Day 2<\/strong><\/p>\nThe morning launch ramp banter was pretty entertaining. \u00a0Seems like the rumors floating around were that we were catching our fish on topwater frogs. \u00a0David and I have both kind of been big frog fishing fiends all summer out on Lake Austin, and so that’s probably where that rumor derived from. \u00a0But after not weighing in one fish on a frog after day 1, the frog bite was just a rumor. \u00a0We played along with it a little bit though. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Actually, David had driven down to Cabela’s after day 1 in order to buy a couple of Sammys, so we could hopefully capitalize on that bite on Day 2.<\/p>\n
As things got underway and we raced to our area, we were extremely optimistic. \u00a0After all, I had caught 20 lbs in practice, and we weighed in 19lbs on day 1; why wouldn’t we be able to do it again today? \u00a0Getting settled in our starting area, again, we found a boat at the mouth of the creek, and a couple lined along the shoreline. \u00a0We again started in the middle. \u00a0Within a few short minutes, we put 2 or 3 short fish in the boat, and our expectations were raised for a great topwater bite to get going. \u00a0After another short wait, David put a good keeper in the boat. \u00a0All right! \u00a0We finished covering that half of the grass flat with maybe one or two more missed blow-ups. \u00a0It seemed like the fish were just slapping at the bait. \u00a0Hmmmm? \u00a0As we continued to cover the second large half of the flat, we had a few more missed blow-ups that simply didn’t really eat the bait. \u00a0We kept rocketing those Sammy’s out there, but it got slow really quick. \u00a0We didn’t boat anything on the other half of the flat. \u00a0Nervousness was starting to set in. \u00a0We went back to the other half of the flat. \u00a0As we kept walking our Sammys, the tension began to mount, and we both started talking about what our game plan was going to be from here. \u00a0Neither of us seemed to want to admit it, but the topwater bite was less than stellar this morning.<\/p>\n
At length, we agreed that we needed a big fish in the boat, and our best chances for one was on a topwater early. \u00a0This spot wasn’t happening today, so we knew we had to find our big fish elsewhere. \u00a0We racked our brains for an area that would be similar to this first one, and finally agreed upon a location and took off while it was still fairly early.<\/p>\n
Arriving at the new location, we stopped and began firing the Sammys away at the shallow grass in the middle of the lake. \u00a0We started covering water with the trolling motor on high, and then finally David got a blow-up; it didn’t hook up. \u00a0We kept going. \u00a0A little while later I got a couple of blow-ups; they didn’t hook up either. \u00a0Finally I got a blow up and it ate it! \u00a0Fish on!!! \u00a0David watched me fight the fish without even stepping towards the net, as if he somehow knew something was going to go wrong. I got the fish coming towards the boat a bit, and he suddenly jumped and thrashed wildly. \u00a0It was a solid 3lber, and the Sammy came flying out of his mouth. \u00a0Fish off. \u00a0Things were getting frustrating real quick, and we could both tell without really saying anything to each other. \u00a0I think we were both beginning to feel a little lost as our topwater bite didn’t seem to be going as planned. \u00a0This is what we were counting on to win the tournament. \u00a0Now what?<\/p>\n
As we fished the grass flat, I kept eyeing a nearby shoreline with a good inside grassline that I’ve pulled some good frog fish out of. \u00a0During practice I even saw some fish in the 6lb class cruising it. \u00a0I could tell David was getting antsy and was wanting to make a move. \u00a0“Hey man, we need to go fish that bank, so I can throw a frog on it before we leave this area,” I told David. \u00a0David obliged by putting the t-motor on high and cruising toward the shoreline. \u00a0As we neared it, I picked up my frog rod and we started working down the shoreline. \u00a0About halfway down the shoreline section I wanted to cover…*KAWOOSH!* \u00a0The frog gets taken under! \u00a0I set the hook and start trying to fight the bass through the thick grassline. \u00a0David grabbed the net, but I told him the fish was getting wrapped up in the grass and we needed to get up there. \u00a0As he started heading the boat that way, the fish freed itself from the grassline and started heading toward the boat. \u00a0I scrambled to get the fish over the top of the net, and literally the instant that it went over the net, the hooks came flying out and David scooped the fish into the boat! \u00a0Whew!!! \u00a0This one went just shy of 5lbs. \u00a0“YEAH! \u00a0That was the right fish at just the right moment we needed it!” David exclaimed. \u00a0Instantly, both of us were pumped again and had our heads right back in the game. \u00a0We were still in it after all.<\/p>\n
