Tournament number three of 2014 is in the books. Only three weeks after the worst tournament I've had in years, things luckily turned around in a hurry. With a little guidance from the good Lord above, I was able to figure out what was probably the best pattern on the lake last weekend and win the LBL BFL by nearly 8lbs. I was pumped to get on the lake again and see if my pattern was still holding but mother nature had different plans and dumped several inches of the frozen stuff all around KY Lake so I was unable to hit the water until last Thursday. I had a guide trip that I booked back in January scheduled that day and almost canceled Wednesday because all of the ramps were still iced over. We decided to give the sun a few hours to do it's thing on the icy ramp Thursday morning and I met Phillip and Ronnie at Paris Landing at 9:30am. The lake had risen a couple feet since my win just a few days prior and the already stained water was pure chocolate. I told the guys that conditions had changed a lot so I was basically going to just treat it like a day of practice and see what we could come up with.
Our first stop was a real shallow place that I catch a lot of big fish on this time of year with the Redeye Shad and as we worked our way out a little deeper I decided to give the KVD Flat a try and in a few casts hooked up with a 4.5lber. I put my rod down and they told me I was welcome to keep fishing but I said I didn't really want to catch a lot myself since I had another Triton Gold and Mercury sanctioned BFL coming up. They said they were more interested in learning what to look for this time of year than catching fish and encouraged me to just leave the area before we caught any more. Our next stop was very similar to the first and it didn't take long for us to crank up a couple 3lb class fish and we moved on. We then headed to an offshore bar that I hadn't fished the weekend before but it definitely fit the pattern and I have definitely flat smoked 'em there in the past. After only a few casts, Phillip bowed up on a 5lber and we snapped a few pics and headed on. We hit a lot of different type places as we made our way up the lake and caught a fish or two here and there but no quality. We finally made it to where I caught the bulk of my fish in the LBL BFL and after I scanned the area to make sure there weren't any boats around, I decided fish it and make sure the school was still there. We made a pass with the KVD Flat's and with the water being higher we were having trouble getting the bait to the bottom. I tied them on a couple of 5XD's in Chart. Perch and it was on! They caught several in the 3-4lb range in a row and finally said they'd seen enough so we made a move. I spent the rest of the day in the creeks just checking some places and patterns that work this time of year but we never caught another fish. When we headed in I scanned some main river ledge stuff just to show them how many fish of all species (especially shad) were still out really deep and they were absolutely loaded with fish. I told them they'd been there for several months but I hadn't been able to get them to bite since the water got muddy back in December and it would be a waste of time to even try. We ended the day with about 15 fish and around 20lbs on our best five and I was feeling pretty good about the BFL on Saturday.
Friday I headed south to New Johnsonville in hopes of finding a backup pattern for Saturday. I fished everything from the bank to the main river ledge and caught one drum all day. With a couple hours left I headed back to Paris to try and figure out a way to make those deep fish go one last time and was pretty shocked when every place I scanned with my Lowrance was void of life! I'm talking thousands of fish that had been on these places every day for months had completely vanished! That told me that something had changed in a big way but I still felt like my main pattern would only get better with more fish migrating through the ditches with the warm weather ahead.
