Lesson learned, again, and again and again. I went to Rayburn without prefishing as I mentioned in my blog last week. However I knew that the fish had come shallow the week before at Rayburn, maybe not in the bushes shallow but shallow nonetheless. But I went with the intent to catch them deep, which takes me to something Jay Yelas told me the other day. I am working on an article with him where I interviewed him the day before he started practicing for the FLW tour event at Toho and also each day after practice and after each tournament day. As he was driving cross country to Toho he said "I try not to make the mistake of showing up telling the fish how I'm going to catch them"...

So I stayed deep, caught one 5 lb fish and some smaller keepers, but they whacked them up shallow. My thinking was how cold it got the week after they went shallow, and actually the water temp Saturday morning was 49 degrees. But at Rayburn, especially if you are approaching the third full moon of the year, once thye go shallow they truly do not want to go back out deep. I knew this, but I went over there with the intent to catch them deep, and it costs me. 

It is not often I blog beforehand but I'm sitting here in my office 11 stories above Central Expressway watching it snow while all my competitors are down practicing. Practice, huh, guess I am going with the blind hog-acorn thing for the first Cowboy BFL for 2015. It has been 7 weeks since I was on Rayburn last when Skip Chancellor and I fished and won the West Ice Bowl January 10th. Funny, although I haven't been down I actually think that may be an advantage. Don't get me wrong, practice is important, but I'm guessing the water temp at Rayburn has probably dropped 6-10 degrees since last Sunday and still dropping. That's going to make any shallow fish either retreat or get really hard to catch. I'm going to start the day deep, probably 18-25 feet and just keep getting deeper until I either get bit or the clock expires. Since I can't get out of Dallas until late this afternoon which will put me at the lake around 10:00 tonight I went ahead last night and went to boat storage and rigged everything. I did tie on 5 shallow baits, a spinnerbait, a chatterbait, a new, unnamed 6th Sense protype shallow crankbait (the one Albert Collins won at Lake of the Pines with a couple weeks ago), a 1/2 ounce Yamamoto Midasu rattling bait, a Tenkuu jerkbait in the 110 size. However those 5 rods are in the bottom of the rod locker, on top and 2 black blue 1 oz football jigs, 1 brown and orange 1 oz football jig, 2 rods rigged for Hog Farmer A-rigs, a 6th Sense 500DD and a Carolina rig. My first 15-20 minutes will be the black blue jig...from there, if the weather is as nasty as the forecast the Hog Farmer A-rig is likely to be a key player in my day, only one way to know, put on 37 layers of clothes, a good pair of gloves, a warm hat and let's go fishing. I will report back Monday.       

My newest article "Mike Tyson On Fishing" went live late last week while I was at Amistad. it's an interesting conversation with Ranger Pro's Jim Tutt of Texas and Bernie Schultz of Florida. 

I have literally fished hundreds of tournaments in my life and in all those tournaments I have never worried that I was going to zero (although I have a few). I had planned to drive down to Amistad on Friday the 6th and spend Saturday through Wednesday practicing. Actually I had hoped to practice 4 days and take Wednesday off to prepare tackle and get some rest. However the flu bug threw a wrench into those plans. I woke up Friday with a 102 temp and so sick I couldn't get out of bed. I got some meds from the doctor and by early Saturday morning I was upright and able to get the boat loaded and head south. I arrived in time late Saturday to spend about an hour riding around the weigh in area of the lake and just getting a general feel. The water was low 50's, gin clear, visibility probably 20 feet, and the lake was 27 feet low. I had been to Amistad once before back in the late 80's so in fact it was a completely new lake for me. I had made a few calls to some locals I met on line but they were struggling, 2-3 keeper bites a day, so I knew it was going to be tough. Sunday I decided to spend time up in the Devils river and as all I had heard about was a deep bite I spent the day 20-35 feet deep for a grand total of one 2 lb bite and a 10-11 pound striper on an A-rig. Monday I went into Evans and California creeks which I knew had produced the prior year and had the same results, only without the