Day one was cool and cloudy. Typical for a tournament day following hot and clear practice days. My partner (Nick)for the day was willing to start on my water and use my boat so I had a solid plan in my head.
I had a spot not too far from number 4 dam that I felt we could get a couple quick keepers off on our way to lock through into pool 5. That portion of my plan worked out perfect. While throwing frogs over some duck weed Nick and I both boated a keeper and a small fish in a matter of minutes. We fired the big motor and headed to the dam. We had to wait for the lock so we fished some water nearby without any bites.
After locking through, we ran several miles down stream to a deep water cut that ran back away from the main channel. The cut was alive with bait and fish. Two local fisherman were catching the occasional walleye as we worked down the bank flipping jigs to brush, stumps and other cover. White bass schools were exploding on bait behind us. We knew the fish would have to be here. I was able to boat one solid keeper and big northern on my black and blue Jig before heading into a smaller cut off the first. Up this cut we had several blow ups but I was only able to land one 14" fish. I looked at Nick for a few seconds and asked what he thought. He told me I had been doing pretty well and it was still early so I threw the fish back. These are the decisions that can make or break your day. No cull rules force you to either settle for what you catch or have confidence that you will catch bigger fish. The confidence paid off. About two hours later I was sitting on 4 fish in the livewell all but one over 16 inches. Nick had three fish as we headed back towards the dam. We wanted to get through the lock early so we wouldn't get caught and end up late for weigh in. As we got to the dam we had to wait again so I headed to a nearby wing dam that had been discussed as a possible stop by guys in my club. I started on the deep end and worked our way in. As we approached the shore I cast my jig to the up river side and was quickly thumped by a solid fish. When I set the hook it felt like I was hung up. It turned out to be a beautiful 19" smallmouth. It took what seemed like a lifetime to get him in the net but once there I was really excited. The fish was my fifth and meant I was done fishing for the day. It was about 1:15 and weigh in was at 3:30 so I told Nick it was all his and sat on the back deck while my heart rate slowly returned to normal.

Nick was able to land another smallie off the wing dam before the lock opened and we headed back into pool 4. He wasn't able to get that kicker fifth fish he needed and we headed for the weigh in to see how we had done. 
Weigh in was taking forever. We waited about an hour to weigh our fish. Listening to the weights the whole time. 11 pounds and change had the lead as I walked across the stage. The MC asked me what I though I had and my estimate was 11.2 pounds. Turned out to be 12.04 and I took over the lead.
 
I was sitting in second place by the end of the day. Just .4 pounds behind the leader. Hopefully the stress that was suddenly on me wouldn't make me crack. Everyone had advice for me and 149 good anglers would be gunning for me. We will see.