TOURNAMENT DAY- We took off out of Birdsong Creek at 7am and I had a bad feeling I was going to have some company on my best place. I wasn't concerned with guys in my tournament because my new Triton TRX will run close to 80 mph but there were several other tournaments going on that had started at daylight. When I got within sight of it there was only one boat in the entire area and they were sitting right on my waypoint! I headed to another section of the bar that I caught a few on the weekend before and started cranking my way down the bar. The guys in the other boat were catching a fish on every other cast with an umbrella rig and I was watching close to see if they were big ones and that's when my co angler called for the net. I netted a 3lber for him and went back to fishing and a few casts later he yelled for the net again. This time I scooped up a fish over 4lbs for him and from the looks of things everybody behind me and ahead of me were off to a good start and I couldn't get a bite! Things finally slowed down for everyone but I fished around the area until 9:30 and when I left I had a fish pushing 4lbs and four 15" fish for a total of about 12lbs. I ran through all of the other stuff I fished in the LBL event, all of the stuff I fished on my guide trip and never had a bite. While I'm fishing I'm constantly analyzing everything imaginable in order to try and make good decisions and adjust as the day goes on. The one thing that really stuck out to me were the fact that the guys that were sitting where I wanted to start were catching fish on an umbrella rig and my co angler caught a few fish behind me on a Sexy Shad crankbait while I was using crawfish patterns. That made me think about how all of the shad had disappeared from the deep ledges between Thursday and Friday. I came to the conclusion that when all of those shad moved up, the bass followed and with everything in transition I knew it was probably going to be hard to nail down a strong pattern. I decided to cover some really shallow water with a Redeye Shad and see if maybe I could relocate the majority of the bait and hopefully catch a few bass along the way. The second shallow place I stopped on I snagged a big Gizzard Shad in the back and I knew then there had to be some bass around. I slowly worked the area over and finally caught a 4.5lber. I really slowed down then and basically fished the bait like a jig and ended up catching two more fish in the 4-4.5lb range and a 2.75lber. I got that gut feeling that I was about to put 20 plus lbs in the boat but after an hour I hadn't had another bite. By that time I was a lot further north than I'd planned on going, time was slipping away and I had a big decision to make. I felt like I could run around throwing the Redeye the rest of the day and probably run into another 4lb fish or two but I really thought in order to win I needed to catch a giant. I felt like my best bet to catch that giant was back in New Johnsonville so I headed back south. I made a quick pass through all of my productive areas from the week before and only picked up a few small keepers. I finished the day running as many shallow points and bars as I could but never caught anymore fish. I weighed in 18lbs 14oz and finished in 4th place.
SUMMARY: I was a little disappointed when only 20lbs ended up winning the tournament because I knew then I'd probably made the wrong decision going for a giant bite the last few hours of the day. Unfortunately when you fish to win you have to take some gambles and more times than not, it doesn't work out. Overall it was another beautiful day on the lake and much more successful than my opening event of the year just three weeks ago.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
FLW LBL BFL March 1
I'm going to try and keep this as short as possible but this tournament was a first for me in a lot of ways and it's proof that when the good Lord wants you to win there's nothing you can do to stop it. I wrote an article last month for The Sportsmen's Digest magazine where I talked about cold water, pre-spawn fishing. I talked about how my first few years on KY Lake I did really well and seemed to always figure out a potential tournament winning pattern. I also talked about how each of those years I caught my fish different ways in different places. Having had success so many different ways, each new year I have to run through all of my old patterns and places just to make sure they aren't working again (which they never are) and by the time I eliminate all of my "old" water, I don't have much time to try and figure out what's going on at the present time. I keep thinking that just maybe some day one of my old patterns will be on again and make my job a lot easier but up until this past Saturday it hadn't happened.
Coming off of the worst tournament I've ever had on KY Lake I really wanted to spend some time trying to figure out what I'd done wrong before the upcoming BFL. Unfortunately between business, weather and a throbbing tooth ache that set in Thursday night, I only practiced one day and caught one 2lb fish. Having never done good in a tournament after a terrible practice and still in pain on Friday, I called BFL tournament director Daniel Fennel and asked him to take me out of the tournament and he said he would. That night I got a text from FLW Outdoors with my boat number and co angler partner for the tournament. Daniel immediately called and said he apologized but for whatever reason I wasn't removed from the system but he could still get me out of the tournament if I really didn't want to fish. I told him that maybe that was a sign from God that I needed to fish and I'd just throw back some Advil and tough it out.
Next, I talked to my partner Bryan Henry and told him I wasn't on anything, wasn't feeling very good and I had no clue what we were going to do the next morning. I told him to bring everything he had and be sure he bought a TN license.
