All American journal

[Team houston]

For this event members of my family and I rented a house on the lake. The official practice day was Wednesday and I was paired with Steve Coleman from Georgia. Steve fished the lake for five days before the cutoff. He said he did very well and one day would have had 30lbs.

He said we would be fishing deep (15-40ft) with T-rigs and football jigs also some crankbaits. Steve did not hit any of his key areas but we did check a few secondary spots. He removed the hooks from a crankbait and if he got bit on a shakey head or t-rig he would not set the hook and wait for them to let it go.

At least four times during the day A fish would not let go and would get hooked.One of which was 4lbs I only landed two bass during the practice day but was not worried because it was practice. I did however go to the tackle store and get some 10 inch worms in Blue Fleck. Steve got regular bites and I wasn't, so for my confidence I had to do it.

[Team houston]

Day 1
Launch is 7am. I will be fishing with Steve Coleman again today and we are boat 4. This is a new twist, last time you fished with three different people. This really helps you be ready for the days fishing.

We run five minutes across the lake to the first spot and the fish are busting on the surface. As most boaters do Steve has a topwater tied on just in case and this is one of those situations.

Me on the other hand with limited tackle do not. I do have a ledgebuster spinnerbait tied on and start burning it through the chaos. Neither of us can get bit.

Finally steve hooks one and it is what we thought it would be. To good to be true(hybrids). We start throwing our deep water baits and go fishless for 45 min. "lets go"

We arrive at our second spot, one we did hit yesterday. After about 10 min I get bit on the 10 inch worm. I swing hard and connect. Steve gets the net under a 3lber. After 30 more min of no bites we move again. Another spot we checked yesterday and Steve had two hits on a hookless crankbait.

We fish here for 30 min and get no bites. We then head back to our starting spot. There  are two other boats nearby and we settle in to our area. We see a co angler in one of the other boats catch a fish and cull. WOW  that was fast its only about 10 o clock.

Anyway Steve gets a bite and catches a quality fish. A few minutes later he catches a keeper. As I am watching him unhook his fish I feel that familiar tap tap. Another small keeper in the boat for me. Every time we look over at the other boat the co angler is landing a fish. It looks like he is having one of those days.

Meanwhile I am hopping the 10 inch worm and see my line jump. I reel down and drill the fish. Right away I can tell this is a good one. I fight it to the boat and in the net I see it is about 5lbs. Now its Steves turn and he catches a couple in a row, one of which is a quality fish.

Back to me and I catch two more that give me a limit. I catch another that will cull my smallest fish of 13 inches. I go to get it and What the Hell! its dead. You are not allowed to cull a dead fish so I am stuck with that fish the rest of the day. It was not hooked bad I have no idea why it died.

So I have a limit and two quality fish I decide to pick up the dropshot. I catch at least 8-10 more keepers with it but can only cull one time. Steve meanwhile catches a couple more quality fish and ends up weighing 14lbs and change. I end up with 12lbs 10 oz  and fall in 13th place for the day. A good start that keeps me in contention.

[Team houston]

Day 2
Today I am paired with Marian Cordes from Illinois. As luck would have it Marian was in the boat near us yesterday with the co-angler who was on fire. He tells me we are going to start there even though he only weighed in 9lbs. The reason he says is to help me get a limit before he swings for the fences.

He is a class act and I appreciate it very much. His co yesterday without dead fish would have had 15+lbs. I am excited to be starting there again. I feel I can catch a limit and maybe get a kicker or two which would get me into the top 10.

We are 3rd from last out today. Nobody is on his starting area and we see Steve set up in his area about 75 yards away. In just a few min we see Steve's co-angler who was Marian's co yesterday fighting a fish. It's the same setup as yesterday with us two co-anglers switching boats. How coincidental is that?

Anyway Marian gets our first bite and puts a small keeper in the boat. I get my first bite and put a 14 incher in the boat. Darn! It's a smallmouth and they have to be 15 inches on Wilson lake. Knowing I need to get five fish in the boat before Marian decides to go hawg hunting I break out the drop shot. It worked so well at the end of yesterday I feel its my best chance to get bites quickly.

This turns out to be true as I have a limit by 9am. But they will only weigh about 6 lbs. Meanwhile, the boat across the way is catching them on a regular basis but we notice they are landing good kicker fish along with small ones. All our fish are between 12 and 14 inches.

Marian does catch one here that will go about three lbs. That was the only quality fish we caught at his spot all morning. The bigger fish definitely moved to Steve's end of the ledge.

At 10 o clock we move on to find bigger fish. We stop to fish the tip of an underwater island. Here I get a bite on a drop shot that ends up being my best fish of the day at 2 and a half lbs. No more bites and we move on to fish a ledge that drops off a shallow flat.

Marian hooks up on the crankbait and lands a five lber. We fish thru a nasty thunder storm with only one more small fish that doesn't help Marian. It's now about 1:30 and Marian decides to finish out the day back on our starting spot.

Steve and his co are still there but have moved a few yards farther away and are still catching them. I catch one on the big worm that will cull one and Marian gets a 4lber on the C-rig. We end the day with me weighing 8lbs 2 oz and Marian with 14lbs and change. I drop to 18th place but still get a nice check for $1500.

Once again its a great time fishing the All American. I hope to make it back again. It really is a classy tournament and they treat the anglers VERY well.

[Hollada]

Thanks for the journal.  Always a good read.

[32eml24]

Thank you x2 very insightful