I thought I had done everything by the so called “book”. I did my homework on Lake Amistad as I do on all the lakes I fish. Technology has made that part of fishing easier. With a click of the mouse, an angler can find virtually anything they need to know about a lake, the surrounding area, fishing reports, etc…etc…etc. It doesn’t take the place of actually being on the water, but it gives you a heads up on the conditions you will be fishing under during the tournament. The only factor that might change is the weather. Mother Nature loves to play with an angler’s mind during a tournament!

Maybe I can blame it on the fact that I am a co-angler or non-boater. I have always said that for those of us on the back of the boat, it is the luck of the draw that can make or break us. Yeah…that sounds good I told myself… I’ll blame the pro (boater). They spent way more time and money pre-fishing than I did. They were suppose to be on fish. They are the professional; the one who gets all the credit when their co-angler catches fish. The one with all the sponsors and the expensive rods and reels and tons of tackle to choose from.

I have recently started calling myself a “professional co-angler”. Although I have been tournament fishing for 17 years now, I will probably always have to be content on the back of someone else’s boat. I do have my own bass boat and feel that I am qualified to fish as a pro. Finances are the main consideration, as with most anglers. Even co-anglers need to cash a check at each event to be able to fish all of a tour without feeling the financial strain. Many co-anglers are going after sponsors, just like the pros. I am fortunate in that regard, as this year I was able to obtain a major sponsor along with some product sponsorship. That sponsorship however doesn’t pay the bills back home while I am away from my job and on the lake.

OK…time out…party over…reality check! What did I do right and what did I do wrong at this particular tournament? Let me list the things I did right first just to make me feel better. As I said before, I did my homework on Lake Amistad. I knew that I would be fishing super clear water and that under normal conditions, most of the fish would still be in pre-spawn mode. I shouldn’t have to worry about drawing a pro on bedding fish, which is usually a disadvantage to the co-angler. I found out the most popular color for the lake at this time of year; watermelon/red flake. I was also told that I had to fish slow…slow…slow. I found out from another angler and friend fishing the tournament that there was a topwater bite and that the water on the Mexico side of the lake was warmer than the water on the Texas side. Since I didn’t know who I would draw and where they would fish, I had to be prepared for two fishing scenarios; warmer water and more active fish, or cooler water and sluggish fish.

Taking all these things into consideration, I down-sized all my line from what I normally use in the stained water back home and also put some fluorocarbon line on some of my reels as it is suppose to be less visible to the fish. I sharpened all my hooks and tied on the baits that I had confidence in based on the information I had gathered before the off-limits and during pre-fish. I was confident and eager as my pro partner and I left the launch on Day 1. I had the right attitude and my pro partner had a good pre-fish and was confident that her fishing spots would produce for both of us. We were ready to load the boat with some of those Amistad hawgs!

Mother Nature had other plans however. What was suppose to be a warm sunny day, according to the weather person, turned into a windy, cold and miserable day of fishing. We even had a heavy fog settle in that delayed our launch by over an hour. Most all the pro’s spots were in open water and she was unable to keep the boat in position because of the wind. I had to change most of my baits because they were too light to throw under those conditions and I couldn’t control the cast or feel the bait in the rough water. My pro partner did manage to catch one fish by day’s end. She was as disappointed as I that we were each unable to catch our limit…not her fault or mine. That is just the way fishing goes sometimes. We still had Day 2 to redeem ourselves. I thanked her and assured her that we did our best, it just wasn’t meant to be that day.

Day 2 started out great…no fog and another good partner who defines the word professional in every way. I had re-tied all my baits and was anticipating a better day of fishing. I have always had the philosophy that you have to keep your line in the water and to never give up. I have gone all day before with no bites and caught fish the last five minutes of a tournament. I was also excited that we were fishing Mexico water this day. My Day 1 partner had chose not to fish that far south and had concentrated on areas in Texas water.

Our boat number was called and off we “flew” to Mexico! The weather was cooperating and my pro partner was describing the area we would be fishing and what bait she would be throwing so I could decide how I wanted to fish behind her. I was anxious to experience the topwater bite with the bait that was recommended so that is what I chose to do most of the morning. I was thrilled when I heard a big “kerplosh” and reeled in my first Mexico bass. My pro partner was throwing a buzzbait and a spinnerbait. This was how she caught fish in practice and they were her confidence baits as she quietly trolled the area she had found pre-fishing.

Time is always the enemy in a tournament and as the morning soon disappeared and noon was upon us, we were starting to second-guess our baits and techniques after several hours with no takers. My pro partner started fishing faster and faster trying to cover more water and pick up a keeper bass.

One big difference in my pro partner and I was that I love to fish plastic baits and that was not her strength or her confidence. I didn’t get the nickname “Carolina Linda” by throwing hard baits, you know! I had been told the topwater bite would work all day in the Mexico waters so I didn’t lay my “Spook” down long enough to try anything else to see if it would work. My pro partner did likewise with her buzzbait and spinner bait.

Here is where I feel we could each blame ourselves. This is the main thing we did wrong. That has always been my downfall, not switching up after the bite stops on the bait I was catching on. Sometimes, it is hard to adjust and switch if the pro on the front of the boat is fishing too fast. We both decided we should have slowed way down and taken more time with each cast and thrown a Texas rig or jig, but in our panic to put a fish in the boat because we were running out of time, we didn’t.

We did however, have a good day on the lake, saw some beautiful scenery, got to know each other as anglers and learned from our mistakes so that when we go to the next tournament we will be more the wiser. Every day an angler fishes, we take something new back home with us, whether we learn it from each other, from the fish or from the lake. So the next time you have a bad day of fishing, don’t beat yourself up over the experience. It is easy to do, but you know in your heart, you wouldn’t have missed it for the world and there is always the next tournament.

My husband broke-up my “pity party” as he turned to me while driving and said “When is your next tournament?” Oh, I replied, it is a little over 5 weeks from now. I need to make reservations and find someone to pre-fish with…I can hardly wait! Are we almost home?” I need to do some computer research on the lake! I wonder who I will be paired with….

photo courtesy of Denese Freeman
ebassfish.com editor happy to get points at Amistad