Got crushed on Lake Dardanelle. Had my gear case in my lower unit go out in practice and had to wait for the Mercury Tournament Support team to show up to fix it. Was only able to run a coupla miles from the launch in practice. This area had fish but was getting an insane amount of pressure. Great excuse! The guy who won it had engine trouble and won the tournament right there close to the boat ramp!
The engine trouble definitely messed with my mind. I knew guys were running 20 miles up river and catching them in dirty water pitching jigs. That is my favorite way to fish a river lake like Dardanelle. I am also always the guy that tries to run and find water that is not pressured. I believe the big fish like to lick my jigs a little more readily when it is the only one they have seen that day! What ended up happening was me fishng the same water over and over trying to catch them like I did in practice when all it took to get them was a small adjustment. I needed to punch my jig down into the grass I was fishing instead of swimming it over the top! In practice after swimming the jig I had caught a few good ones. However after the water dropped and the fishing pressure built up on these fish. They dug down into the grass and did not chase stuff anymore.
I really did not want to be fishing where I was. This led me to almost quit thinking and just grind it out with a technique that was not working very well. All the while wishing I had been able to run up river and fish where I really wanted!
Lesson learned.
