Fishing is alright out there — not great and not bad. It's good for numbers of fish, but I didn't catch a whole lot of big ones. The lack of 4- to 6-pound fish is a little bit concerning. The water temperature is 45 to 47 degrees in most areas. It's probably colder now, the wind blew 45 mph today.
The wind blows here a lot. It's been blowing at least 20 since I got here on Thursday. It blew here during pre-practice and it's been blowing here most of practice as well. It doesn't bother me though. The wind and rough water don't affect my Phoenix boat, so it doesn't bother me. It does shake my camper around a bit at night, but not enough to keep me from sleeping.
The weather for practice was chilly for the first two days, reaching highs in the low 40s, and up to 65 yesterday. There's some bad weather on the way, but it looks like it might be gone by the time the tournament gets here.
It's a huge lake, and I've only covered about half of it. I need another day. I'll have to make good use of Wednesday to really figure out the bigger fish. It's tough; with winter fishing conditions, I can't zip around and cover a lot of water fishing fast. I've had to fish slow and despite what you may think about my fishing style, I don't like fishing slow.
It's true. I really don't prefer finesse fishing. I'd much rather fish fast and cover water. I can fish slow, but I have to force myself to do it. I've been successful at it, but I still don't like it.
The thing you never get used to is the amount of time and obligations we have during the week of the Classic. No matter how many times I've fished the Classic — this will be my 14th — I never get used to all the things I have to do.