Fished the first bass-n-tubes tourney of the year this weekend, a 2 day at lake Nacimiento. I picked up a kickboat this year and this was it's maiden voyage. Talk about an upgrade! I was so much warmer, more comfortable, and could go so much farther.
Day 1 was overcast but not rainy. Calm in the morning but getting very windy by afternoon. I started out where I left off last year and dragged a watermelon/red baby brush hog in the marina on 6lb line with 2 split shot. I started getting bit right away and had 3 fish in the first 20 minutes or so. I finished out a limit by 8am but they were all small, 13-14.5 inches. I stayed with that pattern until 11am and caught about 5 more keepers, culling 3 of my fish. At 11 I decided to go looking for a kicker fish and oared up to snake canyon I think it's called. I was working a 4" spider grub and a 3/8 spinnerbait around any wood or cover. After 3 hours of this and no bites I switched to a drop shot 4" aarons magic and cought 2 small keepers that didn't cull. With an hour left I oared back to the marina and quickly caught 3 more fish, 2 keeper spots and a dink smallmouth using the brushog. None of them culled. I weighed 5.92lbs for the day. Eric Howard was in first with a nice 8lb something limit including a spot over 2lbs. He was fishing down by the dam. The top 6 or 7 guys had limits mostly in the 6 pound range. Everyone reported that it was strictly a plastics bite with few fish caught on wiggle warts or blades.
Day 2 was drizzly all morning but clearing by the afternoon. Conditions were very calm for the most part. I started in the marina again but the bite was a lot slower than the day before. By 9am I only had 3 keepers dragging the brush hog and about 5 dinks. I also missed 4 bites which was a change from the day before where I only missed 1 or 2 fish. They just weren't as agressive this morning. Instead of running, I decided to stick it out in the marina and just keep working over the areas I knew held fish. I finally caught a 4th fish and around 11am caught my 5th fish and quickly culled one. After that it was very slow. I tried working out deeper hoping for bigger fish and threw the jig quite a bit, but I never got touched. 2pm rolled around and I weighed in an almost identical bag as the day before at 5.95lbs. Final standings were, Eric Howard 1st, John Lake 2nd, Dave Ryle 3rd, me 4th, and I don't know from there.
A few things were key for me this weekend.

1. Had to fish really slow and drag without shaking my bait.
2. When I was bit I pulled back slowly instead of dropping the tip of the rod. This seemed to induce the fish into swallowing the bait. On the first day I caught around 15 fish and only missed 1 or 2 this way.
3. Light line was important as was light weight. When I used 6lb line and 2 split shot I missed few fish, with 3 split shot the second morning they were not inhaling the bait.
4. If I caught one keeper spot from an area, I made repeated passes on it and almost always caught more. Where there is one spot this time of year, there are more! Keep fishing the area and coming back to it and you will catch them.