John Murray – Day 2 2/23/2008

Photo: BassFan

I had about the same day I did yesterday. I fished pretty similar water, but changed up a little and threw a Basstrix swimbait a little and caught a couple of good spotted bass, but never had a big bite doing it.

I was mostly throwing a shakey-head, just trying to get some fish. I caught two 3s yesterday that way, and one today.

Then I went and threw that swimbait for about 3 hours and had one come off. And a guy caught a 7-pounder right in front of me in a cut – a local – so there's good fish there. That fish would have got me in the cut, but I wasn't lucky enough to get it.

Looking back, I never got on anything in practice, and I think I really didn't go shallow today soon enough. The lake came up a foot and a half the last couple of days, and some of the islands I've seen are now underwater. So it was changing every day.

I'm consistent in the Classic – consistently mediocre.

John Murray – Day 1 2/22/2008
I started shallow and didn't catch anything, then I went and threw a swimbait in 40 feet of water and caught a nice one. I couldn't get any more, though, so I went to the bank and started shakey-heading, and I caught six that way in about 30 minutes. Then I went back to throwing the swimbait for the rest of the day.

I caught seven keepers, but nothing over 3 pounds. I'll probably fish shallow again tomorrow because I just can't get anything consistent going out deep. I think the sun might make things a little bit better.

If things go right I could catch 20 pounds pretty quick, and it's do-or-die now. I'll stay shallow and pitch and I might end up throwing the swimbait a little more. The ones that bite it are pretty good ones.

John Murray – Practice 2/20/2008
I caught two fish on my first two casts today, then caught only two more the rest of the day. It was not wonderful by any means.

I fished shallow all day. I covered some banks and found where some are with some fish, but they're not real big. I think I can get a few keepers out of it. I'll probably fish deeper in the morning and try to catch some big ones, then hit the banks. Really though, I've not found anything consistent in 4 days.

So I have two deals – one shallow and one deep. I'm fishing a couple of schools deep, and then running the banks after that, looking for isolated fish.

The cold is fine with me – for the deep fish, it won't matter. What I don't want is the wind. It seems like the deep fish are down there, but they bite at certain times, then don't bite the rest of the day.

Overall, I feel pretty neutral right now. I'm not excited, and I'm not disappointed. I'm not optimistic, but I'm not pessimistic. Anything can happen though.