We committed one practice day off shore and another looking for shallow fish. After catching 4 keepers in two days of practice we just kind of ran around like idiots and managed to catch two limits by some miracle. Ended up 18th when we legitimately thought we were going to zero both days. Probably the most brutal 4 days of fishing I can remember.

For myself/my dad, it was a weekend that will be hard to forget! I was only able to practice Friday and even with the one day of practice, I spent six hours idling due to my trolling motor battery being shot and not having any juice to really do anything (Thank God the wind didn't blow). I did find quite a few piles that had fish in them, but could only imagine how many other people had found the same piles, judging by the amount of traffic on the water Friday.

Tournament day comes, start on the dam with 2 other boats, one not in the event, the other boat.. ( I later found out he was fishing TTO) proceeded to catch what seemed like 6-7 fish in a matter of 15 minutes, one of which was over 5lbs. I wasn't about to let that affect my mental attitude, so we picked up and ran up the lake to my piles.... Fast forward to 12:30 & all my piles fished, we had 3 keepers. (2) 10-inch spots, and one squeaker largemouth. In an effort to salvage the day, I started running water that I knew held fish in years past. I get to (what I thought was well known) an underwater tire reef on the lower end of the lake and not a soul on it - I proceeded to pick up a 10" ole monster to probe the tires with and barely get the texas rig over the first one before getting a slight "tick". I set the hook into our kicker, a skinny 6.5lb fish. Boy, this fish revamped my dad and I's confidence and proceeded to fill out our limit/cull up to our bag for day 1, 18.15. Unfortunately, I had a 2.09 spotted bass that croaked on the way into weigh in, dropping us to 17.65.

Day 2 - When we took off that morning, I honestly didn't know where to start. For whatever reason, I had a feeling we should go back to the tire reef we ended on the afternoon before. Only to get there and have some company waiting on us. Now, I know what you're thinking, the sand bass fisherman/fisherwoman that were there when we arrived, were probably some of the nicest people I've met on the water in a long time. As I was making my first cast, they pulled right up to the port side of our boat and were just wanting to know what to do to catch sand bass. Wasn't really sure, but I knew from the activity I had seen on the surface, they couldn't go wrong with a trap/topwater around the bridge. As I was trying to help them find some sand bass, my dad & I proceeded to put a limit in the boat in the first 10 casts. Unreal. We had caught probably 25 - 30 fish in that first hour, maybe had around 8-9lbs, nothing great but was still fun to experience with my pops. Around 8:30 - 9am, I decided to make a move to a ledge in 17ft, which dropped into 40. Saw three fish sitting on it... shut the motor off and circled back around. Tossed out my carolina rig and proceeded to sit down on the front deck of the boat and eat a handful of chex mix...... After 10-15 seconds of letting my rig soak, I set my propel water down and picked my rod back up, and felt tension, almost like I was stuck on a rock or hung. So, I held the rod still for a second and proceeded to feel a slight 'nod'. Instantly regretting the fact that I was still sitting on my @ss on the front deck, I rared back and set the hook. Only to have my rod not move and then begin to pulled back. Struggling to stand up, I gained my stance and fought what would be the biggest fish of the weekend. NESSY. She came up pissed and tried to get me around the lower unit... not today ole girl. My dad got her in the net and we booked it over to the ramp to meet Donnie for a weight. 8.88 on the scales....

We ended up making two culls shortly after that, and the rest of the day was pretty non-existent for us in terms of bites. The heat was unreal with the wind having died that afternoon.

We finished the event in 4th with 18.85 on day 2. Super thankful for all that TTO and the crew do for all of the anglers on the scene and behind the scenes. Looking forward to next year! Congrats to Mike Schultz and Kevin Bryant again on winning AOY, and congrats to the overall winners of the event.