The PAA event at Lake Lanier last week definitely falls into the category of a "learning experience". In other words that usually means you figured something out, but a little too late to do you any good. Case in point, I managed to have one decent day of practice throwing a jerkbait and a shakey head on the lower end of the lake. I caught just enough fish to make me think I could expand on it the first day of the tournament and probably have a good bag of fish. That didn't happen, I caught one keeper and had one other fish that felt pretty good pull off and that was it for the entire first day. Terrible! Too add insult to injury, most of the anglers fishing the upper end of the lake, the area up river with flooded bushes and trees, caught a bunch of fish, fishing the very way I like to fish. Shallow dirty water with a flipping stick. So on day two I headed up river with my flipping stick, chatterbait and a square-billed crankbait in hand. I avoided the main river, as most of the top competitors were fishing up there and I didn't want to intrude on their areas. When it was all said and done, I had caught a limit of fish that weighed a little over 11 lbs. That is where the term "learning experience" comes in.
I tried to force the jerkbait bite into working for me, and it didn't. I did not practice up river at all (2nd mistake), had I, it is quite possible I would have fished up there on day one and had a lot better finish. The lesson I learned? You can not work too hard, you can't look at too much stuff during practice, and you can not make fish do what you want. An angler needs to fish to their strengths, and never completely ignore that. You have to keep an open mind and not over complicate things.
With all of that said, I was very blessed to have caught an 11lb limit on day two, it saved my year in terms of the points race and for that I am very thankful. I'll be posting some pictures and video from the event here and on my website, so stay tuned.
God Bless,
Duke
