I'm having problems

I was out from 6:15 to 9:15. The sun was out and there was a 10mph wind out of the NW but I fished a protected North shoreline most of the time. My main mission was to practice with Zoom Super Flukes around docks in preparation for Saturday's tournament, that mission was accomplished.

Tonight ended like last night started, missed fish and an blue/black Outkast Swim Jig lost to a pike. This is not the way I want to head into my first tournament of the year.

I started out on docks on the North end of the big middle bay on Platte. I started out by seeing lots of sunfish activity. Water temps were up from 58 yesterday to 63-64 tonight. I did get a little bit of action from small bass on the docks and in between docks either in reeds or on the inside weedline. I saw a low 20 inch dogfish on a bed. I tried to get it to take the Fluke and it bit at it but didn't suck it in.

In between a certain dock I got a decent bass then dumped one about that size of bigger, then I caught another decent bass under the dock which got caught in some fishing line that was caught in a boat propeller on a boat lift. I got the line off of the prop and the lady at the place thanked me. On the next dock I missed a good bite. Then I missed a couple of good bites on the inside weedline.

The sun was basically down, so I ran to a spot in the reeds where there is some thicker weed growth where I caught a couple of bass the other day. I am not sure if this thick patch is some maidencane or just reeds. I made a cast with the Herb's Dilly buzzbait and had something waking behind it. I let the buzzbait sink and a big dogfish whacked it and then went berserk. The dogfish went into a spin and the hooks came loose but it was lassoed. I went for the net but it made a run and got off. I am guessing it was a minimum of 26 and maybe as big as 28". I wanted that doggy. I cast a black/blue Outkast Swim Jig to the back of the weed clump and hooked into a medium small bass but as I got it to the boat it jumped and got off, not long after that I lost the jig to a pike.

I started throwing the Herb's Dilly Buzzbait in the reeds and just like last night had a fish, which I think was a big bass, just clobber it and then bury me in the reeds and get off. The reeds in this particular spot were not that thick. I think the lesson is that my medium heavy Shimano Crucial is not really heavy enough to fish the buzzbait in the reeds. When I throw the Dilly in the Reeds I'm going to need to put it on a flipping stick.

What a lousy way to end the night.

I recorded 9 bass but I think I caught more than that. Of the one's I recorded 5 were over 12" and the night's big bass was 15.5". I counted 7 missed opportunities, probably bass, and that is excluding the dogfish and pike bite off. I think I caught a pike but didn't record any, so maybe I didn't get one.