I was kind of shocked at his remark and once I got home, I started to wonder just how much stock do the readers of TFN get out of our articles? Are they believers in what we say, or do they look upon it as BS like this fellow angler did before I had a chance to explain myself? I imagine it's somewhat like a disc jockey that has the midnight shift and about 4 in the morning starts to wonder if there is anyone out there listening to him.

From some 15 years on the tournament circuit, fishing under some of the worst conditions imaginable, and say another 15 years of fishing for fun and pleasure, I can truly say that everything that I have put down on paper is from past experience. I can't begin to imagine the countless hours that have been spent learning my trade and chosen profession. All I've tried to do is share those experiences with you and make your learning curve much shorter than mine, so that when you get out on the water, your time can be more productive.

There are always exceptions to rules, such as what happened on that particular day, and that's where past experience comes into to play. We had located our fish during pre-fishing (the days before the tournament when we're allowed to explore the waters being fished). These fish were up in 4 to 5 feet of water when we located them and were on the feed. We saw them cruising during our pre-fish and had them going using top water baits. When we went to these fish during the tournament, they weren't up shallow but were relating to a 12 foot break-line, 1/4 of a mile off shore. The only way we could get these fish to bite was by finessing them with tube jigs on light line. I don't know how many fish we caught that day, but I'm sure we threw back 3 eighteen pound stringers. The 6 fish we weighed-in were all clones; each fish was a solid 4-1/2 lbs.

These fish were resident fish to that shoreline and would migrate shallow to feed when the need arose, but would drop back to the confines of deeper water when not on the feed.

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