Its hard to believe another season has come to a close. They seem to go by faster every year. 2013 definitely had it's ups and downs. I didn't fish quite as many tournaments this year as I did in 2012 but it wasn't by choice. I had mechanical issues and a bout with the flu in the first part of the season that caused me to miss several tournaments I was planning on fishing. My stats were similar to 2012. I managed checks in 9 out of 12 draw tournaments for a 75% average with two wins. In 2012 I fished 19 draw events and cashed checks in 63% of them and also managed two wins. I fished a few more team events this season and was able to earn money in 7 out of 11 of them with one win. In 2012 I only entered 7 team events and cashed checks in 4 of them with no wins. In this entry Id like to talk about while on paper this season looked very similar to 2012 and not all that spectacular, it was actually one of the best seasons I've ever had.
FEBRUARY: February is usually the month I kick everything off. For the past several years I've spent a lot of time at Guntersville that month and fish as many as four draw tournaments while I'm there and also do a few guide trips. I had all intentions of starting 2013 the same way but had vehicle issues and a few minor mechanical issues with my boat that cut my trip short and I spent February making sure everything was ready for March.
MARCH: March has always been my favorite month to fish on any lake. I learned how to bass fish in the winter of 1998 and I've always been very comfortable fishing in cold weather and early pre spawn conditions. Once I moved up and started fishing BFL's and BWS events I was always very successful in the month of March and felt like I would always make a check and be a threat to win. I saw conditions on KY Lake in 2012 I'd never seen that early in the year and when I hit the lake the first time the surface water temp was already 60 degrees! The fish were in more of an April pattern which happens to be my least favorite month to fish and I had the worst finish I could remember having in a March tournament in my first BFL that year with a 48th place showing. I bounced back the following week with a 6th in the BWS but there was a lot of luck involved. I caught two big ones just running around throwing a Red Eye shad and wasn't actually dialed in to what the fish were doing.
This past March was back to normal, cold and windy and I was ready to get back on track. When my first BFL rolled around I had a decent practice and I really had a good game plan for catching the right kind of fish to win. When the scales closed that day, I had weighed in three fish for 9lbs. That's the first time I haven't been able to catch a limit of fish in a tournament since I started fishing full time in 2009. I was pretty let down over the deal but the key words here were "I had a good game plan for catching the right kind of fish to win."
The BWS was two weeks later and I had a chance to bounce back and that's when the flu bug bit and I had to drop out of the tournament. I did fish a couple of team events at the end of the month and we finished 2nd and 3rd in those so I had a little momentum heading into April.
March was not what I had hoped but I'll say it again, the first big tournament I entered in 2013, I felt like I could win if everything went right, it just didn't go my way. I never felt like I was on the fish to win in 2012, even in the two tournaments I won. So that was definitely a good feeling even though the final result was one of the worst showings I've had on KY Lake in several years.
APRIL: This has always been the toughest month for me unless the water hits the bushes early in the month. I lose track of the fish when they're in that in between stage and once the water hits the bushes its like they're everywhere. The water never hit the bushes in 2012 and I was lost the entire month. I didn't fish a lot in early April this season because I spent two weeks in Captains School. While I was in school, I watched the water rise from the class room and as soon as it hit the bushes, it was on! I had some of the best days of flipping I've ever experienced on KY Lake.
We had a BFL April 20th and I was very confident going into the tournament. The water was unfortunately falling daily and I ended up struggling to catch the big ones and only weighed in 15lbs but managed a check.
The BWS was the following weekend and the water was on the rise. Once again, I felt like I could win if I executed perfectly and while I caught so many fish my hands were bleeding at the end of the day, I lost a critical fish that would have put me close to the top and I had to settle for 5th place with 22lbs of fish. So two months into the season, I'd fished three draw tournaments and felt like I had a shot to win all three. That's all I can ask for going into a tournament, to feel like I know where the winning fish live.
