This was really the beginning of my momentum dying for the year. \u00a0At the time, school and other life obligations were killing me. \u00a0I BARELY pre-fished for this tournament at all. \u00a0I had one evening for about 3 hours to go scout out the lake the week before and that’s it. \u00a0I know there’s a week off-limits period, but still… I hate going into a tournament so blind. \u00a0Especially when there’s big money on the line. \u00a0In my 3 hours of scouting, I determined that there were plenty of bed fish to be caught, and saw one 5lber on a bed. \u00a0That was about it. \u00a0However, conditions were supposed to change quite a bit during the off-limits period, so I questioned how much bed fishing would really play into things come game day. \u00a0Really didn’t feel sure of anything going into this one.<\/p>\n
Tournament day was mediocre. \u00a0We caught our 3-fish limit, and I put one decent fish just shy of 4lbs in the boat on a lipless crank late in the day. \u00a0Most of the day it was very cloudy, preventing any real bed-fishing from taking place. \u00a0Finally, the last couple hours of the tournament, the sun came out. \u00a0I kinda kept feeling like we needed to just put the t-motor on high and look for big bed fish now that the sun was up, but bed fishing really isn’t my partner, David’s, thing. \u00a0We saw some bed fish here and there and caught a few, but no big ones. \u00a0Found out at the weigh-in that most guys who had kicker fish caught their big ones late in the day on a bed after the sun came out. \u00a0D’oh.<\/p>\n
Late March 2013 – BOAT SOLD!<\/strong><\/p>\n After having my boat listed to sell since late last fall… I finally sold it. \u00a0I got an offer and had to jump on it. \u00a0I’ve been wanting to get rid of it and get something newer and more reliable for a long time now. \u00a0Consequently though, that put me out of a boat, and out of fishing for a few weeks while I looked for a new one. \u00a0Around mid-April, I found what I was looking for: a 2005 Legend 21 DC. \u00a0It was at a dealership in Houston, and the wife and I picked it up while we were on our way back from vacation in Galveston one weekend. \u00a0She’s 21ft of red, white, and blue glory… Her name is ‘Merica.<\/p>\n Since I picked her up about two weeks ago, I’ve only been able to get her out on the water once… and boy, is she glorious. \u00a0School sucks. \u00a0Ya’ll have no idea how difficult it is to have a brand new boat, and then have to discipline yourself to stay on top of your homework and studying for exams. \u00a0Part of it though is the fact that I’ve been trying to get everything set up on her exactly how I want it. \u00a0It’s just working out all the little bugs and making her mine. \u00a0At first it was figuring out my battery charging situation, and now I’ve got to figure out what’s the deal with the trailer lights. \u00a0Long story, but they’re goofy. \u00a0I also bought a Humminbird side imaging unit that I need to get installed on her. \u00a0The trailer lights and the side imaging are the main things to do now, along with a few other small things.<\/p>\n 20 April 2013 – Media Bass – Lake LBJ:<\/strong> \u00a0I missed it. \u00a0I got ‘Merica just a week before this tournament, and due to school, I didn’t have time to get everything set up on her like I wanted before the tournament. \u00a0I hadn’t even had a chance to get her on the water yet, and I didn’t want to take the risk of my first time taking her out being during a tournament. \u00a0I was bummed about missing it because I missed the March Media Bass tourney too since it conflicted with Bass Champs. You know what sucks even worse? \u00a0I’ll be missing the June tournament too. \u00a0There goes my Media Bass season. \u00a0What a bust. \u00a0I was dumb and scheduled a vacation to California in June right during the Media Bass tourney. \u00a0I don’t know what I was thinking, but it’s too late now. \u00a0Now all of my efforts will be focussed on Bass Champs and probably Big Sandy Creek Bass Club.<\/p>\n 27 April 2013 – Bass Champs – Lake Belton:<\/strong> \u00a0Yet again, another tournament I was forced to go into blind. \u00a0This time… completely blind. \u00a0I didn’t even get a 3 hour scouting session the weekend before. \u00a0David had pre-fished though, so I just had to rely on what he had found. \u00a0David’s a great angler, but it just wasn’t in the stars and he didn’t find much of anything exciting during pre-fishing. \u00a0It ended up being a fun tournament though and we caught several keepers, but nothing big. \u00a0We weighed 4.46 for our 3-fish limit. \u00a0We found an area where they were schooling periodically and we had a lot of fun catching fish on a Frenzy Baits Bounty Hunter umbrella rig:<\/p>\n \n <\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n We caught a mixed bag of smallmouths and largemouths, but those smallies were a blast to catch on the umbrella rig! \u00a0Throwing it on 85# braid with zero stretch, those smallies felt like a freight train when they hit it! \u00a0One time I about had a fish knock the rod out of my hands. \u00a0Unbelievable. \u00a0The way they were schooling, I kept thinking I was going to get a double, but it never did happen. \u00a0If ya’ll are looking for the best umbrella rig around, this is it. \u00a0I can promise you that. \u00a0I was just bummed that I wasn’t smart enough to order some PowerTeam Lures Swinging Hammer swimbaits to load on this rig in time for the tournament. \u00a0I’m sure we could’ve caught some bigger fish if I’d had ’em. \u00a0I won’t be making that mistake again.<\/p>\n The end is near:\u00a0<\/strong>Basically, I’ve got one week of school left this semester. \u00a0I’m in the middle of finals right now; Exams to study for and papers to write. \u00a0I’ve almost made it to the summer. \u00a0As soon as next week is over, I can get back to fishing and doing some serious damage in tournaments. \u00a0I am so ready to get back at it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Where’d my momentum go? \u00a0I’ll tell you where it went. \u00a0Life has gotten in the way, and sucked away the momentum with it. School has been really rough this semester. \u00a0Every semester it gets harder and harder to focus on school, and not only that… but my classes become increasingly difficult the further I make […]<\/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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337","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=337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337\/revisions\/340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/andermeine.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net\/hphotos-ak-ash3\/533331_508074809248934_9032946_n.jpg\")
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