We headed out of KY Dam Saturday morning and made a 45 mile run to the Paris area and I stopped on a place that I caught one of my two keepers the weekend before. I told Bryan if we didn't catch any there I was rolling the dice and going to New Johnsonville. We didn't catch a fish so I headed to another place close by and once again said if we didn't catch them, I was going to Jville. After an hour there we hadn't had a bite and I said one more stop and we're going to Jville and that's when Bryan said something you rarely hear from a co angler especially when it's 35 degrees outside, he said he wanted to go to Jville. He said he'd wanted to go for two years but his boaters never took him. I'd been wanting to practice in Jville for two weeks but hadn't made it up there and though I've made that run many times, I'd never done it without at least a small clue as to what the fish were doing on that end of the lake. Knowing I was basically throwing in the towel if I stayed around Paris I strapped everything down and made another 30 mile run to New Johnsonville. By that point it was already 10am and I had to leave at 2pm in order to make it back on time so I knew in order to salvage the day I needed to figure them out quick. Lake conditions were very similar to 2010 when I figured out a really strong pattern on that end of the lake. I headed to the first place I came to that worked that year but didn't have a lot of faith in it because like I said before, I've never been able to duplicate any of my past successful patterns or areas. I fired out a bait I've never even made a cast with, the new Strike King KVD 1.5 Flat, and caught a 3lber on my first cast. A few minutes later I caught another 3lber and then several 2.5lb fish. When they quit biting I only had about 14lbs. but I smiled at Bryan and said "I know where they are!" My next stop produced a 6.5lber and my next stop produced a 7.25lber and I basically ran as many of my 2010 places as I could until we had to go back. Bryan was a great guy and he'd told me that he'd never weighed in a limit in a BFL. I really wanted him to catch five but when I pulled up on our last stop it was 2 pm and he only had two small keepers. I told him we only had ten minutes to fish and I had a good feeling there would be a load of fish on this particular spot. I only had one spare KVD Flat in my boat but on my first cast our baits landed side by side and I had three bites and then hooked a 4lber and he never had a sniff. I grabbed my back up bait and threw it to Bryan and told him to tie it on. Over the next ten minutes we doubled up on 4 to 5lbers on every cast but unfortunately we were having to take time out to cull and finally had to leave. When the scales closed I'd weighed in 26lbs. 7oz. and won the third BFL of my career. Bryan weighed in 15lbs. 5oz. and finished 3rd on the co angler side.
What an amazing day! This was a really special tournament for me in a lot of ways. Number one, one of my old patterns that I'd worked so hard to figure out back in the day finally came into play only a few weeks after I'd written an article on how they never do. Number two, it showed me that I can figure out the winning pattern during a tournament which has always been my Achilles Heel.
It seems like every tournament I win there's a piece of equipment or two that really play a role in my success. I started using All Pro Rods exclusively late last summer. I weighed in over 75lbs of Sexy Dawg fish in three days of tournament fishing using the All Pro APX MH Cranking Rod. This was my first tournament to actually use this rod for what it was intended for, cranking, but I'm telling you I wouldn't have won without it. I didn't mention that my co angler kicked my net over board early in the day and I caught over 30 keepers and never lost a fish either swinging them in or lipping them beside the boat. The 7lber I caught made a run beside the boat and my drag was waaaaay too tight and my APX absorbed it and allowed me to keep that fish hooked up.
Another key to my pattern was staying way off of the bars and making a long enough cast that my bait had time to really dig into the bottom and I was out casting my partner by 25 yards.
Coming off of the worst tournament I've ever had on KY Lake I really wanted to spend some time trying to figure out what I'd done wrong before the upcoming BFL. Unfortunately between business, weather and a throbbing tooth ache that set in Thursday night, I only practiced one day and caught one 2lb fish. Having never done good in a tournament after a terrible practice and still in pain on Friday, I called BFL tournament director Daniel Fennel and asked him to take me out of the tournament and he said he would. That night I got a text from FLW Outdoors with my boat number and co angler partner for the tournament. Daniel immediately called and said he apologized but for whatever reason I wasn't removed from the system but he could still get me out of the tournament if I really didn't want to fish. I told him that maybe that was a sign from God that I needed to fish and I'd just throw back some Advil and tough it out.
Next, I talked to my partner Bryan Henry and told him I wasn't on anything, wasn't feeling very good and I had no clue what we were going to do the next morning. I told him to bring everything he had and be sure he bought a TN license.
