Cory Gordon:BFL #2 on Sam Rayburn

Well fans, computer is cooperating for the moment so i'll try to squeeze the Rayburn story in real quick! So Mike Pharr and I roomed together and practiced together over on Sam Rayburn. We fished north of the bridge in a few spots and found some quality fish up close to the bushes but not in them yet. So we ran around to some places close by and duplicated the pattern for two days. Shaking off or catching some 25 to 30 fish a day. On Friday he and I joked about the odds of us drawing each other out for the tournament and I told him that I had only seen that happen twice since 2003. Got to the meeting and low and behold we drew each other! LOL Well we went back to the lodge and put a game plan together. Our plan was to go north of bridge to our big fish spot and we thought it would be a good chance that some bigger fish might move up! Got there and did what we had been doing for two days prior and only had a fish a piece by 11:30. So we decided to go to our 2nd hole which had a lot of fish, but wasn't sure on the size there. Went there and did the same thing with the same result. So we then started fishing in the thick stuff of the bushes with not much better results. At 1pm I had two fish and Mike had 3. While there we saw a fish chase shad out in the middle of this pocket that had a ditch going thru it. Mike put on a swim bait and thru it out there. Second cast hung a two lber. Then had three bites right after that, but didn't boat em! I thought to myself, if they will hit that out there they should eat my crankbait that I had caught a few on the first day of practice! Picked it up and started burning it thru grass and within 30 minutes I feeled my limit with 2lbers. Mike filled his shortly after that on his swim bait, but with a lil better fish. Then the volt meter started beeping for the cranking battery getting low. We decided to check it with our lifejackets on and nothing. Then we started trying to find someone to hopefully give us a jump. Lesson learned: Always have jumper cables in your boat. With 45 minutes til check in time and a 20 min run. We found a crappie boat and tried to jump from it after failing to jump from trolling motor batteries. Crappie boat wouldn't do the trick, so we found a big Skeeter boat. After 15 minutes of trying there nothing. So I said well, I'll at least try to call the director and let him know our status and see what happens. Tried his phone and mine, no signal. Then I remembered I brought my work phone with verizon service. Tried it and had a signal. As I'm talking to the director, the grace of God we had a miracle and the motor finally cranked. Hung up and ran 70mph all the way back and checked in with one minute to spare. All this happened just when we finally figured em out and were beginning to catch better fish! We lost a good 30 minutes of fishing time, but still managed to get in and weigh out limits of fish. I scratched out a 13th place finish and a small check with 9lbs. even and Mike weighed in 9.12lbs for a respectable finish and keeping him in the hunt for the points and regional cut at the end of the year. Prior to the start of the day, we thought the lake was still rising and would play into our hand, but found out that in fact it was dropping fast and that was the reason I'm sure the fish pulled out! Ultimately it was like night and day fishing from two days of practice to tournament day, just like most times is the case. With that said we kept our heads down and grinded it out and listened to the fish and finally figured it out, even though a lil late; but just in time to fill a limit and make a good finish! Lots of fun and learned lots. Mike Pharr is a great fisherman and I look forward to fishing with him many more times in the future! Keep your head down and listen to the fish! Good Luck out there! Business is about to pick up in the days to come!