Fishers of Men - East Texas Division - Lake Sam Rayburn

[Gabby]

I am fishing the "Fishers of Men" East Texas Division with my buddy Brantley Salter.  Thought I would let you all know how we did in Tournament 1 of 5 (This one was on Sam Rayburn, and we have 2 left on Toledo Bend, one on Lake Livingston, and one more on Rayburn).

We left Thursday night for Florien, where his parents live.  Got up at 4am to prefish Rayburn (an hour or so away) and basically learned how to run the lake and find our spots.  Fished and ran from sunup to about 12:30, without much luck.  The Everstart tourney was going on, and from the looks of the standings, the bite was tough.

We caught one fish.  I missed one bite, and Brantley missed a couple or three.  We threw Rat-L-Traps, white/chartruese spinners, tube jigs, Carolina Rigs (lizards), and found the only thing that produced bites were our Watermelon/Red flake Lizards.  The lizards only worked when we fished them "split-shot" style, kinda like a mini Carolina rig.

The water clarity was varied.  It was muddy in some spots, and pretty clear in others.  The water temp was anywhere from 52 to 56 degrees on Friday.

A big exciting moment was when we spotted a Gator (at least 10 feet long - it was HUGE) about 5-10 feet from the boat.









Anyways, I had a TOUGH morning - only getting one bite that felt pretty solid.  Missed him, unfortunately.

We got done, went to our FOM meeting that night, then headed back to the Bass Buster Inn to rest, set up our tackle, and go over our game plan.

TOURNAMENT DAY (Saturday).  We got up and checked out the standings for the Everstart Tournament - and immediately knew that everyone was having a tough time this weekend.  We decided we were going to primarely work the banks/bushes and throw that Split Shot Lizard a majority of the time.  We drew a bad number, and were boat #59 (Third Flight).  No problem, though - and we hit 70 and passed up nearly 20 boats to get to our spot with ease.

The day was tough, and Brantley was pretty upset about losing 4 fish (two which broke free almost to the boat).  He caught 2 under the slot that we threw back, and one keeper around 2 lbs.



I was getting a little frustrated towards the end of the day.  I had only one bite up to 15 minutes before we left, and was seriously wondering if I was cursed with the rod & reel.  I tried to stay positive, but had to tell Brantley that I didn't know what I was doing wrong.  He told me that it was just a really tough day, and some of the best have days like this.

I have had days like this the past 6 or 7 times I have been fishing!

So I bowed my head and asked the Good Lord, if it was His will, to just let me get ONE FISH!!!  I spent a lot of money and time to be here.

Then a miracle happened.  It was 2:45, and we had to crank up to head back to the weigh in by 3pm (weigh in was at 3:30 for the third flight, and we had a LONG run to get back).  Anyway, I got a bite and stuck a fish that was just under 3 pounds.  I was pumped!  That fish made a huge difference for us in the standings.  We knew we were not getting a check, but we figured the more points we get, the better off we are overall.  



I spent the next 10 minutes or so pumped up and thanking God for actually getting me a nice fish.  I was the watch man, so I told Brantley that it was 3pm.  He started packing up the stuff, and I told him I had to make one more cast....

Brantley sat down to crank up the boat, and I had snuck in a second final cast.  Boom, I got a hit and set the hook on a nice keeper that put us in even better standing!  We were going crazy because what are the chances that you throw out that final desperation "last cast" and actually land a keeper?

Our weight wasn't that good, 6.29 lbs on 3 fish - but it was good enough to put us at 25 out of 44 boats.  We are still in good standing considering we have 4 more tournaments in this circuit (We have 176 points, and the first place team has 200).  Had a great time, and we caught them all on a split shot lizard (Watermelon Red with a chartreuse dipped tail).



Wish us luck!

Gabby

[Sears]

Sweet story, Gabe!  That gator was huge.