MAY: This is the month my guide business started booming and the water kept rising. The water got several feet above summer pool and I knew exactly where the fish were going. Heading into our May BWS I checked all of the places I knew they were headed to on Wednesday and Thursday. They're usually on the 6XD when they get there and even though I caught about 21lbs. on Wednesday, I just wasn't seeing the numbers I was expecting. I went out and cranked the same type places on Thursday and never caught a fish. I headed to the bushes later that day and flipped up 26lbs in a half hour and I knew I was on the winning pattern. The fish made a huge move Thursday night and my old buddy David Gnewikow found them on the same places I'd eliminated on Wednesday and Thursday and won the tournament on a 6XD while I struggled to catch 18lbs and finished 14th. Once again, I didn't close the deal but I knew where the winning fish were and where they went, I just didn't adjust quickly enough.
JUNE and JULY: I fished a bunch of tournaments and did a ton of guiding these two months. I earned checks in all of them but only won once. I had a BFL and a BWS during this time that I really felt like I had a shot at but the weather got me in the BFL and the fish shrunk a little on me in the BWS. I finished 12th in that BFL and 7th in the BWS. Its kind of funny because the lone win I got in this stretch was the Sportsmen's Digest Team Trail I fished with David, and I probably had less confidence we could win that one as anything I fished that month, but when you get around David G, his confidence is contagious and we ended up pulling it off.
AUGUST: I only had one tournament in August but I was guiding several days a week and there were still schools everywhere out deep. The school fish were getting harder to catch because they had been beaten on all summer but I figured out a way to catch them and the day I figured it out, it was like June all over again. I caught a ton of fish and some good ones. I caught them so good in fact I decided to make a long run from Barkley State Park back around within sight of Paris Landing. The sun never showed itself that day and for whatever reason I couldn't get the bigger fish to cooperate and I ended up finishing in 4th place. Once again though, I felt like I could win going into the event and that's more than I could say for all of 2012.
SEPTEMBER: I could talk forever about September. It was unbelievable and I was able to take a couple of small pieces of the puzzle I found in 2012 and put it together for some of the best fishing I've ever experienced a year later. I had a two day BWS and a two day BFL within a few weeks of each other and I had the best game plan to win both of them as I've probably ever had. I had deep fish, in between fish and dirt shallow fish and I utilized all of them and ended up winning both events by over 10 lbs. I've been fortunate enough to win several BWS events but this was only my second BFL win and it was really special to me because I've come so close several times. It was truly a blessed month of fishing that I'll never forget.
OCTOBER: Things slowed down for me in October. I spent a week at Guntersville, a lake I'm very fond of, for the BFL Regional. I had a decent practice but a terrible tournament and I just never found that pattern or area that I'd been finding more often than not earlier in the year where I felt like I could really make a run at it. I returned home and started preparing for the Carl Perkins tournament and once again had an unbelievable practice. I felt even better about our chances to win that one than I did the two events I won in September and after two frustrating days where we watched giant after giant do everything but get hooked on our Sexy Dawgs, the wind was slowly being sucked out of my sails. I fished the Sportsmen's Digest Classic and the Solo Cup later that month and finished 9th in the Classic and 4th in the Cup but I basically just went fishing and tried to figure it out on the fly. I was definitely ready for a break when October wound down.
SUMMARY: Hopefully this breakdown of the season gives you an idea of why I said it was one of the best seasons I've ever had. The results weren't great, I've had better overall results in several years in the past. The big key this year was how many times I felt like I could win going into the tournament. In a normal year I may feel like I'm on the winning fish a few tournaments out of the year. It seemed like every tournament this year I figured a little something out that gave me the confidence I needed think I could get the W. I know this may not make since because if you don't win you don't win no matter how good your practice was. For me mentally though, it was huge going into these tournaments knowing I'd done everything I could do leading in to give me a shot at winning especially after last year when it just seemed like I never figured it out in practice. I've always said the day I quit learning will be the day I quit fishing and after last year I was beginning to wonder if I had maxed out on what I was going to learn. I think I learned more this year than I've ever learned in a season and that goes a long way towards my outlook for 2014.
As always, thanks to all of my sponsors; Odoms Blue and Gray Marine, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Strike King Lure Company, All Pro Rods, Lowrance Electronics, TH Marine, Strike Force fish attractant, The Cabin Bait and Tackle, Rod Glove, Power Pole, Seaguar, Abu Garcia, my friends and family for their support and most of all the good Lord for allowing me to have another successful season living the dream. Hope you all have a very merry Christmas and I look forward to 2014.
