My 1st Bassmaster-ABA Weekend Series event in the Volunteer division came and went. Over all I finished in 8th place and earned some valuable points. I was only a few ounces shy of making a check. The tournament held on J. Percy Priest in Nashville, TN. had some heavy hitters. It was tough but seeing theses guys having it tough also made me feel a little better. Sam Lashlee - fished in the last Bassmaster Classic and past Flw Series winner on Old Hickory, Jason Sain, and Rusty Russ are just a few big names to fish this tournament. I drew boat #1 which was probably a jinx. 6a.m. launch produced 25 degree temps with some SNOW flurries! I ran some 20 minutes up lake to the back of the Stones River in the East Fork. I had some decent fish up there before we had a huge rain fall and muddied up the river. However I knew the river was starting to clear and was hopeful my fish would move back in. It was slow going. I picked up a couple dinks on a rattle trap and bomber 200 in TN Shad, I caught them over 20ft of water on the channel edge which should have clued me in on something, but I didn't pay enough attention. I thought with the water clearing to 2ft visibility and the sun high and bright it would push the fish shallow to the chunk rock and I could use my Snootie Jig, www.surethinglures.com to catch'em. It never did happen much. I caught 1 keeper on the jig. I had about 30 minutes to go before making the long run back to the check-in. I noticed the bait fish still suspended in 20ft of water. I tied on a DT-16 and my 3rd cast I had a keeper fish. Within a few casts later I had another. I had on a nice kicker fish we guessed around 5lbs or so but could not manage to get her in. We ran out of time and had to head back. I think If I would have tried the DT-16 earlier I might have scratched out a limit. I just did not pay attention to the clues the fish was giving me. I will take an 8th place. We head to Old Hickory, TN on April 1st. During that time the fish should be very shallow and thinking about spawning. water temps: 51 air temps low of 25 and high of 43 clear skies 2ft water visibility.
