Big Marine - open tournament 10-19-08

When a friend informed me of a little open tournament on Big Marine it was a no brainer, I called my brother Scott and told him we were fishing.
We did not pre-fish but I knew I could count on the same area I exploited all year for one more tournament. I wasn't sure if the fish would still be on the spot, but if not, they would be close by.
Tournament morning was in the mid forties with a steady 15mph South wind. We arrived at the spot to find it very windy, cold and difficult to hold, but knowing the quality of fish residing there made me determined to tough it out.
After the first half hour without any bites we were wondering if the fish were there or were our lures just not getting to them because of the wind, so we decided to start moving around. Finally Scott connected with a couple of 14 inchers and a while later I caught a 13. We kept moving and the next fish was a 17 incher. A few minutes later Scott hooked up with a 16, which gave us our limit.
By now we had narrowed the area down to 3 separate spots which had good green weeds that were deeper than the weedline, we decided to just rotate through those spots.
About 11 am the wind started to lay down which allowed us to really slow down and pick apart the weed beds. Scott caught another 16 which culled the 13, then I stuck a 18.5 which culled one of the 14's. Next we caught a 15.5 and culled the other 14. We continued catching fish but nothing that would help.
With about 30 minutes to go I stuck what felt like a good fish - turned out to be a 16 incher which culled out a 15.5. We knew we had a good bag now so we fished a few more minutes and headed in.
We ended up with 14.29 for 1st place and big bass at 3.50 lbs. A fellow blogger Carl Spade (carlsfishingblog.blogspot.com) took second with about 10 lbs. There were a couple of 8 lb bags but most of the guys did not even weigh in.
Another great day on Big Marine, not a huge payday but a win is a win.