We headed out of KY Dam Saturday morning and made a 45 mile run to the Paris area and I stopped on a place that I caught one of my two keepers the weekend before. I told Bryan if we didn't catch any there I was rolling the dice and going to New Johnsonville. We didn't catch a fish so I headed to another place close by and once again said if we didn't catch them, I was going to Jville. After an hour there we hadn't had a bite and I said one more stop and we're going to Jville and that's when Bryan said something you rarely hear from a co angler especially when it's 35 degrees outside, he said he wanted to go to Jville. He said he'd wanted to go for two years but his boaters never took him. I'd been wanting to practice in Jville for two weeks but hadn't made it up there and though I've made that run many times, I'd never done it without at least a small clue as to what the fish were doing on that end of the lake. Knowing I was basically throwing in the towel if I stayed around Paris I strapped everything down and made another 30 mile run to New Johnsonville. By that point it was already 10am and I had to leave at 2pm in order to make it back on time so I knew in order to salvage the day I needed to figure them out quick. Lake conditions were very similar to 2010 when I figured out a really strong pattern on that end of the lake. I headed to the first place I came to that worked that year but didn't have a lot of faith in it because like I said before, I've never been able to duplicate any of my past successful patterns or areas. I fired out a bait I've never even made a cast with, the new Strike King KVD 1.5 Flat, and caught a 3lber on my first cast. A few minutes later I caught another 3lber and then several 2.5lb fish. When they quit biting I only had about 14lbs. but I smiled at Bryan and said "I know where they are!" My next stop produced a 6.5lber and my next stop produced a 7.25lber and I basically ran as many of my 2010 places as I could until we had to go back. Bryan was a great guy and he'd told me that he'd never weighed in a limit in a BFL. I really wanted him to catch five but when I pulled up on our last stop it was 2 pm and he only had two small keepers. I told him we only had ten minutes to fish and I had a good feeling there would be a load of fish on this particular spot. I only had one spare KVD Flat in my boat but on my first cast our baits landed side by side and I had three bites and then hooked a 4lber and he never had a sniff. I grabbed my back up bait and threw it to Bryan and told him to tie it on. Over the next ten minutes we doubled up on 4 to 5lbers on every cast but unfortunately we were having to take time out to cull and finally had to leave. When the scales closed I'd weighed in 26lbs. 7oz. and won the third BFL of my career. Bryan weighed in 15lbs. 5oz. and finished 3rd on the co angler side.
What an amazing day! This was a really special tournament for me in a lot of ways. Number one, one of my old patterns that I'd worked so hard to figure out back in the day finally came into play only a few weeks after I'd written an article on how they never do. Number two, it showed me that I can figure out the winning pattern during a tournament which has always been my Achilles Heel.
It seems like every tournament I win there's a piece of equipment or two that really play a role in my success. I started using All Pro Rods exclusively late last summer. I weighed in over 75lbs of Sexy Dawg fish in three days of tournament fishing using the All Pro APX MH Cranking Rod. This was my first tournament to actually use this rod for what it was intended for, cranking, but I'm telling you I wouldn't have won without it. I didn't mention that my co angler kicked my net over board early in the day and I caught over 30 keepers and never lost a fish either swinging them in or lipping them beside the boat. The 7lber I caught made a run beside the boat and my drag was waaaaay too tight and my APX absorbed it and allowed me to keep that fish hooked up.
Another key to my pattern was staying way off of the bars and making a long enough cast that my bait had time to really dig into the bottom and I was out casting my partner by 25 yards.
The most important part of my pattern was that when I felt the bait really get into the roughest stuff around, I'd pause it and then it would get engulfed! I could feel every piece of gravel and shell that my bait hit all day long and I know that's why I caught so many more fish than my partner. I've always cranked with glass rods so this was my first go round cranking with graphite and this rod is the deal for shallow to medium diving crankbaits, lipless baits and obviously it's a pretty good top water rod too!
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
ABA WBS FEB. 22
My new Triton TRX came in just before the Weekend Bass Series and by the time I got all of that business taken care of I only had one day to practice. I knew I didn't have time to run through all of my old stuff so I decided to start from scratch. I spent four hours that day looking around out deep and while the majority of the fish seemed to be out there, the muddy water made them impossible to catch. I finally bailed on the deep fish and ran around chunking a Redeye Shad and a KVD 1.5 the rest of the day and while I only caught three fish that day, they were of decent quality and weighed about 10lbs. I thought if I just covered a ton of water during the tournament I might luck up and run into five good ones. Unfortunately, I only ran into two on tournament day and they weren't that good. I weighed in the smallest (4.91 lbs) bag of fish on KY Lake I've weighed since I started fishing and guiding full time in 2009. The good news for me was everyone struggled, 13lbs won the tournament and I finished 14th and not completely out of the race for Angler of the Year.
