Fishing a blueback herring lake is always a dynamic situation, but Lake Murray seemed to fish a little differently than it has in the past. The fish didn’t school as much as they did during past Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series events.
I don’t know if that was the front that hit when we got here. I don’t know if it was timing or fishing pressure. I’m guessing it was some of all that.
The lake set up similarly to how it has in the past — the lake was 4 feet low, but the fish used the same type of spots. We had a lot of bass on beds and a lot of fry guarders. We had bass getting on points with herring. Then you had the guys who were utilizing forward-facing sonar and catching roaming fish out in the open.
We had fish in all different phases, and our guys are so good. They all figured it out really, really quickly. That kind of puts you in a predicament of what do you want to do?
Do you want to do what you’re good at? Do you want to do what you think is best? Do you want to do a little bit of everything?
Some guys got tied up trying to do all of that. When I’m on a herring lake, I don’t do anything but chase herring. I put my whole practice into chasing shallow herring on points.
All three times I’ve fished there, I’ve done really well, but all three times, I’ve only had a few points. I’ve had other points where I can get a limit, but every time, it seems like I end up with a few key points where I get paid.
Rarely do I catch all my fish on one bait, but this time I did. I caught every single fish with a 5.2-inch 6th Sense 5.2 flush in chartreuse glow. For my shallow fish, I nose hooked this bait on a No. 2 BKK Neko hook. I also weighed three fish I caught on a Carolina rig with the 5.2 Flush in tilapia magic.
We had a lot of weather changes in this event and the biggest thing for me was the different wind directions. These fish bite really well on shallow points with wind and the more wind, the better.
It could be blowing on a point one day, and they can be biting really well. The next day, the wind’s not hitting the point, and the fish won’t be there. That happened to me on one of my best points.
I ended up finishing 32nd at Murray and, even though I would have preferred to finish higher, I am happy with the way it turned out. From my practice, I was not expecting to catch what I caught. I never caught a 4-pound bass in practice, but I caught two 5s and a 4 the first day, a 5 and a 4 on Day 2 and several 4s on Day 3.
I will say I’m kinda frustrated, because I left some meat on the table. I’m frustrated I didn’t figure out a little bit more, and I blame that on my practice. I feel like I practiced a little too slowly in the wrong areas, and I know better than that. On these herring lakes, you gotta go 100 miles an hour.
I’m thankful I found what I did and caught what I did. I’m the last guy in the Bassmaster Classic cut, but I want to bump way up and be in the top 25 in AOY at the end of the year.
I have four more events to get there,and one of them takes place this week. I’m looking forward to making some big progress at Santee Cooper Lakes.
