My tournament partner and I spent Saturday pre-fishing for a tournament this weekend on the Pend Oreille River. We started off the day hitting docks. The fish were on the side of the dock opposite the sun. I was throwing a weightless SK Ocho, letting it land on the dock then dropping right off the edge. Missed 2 and landed one. As the sun got higher, this bite turned off and we moved on. Next we stopped at a slogh the had some water flowing in through some sort of concrete culvert. I tossed my Ocho close to the concrete and picked up another. We found a downed tree that extended well out off shore and had some really gnarly branches. I pitched over to a little clear area as far in as I could. As it drifted down, my line jumped. Reeled down and set the hook. Another nice largemouth. I ptiched near there again. And again I hook up and land a fish. We ended up hooking 6 and landing 4 off this one tree. Near the end of the day we pull into a small cut in off the main river. Not much was happening until we got to the upstream side. i had switched to a spiinerbait and on the first cast landed a nice smallie. I throw back to the same spot and catch another smallie. Game on! My partner switches to a jerkbait and drill 5 fish on five casts! Hoping there is bigger fish below, I change to a crankbait and dig the bottom before hitting the drop off. I missed 2 solid strikes. Then the bite turned off. The way we figure it, the current was washing food into the cutoff and fish were stacked in watching for things to come off the ledge. Great day on the water and we have some good spots to go to next weekend. Totals for me were 7 fish landed, 2 lost, and 4 missed strikes.
