New York B.A.S.S Nation Opener

In my most recent report I mention how I had a feeling I'd draw a boater who wanted to flip docks all day. First tournament of the year and that is exactly what happened, but surprisingly I was hoping for this. We headed up three days prior to the tournament for a pre fish. During these three days I caught a total of three fish for probably 7 pounds. This was my first time ever on Chautauqua Lake and I was hating it. The lake was super high and the only option was to fish docks. We fished the whole entire lake looking for offshore hot spots but it just wasn't happening. I pulled baits out of my tackle bag that I've never even thought about using. I even sat down in the middle of the day and gave up, I laid my head back and closed my eyes while the waves rocked the boat. As I was laying there I was thinking about every other competitor out there. Are they struggling too? Every person I talked to about this lake said its all about the docks. So it hit me, I stood up and grabbed my drop shot rod and yes, I flipped my drop shot up under the docks and landed a 5.4lb largemouth. At that point my thoughts about a boater flipping docks all day completely changed. Tournament day rolled around and the only thing I could be was optimistic. My boater had plans to hit docks all day, I gave him the same response I give all my boaters, "Im just along for the ride." Well the ride was well worth it because I landed myself in first of 92 anglers with four fish for 8.4lbs. If I didn't lose a couple fish through out the day I would have been the only angler with a limit. I was blown away that my four small fish put me in first place but I defiantly earned this. Without practice I wouldn't of been able to find a pattern that would have brought fish to the scale. Next stop the St. Lawrence River.