Monday, February 17, 2014
THE MENTAL SIDE
There are a few reasons I wanted to blog on this topic. One is the seminar my good friend Dr. David Gnewikow is offering this March and the numerous phone calls and questions I've had about how beneficial I thought this seminar would be. The other reasons are a lot of phone calls and conversations I've had about how tough I thought fishing would be in these first few BFL and WBS tournaments with these brutal cold conditions we've had.
I've fished with hundreds of people from kids that have never made a cast to tour level pros. Once a fisherman reaches a certain level there's really no noticeable difference in an anglers fishing ability. We are all fairly equal as far as our mechanics go and the equipment we use. So the question rises, what separates the guys who consistently finish in the top of the pack in tournaments from the rest of the field. The answer, in my opinion, is the mental side of fishing.
To me the mental side covers a pretty broad spectrum that ranges from how an angler prepares before a tournament to decision making during the tournament to how he carries himself during and after weigh in. I also believe you need to be able to "change gears" mentally depending on your situation and what your goals are. What I mean by this is I have a total different mindset going into an event on KY Lake compared to say one at Old Hickory. 12lbs will get you a top ten at Old Hickory and on KY Lake, not even close. Therefore, going into Old Hickory, I try to be prepared mentally for a tough bite where every keeper is golden and on KY Lake "just keepers" are worthless most of the time.
I learned mental toughness the hard way. My first year of tournament fishing I never caught a keeper so my goal the next year was just to catch a keeper. My next goal was to catch a limit, then get a check and so on and so forth. I basically set small goals and took baby steps but I was determined to not let anything get in my way and I focused just as hard on trying to catch that one keeper my second season as I do now trying to catch 25lbs on KY Lake. Starting from the bottom like I did I also assumed that all of my competitors were better fishermen than me so I looked for ways that I could level the playing field. I would hear guys the night before the tournament talking about how the wind was going to blow the next day and screw up their game plan or clear skies would kill their bite and those type things were what I taught myself to overcome. I soon figured out that most of the time the guys that were freaking out the night before the tournament were already beaten. I found myself hoping for nasty weather or drastically changing conditions because the more people that were psyched out before the tournament started, the fewer people I had to out fish. I had an old school fisherman tell me the other day about fishing a team tournament back in the day with legendary lure designer Stan Sloan. He said the night before at the meeting Stan got every ones attention and told them that he would have over 30lbs and that if they couldn't catch that they may as well stay home! His partner asked him why he would do such a thing and Stan replied, "now most of them are already beat." While I don't necessarily agree with Stan's arrogant approach, he was right. Many fishermen are out of the race before it ever even starts because they let dock talk, weather and things of that nature spin them out mentally.
I always thought I had a pretty good grip on the mental part of fishing and then I became good friends with David G and eventually started fishing some tournaments with him. This guy is above and beyond anyone I've ever been around when it comes to this aspect of fishing. This class on the mental side of fishing is a great idea and I don't know of a better person to try and help others understand it. It's like everything else in fishing, some will pick up on it quicker than others but we've discussed some of the things he's going to talk about and I guarantee when you walk out of there you will have an understanding of it all and a process you can follow that will help you become a more successful tournament angler.
So, do I think David's seminar is worth $200? I personally think it should cost more. He's offering something that few anglers are willing to share, something you can't read in a magazine article and something you definitely can't buy at a tackle store. Fishermen spend $200 every day on custom painted crank baits, devices that play shad sounds underwater and all other kinds of equipment. What most of them don't realize is that the most important piece of equipment they have is between their ears and Next Level Tournament Fishing is going to teach them how to put it to use.
To learn more go to https://www.facebook.com/davidgfishing
I've fished with hundreds of people from kids that have never made a cast to tour level pros. Once a fisherman reaches a certain level there's really no noticeable difference in an anglers fishing ability. We are all fairly equal as far as our mechanics go and the equipment we use. So the question rises, what separates the guys who consistently finish in the top of the pack in tournaments from the rest of the field. The answer, in my opinion, is the mental side of fishing.
