Fished with the Bass-n-Tube club on Saturday. We launched from the North shore ramp closest to the river. It was heavy fog all morning and a WON tourney out of South shore meant there was lots of company on the water. To sum it all up the bite was tough!
I had two bites all day, both around noon. Both fish were in about 20 feet of water and hit while barely dragging the bait. I had one hooked on a 3" tube and it got off the hook somehow, and the other one I landed, a pound and a half fish, on a baby brush hog. Eric won the tourney with 2 fish for like 3 and a half pounds. He had one smallie on a pop-r and one largemouth on a crankbait. He lost another big smallie on the pop-r as well. Phil, fishing with us for the first time, came in second with a 3lb largemouth. Jeff Smith was 3rd with a 2 and half pound smallie. Ken A, Paul, and I all had one fish each. Darcie had a 4lber break his spinnerbait in the morning.

As usual I learned my lesson that you have to make every sinlge bite count. Not that I felt like I did anything wrong on the one fish I lost, but you really just have to be ready every second of the day for a bite when the bites are so few and far between. My goal for next year is to make every single bite count all season long. I had 3 for sure, this one maybe, Bass-n-Tubes tourneys that I had the fish hooked on my line and in sight to win the tournament, and I didn't win a single one this year. At Berryessa I lost three smallmouth because I was using the cheap stock hooks on a pointer minnow. At Spring Lake I had a fish on that I had worked on a bed for a half an hour and lost it, probably because I was using my flipping stick to sight fish with. I am going to try to use my heavy spinning rod more next year. And at Pinto my first bite in the morning I lost by just pulling my line out for another cast without first feeling if there was a fish on there. Next year I am going to always pull back gently on every flip / pitch to feel for pressure before I bring it in. That fish was about 3lbs. And this fish, I don't know exactly why/how it got off, but it may have been this texas rig leadhead I was using with the hook built in. I've never fished small tubes much and need to find the percentage rig for hooking and landing fish on them.

So that's my gripe session for today, hopefully it saves you from losing a fish or two. It was a fun season this year, the most tourneys I've been able to fish with B-n-T in one year. I really hope I can make some of the Clear Lake tournaments next year.