The changing weather throughout the day, from heavy overcast in early morning to a gradual clearing, to almost bluebird skies by noon, made for an interesting problem trying to figure out where to fish next as conditions changed.

  I had been up to the lake on the previous Monday and knew that good fish were still halfway back in the creeks running shad up on shallow points with sharp drop offs in the early morning. The water had been up enough to still have some good fish in bushes, but by tournament time the level had dropped too much for that pattern.

  So I started plugging on shallow points and had three of my better fish by 8:30 when that pattern faded away. Next, as the skies started clearing I switched to a Carolina rig and began catching smaller keepers on the sides of points with small rocks and gravel. That pattern lasted for a couple of hours and then a long dry spell. During that time I checked several brush piles thinking the bright sun might push some fish into the heavy cover, but only caught several non keepers. A half hour before weigh in I hit the brush piles again and caught my second biggest fish.
 

  For me, it turned out to be a beautiful spring day at the lake.