So far, the 2019 bass tournament season is going well for my grandpa and I. After a 3rd place finish on Lake Istokpoga and a 2nd place finish on Blue Cypress Lake, we had a lot of momentum going into our next competition, on East Lake Toho. The near 12,000 acre lake is located in the middle of the state, near Orlando Florida.
My grandpa and I spent two days pre-fishing the lake prior to the tournament. We covered a lot of water and caught a lot of fish both days, most of which were on the small side. I did catch a six pounder on the second day of practice, but we unfortunately didn’t land another fish anywhere near that size the rest of the trip. We used soft-plastic worms, creature baits, and hard jerkbaits to catch most of our fish.
The morning of the tournament, my grandpa and I we eager to hit our first spot. Unfortunately, the first two-thirds of our day on the water was brutal. We landed just three small keepers in the first five hours of competition. At about 12 o’clock we finally filled out our limit with two more little fish. It was a very small limit and nothing to be proud of. We managed to make a couple of upgrades in the final hour or so of competition, which proved to be critical.
The two of us headed back to the ramp for weigh in a little before two o’clock. We only brought 8.70 pounds of bass to the scales, however, most of the other anglers hadn’t had a great day either. My grandpa and I came in 2nd place once again. We were pleasantly surprised with our finish, especially with the way our day had started.
This tournament was proof that tournament anglers should never give up even when they have a tough start to a day on the water. The fishing improved as the day progressed. It certainly paid to stick with it when the weren’t biting and fight to the finish!
