Ker-splash! Shawn Murphy's two-story umbrella rig splashes down.
(Photo by Rob Newell/FLWOutdoors)
Excerpt From 
2nd: Murphy Thrilled
> Day 4: 5, 14-01 (20, 58-03)
It was hard for Murphy to be disappointed with his 2nd-place finish. It was, by far, the best result of his young career and he's hoping it gets him out of the funk he was in to start the year.
"I'm tickled the death. I kept climbing the ladder every day," he said. "I just never got a big bite today. This is the biggest one, by far, for me as far as dollar amount. I've had a horrible year starting off and maybe this momentum will get me through the rest of the year."
He wasn't able to collide with any 4- to 5-pounders today and he senses that they may have started to push further back in some of the pockets where they'll eventually spawn.
"I fished the same areas that I'd been fishing all week and even late this afternoon, the fish seemed like they were starting move back to start spawning so I moved back farther into the pockets and caught a couple that I culled with, but never did a big bite," he said. "I fished around a lot of docks where I caught some big ones and it set up pretty good with the wind blowing and sun shining bright. I thought I was throwing where they were positioned at, but they just weren't there."
He totaled nine keepers today, but the bite was anything but fast and furious for the Kentucky native.
"It was pretty slow," he said. "It was so sporadic and even when you caught one, you'd probably only catch two or three in a 25-yard stretch. Then you'd go another 300 yards and not get another bite. I never find any big schools where you could just go catch six or seven every day. The places I fished would replenish, but very little.
"The only thing I would've done different was work the backs of the pockets sooner rather than just the last hour."
