By F.R. "Fritz" Nordengren

Fishing the second tournament of my life was a tough tourney. I had blanked the first day and now, on the second day, I had caught an under limit small- mouth and had been hit by bream many times. The tap tap tap tap tap tap machine-gun bite was exciting -- but only for a split second.

What we found were a bunch of free floating logs, branches, and trees that were floating in tight to shore. We were in his 14 foot jon boat -- and I think in a boat like that, you tend to fish closer to cover than if in a bigger boat. So we worked along fishing around these logs. 

I would cast out the Senko, and let it slowly sink -- or I would pull it along a log trying to draw a strike.

At one point, we were under some trees and the logs/branches blown in tight against the tree looked like a kids game of pick-up-sticks. There was a checkerboard pattern of open water divided by 3 inch branches. I dropped my Senko into a 12" X 12" "hole" about 8 feet away from the boat. As the Senko fell, "thunk" I reared back and set the hook and had a fish on.

Here's where I almost lost my cool: My hook set put my rod tip straight up into the tree branch above me. It snagged in the leaf stems and I fought the urge to look up -- I ignored the rod tip and concentrated on how the fish felt and watched the water. As I cranked my reel, the bass swirled and then tried to make a jump. But the logs slowed the bass. As it came up I was able to keep pressure from my reel to keep her head up.

I kept saying out loud, "good fish, goo-o-o-o-d fish" as my partner scrambled -- not knowing what he could do to help. It must have been frustrating for him seeing that fish and not being able to do anything---yet.

He was convinced I wouldn't get the fish to the boat and that we'd have to move the boat around to the back of the logs to get closer to the fish. But I had all the reading and tips on fish handling from the folks on line to back me up. I continued to hold pressure and reel down to free my rod tip from the branch. 

As soon as the rod tip was free from the branch, I reeled the rod down and pulled the fish over the logs and eased her to the boat. I kept her part way into the water right at boat side because I didn't trust the 6 pound line after rubbing against the branches and being stuck in the tree. I feared a dead lift might snap the line at a weak spot.