Alex Heitman

Hat off to the Fann boys again. Big sack with 2 brown fish mixed in. I really thought Busby had a shot at winning but then I seen the Fann's sack and knew it would be real close. We struggled most of the day. I lost a big one and that hurt pretty bad for a while. My mistake though. After you get hung up a lot with those arigs it's time to switch hooks is all I will say. We ended up with about 10 fish total for the day and only 3 keeps for a little over 7lbs. Let me just say I would really like to follow the fann boys some day and just watch haha

Bill did the water temps drop that much? I figure they dropped at least 2-3 degrees

None on a crank sore thumbs. I tried for about 15 mins and I knew they were just not that aggressive to hit one. All fish came on a rig.

Thanks Champ. I luckily stumbled on that area that was close to where I was catching them before and found some active fish for about a hour and a half window. I only fished 2 locations all day.

Thanks Quillback. I practiced on Friday way up long creek and only managed 4 fish all day. Those bites only came when it started sleeting then it completely shut off. Caught them off of bluff walls in pole timber scrapping the tops of trees with the arig. I thought about running up the White on Saturday but I was boat 68 and all but 4 boats or so were headed that way so I went back up long creek. I went all the way to the 311 bridge this time looking for warmer water. I found 45-46 degree water. I was excited. There was 3 other boats and we were sharing the same water. I wanted to get them on a jig or jerkbait but I couldn't get anything going. All of the other boats were boating some fish. I was worried after 2 hrs of no fish or bites. I headed back past cricket creek marina to fish where I caught them the day before. On the way I seen a spot that looked pretty good. Went from bluff to tapering chunk rock with lots of pole timber. Caught a keeper on the first cast. My co angler and I started boating fish right and left on the a rig. Most of them 14 inches though. After weeding though some those I caught another squeaker keeper. Few cast later I caught a 5 1/2 After crashing into the trees. All these fish came off a chunk rock bank in about 15-20ft. I had my limit pretty quick after that stop. I had that big one and another decent fish and just couldn't not upgrade but a matter of oz's. I caught around 10 keepers and about 6 shorts. After the clouds came in though it killed everything. I was surprised when I weighed that I might get a check. I though they would of really caught them. Hats off to Mike with the big bag.

California 420 AKA : Washington 420, Colorado 420 haha

Don't forget missouri fishing licenses expire on Feb 28th just a reminder guys. I almost forgot.

Abkeenan luckily I have some of those or I sure don't know how I could catch any fish right now haha. The fish better watch out the demon will be released haha

Haha yeah champ I know what you mean. But he only lost by 2 lbs and if he did lose 3 bigger fish I could see why he was frustrated.

Yeah I felt bad for Edwin as well. He said in 15 mins he lost a 6 1/2, 5, and 4 1/2 pounders. Last year he lost the AOY on the final day of the elite series. He has just had bad luck in the clutch situations lately.

Cool. Greg I have to call them them tomorrow and see if we can link up so it will garuntee you a spot. I didn't know there was a deadline to do that.

Hey guys if anybody is trying to fish the BFL this weekend and doesn't have a boater let me know.

Thanks guys

Has the water warmed up much?

If you can afford it the stradic's are really nice. I have two of them and love them for all applications. For the money though, I really like the pflueger presidents which run about $60 and the supreme's. Really good reels for the money.

I like those darter heads with range weed guard. Do you Texas rig those or not? On the a-rig I try not the texas rig if I can get away with it and those look like you might be able to get away without Texas rigging.

Thanks for the info on the weedless hooks Bill. I will have the look at the chompers and give them a try for sure. It definitely gets pretty expensive when you are fishing the tree tops 25+ feet down without a weed guard. Another thing is I switched from the braid to only 15lb invisix because I was noticing more strikes this way. When it comes down to fishing that deep though it is probably a better trade off to fish with the braid.

Hats off to those guys. I lost 3 rigs doing the deal with the tree tops. Probably should of tried a weed less jig head and would of prevented losing them. I've yet to find one that I like on the rig though. I did try going after some vertical with the spoon and had nada on that as well. The areas I marked fish just had tons of shad that were down there with them plus the ones that were dying off. Had a buffet in front of them so that was probably the problem.

No worries Bill. I know you are a busy guy with the guiding and the lodge you run. Sounds like to me the dam area is a pretty tough area right now from what I have heard. Probably should of went into one of the river arms and maybe would of had a little better luck. I tried everything. I was scraping the bottom with my A-rig off of the long flats into deep water off of the drop. Even was waiting so long on the jerker that the bill was making bottom contact in 15+ feet of water. Was throwing a mcstick and had added a small lead strip that was letting it sink ever so slowly. Varied the jerks and the pauses ever which way you could think of and had nothing to show for it until dark. My only fish at dark for the day really slammed it though. It came off of a gravel bay flat area that had a channel ditch that dropped to 35+ feet. I tied some similar areas yesterday in the morning and ended up with only one barley legal LM. Just super tough for us. Hope it shapes up better with the warming weather.

I fished in the tourney as well and didn't boat a fish all day. We had two nips on the a-rig and that was it. Had just a really bad day. Lost 3 a-rigs and phone is at bottom of lake lol. I fished the entire day until dark and finally had about a 5lber slam my jerkbait right at dark. That was the only consolation of the day lol.

I bet Palaniuk will be in the miz as well. He fished really well last year in the classic throwing the wart

State Farm is great insurance until you file a couple claims. Then they are the worst. I know several people they have cancelled on boat and auto. They are not there like their commercial claims that's for sure.

Jerry I think a lot of tournaments are won on the white river chain of lakes on them I also think people may be reluctant to say EXACTLY what they caught them on.

Those are great troutgnat. Wish I had the time to paint. Chiropractic school doesn't allow for it though. It would be a lot of fun. My dad is retiring next year and I'm trying to get him to take up the hobby.

Ham I have had 2 bills break on me during the retrieve. I called megabass and they gave me their address and said they would replace them if they were not best up. They sent me 2 new ones. I was a happy camper that day