One of the most common questions I get asked most frequently is what is the difference between fishing on a local level and competing on the national level?  The answer in my opinion is pretty simple.  In a local tournament you might find an area or pattern that has good potential and you might have to share it with another boat or two.  In a national tournament usually about 25% of the field is going to know about that one area and they have been beating on it for many days prior to the event.  So in my analogy to pro vs. local tournaments is lets say you need 3 good areas to do good in a local event.  To accomplish the same task on the national level you will need about 7 or 8 of those same quality areas most of the time because you will usually only get to fish about 3 of those effectively during the tournament.  That in my opinion is the biggest difference.

I live about 3 hours from Travis and had never been there.  I grew up fishing North Texas and East Texas lakes and had never had a tournament on Travis in the past years.  It was really exciting to fish a Tour level event back in Texas since it was the first one in my 5 year career to compete in Texas.  I am used to driving 15+ hours to go to every event so this was a much welcomed event!

The reason I wrote the first paragraph is because that is a question someone asked me the other day and it kept running through my head throughout this event.  It was a classic example.  The word on the street was that Travis was a sub par lake and the fishing was very poor.  The first day of practice the lake was actually pretty good and it showed the lake does have good potential and there is quite a bit of decent fish in the lake.  I had about 15lbs. in a half day of fishing.  You could catch them on reaction baits like jerkbaits and crankbaits fairly easily.  Then as the days past everyone progressively caught less and less.  Most of the easy fish were picked off and then it becomes more challenging.  The weather did not help either.  The lows were in the 20's during the first two days of the event.  So in the tournament the weights were low and things were tough but it was a classic example of a national tournament situation today.  That is why the shaky head and drop shot have become so popular over the last few years and less and less tournaments are being won powerfishing.

Practice was pretty good for me overall.  I ended up catching fish a few different ways.  I was running points and drains with big chunk rock to catch Largemouth and Guadalupe bass with a shaky head worm in 15 to 25 feet of water.  I was also catching better fish in 25 to 50 feet with a 3/4 oz. football head jig in camo color with a green pumpkin twin tail trailer.  The fish seemed to go deeper and deeper as the days progressed.  Lake Travis has many marinas and docks on the lake but they weren't getting much pressure throughout the tournament or practice.  I spent many hours in practice trying to find something with the docks and finally found a good group of suspended fish I felt pretty good about.  The fish were suspended over 100-130 feet of water about 25 feet down suspended on cables that actually hold the docks in place.  They weren't actually on the docks but off from them on the cables.  I got bit on a 4 inch grub in Blue Glimmer color with a 1/4 ounce jighead with an exposed hook.

Day 1 of the tournament was about par for what I expected.  I ended up the day with a small limit that put me just outside the top 50 money cut.  I really had to just fish new water I hadn't fished before.  Every area I had a bite on in practice there were usually two boats already fighting over it.  I just went fishing and reapplied the pattern I had found to new areas.  I ended up catching on decent fish off the dock cables and the rest on a football head and shaky head on chunk rock points and drains in 15-20 feet of water.  I had 8 keepers for the day and felt pretty confident that I could do about the same the second day.  I just couldn't figure out how to generate a quality bite, all my fish were about the same.

Day 2 was a little different for me.  I started off the day fishing the dock cables again for a good bite but the bait must have moved and the fish were not there.  That is the risk with those type of fish.  I went to fishing rocky points and couldn't get bit in my lower lake areas.  There was much less wind and the skies were brighter so I switched to more shaky head and less jig thinking that with the brighter conditions and less wind that would be the right move.  I ended up catching quite a few short fish but no keepers.  Finally in the afternoon I ended up running up the lake and catching one suspended on a dock on a shaky head and one cranking a medium running crankbait in the back of a pocket to end my day with two fish for 3lb. 15oz.  I fell to 95th for the tournament.  I was pretty baffled as to what had happened and what changed that second day.  I tried going deeper and shallower and different things and I just couldn't figure it out.  I really didn't throw the football jig very much the second day and I am pretty sure that was a big mistake.  I kept thinking in my head that the little worm would be much better with the current conditions but I think the jig would have been a better choice.  One of my roommates for this tournament, Luke Clausen told me he ended up adjusting the second afternoon and fishing the football jig in 40 to 50 feet of water and hammered them pretty good the second day.  He was fishing shallower the first day too but went deeper with the jig and caught them.  I went and fished that range for a while but I don't feel like I fished it long enough.  I also fished those depths with the worm which is a slow process.  I really like the jig because you can just crash it into the rocks and cover tons of water with it deep.  I think several guys had success with it.  I went into the tournament with the jig being my primary bait and caught a lot of fish on it the first day.  I think I simply over adjusted the second day by changing to the worm.  Should have just moved around more with the jig until I hit the right fish.  Leaving for Kissimmee, Florida early this week.  The first Bassmaster Open is around the corner.