We kept working down the shoreline, and as we reached the end of it…*KAWOOSH!*…again! \u00a0My frog gets attacked in some super skinny water by a BIG fish, but this time…the fish missed the frog. \u00a0It was still floating right there. \u00a0We worked the bank over again to no avail. \u00a0With two big frog bites, we decided we needed to start running some of our better frog banks to see how the frog bite was. \u00a0We spent the next hour or more doing that… but nothing.<\/p>\n
We were approaching the halfway mark in the day, and we started to get into panic mode a little bit. We only had two fish in the livewell, and we still couldn’t establish a pattern. \u00a0We started junk fishing hitting several familiar confidence areas with some confidence baits. \u00a0Nothing, nada, zilch. \u00a0We weren’t hardly even catching dinks and we were running all over the place. \u00a0Finally we determined it was time to go fish the drop-shot bank below the bridge.<\/p>\n
We worked our way along the short section of rocky shoreline with our drop-shot rigs. \u00a0We caught a few dinks… but the keeper-sized fish we’d caught the day before had seemed to vanish. \u00a0We skirted over to the other side of the creek mouth where there was a similar rocky shoreline. \u00a0I felt a “tick” on my line and set the hook. \u00a0It felt solid, and I could feel a headshake, but I also felt my light line rubbing against what felt like a tree limb underwater. \u00a0I kept steady pressure when suddenly I felt it pop free from whatever it was rubbing against. \u00a0The line still felt really heavy though, so I couldn’t tell if it still had a limb wrapped in the line. \u00a0We soon saw the fish and realized nope! \u00a0It was just a good, solid-sized keeper! \u00a0In the net, and #3 in the livewell!!! \u00a0David and I started breathing a little easier realizing we just needed two more bites in the boat. \u00a0That was all we caught in that area.<\/p>\n
Next David took us to a confidence area for him to fish some docks. \u00a0We began working around the docks skipping baits in there when David said, “you should work your drop-shot inbetween the docks along the shoreline while I skip back under the docks.” \u00a0“Sounds like a great plan to me,” I replied as I picked up my drop-shot rod. \u00a0A couple of docks later, I pitched up to the outer edge of a dock, and got bit several feet out in front of it. \u00a0We soon had solid keeper #4 in the boat!!! \u00a0We both started reminding ourselves, “One more bite! \u00a0One more bite!”<\/p>\n
As we finished out that area, we were beginning to get close to the last hour of the tournament. \u00a0I told David, “Well man, you make good decisions about were to go in order to fill out a limit. \u00a0You make the call, and I’ll do everything I can to help put that last fish in the boat when we get there.” \u00a0David quickly thought of a spot and said, “It’s gonna happen there.”<\/p>\n
We ran back up the lake to a very specific spot that only really required a few casts to cover. \u00a0We made some pitches to it with various baits, but nothing. \u00a0The nervousness in our voices as we began to contemplate our next move began to show a bit. \u00a0Suddenly, as we were in the middle of talking about where we were going to go from there, David sets the hook! \u00a0“I don’t think it’s any good,” David grumbled. \u00a0As David fought the fish to the boat, it was looking pretty close to the 14″ mark. \u00a0He threw it on the measuring board and exclaimed…”15 inches!!!” \u00a0I don’t think either of us had ever been so excited to catch a 15″ fish before. \u00a0The tension and mood in the boat instantly lightened, and you could tell both of us felt like we could finally breath again. \u00a0We were giving each other high-5s, but we very quickly realized we still probably didn’t have the weight we need to win. \u00a0Just knowing we’d be going to the scales with a limit though was a HUGE relief.<\/p>\n
