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“I don’t let the broken-up practice days stress me out. I try to keep an outlook and feel for what the fish are doing.”
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“The main focus of a Classic practice is scouting, looking around, getting familiar with the lay of the lake. On the first day of the tournament, you have to take what you learned and just make your best guess.”
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“Based on the warmup, I’ve been looking more at what and where I can catch fish on that I haven’t fished for. It’s more about betting on the come.”
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“It was easy for me because this is different from the Elites, because I wasn’t out there trying to find the winning spot during practice, and sustain it over four days. So much is going to change with the weather. For me it was about looking for where there were fish, but could be a lot more fish as they start moving in to spawn.”
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“I found an area where I feel like they will be coming to, so I’m going to bet on it.”
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Gerald Swindle
“I think you just have to not put as much thought into it as what I have in the past. It’s still not game time. Normally in an Elite Series when practice is done today, then I have to compete tomorrow.”
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“I practiced totally different than I have for any other tournament in the past. I only threw big baits.”
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“I spent most of my regular practice down lake and today, just looked at last minute areas to make final stops at before check-in time, if I have any. I basically eliminated the first 15 miles of the river, at least for my style of fishing.”
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“The water temperature has stayed consistent. It’s definitely going to warm up and that will help the fishing. It’s hard to say whether the bass are moving a lot. I think on Friday, Saturday we’ll see a difference in what the fish are doing. But as far as practice they have been doing the same thing. You have to go with your gut in this situation where we have practice days broken up with off days, let the weather dictate what the fish are going to do, go with that,” said Johnston. “It’s a bit of a guessing game. You get out there Friday and find out if they stayed or moved, and where they went. You have to figure it out on the fly.”