Guys and Gals,
I just completed a tournament that blew what little mind I had left. I caught 37 bass, one walleye, two pike and two drum. The problem was the 14" minimum size limit on the bass. Out of 37 only one would weigh in. Anyone else ever do this? I uaed a wide variety of lures in about eight locations ranging from shalow to deep, rock to sand, current to backwater. Frustating at best.

Johnnie; Your not alone I have also bumped many fish that fell 1/8 to 1/4" short of the 14" mark. Weighed in with one fish also. But theres more; a month ago I fished a tourny on a lake that had a 18" size limit in 2003. I caught many fish but not an 18. At the weigh-in I found out that the size limit was lowered to 16". I felt very sick when I heard this as I threw back 6 fish that were over 16". FYI: The winner brought in 4 fish.

Bassin
Butch

Last year I had a night like that, pitching a jig. Drove me nuts, then my partner throws a wrom in some weeds and comes up with a 4.5 pounder, at least we got big bass. What are your thoughts on using cranks in clear water?

Johnnie,

I have experienced the frustration as well. The only advice I can give is "this is the one time when you do leave biting fish". Changing depths does not always produce the bigger fish, you sometimes need to completely change the area of the river or lake you are fishing. It's tuff to abandon an area that is producing during a tournament... if you know only keepers count, you might as well take a chance and try to put something new together elsewhere.

When you get that first quality fish, you need to pay extra attention to where that fish came from and why she was there. If you can, try to relate the one fish you did catch to a pattern you may have found on this body of water at some other time. It is speculation at best, but it will at least keep you thinking about where and why that fish was there in the first place.

It sounds like you did a lot of moving around and tried a lot of differnt types of water... How did the rest of the field do?

BC

Brendan, a six fish limit weighing twenty pounds, eight ounces won the event which was on the Mississippi river, The winner locked through and went to the next pool down. I did change a lot of locationjs and techniques, just wasn't my day I guess. Second place was taken in some of the same4 spots I fished, and with similar baits. That team caught eight keepers and only two shorts-go figure. Johnnie

I think you hit the nail on the head... "It was just one of those days"...

Johnnie, I think there might be a song in there somwhere, "some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug"!

Carl,
Using crankbaits in clear water can be effective, but there are some techniques to help out. First, I never use a rattl;ing crank in clear water, tends to turn the fish off. I make extrememly long casts and even do what's called "strolling". I cast as far as I can parallel to the bank or bluff, then put the trolling motor on high and move forward a good thirty yards, allowing the spool to lert out line without moving the bait. Then I stop the motor and begin the long retrieve. In tournaments it's illegal to troll, but stolling is okay. I also like long, slim super deep divers in clear water-example-Deep Thunderstick. I also try to go with nuetral colors, bone, cream, pearl, shad, nothing too flashy-no fire tiger. Good luck. Johnnie

LOL, Bryan... It ***** when you're the bug...