15th Place out of 87 FLW BFL Lake Hamilton

Well just got back from fishing in some pretty brutal conditions on Lake Hamilton down in Arkansas.The whole day it freaking rained and it was only 49 degrees. I was able to cash a check which is good because Lake Hamilton is about a 7 hour drive from my house in St. Louis.

The day started out kinda funny because my boater was able to catch 3 small keepers in the first couple of hours by throwing a wacky rigged senko right on the bank. They were just a couple of small male bass and I kept fishing out the other side of the boat hoping to connect with a larger female that was staging to spawn. After the first three hours I didn't have any fish and my boater might have had 3lbs if he was lucky. Lake Hamilton has a 12 inch limit on it and the lake is full of smaller than average fish. It also seems at times that the lake has a larger spotted bass population than largemouth.

We made a move to another spot which was just some brushpiles out off a deeper flat and some docks. My boater worked the area over pretty good and I threw the kitchen sink at the bass but didn't get a bite. We were on this little spot for about 25 minutes and I had thrown just about every bait possible at the fish until finally I pulled out a Carolina-rigged lizard in desperation and boated my first keeper on the day.

Shortly after catching this fish my boater wanted to make a run to a pocket. He was pretty convinced that he was going to throw a senko up on the bank around the shallow docks and catch some fish. I was able to find an underwater pipe and catch back to back to back keepers off it throwing the same Carolina-rigged lizard. Having 4 keeprs in the boat with a coupe hours to spare I was starting to see some light at the end of the day. I just needed to catch one more fish.

I always fish better when I got a couple of keepers in the boat already. It helps me slow down and just keep fishing. We made a move to a point as the last spot of the day. I picked up a 3/8th oz jig head and tossed a 3.8 Keitech swimbait right on the bank and connected with my 5th keeper which ultimately propelled me into the check range. My boater was doing a lot of back boating during the end of the day because I had a limit. I ended up weighing in 8lbs 1 oz and my boater weighed in around 7lbs.

My next tournament is the COSTA Series tournament on Santee Cooper Reservoir. Hopefully I'll draw a boater that's on some fish and I'll be able to make it count. It's one of those lakes that is on the bucket list of any hardcore bass fisherman. Hopefully I'll catch a 10lber. Until next time guys take it easy.