At the end of last week, I did a little prefishing on West Point Lake in Georgia. Before then, I had never laid eyes on that lake. So, I did a lot of riding around and a lot of looking as well as a little fishing. While it was fun, the actual fishing I did then won't be of much help to me in the tournament.
One of the problems with prefishing so far in advance is that right now the fish are doing something different than they'll be doing when we go there for the tournament. Right now they're spawning pretty good and, by the time we get back, there will be very few spawners. Take a look at the fish I caught while I was there. Note her tail, which is significantly worn. This fish has been spawning for more than a month now and is nearly done. Plus, she's skinny.
The wind blew me around West Point pretty good, but when I got to Pickwick, it got worse. That was one of the windiest practice periods I've had in a long time. It was windy to the point where it changed my game plan for practice. There were huge sections of the lake that were unfishable because of the wind. This made it impossible to just put in at one spot and run the lake. You had to trailer to other parts of the lake to check them out. It gusted over 40 miles per hour yesterday!
You really have to use a lot of strategy, and I think it's going to be a pretty good tournament. The lake is high and the water — and bass — are in the bushes. Usually they don't leave Pickwick high every long, but it hasn't dropped an inch since we've got here. That kind of scares me that they're going to pull the plug on it for the tournament. I kind of hope that they leave it up because there are lots of fish up in the bushes.
The bass here really haven't started spawning yet, but that's something that can happen while we're here. When you catch a fish, they're so full of eggs they look like they're about to pop. That'll be a developing story.
One thing I did learn today is that through the wind and thunderstorms — no matter how miserable they might be — lightning will make things worse. We had one of those storms come through today that made it like nighttime all day. The sky was so dark that you didn't need sunglasses. You don't see many days like that here. The only significant change was that the wind shifted from the south to the north, and when that happened, the air temp went from 75 to 48 in about an hour.
I'm finding some fish, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to add a few more pieces of the puzzle. I'm really ready to get rolling here on Pickwick!