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Well I had a great time catching bass on Lake Gaston last Friday, but in hind sight I would probably have been better off practicing for Saturday’s tournament on Kerr Lake. Based on my wife Susan’s recommendation that I not practice (since she thinks I do better when I don’t) I went into Saturdays event blind so to speak, having not fished on Kerr at all since early July. As it turned out the Kerr bite was somewhat shallower than I anticipated, and had I practiced I may have figured that out in time for Saturdays Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament. The bass seemed to be lying in ambush around cover in 5 – 10 foot of water, waiting for small schools of young butterbean sized shad to pass by, offering an easy meal. I didn’t realize this until Sunday when I went out fishing for fun with Susan and Fred.

I did have two nice fish Saturday weighing 6.31 pounds total, including one that weighed nearly 4.5 pounds. One came on a jig around rocks, and the other on a plastic worm on a deep water drop off. If only I could have caught 3 more keepers of any size I’d have secured a nice finish and check in the tournament. As it turned out I had to settle for 22nd place out of 57 anglers. Brandon Gray won the day with over 15 pounds. He reported catching 7 keepers and also losing 2 more that looked to be around 4 pounds.

Sunday the 3 fish I needed to catch Saturday came easily on small crank baits and a big worm. Those three on Saturday would have put me among the top finishers. Hopefully soon I will get my timing right and catch fish when and where I need them. Lake Gaston provided a few hours of good fishing from just after noon Friday until around 3. All those fish came on deep crank baits fished around main lake river channel edges. On one cast I had two nice bass hit a Lucky Craft D20 at the same time and brought over 5 pounds of fish to the boat, one on the front treble and one on the rear.

Sam Alashmli from Williamsboro reported catching stripers up to 6 pounds on jigging spoons near the Kerr Lake dam last weekend. Hopefully I can locate some of those same schools and catch a couple for the freezer.

Next report – I plan to take a friend of my mother’s fishing on Kerr. Allison is a school teacher from Alta Vista, Va., and I hope to be able to put her in touch with some nice stripers on jigging spoons, and also maybe a few early morning largemouth bass on top water lures. Allison is bring mother up for the weekend, and we’ll all have a great time cooking out and playing in the water to keep cool.

Tip of the week – If you are finding it hard to determine the best course of action based on facts go with your instincts. If that doesn’t work then at least the next time your instincts should be better trained to point you in the right direction.