April 19, FLW – Beaver Lake, AR
Dan writes:
Even though this did turn out to be a sight-fishing tournament in the end, the differences between this year and last were the following: much higher water levels, off-colored water throughout the majority of the lake, and the biggest difference of all, to my mind: there were no spotted bass on the beds. I never found a single spot bedding, whereas last year every fish I caught was a spot.
I thought I was a decent bed-fisherman. I guess what I’ve learned this week is that I can catch smallmouth and spots okay, but I need more practice on the largemouth. And I’ll be happy to do it, too. I like to bed-fish. I know that a lot of people have issues with this. It’s a controversial topic. I don’t care. I still like to do it. I like to watch how fish respond to my bait when it’s right in their face. I like the challenge of making them bite, in ultra-clear water, when they’re looking right at you and they know it’s the wrong thing to do, but you make them do it anyway. That to me is a thrill. As for the controversy: for every hundred fish I catch off the bed, maybe one or two get taken away to a weigh-in; the others are all released immediately, and get right back to doing what they were doing before I caught ’em.
Ah, well. That’s the end of this tournament for us. We’d like to have stayed to see the final two days, but on Sunday we have to be 1,200 miles away, in Washington DC, for the final event of the year in that “other” tournament trail.