Thanks Gary for an outstanding run regional!We had a good day 1 catching lots of fish but mainly 1.50-2lbrs until we got a big kicker bite around lunch that was 4lbs. Fuel diaphragm ruptured right after that about 12:30 pm and I was just trolling back to weigh-ins when Gary allowed me to get in his boat with the fish since we werent going to make it by weigh in time. We weighed the 12.50lbs and ended up in 3rd place after day 1 just out of the lead by 1lb. Unfortunately when everyone was enjoying the nice social dinner that Gary provided, I was trying to find someone in town that had the parts to get motor fixed so we could fish day 2 and was unable to do so. My dealer (and good friend) Lee Brown that owns Browns Outboard in Glencoe, AL insisted on meeting me halfway in Chattanooga to fix the motor since he had parts. He did so in a Loves truck stop parking lot and in about 30 minutes we were headed back to Old Hickory and got to hotel around 9:00 pm. Day 2 started rough with other boats where we wanted to fish but we finally started catching them and about 8:30 am I caught the 2 biggest fish on back to back cast which really got us going. Throughout the day I caught the fish in very shallow water throwing a blade just like we do on the Coosa river back home. My partner Jason lost 3 big ones that day that would have put us well over 21-22lbs on a chatterbait. We were told you have to be in the grass with a swim jig/popping frog to win and we tried that day 1 but eventually fell back on just the typical Coosa river junk fishing and it paid off. Without the help from either Gary or Lee we would have been back in AL on Sunday while everyone else was fishing. Thanks again Gary for such a well run owners event.
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