I was amazed to find two tournaments going on, on Saturday, but I launched after the boyz, and fished from 5:30 until 6:10 when Fishtrax "Scott" showed for the Lopez topwaterfest I had promised him. By the time Scott got on board I had narrowed down the buzzbait selection to white as I'd caught 3 fish in the marina area. Off we went with high hopes that the 35 odd boats had left us some water to fish. When I got where I wanted to be there wasn't a boat to be seen. Not always a good sign I dropped the trolling motor and away we went.....Just because you want something to happen doesn't mean it will but we stayed with the buzzbait with no hits until 20 minutes into the gameplan I gave Scott the the OLE' "yeah I've stuck some good ones around here" pep talk wham! 10 feet from the boat Scott is HOOKED Up on a superior Lopez fish that gives him an excellent fight right up to when he lips his first 5 pound+ buzzbait fish....Yeah BUDDY Scott has a new favorite bait .....things continue slow and we move ....still slow....we go past 2 boats coming down the bank and respectfully give them some distance and a couple hundred yards behind them I get my Last buzzbait fish which goes an even 3. WE keep at it but but it's obvious we're beating a dead horse so after the fog starts to go I take Scott to my better crankin,worming area where he procedes to get a few fish on the worm while I keep after the reaction fish....We tried several areas and I came back to one of my better areas around 11:00 and start up again ....It's really slow so I switch up my blade from a 3/8 white wedege to a 3/8 white double willow "CHROME" BUDDA BAIT for a different profile. Wham I get my best fish of the day...Scotts thinking it's better than his buzzbait fish But I know it was way smaller...We continue along this area putting up with some sorry A$$ driving by the skiers and pleasure craft and I tell him he needs to start dropshoting here as he'll stick a good one when the back seat gets to where the front seat is. Sure as heck Scott gets his PB Dropshot fish " I love callin em like Babe Ruth" which dogs him on the light line but he gets her up and grabs her by the lips.....Yeah Buddy two PB'S in one morning. Well we kept at it and found that the smallmouth and smaller largemouth were eating blades but only in one 1/2 mile stretch and when we went farther or hung around the spot we'd get no more....Just go in a circle and get a few and then do it again. I did notice that a lot of these fish were A.Realllly healthy with small heads and big bodies and B. a lot were torn up from other anglers but seemed to be eating and surviveing Okay. After 30 years you'd think that these fish would stop eating a white spinnerbait but NOPE they still smash em when you've got some wind to position them for feeding on the INCREDIBLE shad population at Lopez. I was watching guys netting the shad on the docks at 6:00 AM and they were big and healthy and while Scott and I were trying to catch fish we also were involved in looking at the fishery as a whole. The backs of the 3 main arms were just loaded with baitfish. I think that the boat activity makes a fine stew for the baitfish to feed on and the mudlines created certainly figured into our game plan as the day wore on. We did not do well at all in the flats no matter the wind or water clarity situation....EDITORS NOTE: Scott did get a redear on a blade and another one follow it to the boat ....I guess we know where the panfish are....I guess it wanted that blade BAD. Scott has another new favorite lure...That being a Stanley wedge double willow leaf 3/8 0z.white blade. As a machinist I'll tell you why they are mechanically superior to other baits. The metal of the blade is thinner at the leading edge which translates into the fact that the minute the thing hits the water the blade is digging in and turning.....No more of the pulling to get it turning and then fishing the bait it's just going from the get go. Translating into more fish closer to the bank in the stucture prior to your blade getting with it.....I have spare wedge blades of all colors and sizes so I can create stuff on the spot as Scott can testify to. Scott it was a blast as usual and thanx for all the help cleaning up my girl at the end of the trip....Hope you didn't catch any flack for being out with me from dawn to dusk!

KELLY