Glad you are healed up enough to make it around. How’s bug doing?
Not sure your water temps up yonder, but your spawn can’t be that far off.
I have another tournament coming up (4/6&7). Hopefully, I’ll have some more photos to post and bait info.

Griz. Florida was difficult this year. The entire month of January was heavy rain and high winds. The days I could fish the boat was taking on water from the white caps over the bow. February was better but still not up to par. My big fish was 7.8, with some 5s and 4s, but nothing like past years. A lot of times it was warmer at home than it was in Florida. May skip going next year.

34 degrees to start, 15 mph wind with gust up to 25 mph—water temp 51-54. Fished only the north banks with chunk rock or protected coves with wood. Three baits were productive: Rock crawler 55 in red bug, a 1/2 oz Cole slaw spinner bait with double Colorado blades—front one small red—and a free weight rig consisting of an 8th oz free weight, a 3/0 hook and a water melon green mid size brush. These allowed me to cash a check in this past weekend tournament. They big fish (8.9 lbs) was caught on the rock crawler.

Griz-I paid for the extended fishing day. My back and legs are still screaming at me. One solid day of fishing and then a week of recovery.

Getting ready for deer season now. There may be some long days, but at least I am sitting down

Hope your recovery is continuing well.

Fred. Been a while since I put in 8 solid hours of fishing. Legs weee a little tender this morning and I slept like 9 hours straight. This getting old stuff sure isn’t for the young at heart-HA.

Took a journey up to the far end of lake of the Ozarks yesterday. Water temp varies between 50-56 with some heavy stain to it. Started on rip rap with a 1.5 square bill; caught five but only 1 kept- 2.8 lbs. went up to a bluff wall leading into a shallow creek. Caught two nice ones; a 3 & a 4 on a chartreuse/blk shallow suspending rogue. Went back into the creek and the first two/three docks produced with a white/silver chatter bait with a 3.5 berkley stinger white trailer. The further back I went the cooler the water got, down to 50. Tried another deeper creek and fished halfway back and a rocky bank with a blk jig and paca chunk trailer in grn pumpkin with the very tip dipped in orange dye. Caught two solid fish, one over five lbs. while it sounds like a stellar day; this was 8 hours of solid fishing.

Griz. Not clear on what you mean by the big bucks question?

Guys cannot find a place to fish anywhere on the lake. You take off from where ever you want. They pay the biggest fish weighed every hour and then the grand prize of the biggest fish overall. It’s a two day event. Craws fisherman/women/children from all over US.
There are a lot of “discussions” going on on the water all day long. This year a 6.77 lbr won the grand prize. I don’t fish it; too dangerous for me. I also believe there is a lot of cheating going in.

They have two of those big bash tournaments every year. They draw huge crowds with their $100,000 pay out for the biggest bass. One spring one fall. It really messes up the fishing for a few weeks. That’s why we ran 55 miles to find fish that had not been bothered.

Fished a 100 boat tournament this weekend. Fishing is tough after the big bass bash here with 3k boats on the water all at once. Ran way up the lake in the cool and wet temperatures. A zoom clear/black grub on a 1/4 oz ball jig head, a 5/8 oz big bladed chatter bait (white) with a 4.25” berkley power bait stinger (pearl) and a 2.5 square bill in natural shad (on any wood) did the trick. We finished 6th, actually tied for fifth but their big fish was a couple ounces bigger than ours. NOTE: These baits were thrown in dirty water.

Nice fish. Thanks for sharing

Jer. I fished shallow earlier in the day and then started throwing in front of and along side the docks for deeper brush piles. Caught some there and then moved to bluffs on the main lake throwing about five feet off the bluffs (15-20’ deep) hopping it a few times and then doing it again. Caught more on the initial fall next to the bluffs.

According to my past multiple years of spreadsheets, the crank bait/shad bite should be working right now. HA. After several hours of 5xd, dt10 and 1.5 crank baiting I gave up and went back to plastics. 1/2 oz Jig/brown-purple and a chigger craw (grn pump) and a mid size grn pump brush hog on a 1/4 oz shaky head I was finally able to put a few in the boat. Fished in main lake channel swing banks.

Griz—He shook my hand and said good job. Adding if I would fish with him again. I told him if he was in a pinch I would, but I don’t do tournaments on a regular basis anymore. This one flat wire my old butt out. Slept for 10 straight hours last night and have a few aches and pains that I don’t normally have in the morning.

Early this past Friday I get a call about filling in for a sick partner with an angler I’ve never fished with before. He says I was recommended as someone who could fill the bill.
He was young, and fully of himself, but overall a pretty good fisherman and person. However, this was not a team tournament, (I didn’t know at the time). It was everybody for themself. We practiced and I let him do his thing. I had fished this lake several years ago and remembered I did fairly well on it (sure wish my memory was better-HA) according to their rules, each person in the boat gets equal time up front. We fished entirely different areas and baits; however, he started using the same me baits I was using after my turn in the front.
Make a long story short, I finished 3rd overall and he finished 6th. My check covered all my expenses; he didn’t get a check. 😩