Lake Seminole American Fishing Series - My Report

Got back from Lake Seminole today after two tough days of fishing the FLW American Fishing Series event.  I only caught one fish each day. What a humbling tournament.  I ended up finishing towards the bottom of the field, something I'm not used to lately.  I don't know what happened, I just couldn't get bit. 

Day 1, I drew a partner from Tennessee and we ran all the way to Spring Creek.  It was about a 45 minute run, but it took us much longer.  The fog was horrible on day 1 and we couldn't see a thing and to make it worse, our running lights stopped working.  It was very dangerous so we stopped and fished some random bank until the fog lifted.  When we finally got there, the sun was shining and his swimbait pattern was done.  We each had a few blowups but didn't have a fish.  We fished some other areas and at around 11, we decided to run back to the launch area and fish the Flint River.  We started pitching jigs in the fallen trees in the current.  He caught a shoal bass and a largemouth and I hooked into a largemouth that weighed 2lbs 11oz on a black/blue Omega Jig.

For Day 2 I drew a local who had over 18 pounds on the first day and was sitting in 8th place.  I was excited and knew we would be around fish.  The day started off great and I had a keeper in the first 20 minutes.  I caught it on a spinnerbait.  He was throwing a rattletrap and ripping it through the hydrilla and ended up with a limit around 10 pounds.  Then it started raining and he made a decision to change areas.  It paid off!  I lost one in the grass that was around 4 pounds on a speedworm.  Then he started throwing a buzzbait and whacked a 4, 5, and a 6 in the matter of minutes.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  He ended up with almost 20 pounds and was leading the tournament.  I caught three or four short fish over the last few hours but still had just one keeper that ended up weighing 1 lb 8oz.

Overall it was a fun experience but left me wanting another chance.  I fished hard, didn't lose too many fish and still had only two fish to show for it.  The bright side is that now I'm in 47th place in points in the division.  the Top 40 are invited to fish Lake Wheeler in November.  The next AFS tournament isn't until September on Lake Pickwick in Alabama, so I have plenty of time to get mentally ready to get inside the top 40.  At least I'm back home and get to fish Lake Okeechobee again this weekend for the BFL!