I just finished practicing for the first postseason tournament on Lake Jordan. I'm telling you it's hot and tough down here. This is a very different lake as compared to last year. The ambient air temperature is around 100 degrees. The water's 95 in the sun, 92 in the shade. That's hot by any standard.
On top of that, there's very little current. They're not pulling water until late in the afternoon. We come off the water during the tournament at 3:00 p.m., so you can see the problem. Bites are tough to find, and unless things change they're going to stay that way.
The forage situation isn't much better. The bass are feeding on 1-inch shad. I don't care who you are or how much experience you've had fishing, it's hard to imitate something like that. We just don't have the tools we need.
The trick will be to find something — size, color, depth, action — that forces them to go active. I'll be honest and tell you I'm not sure I found that. I might have a little something going, but that's not for sure.
One of the things that makes finding that something so tough is the full moon. With the weather the way it is and the moon so bright, the bass are feeding at night and resting during the day. They don't seem to want to do much of anything unless they have to.
I couldn't help but think this afternoon as I was running around the lake how unfair the weather can be to everyone. There's a tropical depression in the Gulf that's headed straight for Louisiana and New Orleans. The winds spin counterclockwise in those things so it'll push the oil and the water up on the coast and back into the inland areas. That's the last thing they need.
At the same time we're wishing for all the rain we can get here in Alabama. A nice, steady half-heavy rain would make a world of difference during the competition on Saturday and Sunday. It would help the farmers, too — not to mention the municipal water supplies.
The whole thing doesn't seem fair. They get too much and then more. We get too little and then nothing.
Regardless of the conditions, however, I know what I have to do if I'm going to have any chance at all of winning the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year title again. I have to win both events and win them big, and even then it's problematic. Both Reese and Evers are in a much better position than I am.
But don't count me out. I'll do everything within my power to get it done. Earlier in the year, around the Kentucky Lake event, I was looking up just to make the postseason. I'm here, and we're all fishing the same tough conditions.
Remember, it's all about the attitude.
