Stop 1 – Lake Lewisville, Texas - April 10 – 12

The 2008 season is underway…I am so excited to get this party started. Lake Lewisville is our first stop of the season, and just north of Dallas, which is about an hour drive from my house. During the 2006 season, Lake Lewisville was the 1st time I fished on a professional circuit and my 1st time as a boater. It turned out pretty good, I finished in 3rd place.

I was really looking forward to this tournament this year. I had planned on really learning the lake which I did not do in the prior tournament. As it turned out, the weather in Texas is really crazy…80 degrees one day and in the 20’s or 30’s the next. I wanted to spend a lot of time prior to the tournament on the lake, but with the weather so unpredicatable, I knew the pattern would change. And change it did! I fished a BFL tournament prior to the WBT tournament on March 8th and zeroed. The temperature at take off was in the upper 20’s and my reels were freezing and it was the coldest tournament I have ever fished in my life. My boater was great…we had a good time, but I had one bite all day and missed it…all I could think to myself is this is horrible.

Practice prior to the tournament consisted of one weekend before the tournament. I was on a pretty good pattern but that all changed at the time of the tournament. The reason behind this was that what was working for me was working for everyone…so I thought to myself, what else would work…I had a plan.

Day 1 – Here we go again with the crazy Texas weather, this time, it was tornadoes instead of ice storms. I had planned on camping out at the park, which my camper was already set up there, but with the approaching storms, my husband and I decided to ride them out at our home in Waxahachie, which is south of Dallas. The weather made me extremely anxious but what made it worse was the fact that I would have to fight the rush hour traffic through downtown Dallas in order to get to Lake Lewisville…

At 3:00 a.m. Thursday morning I was standing in my garage watching the sky and seeing transformers blowing up just to the north of where I live…a tornado was spotted…I thought to myself, this cannot be happening…I am going to be late. However, we made it to the lake in plenty of time and the storms passed and it was time for take off. Weather was nice, and the winds where out of the south west…

I drew an extremely high number which meant I was late to go out, so I had a change of plans to where I would start. My first spot ended up being the one I had not planned on fishing, but as it turned out, produced my biggest stringer of the tournament. It was a slow bite, but the quality of fish I was catching made up for it. I had 4 keepers that weighed 15lbs. 12oz. after a 4oz. dead fish penalty. I lost a good keeper that probably went about 4 pounds and had one jump and spit out the hook that was a good 2 to 3 pounder. It was an extremely productive day for me and landed me in 1st place after day one.

Day 2 – Here we go again…Texas weather, the wind switched out of the North and gusted to about 20 miles per hour…this killed my most productive spot. I had no control over the boat and could not stay in position to fish it due to I could not even keep my trolling motor in the water…I did manage to get one keeper out of it, but gave up and decided to go to other water that I had found fish in practice.

Most all of my backup spots were packed with boats. Everyone was just trying to get out of the wind.

I ended the day with 2 keepers that went 5lbs. 8oz. and was in 2nd place…on to day 3.

Day 3 – Just like day 2…North wind and gusting…no way to go back to my most productive spot, even though I tried. I bit the bullet and made the run across to the lake to some alternate spots I did not fish on day 2. Hopefully they would be a little less crowded. My partner and I were soaked to the bone. I worked several stretches of banks but could not get a keeper. I then went to another area around the corner and managed 2 keepers out of it and lost one 3 pounder that managed to make a run for deep water then dive back to the trolling motor. I though please let me pull this trolling motor up and the fish be on, but it was not…

With about 45 minutes to weigh in I decided to leave the area and head towards weigh in not knowing how long it would take to cross the big water with the type of waves we encountered on the way over there, I did not want to take a chance on being late. After crossing the water, we had about 15 minutes to spare so I started cranking the shoreline near the point that yielded my 3rd place finish in 2006. I caught a fish, at first I thought it was a sand bass but no it was a black. We netted the fish, making my 3rd keeper. I should have stayed out there and cranked for another 5 minutes, but it was tough with the waves and we went to check in…(hind site is 20-20…should have made more casts).

Weigh-in was at the Academy store in Lewisville, and I was hoping this was going to be my day…while waiting to weigh in, I heard that Kim had caught 17lbs. that day and it was going to be close…I thought I might have 7 pounds, but at the weigh-in I heard the weight come in 6lbs. 4oz. I was 4oz away from my first win…what a heart breaker…so many if’s…if my fish would not have died on day 1, I would have one by 1 ounce…but…but…but…

I am happy with my 2nd place finish, congratulations to Kim Bain for her win, what a great come back.

I want to send a special thanks to my husband, Ricky Campbell…he is my #1 fan, my practice partner, my cook, my driver, my everything…

Also, a big thanks to my co-anglers, Kris Hunter, Linda Owens, and Norma Ussery. You guys were great.

We are off to Alabama next – Lake Neely Henry

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