Sunrise Bassmasters Youth Services Bureau - Big Marine

My brother Scott and I arrived at Big Marine Lake to a very chilly 37 degrees and light fog, fortunately the forecast called for sunny skies and light SE winds. The water temp was 49 degrees warming to 59 in the afternoon.
Like every tournament I fish on Big Marine, we decided to start on what used to be my best spot. We were not able to fish exactly were we wanted because another boat was already sitting near the spot, but we were able to position ourselves close enough. After about two hours of casting jigworms to the weedline we managed a small limit with the biggest fish in the 14 inch range.
We next ran to another weedline where Scott caught a 14 incher that replaced a 12. After another hour of working the area and no bites we figured since the better fish were not going deep we would try shallow.
We settled on a reed bed that has produced in the past and started flipping. Almost immediatly I missed a fish that I didn't feel bite. We continued working around the reedbed and Scott connected with a 3 lber which culled our last 12 incher. Next I caught a 14 incher which culled a 13. A short time later I set the hook on another good fish and Scott netted a 18 incher, culling another 13 incher.
At this point we opted to spend the rest of the day flipping the reeds hoping to upgrade the three small keepers we had. The bite slowed but Scott did manage a slight cull with a fatter 14 incher.
The weigh in was typical for Big Marine with mostly 7 and 8 pound limits. We ended up with 10.68 good for 4th place - unfortunately they only paid 3 places. 1st and 2nd place had over 12 lbs and 3rd place was over 11 lbs.