When I got to Pickwick I was in need of a confidence booster, a points cushion, and a check. Well, Saturday I got everything I needed. It feels great to get a good tournament under my belt. Pickwick was a lot of fun, and it gave me an opportunity to get back to the basics and fish my strengths.
Catching fish on Pickwick was not a problem, but getting the big bite and capitalizing on it was a problem. On Thursday I lost 3 fish that were all 3 lbs or better. It really stings because those 3 fish would have gave me a weight of around 18 lbs on day one and would have got me through to the final day. But it is what it is, and I can’t dwell on what could have been.
I flipped a War Eagle jig with a Tightlines UV Hog during the entire tournament. In practice I was able to get bigger bites with this bigger profile bait. Thursday and Friday were spent down lake flipping visible cover. When Saturday came around, I knew that my down lake pattern wasn’t going to hold strong for another day. So, I took a gamble and fished around the take-off area, a place that I hadn’t fished at all. In this area I caught my limit in 15 minutes, and one of those first five fish was a 3 lber. After that I made a short run to fish some barge tie-ups where I caught a 3 lber and a 4 ½ lber right off the bat. It was really cool to take a gamble and change up my plan like that and have it pay off. I feel like I was able to get some redemption on Pickwick. I redeemed my confidence, and I redeemed my previous lack of success on that lake. I feel like I am back in the classic hunt, and am looking forward to what the rest of the season brings.
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