I would like to start with saying thank you to Rick Pierce for the work he did on having Mountain Home host the Bassmaster High School Central Open on Norfork. I also want him to know that Hank Weldon thanked him while talking about who all was involved with bring to tournament to the area.
Connor had fished a tournament the weekend before the Open and knew what areas he planned to fish during the Open from it. Connor decided to practice by trying to find more areas that he did not plan on fishing during the Open to figure out what the fish were doing. He found a lot that might would work, but also a lot of random stuff that he was not sure could work again. While talking through what he wanted to fish he told me that he did not want to fish and shallow areas and definitely not in the back part of Bennett’s Bayou because he did not want to fish in a crowd. This was even before the forecast showed a cold front moving in Saturday night before the tournament.
During the Open Connor followed the wind and fished the bluffs in the Henderson and Panther Bay areas. He did not fish these during practice. We did not have anyone fish around us all day. I think the fact the Open went out of Quarry helped this. We saw boat after boat go by, but no one stopped to fish the bluffs. When they caught their 4th fish it took the bait deep and was bleeding. I looked in the livewell just a minute or two after it was put in to cheek on it. The water was tinted red. I told them they need to make a decision about the fish. Connor took a minute fo evaluate the fish. He took the cull tag off the fish and threw back a 2.5 lb fish. By 9:30 they had not only replaced that one but had 5 in the livewell. Later in the day Connor did fish one area they had during practice because he saw that the wind was blowing on it. They caught 3 keepers at the spot and culled twice.
Connor and his partner ended up catching 16 on the day with 14 of them being keepers. Their big fish was 3 lb 5 oz with a total bag of 14 lb 0z. That got them 2nd Place and qualified them for the Bassmaster High School Nationals on Kentucky Lake.
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