After David threw his fish in the livewell, we looked at the clock and figured we had about 30-40 minutes left to fish before we needed to head towards the weigh-in. \u00a0We really felt like we needed a big fish, so we decided on a spot with big fish potential and decided to stay put there for the rest of the tournament. \u00a0We ran to where I had caught the bigger frog fish earlier in the morning. \u00a0We fished hard until the last minutes, but no big bite for us. \u00a0We were happy knowing we’d done our best, and I think both of us were ready to go weigh-in and were willing to accept most likely not winning.<\/p>\n
At the weigh-in site, we brought our fish to the scales, and we weighed in for 12.85lbs. \u00a0Enough to put us into the lead with a total of 32+ lbs. \u00a0We were both happy to have the lead, but we really didn’t feel like it was going to hold up. \u00a0The few teams who were right behind us on Day 1 still hadn’t weighed in yet. \u00a0Soon though, we saw the 2nd place team from Day 1 walking to the weigh-in line. \u00a0Several guys eyeballed their bag from a distance and figured they’d only had maybe 8lbs in their bag. \u00a0I liked the \u00a0sound of that!!! \u00a0But until the fish were on the scales, we still had reason to worry. \u00a0Sure enough, they struggled and only had a small 8lb limit. \u00a0WHEW! \u00a0As we neared the end of the weigh-in, there was only one team that hadn’t weighed in yet that we knew had a shot at catching us. \u00a0They needed a 16+ lb bag to take over us. \u00a0As they walked up to the scales it looked like they were pretty close to that. \u00a0As we all watched the scales, they were bouncing around in the 15lb range, but would jump up to 16lbs every once in a while. \u00a0Talk about nerve wracking!!! \u00a0Finally, the scales settled just over 15.5lbs. \u00a0YEAH BUDDY!!!! \u00a0 David and I patted each other on the back and were both grinning ear to ear. \u00a0Unbelievable! \u00a0We were both certain our weight wouldn’t hold up, but what luck!!!<\/p>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\nIt was a great tournament and a great experience for David and I. \u00a0We’ve both worked so hard this year in our tournament fishing, and we’ve had some finishes in the money, but we were both really craving a good win. \u00a0It was a huge relief to finally get it, and the circumstances around it were perfect. \u00a0To me, winning a championship tournament on Lake Austin means a lot. \u00a0There’s a lot of REALLY good anglers around here that are REALLY good on Lake Austin. \u00a0It’s pretty tough to get a win over some of those guys on Lake Austin. \u00a0Being able to do that is definitely something special. \u00a0After so many close calls the last couple of years, it felt good to finally seal the deal, and it gave both David and I the confidence we need to keep going and feel like we can actually compete against some of the more well known names around here. \u00a0As many bass anglers will tell you, confidence plays a huge role in this sport. \u00a0All this win has done for me is completely fuel me and made me feel even more competitive to get even more wins. \u00a0I’ve gotten a lot of 2nds and 3rds in tournaments the last few years, but winning is something completely different. \u00a0I fish to win now. \u00a0Second place is just the first loser. \u00a0Nobody cares or remembers about who got 2nd or 3rd. \u00a0First place is all that matters.<\/p>\n
Thanks for everyone who has supported me and continues to support me in my fishing! \u00a0And thank you so much to all of my sponsors, friends, and family who believe in me! \u00a0This one was for you guys!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If you are reading this right now, odds are you’ve already heard about the win that my partner, David Bueche, and I recently received at the Faith Angler Network Championship tournament this past weekend. Most everyone that may actually read this blog is either a friend or family member, so I’ve probably already told you. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-fishing","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251\/revisions\/262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.andermeine.com\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/IMG_0872.jpg\" "\\"IMG_0872\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n