FLW Rayovac Lake Seminole - A Look From The Rear Deck

As the hot summer days take over South Florida and the big tournament activity shuts down, I decided to fish the last round of the FLW Rayovac Southern Division at lake Seminole GA (Ironically, also really hot and in the range of 84/92 degrees). My registration was done late and I barely made the field three days before the event with a 186 boat field; I had been to Seminole a couple years back, as a BASS Elite Marshal, but never before fished the waters so I was a bit "on the fence" when it came to realistic expectations, but none the less, very happy to be able to fish my first Rayovac and the lake for the first time. On day one I was paired with P-Line / Mercury Team Pro Tony Davis (Also a Florida native), what a great guy, super laid back, humble and always willing to work with you in all levels; we spent most of the day working the grass lines, and hundreds of stumps; he was casting a White/Silver blade Buzzbait, a White/White blade Buzzbait, cranking with a Silver Rapala X Rap and also a Carolina Rig with a Watermelon worm... I spent most of the day using a White Big EZ with a 1/8 weight on the nose and a #5 Gamakatsu hook on 30 pound braid (All my fish came from this setup), a 3/8 White Gambler Swim jig with an EZ Swimmer, a Livingston Pro ripper in Real Shad or Cuitrus Sparkle on 15 lbs Fluorocarbon and a Texas rigged Fat Ace in Watermelon/Red on 50 lbs braid... At the end of the day, he had a 12 Lbs limit and I had 10 lbs on three fish, this placed him in 42 spot on the Pro side and 22nd place for me on the Co Angler side (Only 4 lbs away from 3rd place). I made up my mind about staying with the same pattern hoping that by being a bit more thorough I could find a limit the very next day; then, as soon as the weigh-in concluded, I ran out to Walmart to buy the single one BuzzBait they had in the shelve; determined, I decided to swap rods and take only two with Big EZ variations, the Buzzbait and the worm, this way I was forcing myself to work the pattern all day long, right?. And so, I was paired with Pro Angler George Carroll from TN for day two, also a great and hard working guy, he had been fishing the lake for the past two weeks and even though he didn't catch any fish on the first day, he was confident in his areas and he swore on them being populated with monster fish. As the morning of the second day arrived, a cold front also arrived and temperatures dropped to 69 degrees, so we spent most of the morning fishing some vegetation in the 6-10 ft range (Manageable, but a little difficult for my Big Ez pattern), by 10am we had no fish AND with the exception of a Mud-Fish bite no fish on the boat... We moved to a deeper area, we spent some time working some stumps and then a small depression he found during practice; with no bites yet, and feeling the pressure, I decided to try the lipless crank bait, but because I was determined since the night before on working the specific pattern, I didn't have a cranking rod!!!, all my lures (The Big EZ, the Swim Jig and the Fat Ace) I cast on a Heavy/Fast rod with Braid, my cranking rod is a 7'3" medium/fast on either mono or fluorocarbon, which was standing pretty on my room bedside since the night before... But I was up to the challenge; and so it happened, on my third cast I got a strike, almost took the rod out of my hand and all I felt was a deep run and my 12Lbs drag going off!!!, took my time, and I was finally able to see the fish a few feet bellow... "MONSTER", so my initial reaction, all things considered, was to put a bit more force to make it jump right at the net, right?... WRONG!!!, as soon as I did this and George went for it, the lure came out flying out of the water... There you go Juan... a 8 / 9 lbs fish gone!!!, and so my hopes of catching up with the field. It took me at least one hour to kind of shake it off and out of my mind and never got another bite, neither did my Pro. Ended the event in 64th place overall with a payout of $ 300.00, Tony finished in 45th place and George could never get on the board. So I just drove the 9 hours back home, reflecting on all this, trying to mend my hopes and picturing everything that happened during the weekend, and so in conclusion, I have no excuses or regrets, if anything I'm grateful for being able to assist, extremely proud of the effort and with a gigantic lesson of "never leaving any rod you may be needing back at the room". 64th Place on your very first event, with the level of competition in this particular series has no merits for feeling bad about. Already looking forward to the next one!!!.