Well the first tournament of the year has come and gone and it turned out to pretty much be a bust! Starting with practice I was just never able to get a pulse of what was going on. I tried to do some networking but didn't get much info as what to do or look for so I went with what I thought should be happening. When we arrived at Lake of the Ozarks for the first FLW American Fishing Series Central division tournament we noticed the water was very low and cold. Before I left the house I circled all the main lake river bends or bluff banks as this is where most fish will spend the winter. So this is where I started my first day of practice throwing a jerkbait and 5/16oz. Outkast Tackle finesse jig. Well after a half day of fishing without a bite and noticing there was no one else doing this it was time for a change. I switched to the inside river bends or the shallower 45 degree pea gravel banks. This proved to be about the only thing I kinda figured out as I seem to catch fish on shallow banks, deep banks, docks in 2' of water and on ends of docks in 20' of water. Water temps seem to vary in the 40 - 48 degree mark, being cooler in the main river pockets vs. being up the rivers where the water was warmer and off colored. 

    Day 2 of practice I decided to put in farther up the lake closer to the Gravious River. I wanted to check a couple large main lake creeks before heading up the river. I stopped in the first little pocket in the creek put the trolling motor down and started twitching the jerkbait. I wanted to fish everything to start with to see what the fish are keying on and finally get bit. A nice 16" fish barely grabs my Spro Mcstick jerkbait on the end of a private boat ramp. Shortly after I put a keeper 14" spot in the boat off a dock end in 20' of water. After 3 more hours of nothing I called Doug Pietrzak to see how he was doing up the river. He said he had boated a 5 and a 3 and the water was off color and in the mid 40's, so that is where I decide to go, unfortunately as I get the boat up on plain the compress pump sheared the bolts off again. So with no air pressure mixing with the gas, it's dumping straight gas into the cylinders and the engine does not run very well like this, so off to a repair shop. I called Mary to let her know what happened and she started calling around and found the one and only marine dealer open and was to get it in and fixed and ready to go for the rest of the week, though when done I need to drop it off and have a new block and compressor put on it.

    Days 3&4 of practice I spent up the Gravious arm fishing a jerkbait around gravel points with and without docks with mixed results and nothing to impressive. Totaling only 6 keepers and a dozen short fish I just wasn't able to put anything together that I was able to say I could go to that point and catch a fish or do this or that and catch a fish. Come tournament day I was going to have to just put the trolling motor down and just go fishing again.

    Day 1 of the tournament we are greeted with a 2 1/2 hour fog delay! Once we're giving the okay to go I ran up the lake to the big creek I had caught my first keepers in. With no action here we make the run back up to the Gravious to a bank that I had caught 4 short fish on, the most on any one bank, and boated 2 short fish there. Then we ran farther up river into the Indian Creek to a point that I had caught a keeper and a short on and we each boated our only keeper of the day. We ran a few other spots with only a couple more short fish to show for it. After day 1 and 1 fish at 2.13lbs I was sitting 65 out of 124 boats.

    Day 2 started out very chilly with frost on the boat cover but no fog. After being boat 111 on day 1 I am boat 14 today and decide to start on the bank that we caught our keepers on yesterday but after making 4 passes down it with different jerkbaits, jigs and crankbaits and only one short to show for it I had to move. We ran over to a bank that Doug told me to fish and my co-angler boated a nice 3 1/2lb fish on a jig. After a couple more passes with nothing boated it was time to move and we started running a bunch of shallow gravel points with nothing but some nice crappies to show for it. At 1 pm I decided to give up on my jerkbait and pickup my jig and went back to the bank my co caught his fish on. On our first pass down it my co boats another 3lb fish then on our second pass down it while I decided to pickup the jerkbait again he boats another 16" keeper. After a couple more passes and some short fish and crappies to show for it, it was time to head make for weigh in. So with zero keepers today and my loley 2-13 yesterday I end the tournament in 98th place, not the start I was looking for and a long road to the top 40 to qualify for the championship at the end of the year.

    The fun didn't stop after the tournament was over either. On our 6 hour trip home just as I was crossing the mighty Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO the brake caliper on the trailer breaks off and is jamming up on the inside of the rim and rotor causing the tire to bounce up and down of the road making a sound as if I had a flat tire. I was able to get pulled over on the other side of the bridge were the 6 lanes of traffic come together to look over the problem. We decided to find an exit to pull off on and pull the tire off to get the caliper out so we could push on. With the brake problem fixed in record time due to the neighborhood we are off and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. So hopefully this one tournament I have gotten all the bad out of the way and the rest of the year will be golden.