Bridges vs Boling in I-Match

I met Roger Boling at Black Rock park on Lake Buchanan for our I-Match tournament at 5:30AM. It was pitch dark and very windy. Forecast was 10 mph sustained winds reaching 20 mph over the course of the day with cloud cover and 10% chance of rain. Roger met me with a hand shake before I could close the door of my truck after getting out, when I pulled up to the boat launch. He's a real friendly guy that I'm sure gets along with everyone he meets. We talked about the windy conditions and he plead his case for high seas on Buch. Roger explained that he lives in Marble Falls and included the fact that he's 63 years old. Roger then went on to explain that fishing Buch in high wind is dangerous and waves on the other side of the lake were already rolling two feet high and will be even higher by days end. I knew all this already and was wondering where this was going or if he was just warning me. Then he answered the question I had asked myself. Roger asked if I'd allow him to trailer to another boat launch because he was afraid he could reach the area he wanted to fish, but might not be able to get back at the end of the day. While I could have said no, and possibly changed the results of the tournament, I agreed to allow him to trailer to a better launch site. I knew I was in trouble after I agreed and his face lit up like a little kids face looking at the gifts under a tree on Christmas morning. Roger agreed not to fish until 6:00 AM and return before the weigh-in time at 1:30. We checked lives wells and synced up times to make things official.

Roger sped away at 5:50 with a 25 minute drive ahead of him per his words. I launched and was fishing by 6:00 AM. I went with a black buzz bait as my first of many lure selections for the day. I fished the willows in 3 feet of water just outside the cove and no luck. Continued around into the next pocket fishing more willow trees in shallow water with one blow up well behind the bait. That fish had to be cross eyed, hearing impaired, or both because there had to be two feet between it and my bait. I gave it several more casts and switch lures to a horny toad with no luck. Moving on, I switched back to the buzz bait, until I found myself way back in a little pocket containing a beaver den and lots of good brush to fish that was well protected from the wind. I threw the buzz bait, a little george, and a rat-l-trap in there with not so much as a bump. I moved out onto a windy point and worked it hard only to catch a white bass off a brush pile in 12 feet of water that I found with a crank bait. That's something I'll have to keep in mind next time I fish out there. I gave up on this cove and headed out to a hump down toward the light house, it's the one marked with three buoys in a triangle. I fished it with the horny toad and had a bass hit several times only to miss in every attempt. I tried several presentations and came up dry. Switched baits and tried a rattle trap, little george, and a fluke with no action at all. I headed up into the cove and fish two long points in there with no luck. At this point it was 11:00AM and I was pretty set back by the lack of action. I thought to myself, "I bet Roger has two or three by now. I gotta do something different."

I put my boat in a spot out of the wind and ate breakfast while I thought it over. I remembered the tournament two weeks before and thought about the cove on the other side, but looking out across the lake that would have been a near suicide run to say the least. My thoughts then turned to "the wall" that Bill had showed me. That's it, I was headed to "the wall." I arrived at the wall only to discover and LCRA boat anchored on the best spot. They were installing metal posts that could be used to tie off boats. I fished it anyway and quickly picked up my first keeper on a watermelon senko. Spent another hour with nada and went back into a nearby cove and discovered what I believe would be worst mistake in the tournament. I found a small creek feeding into the side of the cove and there were bass in there still on beds and some bass protecting fry. I spent the rest of the tournament in there trying to catch a keeper and only managed to catch one near keeper and a large crappie. I saw several bass that were in the 2 lb range to my guestamation. One of the home owners came out and informed me his neighbor had caught a 10 pounder in there the week before and watched me fish for a while before going back inside. Anyway, with an hour left in the tournament I went back to "the wall" and picked up two more keepers. I caught a bass on the last cast that would not keep, but figured I'd call it a day at 1:20. The ride back wasn't that bad but I did catch some air out in front of Black Rock park. Roger was laughing when I got to the bank and said, "Buddy, I saw the bottom of your boat out there when you came around the point, was it rough?" Roger had 5 bass for 10.2 lbs, so I didn't bother to weigh the three I had, so I'll just call it 3 lbs. We shook hands and it was done. Roger said he'd caught about 8 fish all day and 6 of them were keepers, all but one caught on a white crank bait.

Day in Review:

The weather sucked, the wind blew like crazy, the fish didn't bite hardly at all. I'm not bitter, just disappointed in myself for not being able to catch fish in area's that I knew were holding them. Congratulations to Roger on the win and for catching bass in some bad conditions. Rager agreed that the fishing was really tough that day.