To me the mental side covers a pretty broad spectrum that ranges from how an angler prepares before a tournament to decision making during the tournament to how he carries himself during and after weigh in. I also believe you need to be able to "change gears" mentally depending on your situation and what your goals are. What I mean by this is I have a total different mindset going into an event on KY Lake compared to say one at Old Hickory. 12lbs will get you a top ten at Old Hickory and on KY Lake, not even close. Therefore, going into Old Hickory, I try to be prepared mentally for a tough bite where every keeper is golden and on KY Lake "just keepers" are worthless most of the time.
I learned mental toughness the hard way. My first year of tournament fishing I never caught a keeper so my goal the next year was just to catch a keeper. My next goal was to catch a limit, then get a check and so on and so forth. I basically set small goals and took baby steps but I was determined to not let anything get in my way and I focused just as hard on trying to catch that one keeper my second season as I do now trying to catch 25lbs on KY Lake. Starting from the bottom like I did I also assumed that all of my competitors were better fishermen than me so I looked for ways that I could level the playing field. I would hear guys the night before the tournament talking about how the wind was going to blow the next day and screw up their game plan or clear skies would kill their bite and those type things were what I taught myself to overcome. I soon figured out that most of the time the guys that were freaking out the night before the tournament were already beaten. I found myself hoping for nasty weather or drastically changing conditions because the more people that were psyched out before the tournament started, the fewer people I had to out fish. I had an old school fisherman tell me the other day about fishing a team tournament back in the day with legendary lure designer Stan Sloan. He said the night before at the meeting Stan got every ones attention and told them that he would have over 30lbs and that if they couldn't catch that they may as well stay home! His partner asked him why he would do such a thing and Stan replied, "now most of them are already beat." While I don't necessarily agree with Stan's arrogant approach, he was right. Many fishermen are out of the race before it ever even starts because they let dock talk, weather and things of that nature spin them out mentally.
I always thought I had a pretty good grip on the mental part of fishing and then I became good friends with David G and eventually started fishing some tournaments with him. This guy is above and beyond anyone I've ever been around when it comes to this aspect of fishing. This class on the mental side of fishing is a great idea and I don't know of a better person to try and help others understand it. It's like everything else in fishing, some will pick up on it quicker than others but we've discussed some of the things he's going to talk about and I guarantee when you walk out of there you will have an understanding of it all and a process you can follow that will help you become a more successful tournament angler.
So, do I think David's seminar is worth $200? I personally think it should cost more. He's offering something that few anglers are willing to share, something you can't read in a magazine article and something you definitely can't buy at a tackle store. Fishermen spend $200 every day on custom painted crank baits, devices that play shad sounds underwater and all other kinds of equipment. What most of them don't realize is that the most important piece of equipment they have is between their ears and Next Level Tournament Fishing is going to teach them how to put it to use.
To learn more go to https://www.facebook.com/davidgfishing
Thursday, January 30, 2014
FLW TOUR
Since I was introduced to tournament fishing back in the late 90's I dreamed of fishing at the highest level either with Bassmasters or FLW. At that point it seemed like no more than a dream and way too lofty of a goal for someone who didn't even catch a keeper their first year of tournament fishing to accomplish. After several years of basically dedicating my life to becoming a better tournament fisherman, I started to feel like my goal of fishing with the big boys may not be that far fetched after all. I'm not saying I believe I could go out and dominate at the highest level because if I really believed that I'd already be out there. About the time I started fishing full time in 2009 it was obvious the Elite Series was probably not my best option. Between having to qualify through the Opens and the fact they were having 11 events at the time with a $5500 entry fee per event, I knew that was more than I'd ever be able to afford. At that same time, FLW was starting to look more appealing. It was a lot less expensive to play the game with FLW, they were starting to put a lot better venues on their schedule each year and most importantly a guy with enough money could usually get in. After a couple of winters trying to find a title sponsor to help fund a tour campaign with no luck, I was beginning to think I may never get a shot at the highest level of competitive bass fishing. At that time I really wanted to be a full time touring pro but after fishing some Rayovac events and watching my guide business become more and more successful, I realized I was probably