st.jude tournament

[northgabassfisher]

today i went out and fish the 5th annual st.jude open bass tournament on my home lake, lake lanier. for those that do not keep up with Georgia's weather, it was 25 degrees this morning and the wind was blowing 20-30 mph winds  , all i have to say is it was cold running down the lake. but there was a good turn out this morning there were 97 boats there would have been more but the cold and wind scared away a lot of people. we put in at Laural park in gainesville, it is way up the chattahoochee river and all my spot were a good 30-40min run from the park so i dreaded running 30 mins in 25 degree weather but thats were i have been catch fish. i made it to my first spot in sixmile creek with only minor frost bite lol jk, i fished a few docks with no success, so i worked my way around a rocky point throwing a xps pointer and i picked up a chunky 3.5lbs spot. i went on and fished a pocket and picked up another chunky 2.5lbs spot on top water. i went on and hit my next hole in youngdeer creek were i was throwing a shaky head with a keylime pie finesse worm, i casted out and i got one of those spinning reel birds nest lol after a lot of cutting lol i finally got it free, i was reeling in the shaky head around my hand so i could get my lure back then i felt thump thump so i pulled in all the slack and pulled as hard has i could and sure enuf i caught 3lbs spot by hand lol.i went on to a few other spot were i only picked up short fish. it was about 11:00 and the sun was out i decided it was time to go site fishing so i found a pocket that was protected by the wind. i was throwing a tube. was cruising around this blow down and i guess i got to close but i saw a BIG largmouth im guessing she went at lest 10lbs it was the biggest lip ive seen in the water. but i spent a good 45mins trying to get her to bit but she would never take it :'(. i was able to pick up a smaller largemouth that went a 1.5lbs. so i had 4 fish that went 10.5lbs which was not bad but i knew it would take more to get a check. at that time i was just wanting 5 keeper fish. i was heading back to the weigh in, which was at 3:20 it was 3:00 and i was 10 min from the ramp and i decided that i was goin to fish one more line of docks, i was on the last dock it was 3:12 so i told my self this is the last cast, i casted out my shaky head and then i felt a THUMP, so i set the hook the fish went screaming out from under the dock to deep water, i finally got her in, it was no giant but it was my 5th keeper so i haled a@$ to the weigh in i got there at 3:19 lol a min early. i pulled up and weighed my fish they came out to 12.2lbs witch i didnt think was to bad considering the weather. but it was worse then i thought lol it took 23lbs of spots to win and there were a lot of 19-16lbs sacks so i ended up 46th so all in all i had a good time and we ended up with about 15 or so fish just no kicker fish. but i still have that 10+ marked on my gps so i will go out in nexted weekends tourney and try to get her, thats if the BFL guys dont pick her up this week end.