Bob:

Since the last topnuts and a few of you nuts so kindly explained to me to start posting more, I thought I would share my preparation for this tourney and how I developed a pattern.

It all started last month at the Hook tournament. I was having trouble getting bit and was trying all sorts of baits and techniques I was not familiar with. Cooch(Avis?) provided me with some advice on baits and techniques to use but after trying this and failing, I realized I'm not Cooch!. Before the weigh in, Angel came by and saw I was not in a good mood. I told him what I was trying and he told me one thing that I will always remember. He said "in the winter he fishes the Delta like a lake". Small finesse baits and work them slow over deep weedlines almost fishing in the middle of sloughs, he mentioned where he was having success doing this. I didn't catch a keeper that day and watched as others were bringing in 15 to 20 lb. bags. On the way home that day I decided I was going to learn to fish that way and was only going to fish one area until I could get bit.

My next trip, I planned on split shotting four inch worms. I had never done this before here and I didn't do very well my first time out I tried shaking, hopping, and few other things. I tried Blk/Chart, brown/org, and finally got bit on Junebug/chart. (Blamed my poor fishing on the lousy freezing foggy weather). After reading a post from Cooch on what these bass do in the winter I sent an e-mail to Tom G. on what to do. He suggested using a brown grub type with about an 18 inch gap between the grub and the split shot. I was only using about 6 inches. So with my new advice, I went back into the freezing fog to try it. My first fish that day came during a backlash, my bait was not moving at all. So learning from that, I really slowed my presentation to a painfully slow crawl. I caught about six fish that day between the junebug worm and the grub. I also tried slow cranking and always a jig but couldn't get bit.

The night before the NCC IV there was a small gathering at Cooch's(Avis) house. I had the opportunity to watch Andy and Stickbait work different kinds of jigs in a swimming pool. Just to stand there and watch these two guys work the bait and see the different action each type of trailer has was really something. I noticed the look in their eyes when the were working the baits, they were talking but still very focused on making the bait do exactly what they wanted it to do. I picked up on that and planned to really work my bait the next day.

On the day of the NCC IV the fog was in but I told my draw(Brent) we were still going to run in the fog. I was not going to change my plan. It was Brent's first time on the Delta and my first time being a boater in a tourney. We ran real close to the shore at a safe speed. When we got to our first spot I boated a keeper on my third cast. Angel had just arrived and I told him I already had one in the box. I missed a few fish but I was getting bit and was very confident I could get two in that box. A little while later I caught another fish, darn, a dink about 12 inches, no help. We moved to another spot and I got bit and whiffed, two casts later I set the hook on my second fish and Brent netted it, I had my first ever limit (although it was only two it still felt good.) It was time to run back for the first weigh in. I weighed in 2.55

In the next session my partner was Paul M. I told him I was getting bit and it was clear to run. We fished the same first spot as in the morning, no bites. When then moved over to my other spot and I boated a fish about 14 inches. I missed a few more there so we turned the boat around and were going through for one more pass. I caught another fish but it was a dink, and about 10 minutes later I feel some pressure on my line that didn't feel like weeds. It wasn't much of a bite but I set on it anyway, I could tell right away it was solid. Played the fish back to the boat where Paul netted it and I knew it was close to four lbs. So I now had my second fish in the box and it was time to head back to Orwood. I wasn't even thinking I could win this event, I was just happy to have fish in my bag to weigh. When I weighed in, they told me that was the heaviest bag. I laughed and said to Tom G. "On any given day even a rookie like me can win"

There were a lot of firsts for me during this event, First time boater, first limit, first NCBF event, and first win. I would like to that all the nuts who helped me achieve this and special thanks to wife Laura, and my children Abby, Emily and Stefanie for letting Daddy fish this weekend. And who says "you can't learn to fish on the Internet."