The great thing about the first tournament of the season is the fact that most of us have several weekends that can be devoted to time on that body of water.

The not so great thing about the first tournament of the season is the fact that if the fish are not cooperating on that body of water, it can be torture.

Such was the case this year on Lake Russell. From all reports, only a few bites could be expected on each trip and if you were fortunate to find a few fish, they were very spread out.

It was so bad, I had both friends and family questioning whether I had suffered some sort of head injury for scheduling this tournament on Lake Russell in February! To be completely honest, I spent many an afternoon on that body of water, leading up to the tournament, wondering if I had suffered a head trauma!

The week leading up to a tournament, one of the tabs on my computer always has the Weather Channel pulled up on it to keep me up to date on what to expect on Saturday. For most of the weekends leading up to Saturday's tournament, we had clear skies and mild temperatures but when I saw the forecast calling for rain with highs near 60, I thought to myself, I sure haven't been able to catch them with "good" weather so the rain can't make them bite much worst!

Fortunately, Mother Nature bailed us all out!

The first spot Steve and I went to Saturday was the one spot I had consistently been able to catch a fish or two. We pulled up onto that point and cast from every angle conceivable but didn't get the first bite. We continued working back into that creek and fished it thoroughly for the next forty five minutes and as we started back out I made a cast off a shallow shoal coming out into the water. Just like it was scripted in a movie, I moved the Jig and the fish was already holding it. I set the hook and instead of feeling the rod load up from the weight of the fish, I heard the tell tale sound of line breaking; brand new line at that. After a few choice words I retied another Jig and we worked on out of that creek.

We then made a move just a little ways up the Rocky River; to the other spot I had caught a few fish in practice. After two or three cast across this point I pulled the jig over a rock and as soon I did, thump, I set the hook and again, snap! This time after a few choice words I had to fight the temptation to slam my favorite rod and reel combination onto the bottom of the boat. I didn't but I did pull another one out of the rod locker that had different line on it. I made a few cast with this outfit but it didn't have the same feel to it as the other one so I decided I would take the time and put some fresh line onto my favorite one.

About half way into pulling the old line off Steve yells he has a fish on! We get it into the boat and I go back to stripping line. As I start reeling the new line onto my reel Steve strikes again, this time a nice spot mauls his crankbait on the same point as the first one. I finish my project and quickly pull my cranking rod out of the box! We worked a few more points close by and Steve picks up a couple of small keepers but then gets hung in a brushpile that will not for anything let go of his now "prized" crankbait. Steve digs out the plug knocker and I put my rod under my armpit to try to assist and all of a sudden I feel a hit. This time I set the hook and a small keeper comes to the top of the water and throws my jig back at me. Well at this point I'm ready to sit in the boat and just net fish for Steve but after we get Steve's crankbait out of the brush(we broke one set of treble hooks off in the process)we move down one more point.

My first cast across the next point, bam, our third keeper. The next cast our fourth keeper. Just a few more cast and we have a limit and I've gotten my confidence back.

From there, we moved back to the point Steve caught the first two keepers but no luck, so we jump across to the other side of the cove to another rocky point. Immediately, Steve hooked up on his crankbait and I hooked up on my jig. We caught another six or eight keepers and two or three non keepers in that spot and then moved up the river a little further.

We each caught a keeper in that spot but saw my brother Paul and his partner Tony on back in the creek and figured they had already fished this spot.

At this point it was pushing 11:30 and Steve and I were both looking for a break from the rain as well as a place to feed the "machines" and decided to move just up the River to the concrete fishing pier for lunch. When we got there, my other brother Brad and his partner Gary must have had to same idea so we talked to them a few minutes as we ate.

After a ten or fifteen minute break we figured we would go back and try a little further into the cove we had caught most of our fish earlier that morning. I tied on a mustard colored crankbait and caught three fish on consecutive cast and two more shortly after. Steve also picked up several bass but none were of much help. It was now closing in on two o'clock and our time was running out quickly so we moved back to the point our biggest fish were caught to end out the day. On my second cast across the shoal the final fish of the day bit my jig. It was a largemouth just over two pounds that gave us the 10.13 pounds we weighed for the day!

That 10.13 pounds was only good for 21st place but boy did we have a ball catching the number of fish that we did!

It was also great that most everyone else caught fish as well!

It was sure nice to have a few days off for the Thanksgiving Holiday but  it was a very busy weekend for me.

Thursday morning found me in the deer stand watching 18 does walk around the stand most of the morning and a couple of which should have been very thankful it was Thanksgiving day because the local wildlife biologist recommended we take 12 to fifteen does off of our property by seasons end.

Anyway, Friday morning was a different story as I did bag 2 big does and my brother Brad shot another one.

Earlier in the week, I learned I was fortunate enough to be included in what would have to be called a luxury duck hunt to be held Saturday, Nov 29, down in the lower part of the state, in a little town called Remini.  That brought Friday's deer hunt to an early end as I had to drop off the 3 does at the processor, stop by and pick up my duck stamps, then get home, cleaned up and ready to leave for Remini about noon.

As it usually happens when you get in a hurry to go somewhere, something gets forgotten.  In my case it was my waders.  By the time I remembered I left them sitting in the carport we were to far down the road to turn around.  The forecast for Saturday morning was rain but my brother Paul stated he brought his gore-tex pants and I could use them.

Saturday morning I realized Paul must have been in a hurry Friday as he was packing his clothes because the gore tex pants he said he had were nowhere to be found.

Plan B went into effect. I grabbed a 55 gallon trash bag to use as a skirt.

We left for the blind at 6 am with only a light drizzle with a short canoe trip to the blind.  The only problem was that the canoe was nowhere to be found.  After a few anxious moments we made a makeshift blind on the leavy as ducks began moving overhead.

To make a long story shorter we had our limit in less than an hour and as we started back to the lodge the heavy rain finally started. Thank goodness I didn't have to go to the trash bag.

After a shower and big breakfast we were back on the road to home to watch the Clemson/Carolina football game.(The big rivalry game in SC.) We made it home just in time for kickoff!

 My team won 31-14!