better suited staying on Kentucky lake and trying to win as much Triton Gold money as a I can in a year and focus on guiding. I hadn't given up on fishing the tour but I was content with just doing it for a year and then coming back home where I have a steady income and spend a lot less in the process. When FLW released the 2014 tour schedule back in August, I was foaming at the mouth. Almost every lake on the schedule I had some experience on and the ones I didn't know really suited my style of fishing. Not to mention I had a free place to stay at all but one event which cut's cost dramatically. I immediately started putting a proposal together and talking to local businesses about sponsorship. My goal was to come up with enough cash to cover entry fees and most of the expenses without having to dig too deep into my own pockets because the last thing I wanted to do was gamble away a successful career in fishing that I'd established here on KY Lake. The first two businesses I talked to both jumped at the chance to help me out and by the end of August I already had 1/3 of the money I needed to make this thing happen. After such a fast start raising money I figured it would be no problem to come up with the rest before the deadline in January. Little did I know when January rolled around not only had a not come up with additional funds, one of the initial sponsors had backed out. By that time the BFL and Weekend Series schedules had come out and were KY Lake heavy. I'd also already booked a bunch of guide trips which helped ease the pain of not making the tour....again! On January 20 FLW released the 2014 tour field, a list that included a lot of friends of mine which did sting a little bit. On January 25 I was visiting with a loyal client and great friend and he asked me what my plans were for 2014. He knew I'd been trying to fish the tour and he thought I'd come up with the money. When I told him I hadn't gotten in, out of the goodness of his heart, he offered to foot the bill for me to fish the tour. When I asked him what I could do in return he said that being the one that allowed me to fulfill a dream was all he needed. I was speechless. I couldn't believe that someone could make me an offer like that and not ask anything in return. I headed straight home and started packing for Lake Okeechobee and rearranging my schedule for the season. I called the FLW tour director the next day and he gave me some very disappointing news. He informed me that the field was set and I wouldn't be able to get in unless several people dropped out the following week. It was hard to stomach at the time but everything happens for a reason and as soon as I hung up with Bill Taylor calls started pouring in booking guide trips for 2014 which helped ease the pain of being so close to reaching a goal I set so long ago. It's still going to hurt a little watching my buddies fishing the big leagues this year, especially when they roll into KY Lake, but knowing that there are people in this world like my friend that are willing to put up that kind of money for no other reason than to try and help someone fulfill a dream means a lot more to me than any fishing tournament I could ever compete in. I'd like to give a special thanks to a great friend and an even better person, you know who you are.
Friday, January 3, 2014
DECEMBER 2013
December of 2012 was the most awesome fishing I’d ever seen in this part of the world and between myself, clients and a few of my buddies, we caught numerous 7 to 8lb fish and high 20 to low 30lb stringers. Word got around about how good the fishing was in ‘12 and I had a list of people wanting trips last month once the umbrella rig bite heated up. I tested the waters in mid November and the surface temp was still in the high 50’s. I managed six bites that day on the rig that were all in the 3 to 5lb range. I knew then it wasn’t quite right just yet. By late November our first big cold snap hit and a friend informed me that the water temp had dropped 10 degrees. I called a guy up that had been checking in with me periodically to see if the rig bite had turned on yet and told him it was time. He asked me if I had been catching them and I told him I hadn’t even been on the water in a couple weeks but I knew that big drop in water temp would get ‘em going. He met me at Paris Landing the next morning and just like clockwork, we smoked ‘em! We caught over 50 bass and a ton of giant white bass. Our best five weighed over 28lbs and included a couple of big smallmouth. That day brought back some fond memories and it looked like we were in for another stellar December. I packed as many trips as I could in over a two week span but we never had another day as good as that first one. I’m not real sure what the difference was this go round but the schools and the fish just weren’t as big as the year before. Don’t get me wrong, we were averaging 20 bass a day and about 25lbs a day but the year before I could catch that in an hour. I kept thinking the colder it got the better it would get but high muddy water moving through the system really slowed things down and next thing I knew it was time to go home for Christmas. I did jump in a little open tournament out of Paris Landing Dec. 12th and finished 2nd with 24.89lbs.
Sunday, November 17, 2013
2013 Recap
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.
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.
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