Kurt's Tourney Blog
Archive I moved on quickly from some disappointment at the event last week on the Alabama River. I took an easy day Sunday to regroup and just check out this new place. I had never been to Lake Logan Martin before this event and so I was looking forward to exploring a new body of water. The one thing that I really like to fish in Alabama is the Willow Grass! It is so fun to fish the many techniques in that vegetation. This was the last event in the Southern Open series and I was ready to end on a good note! May 16 – May 18 Lake Logan Martin - B.A.S.S. Southern Open Event #3 The lake had been high due to heavy rains and was dropping every day during practice. The first practice day I really struggled to catch fish. I caught a limit but not many fish in the same location. I really like to try and get on a specific pattern or area of the lake when I am new to a body of water like I was in this event. I ended up finding spotted bass on day 2 of practice fishing along break walls in the lower lake region. I felt I could catch 9-11lbs a day with those particular fish. I had my best success throwing a texas rigged worm with a light weight and fishing it very slow. I believe the spotted bass I was catching where spawning at the base of these break walls. In the afternoon of my 2nd to last practice day I found some fish in the Willow Grass and they were the kind you need to have a good tournament. Bigger largemouths were located in this grass and I felt these were the fish to take me to a solid finish. I ran my Skeeter/Yamaha around until the end of practice looking for this grass and trying to get as many bites as possible to locate the best areas to fish during the tournament. I was catching most of them on a buzz frog fished inside and out in front of the grass. Event Day 1: 5 Bass / 11bs 7oz – 53rd place of 164 I got to a good location that first morning of the event. I was so excited I blew my first couple of bites on the frog but finally settled in and starting swinging them aboard. I had a limit by 8am and 2 really nice 3.5lbers. The problem was I had 3 of my fish expire very early in the day. It’s a very rare event to have a fish expire on me but it does happen sometimes in the post spawn fishing conditions. If I would have added a little ice first thing in the morning I would have been much better off but hindsight is always 20/20. I caught a few more keepers throughout the day and 2 that would have help my weight if I could have culled but it is illegal to cull a dead fish so I was stuck. Those 3 dead fish cost me 12oz in penalties and about 11 places in the standing the first day of fishing. I was still just out of the money and looked to make a move on day 2. Event Day 2: 5 Bass / 10lbs 15oz – 42nd place of 164 Day 2 started off similar to the first as I boated a couple of largemouth really quickly. Then the bite shut down… I moved to another location and went through my 2nd best stretch and… NO Bites! I kept it calm and managed to relocate them in the back of the creek and it was on! I caught 3 really quick on the buzz frog and had my limit. I had 2 small fish I need to cull to feel good about making the money. Then with about 2 hours to go I got another 1.5lber and was able to release a 1lber. I had 1 more small fish to cull and tried many locations but could never get a big bite. I weighed 5 fish for almost 11lbs which proved to be a much tougher day for the entire field. I was going to be close to getting a check… the last few anglers weigh-in and I get bumped from 39th to 42nd 2 spots out of the money… uugh! 4oz from 40th place. Tough to miss a check when your that close again is brutal! Then to have it be 12oz of dead fish penalty to be the difference… that just adds salt to the wound. Event Total - 10 Bass / 22lbs 10oz / 42nd place of 164. I have 6 more events this year and all of them are up north. I look forward to starting this ‘new’ season. I hope you continue to follow along with me! Next blog… Bassmaster Northern Open #1, James River, VA June 13-15 | 
