Have fished very little this year, and posted reports even less. Between work and kids activities personal hobbies have taken a bit of a back seat. Looks to be the pattern for the next several years...

We usually do not tourney fish. I have put on more tournaments than I have fished. Just prefer the relaxation of a leisure trip and the ability to say "screw it" and leave when the fishing sucks!!! But today we participated in a 28 boat tourney on Lone Star.

Interesting day on the water. Overnight rains from a retro-grade Low (L moving East to West instead of W to E) clouded up the water in several places. Heavy, heavy overcast all morning, with some periods of heavy mist later in the morning. Winds started light and picked up and got gusty out of the East middle of the morning as the mist rolled in. Later in the morning it began to warm up some, the winds lightened up, and the sun poked out a little.

We picked up right around a dozen fish, didn't really count them. Had 2 keepers in the well on wat red fluke and 3 on chart chatter. We had our 5 fish bag in the first 20 minutes of the morning, and culled 1 before the end of the 1st hour. We didn't catch another cull the rest of the day. We only picked up 3 more short fish after the second hour of the morning. Boated 1 fish on a spinner bait, all the others were on the fluke or the chatter. Big bass of the sack was on the chatter. We also tossed buzz, tube, swim jig, trick worm, senko, and spinner. No cranks, too much hyrilla where we were fishing. Fished some pads, some hydrilla mat, shoreline reeds, and a main lake point. All but 3 fish came from areas with pads that opened up some and had a hydrilla edge. The fluke bites were on the shallow side of the pads towards the shore and the chatter bites were in the transition area where the pads thinned and the hydrilla had an edge. All of fish in our weighed sack came from a 75ft stretch of water in the 4-5 foot range. We ended the day with a nice sack of fish, but no kicker. Based on how our morning started I assumed someone else would have a decent sack with a kicker and we wouldn't have a shot. Ended up weighing in with 14.99lbs and taking 1st. Second thru fifth all had 5 fish and were between 12.5 and 13.4 with a tie for 4th and 5th. The big bass of the day was a 6.2 caught by the 5th place team.

Not certain what others were doing. Saw several tossing topwaters, with limited success. I think those that placed 2 thru 5 may have been doing mostly tops. Also saw some throwing C-rigs on points. One guy we knew was doing that, but only picked up 3 under 2lbs doing it. Don't know what the rest of the folks were tossing.

A very confusing day. We really thought we had something figured out after that first 20 minutes, but when they quit we could not pick up a new pattern anywhere on the lake. Fortunately no one else picked up a pattern either...

Just want to offer one clarification. It has been pointed out to me that I refer to all three species of aquatic vegetation (coontail, milfoil, and hydrilla) universally as hydrilla. They aren't the same, and I know it sometimes makes a difference, especially later in the summer. But I am just lazy, so its all hydrilla to me.

Today we were working a milfoil line, not hydrilla...

Next time I post and say hydrilla, just know it is any of the 3...

Congratulations. Is the City Park Ramp in any better shape than last year?

It doesn't have a big hole in the left side, but its still crooked from the approach road and the boat dock is still rickety! We launched from the firehouse ramp on the north end to avoid some of the congestion during the tournament. 28 boats, many of whom are not familiar with the city park ramp, leads to a very long wait. It was easier, and faster, to just trailer around.

Congrats guys! I love that lake.