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 tournaments three-day practice period Auten expected typical winter patterns like deep spoon fishing, drop shoting, and jerk bait fishing to work if the weather cooperated. The weather however, did not cooperate. Tournament anglers had to deal with torrential rains, wind, snow and falling temperatures. 'It was just a miserable week to try and catch bass," said Auten on the weather.

Auten was only able to catch three keeper fish during the practice period. He caught the fish on a Staysee 90 SP and a Pointer 100 both in Table Rock Shad color. Mike fished these baits around many different areas of the lake, but the fish that he caught were around bluff banks and rock walls. Auten tried other techniques but the Lucky Craft jerk baits were the only things that proved to be successful. Mike was not happy with his practice period. The fishing was so poor for him that he just couldn't establish a decent pattern.

During the tournament Auten stayed with the only technique that had worked in practice. "I really did not know if I would get any bites that would keep, the 16 inch minimum size limit really hurt on a lake that doesn't have a lot of 16 inch plus fish." On day one of the tournament, Auten caught 5 fish but they were all below the 16-inch size limit. On day two, Auten said he just went fishing. He ended up getting two fish, but, once again, they were short of the 16-inch limit. "I started out real well at the Harris Chain Tournament, and hoped to be able to keep it going here. Now I have to play catch up for a while," said Auten of his finish at Smith Lake.

Going into the 2004 Citgo Bass Master Tour Event on Table Rock Lake, Mike Auten was expecting good fishing. "Table Rock is a great place to fish. It's known as a jerkbait lake and that truly fits my style. I thought my past experience here would also help me." The weather, though, proved to be more of a factor than Auten anticipated. Conditions were more like winter than spring, and with water temps in the mid forties, the jerkbait bite hadn't developed yet.

"My practice was really slow. I only got about ten keeper bites in three days, and none of them were on jerkbaits. I caught my fish in practice fishing secondary points and fishing in the backs of pockets using a Lucky Craft CB-250 crankbait. All the fish I caught were keepers, no shorts. I was aware, however, that the weather could change quickly and completely change things." And, change it did. The night before the tournament it rained about four-inches, dirtying up many of the pockets.

"On day one I got four bite's and landed them all. They were all good solid keepers," said Auten. Three of Auten's fish fell for the crankbait; one was caught on a jig pitched to a lay down. Mike's total weight for the day was 12 pounds even. This weigh put him into a tie with Tommy Biffle for 14th place. Paul Elias led day one with 20-05.

Day two was a lot tougher for Auten. "I only got three bites today. One was a short, which I landed, the other two were good fish, but I broke them both off. It was very frustrating. Those two fish would have probably given me at least ten pounds. I just didn't get the bites that other guys like Gerald Swindle did.

I still ended up finishing in 64th place even though I didn't weigh a fish on day two, the lake was just tough for me this week."

"I'm not pleased with my performance. I've had a decent year so far and wanted to do better here at Table Rock. I liked how I was catching them (crankbaits) I just needed more bites," said Auten. "Right now I am just looking forward to going to Eufaula. It's a lake that fits my style and the weights should be big."

Mike Auten was excited going into the Citgo Bass Masters Tour Event at Lake Guntersville in Alabama. "Guntersville is really a fun place to fish. I think it's one of the best lakes in the country and it's just full of big bass," said Auten. " I set a goal for myself of 20 pounds a day. I knew that because of the quality of the fish here it would take at least that much per day to make the cut." Auten didn't think that the cold weather would make that much difference to the fish. "When you go to a lake like Guntersville that has so many good fish in it, you know that someone is going to figure out how to make the big ones bite."

Practice was pretty slow for Auten, who concentrated on fishing the grass.
Auten fished Lucky Craft's LV-500 Max and LVR D-10 in both Mad Craw and Aurora Gold around weed beds in two to four feet of water. "I tried a Pointer Minnow 100 a lot too, but I just couldn't get the jerk bait bite to work for me. I only caught about five or six keepers during the three-day practice period." Even with practice being slow Auten was not discouraged. "On the last day of practice I had one spot I was forced to go back to because of the wind, and I had two bites in an area about 100 yards long. This ended up being my key spot for the tournament," said Auten. "I felt that this area was a good place to find fish migrating up out of the main river channel on their way to spawning areas. I really felt that this area would likely replenish itself with fresh fish each day. I had found a couple of other areas up the lake where I thought that I could get a big bite or two, but I didn't think that I could get a limit from them."

On day two of the tournament Auten went back to his main spot again. The fishing was a bit tougher though as he was only able to catch three keepers. He decided to run up the lake to try his other spots and caught one more fish. Late in the day he ran back down the lake to a secondary point where he had caught a good fish in practice and managed to land a seven pound fish just before he was due back in. "I only got five bites today but I caught them all," said Auten of day two. Auten's five fish string weighed in at 21-11 and gave him a two-day total of 41-14 which moved him into seventh and allowed him to make the cut and fish day three. Day two's leader was Mike Iaconelli who had a two day total of 48-09. "I was pleased with my position, but concerned about whether I was on enough fish to go any farther. The fishing was a lot tougher, and I wasn't sure what to expect on day three. I was just happy to make the cut." All of Auten's fish on day two were caught on a Lucky Craft LV-500 Max in Mad Craw color.

The start of day three was delayed two and a half hours due to heavy fog in the morning. When the fog broke, it gave way to clear sunny skies and no wind. "I was really concentrating on the lipless crankbait, and calm sunny conditions are the worst thing you can have happen for this technique. I went to my key stretch and never got a bite. I caught a five pounder on a secondary point and then never got another bite all day," said Auten. "The weather conditions killed it for me. I just didn't have enough places to go to." Auten's one fish ended up weighing 5-11, which kept him in seventh place at the end of day three, 3-13 out of the cut to six. Day three's leader and eventual tournament winner George Cochran had a limit that weighed 23-10 for a three-day total of 69-11, to Auten's three-day total of 47-09. Cochran went on to win by over nine pounds with a four-day total of 99 pounds 11 ounces.

"I am very happy with my performance overall. I wish that I'd had a better practice, but I really feel that I made something out of nothing," said Auten. "Of course I wanted to win, but I really knew I wasn't on enough fish. Seventh is a great finish, the best I've had in a while, plus it gives me good points towards the Classic and the Elite 50's.