Thursday morning Fritz suggested some places, so we headed to them. At one point I was bringing in a spinnerbait and Fritz had cast over me. He reeled in his plug and stopped, and I was looking down at the plug as my spinnerbait came by. A three foot plus brown shadow was following the spinnerbait - either a new world record smallmouth or a muskie. It did not hit.

We spent the rest of the day trying different things in different places with no keepers. I told Fritz about a Top Six years ago where I had to let the Trick worm sink to the bottom and sit still before catching a fish. Did not slow down enough to try it though. Was really frustrated after two days of nothing.

After cleaning up we walked up to the lodge. Moe came in to get his gator ready, and must have taken pity on my disgusted look. He told me the bass were hitting white Senkos and Flukes, but you had to really fish them slowly. He told me to slow down as much as I could stand, then slow down some more. While eating Moe’s great gator Warren told me basically the same thing, and told me to key on anything different on the bank.

Everyone ate all the gator fast and the venison burgers Steve brought disappeared fast. At the meeting everyone seemed to be in a good mood and Fritz and I were allowed to fish together the first day. We headed out to get some sleep and discussed our plan. We both agreed to go where Fritz lost the one decent fish and slow down, wear out those places and see what happened. 

I had little hope of catching decent fish, but when Dave went over the rules it was pointed out there was no lower limit on spots and you could keep one smallmouth under 16 inches. I told Randy I would keep anything I caught, no matter how small, although some folks seemed to think that would be embarrassing! I would rather weigh in little fish, if the rules allow, than no fish! Follow the rules but use whatever they allow!