Auten said he expected it to be a tough tournament going into practice. "Any time you are around Florida Strain Large Mouths and there are fronts coming through, you know it could be tough." Since a Lucky Craft Flat CB MR crankbait won last year's tournament on the Harris Chain, Mike elected to start his practice period using the same bait and concentrated on finding fish in the eel grass and hydrilla out off the bank. Mike caught fish on a CB 100 in Mad Craw, a Flat CB MR in Mad Craw, and a Fat CB BDS 3 in Fall Craw during day one of practice. This fit into his style of fishing perfectly since he is known as a Power fisherman and cranking is his favorite technique.

Since the weather on day one of practice had been warm Auten decided that he should look for fish on beds during his second day of practice. "I located a few canals with good fish spawning in them, but so did a number of the other fisherman. I knew that the only way I'd be able to get these fish was if I got an early draw on day one of the tournament."

Day three of practice saw Auten switch back to his cranking pattern. Mike found an isolated patch of hydrilla in a cove that was protected from the expected north winds and had three good bites there. Two of the bites were on Lucky Craft's LV-500 MAX rattle bait. The other came on the Fat CB BDS 3. "I felt good about this area and believed that I could get the bites I needed here," Auten commented.

Auten's strategy for the tournament was if he got an early draw on the first day of the tournament he would go after the bed fish that he found, but if he got a late draw he would go to his crankbait fish. When Mike's draw on day one turned out to be boat number 113 to leave, he headed to his offshore area. Unfortunately the fish just didn't seem to want the crankbait any more. Auten ended up switching to a lightly weighted Texas Rigged Worm, fished it slowly and managed to catch a small limit that weighed 9-11 on day one, which left him in the middle of the pack.
On day two, Auten once again concentrated on fishing slowly. He was able to follow the fish as they moved around in the grass bed he was fishing and came in with a limit that weighed 17-10. Mike's hefty day two limit put him in 23rd place in the overall standings, a great come back from day one. "I went from power fishing, to fishing slower than I can ever remember" Auten said of day two's results. "My batteries were fully charged two hours after the tournament, that should tell you how slow I was fishing."

Tournament fishing is all about decisions and adapting to what the fish want. In this tournament changing tactics in a good area was the key to Auten's success.

Going into the Citgo Bass Master Tour event on the Harris Chain of Lakes in Leesburg, Florida, Kelly Jordon was excited. "I knew it could be a tough tournament, but the weather was so much better than last year that I thought we might finally see what the Harris Chain was really like," said Jordon. In 2003 the weather at this event was unseasonably cold. This year's weather forecast was much more like normal Central Florida weather should be.

During the three-day practice period Kelly started out using last years winning pattern, throwing a crankbait at the outside edge of the grass. "I just didn't feel like I was getting the bites I needed on the Flat CB MR," said Kelly.

"I knew that with all the stable weather that the fish should be trying to move up for the spawn." Kelly said that he found fish around the canals that were moving up, and found some that were already spawning. "I knew that the only way I could get to the spawners I found was to get an early draw on day one of the tournament. Alton Jones and Jay Yelas had both found the same fish I did. I knew it could turn into a boat race to get to them," said Jordon.

After looking around the canals, Jordon moved back out to the main lake and found two more spots that he thought would produce. One of the spots had an isolated patch of Hydrilla. The second spot was a good patch of Eel Grass that lay just outside the Kissimmee Grass. Kelly figured that to get bites on either of these two areas he would have to fish slowly.

On day one of the tournament Jordon drew boat number 80, so he decided not to go after the spawning fish that he found since other competitors would likely already be on them. Instead, Jordon fished a worm slowly around his Eel Grass area and was able to catch a small limit. With about ten minutes left on day one he went to his other area and caught an eight-pound bass on his second cast with a spinner bait. That one fish turned an average stringer into a good stringer.

Day two of the tournament Jordon went back to the spot where he caught the eight pound fish the day before. He was able to catch four more good keepers and lost about ten others including a four-pound fish.
"It was a real strange bite. The fish just did not seem to get a hold of the bait very well," said Jordon.

During the official practice period Thomas tried the same technique that he had used in the 2003 event, casting a spinner bait to the inside edge of the Kissimmee Grass. "The fish just didn't seem to be in a chasing mood," said Thomas of the spinner bait pattern. With the spinner bait pattern not working Joe went with his back-up plan, casting a crankbait to the outside edge of the grass. Thomas caught several three pound plus fish on a Mat Tiger colored Lucky Craft CB-200 crankbait. "The crankbait was the only way that I was getting good bites," said Thomas.

During the tournament, however, Joe's fish moved. On day one he caught two small keepers. On day two of the tournament he did not catch any keepers and ended up in 156th place overall.

Thomas said that he felt discouraged for not making the proper adjustments during the tournament. "My major downfall in this tournament was not being flexible. I stayed with the crankbait pattern when I should have changed to something else," said Thomas of his finish. "It was hard to handle such a bad finish in the first tournament of the year, now I have to play catch up."

During the first day of the practice period Skeet tried last years winning pattern of casting the Flat CB MR in Mad Craw to the outside edges of the grass, but just did not get the bites that he had expected. "The water was too warm for that," he said. On the remaining two day of practice he started flipping a worm on the inside edge of the Kissimmee Grass, in the same areas where he caught fish last year.