Well I am now back from the first tournament of the year, Fishers of Men National Championship, which was held on the historic Red River in Shreveport-Bossier City, LA. I fish with my wife Mary at these events and we had a great time. I had a few melt downs on the water that weren't so much fun for her but that is part of the reason I fish these with her. So that she can see the ups and downs during the day first hand rather than at the end of the day and not understand while I feel the way I do, good or bad. This is one exceptional fishery. There was a 11.70lb fish caught, numerous 3+lb fish and a number of 18+lb bags weighed in each day. Consistency paid off again though with the winner bringing in 3 bags of 17+lbs each day. Mary and I never got on the big bite, though we had found some numbers of 2lber and figured we could get a limit each day between 10-12lbs. Which is exactly what we did by weighing in 11.94 and 10 each though not enough to make the top 28 cut which took 23.5lbs. This body of water is one equipment testing and breaking machine. If anyone watched the Classic they seen all the stumps and trees that are in the water. Moving around in the backwaters was and absolute chore. Not only did you bounce back and forth off the stumps you are continually hung up with the boat. You had to work double duty watching you line for a bite but also watching for the stumps under the water to pick a path to move as freely as possible. 


   
 We started practice on Monday the 23 on pool 4. The wind blew a lot the entire week we were there which made made boat control and fishing a new body a water a struggle. We managed a few fish this first day of practice on blades and crankbaits. I was trying to find fish that were relating to the miles of rip rap revetments leading into the backwaters. This is didn't seem to be the best deal with only two fish caught this way and the others relating more to the wood. Day 2 and 3 of practice we decided to stay on pool 5 which is the pool we would be launching from, this would give us more fishing time rather than locking down to 4. I was able to find more fish on 5 relating to the rip rap but they were all in the very backs of the bays nothing out by the entries into them. We did find some fish in an area called White House that were related to the 45 degree laydowns and one bank in another bay that had floating vegetation, about 2-3 feet of water on it. This is the bank we started each day of the tournament.



    
Tournament days we started on our bank that we had found and began throwing blades. Our first 2 passes each day gave us a limit, small limit, but still a limit. The first day we stayed on it for 3 hours upgrading on each pass. Around 11 on the first day I decided we need to leave it for the next day and look for some bigger fish with about 10lbs in the well. We ran into White House and were able to flip up a couple good fish in the 3lb range to up our limit to 11.94lbs. This put us in as the bubble team at 28th place. Day 2 started out like day 1 two trips down our bank and 4 fish in 20 mins. things are looking good to make the cut now. Not so fast we fished there for another couple ours with nothing! I decided to make a move to an area called McDades, this thing is an absolutely nightmare boat gouging, scratching mother to get into. Thinking very few boat would make the venture back there I would have some water to myself. Not at all as we rounded the corner to the best area we counted 18 boats. Come to find out later at the weigh in this is where they caught the 11.70. We managed to catch number 5 while in there that was it, other than watching half dozen other fish caught we left. We ran back to White House hoping for a couple more good flipping bites and we got one right of the bat a solid 2 1/2lber. Spending way to much time in McDades and realizing I was running out of time, I could feel our chances slipping away and that my friends is never a good feeling!!! With no other flipping bites we headed back for weigh in. Our 10lbs kept us in the cut for about a half hour until the last two flights weighed in and we came up 1.5lbs short.





All in all it was a good trip, we did break anything and NO speeding tickets. It was a good learning experience as I will be back again to fish the Red River, probably for an BASS Open or Stren series in the near future. The accommodations at the Red River South Marina were great, other than now wireless connection for the computer, I would recommend then to anyone going down.

OH! I think I forgot to mention the other critters other than the little green fish.







Next up will be the St. Jude Children's Hospital tournament on the Mississippi River pools 4-5 out of Wabasha, MN after I chase some turkeys around Red Wing in mid April. I'll keep you posted as to how that goes.