We can call it good. But we definitely can’t call it great. If I’d have caught a fifth bass, we could call it great. I didn’t. Nevertheless, I’m still in it. It’s not like last year at Guntersville where I put myself out of the running in the first day.
My pattern centers on areas with deep water. In practice, my quality was real good but the fish weren’t schooled up at all. They were a little bit scattered. You had to pick around for them. It was one at a time. The same thing happened on Friday, except that I couldn’t find as many fish as I had in practice. I had five bites total all day. That would have been all right if I’d landed the fifth one. I didn’t. It wasn’t all right.
Some of that might have been the cold temperatures overnight and throughout the day but it could have been just the way the fish were moving around, too. Sometimes they don’t do exactly what we think they’re supposed to do. That’s a big part of the fun in competitive bass fishing.
The weather is supposed to get warmer Saturday and then warm even more on Sunday. If it does, the fishing will get better right along with it. The fish will get bigger and there’ll be more of them.
I’m basing that on what usually happens with these fronts, and I’m really talking about all the anglers. I don’t claim any particular expertise with Lake Hartwell bass and I think what affects me will probably affect everyone. So, standby, bass fishing fans. You might see some real weights before the 2015 GEICO Bassmaster Classic presented by GoPro is over. I’ll go farther than that — you will see some real weights by Sunday afternoon.
The weather didn’t bother me at all Friday. In truth, I was plenty warm except when I had to run. Even then I was fine when I took the time to bundle up properly.
The reason for that is that I was wrapped head-to-toe in Under Armour. I wore their 4.0 long underwear. It looks and feels too thin when you first get it and put it on but when you’re out in the cold you realize how much engineering went into it. It’s really good stuff.
That’s one thing that I think is important for all of us to think about and understand. Modern equipment is amazing. I’ve been fishing long enough to know that having our boats and motors, our rods and reels, our line, our lures and our clothing stand up to temperatures like we had Friday wouldn’t have happened years ago. There would have been failures and breakdowns all over the place. The fact that we didn’t see a lot of that says something.
It’s time to go. I want to spend a little time with Becky and the kids before I put together some tackle and then try to get some sleep. It seems like every year sleep becomes more important. It’s the opposite of our equipment. I’m not holding up better than I did years ago.
Mike Iaconelli’s column appears weekly on Bassmaster.com. You can also find him on Facebook and Twitter or visit his website, mikeiaconelli.com.
