the bay checking some of the points and inside corners along the creek channel but only could find soft bottom filled with leaves and dead black grassy moss. Very disappointed I can't get a deep bite to go I headed back to the bank with everyone else. I pulled out spook type topwater bait while Mary is still hucking the spinnerbait around, that is when she isn't napping! Finally I connect with a nice fish around 3lbs as it was chasing some of the what little bait we've seen. This would be the highlight of the day though we fished hard the rest of the day without another bite from anything! It's hard to know what to do with so few bites, are you in the right area wrong bait, wrong area, fishing to fast, to slow, wrong bait or color, I am very lost at this point and time and still every where you look there are 2-3 boats on every bank.
Day 3 - Practice - I decided we would put in up at the dam and fish some wing dams and rip rap retention walls. Well that all sounded good until we pulled up to the access and there was a pile of trees and debris waist deep and the water being dumped was unreal. There were white caps rolling down the shore a half mile down river so we headed back down river to the Spadra area. We ran some sweet looking green grass pitching the R/T jig, spinnerbaits and topwater and nothing. The biggest problem up here was the fact it is very flooded and today it is at it's crest and there is no bank to put the fish on. We ran to the back of one creek and worked our way out fishing solid banks and Mary caught another short on the spinnerbait. There was definitely more bait up here in the creek than out on the main river.
Day 1 - Tournament - Well tough practice or not it is time to get the game face on and catch some fish. I drew Mike Lawson from Dallas, TX today. I told him flat out I've got nothing and we are basically going prefishing again today. The only thing I did know was that I would stick around Illinois Bayou and maximize my fishing time, so we started right there at take of on the rip rap sea wall. After an hour with no action we worked our way up the bank fishing anything that got in our way without a bite. Next we ran over to the inlet to the steam plant which I haven't fished yet and fished around in there. There was some nice looking stuff to fish but still no action. We then ran farther up into the bay and fished some shallow grass on a flat that looked good in practice. I was pitching a 1/2oz white Outkast Tackle R/T jig and craw chunk and rolled a nice keeper. After no other action I decided to go into a rock quarry that I seen a couple of other boats fish and worked around it for a couple hours with only to very small fish to show for it. There where 3 other boats in there and only two keepers had caught. With only a half hour left we ran back to the check in area and cranked a rip rap bank with in 50yds of check in point. Mary walked down and watched us fish for a last couple of minutes and told her to go get the trailer so we could get the boat out right away. No more than I said that I boat a 15 1/4'' largie and I'm on the board!!! Today only 105 boaters out of 193 caught a fish to weigh and only 48 co anglers brought a fish to the scales.
(fishing by the check in dock, moments before boating my only keeper)
Day 2 - Tournament - Billy "BJ" Mithchel Jr. is my partner today as we are in the 3rd flight. We each managed one fish yesterday and are both thankful for it. Today I decided to start in the inlet to the power plant and began working a spinnerbait parallel to the grass. When I got to this one special little spot I made to perfect cast to without a bite but as BJ got to it he threw his crankbait in there and a 3.21lb spot ate it. This was not the way I wanted to start the day but was happy to see a fish in the boat already. Unfortunately that was our highlight. We ran back to the rock quarry and the shallow grass flat from yesterday without a bite. I even ran back to the inlet to see if another fish may have pulled up on the little sweet spot but nothing. I also checked a couple ledges again today but still nothing deep. So day two I get to go to the I have no fish to weigh line and get my partner for tomorrow, this line today is twice as long as I caught something to weigh in line!
Day 3 - Tournament - I drew Nathan today who hasn't caught a fish yet and with me blanking yesterday I'm not sure even what to do. I decided to start in the in let again and hope the little sweet spot would have another fish on it but no it didn't! We then ran back to the rock quarry as I wanted to try drop shotting in there some today. This turned out to be a good idea as i boated a 15 1/4" spot right away and short largie. We thought we were on to something but only managed a few more short fish. We then ran some more shallow grass without a bite. Being in the first flight and needed to check in at 3pm time was flying by and with only an hour left I made the decision to check a ledge one more time but work it the opposite direction than I had been. This was my best call all week as in the next 45 minutes I boated 4 more keepers to bring in a limit and Nathan was able to boat his one and only keeper. I started out fishing down it with a C-rigged Outkast 4'' pigg which produce the first to fish. I then switched to a crankbait to boat the other two keepers. I was beside myself with a limit in the box considering I told Mary when she launched us this morning to pack everything up and checkout so we could head out right after we got checked in. Maybe I should do that more often as I had one of only 3 limits brought to the scales today which so far has been the best day of fishing thus far. With 5 fish weighing 11.38lbs I made the final day cut in 24th place with a 3 day total of 13.70lbs!

(loading my limit from day 3)

(on stage with Lisa Talamage the tournament director, happy with day 3 results)
Day 4 - Tournament - This is the Championship day, the day you've worked all year to get to and it feels great to be here as part of the top 25. After getting everyone lined up in order and some special instructions for the weigh in process and the National Anthem we are off.

With extremely high expectations from what happened the day before I am ready to get after it. We are partnered up with the co anglers that fished in the same position as we had and today I am fishing with Jeff Wheeley. I ran to the channel my ledge was on and started on the opposite side fishing down the shoreline break which had to little rock points sticking out on it. That didn't give up a bite but it was worth a try as couple of guys had been catching a keeper there each morning. We then idled over to the ledge side and started working down that with C-rigs and once we hit the end I would turn around throw a crankbait working back up it. After 3 hours without a bite I had to bail for a while and headed back to the rock quarry thinking I could get a couple keepers on the drop shot. As we worked down the ridge between the flat and deep water I was able to boat a couple short fish but a least it was a bite. We notice some fish starting to bust some shad towards the back of the quarry and put the trolling motor on high and headed for them. As normal the shad along with the fish sank down from the surface. Jeff was able to get a 15" spot with a shakey head right on the bank while all I caught were small white bass yoyoing a small lipless bait. With the quarry not panning out I decided to give the little sweet spot a shot again in the power plant in let but nobody was home. The wind had picked up and we ran to a point the was on a creek channel bend thinking some bait may up. Well the bait may have been there but the bass weren't. With 3 hours left I decided I was going back to the ledge and came out for the day, it was going to be down or die. And unfortunately die it was. The only bite I had out there was a 14 3/4" largie and it was time to go. In the end this was the toughest bite of all four days with 1/3 of the boaters blanking to day and 3/4 of co anglers blanking today.

(day 4 on stage with Morris explaining the tough bite and being thankful of making the final day cut)
I end the National Championship in 25th place with a 4 day total of 6 fish for 13.70lbs and check for $1500 + another $1575 in contingency monies from Triton, Mercury and Motorguide. Not the finish I was hoping for when I left the house a week ago but I could be happier after the practice and tournament I had. Now it's time to start planning on getting back here and getting the schedule layed out for next year. Now that I am in KY our first Weekend Series is March 20, they'll still be shoveling snow in MN.

(Morris "MO" Sheehan and my hardware, check and a top 25 finish at the National Championship)