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Sam Rayburn, Texas
Sam Rayburn Invitational Summary
2001 Texas Bassmaster Invitational- March 1-3, 2001
03/08/2001 - This week started out with plenty of warm weather, rising water temperatures and active bass. The lake had risen 12 feet in the last 2 months, flooding plenty of shallow cover. I found a good spinnerbait bite in practice, and many of the other guys were looking at lots of big spawning bass. I didn't chase the spawners because I was keeping an eye on the long term forecast and it was calling for cold, rainy weather during the tournament days.
The bite got a lot tougher in the tournament due to the cold weather and falling water temps. I went from 20 spinnerbait bites a day in practice to 6-10 per day during the tournament. I fished the shallow, flooded new growth in 1-3' of water. There were some big fish shallow during practice with the warm weather, but many of them left when it turned colder. The winner, Omori, fished the same general area I was fishing, and he won by fishing a floating worm very slowly, letting it fall. My partner the first day caught a 5 this way, and I should have picked up on that. The bigger bass didn't want to chase a spinnerbait, but they would eat that floating worm if you dropped it on their head.
One other thing of note: there was virtually no flipping bite going on as the bushes were totally inundated by all the new growth sprouting up around them. A bush in a hayfield doesn't hold fish.
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