Entries from June 2007 ↓

Well folks, I had another good day on Dan 4 at the Sooner Run, and I wound up finishing at No. 8. I wish it had been better, but I can’t complain about two top 10 finishes.

I caught them good, but not as good as Kevin VanDam. Man, he knows how to get them. I admire the way he works them. He also gets a great deal of positive attention, and that’s good for our sport.

Here’s the audio post:

A good day, even though I had to go to backup plans. There was a lot of boat traffic on the points. Thursday I had them pretty much to myself.

But I’m in this thing, moved up to fourth with a big bag. Please check out this audio. 

Grand Lake, Oklahoma. First day of competition, and it was a good one. Everything went my way. I had 17-7 and that put me tied for 15th, I think it was, with Davy Hite, another one of those South Carolina anglers.

There’s a bunch of good ones from South Carolina. Davy’s a good one, so is Jason Williamson, he’s going to be tough. Marty Robinson had a 20-pound bag today. Casey Ashley won in Virginia. I probably missed somebody, but that state’s putting out some guys that know how to catch fish.

But back to my catch. I would have thought 17-7 would be good enough for a top 5. There are just so many incredible anglers out here it seems almost impossible to get to the top. You have a great day and there are still some guys that did better. But that’s just the way it goes, I guess. I just have to keep plugging and run a few of those good days together.

Although it shouldn’t have been , it was surprising to me how well everybody caught them. I thought I was on a good pattern - and I really was. I did about as well as I could have expected. The cut is over 14 pounds. That’s amazing.

 The key is going to be going out and doing it all over again, get into Saturday and then see if you can get the big bite that will get you into the magic top 12 so you can get a little TV time.

What I’m going to do is go out and fish the deep water, throw the jig a lot and get on some secondary points. It’s going to be interesting. Wish me luck.

I’m excited. We’re about to start on what I hope is another good one. Coming of a sixth place finish at Smith Mountain Lake, I really could use another top 12.

This is a great place, and I think there will be some good fish caught. My friend, Jeremy Starks, was telling me a little while ago that he thinks that 11 and 12 pounds won’t be nearly good enough. I agree with him. Fifteen or better would be more like it.

I’m going to start in shallow water early. That will be sort of a warmup. Then I’m going to some points and hopefully catch a few bigger fish in the deep water.  … Wish me luck.

On this audio clip, I talk a little more about the strategy.

This has been a trip of surprises. It’s my first time on Grand Lake. You read and hear it’s a deep, clear lake. But there’s been so much rain here, it’s deep and muddy. I mean really muddy.

But, boy, there are a lot of fish. They’re everywhere, so the key is to find the right spots to get the size you need.

One other thing, I’m still learning about the best ways to deal with the blog. I’ve noticed some questions are coming in. If they’re quick answers, I’ll try to respond right in the comments box. Other questions require some thought and maybe a lengthier opinion. I might not get to those right away.

Anway, here are a few thoughts about what I’ve seen so far. 

I want to thank you for responding to these blogs. Wheeler Bros. asked what bait I was using when I was fishing the deep water at Smith Mountain Lake.

It was a Berkeley 6-inch hand-pour finesse worm, a red crawler. It worked good. I would recommend it.

I spent a little time making this audio that talks about the lakes we’ll be fishing on the Elite Series tour in 2008. Mainly I just ramble about what I know about the kind of fishing they offer.

I will say that they’ve chosen some great places to fish. It’s going to be a good season, I think.

I’ve had a few days now to recover from our tournament at Smith Mountain Lake, where I finished sixth. 

Although I’ve been trying to take care of some other business, we did have some big news this week in our world. ESPN and BASS announced the 2008 schedule. They also announced some other changes that we’re going to be living with, and some of them are real good. Others are not so good for the anglers, but that’s part of the business.

We had a chance to have a conference call with the folks that operate our tournaments. All of the anglers had a chance to get in on the calls, and it was a good opportunity for us to hear them and for them to hear some of our concerns and questions.

I talk a little bit about the conference call on this audio clip. I’ll put in another blog entry, hopefully tomorrow, that talks about some of the places we’ll be fishing.

We finished the Elite Series tournament at Smith Mountain Lake yesterday. I was sixth. And, believe me, I’m happy with that. If I can fish against the best in the business and come away from one of these tournaments with a top 12 finish, I’m good with that.

But I got a bonus. Casey Ashley won, and I almost feel like that was a victory for me. I’ve known Casey pretty well for the the past couple of years. He’s a good young man and a good angler.

I talk a little on this audio blog about my recent history with Casey and with Jeremy Starks and Jason Williamson, another couple of really strong, young anglers.

Today, on day three of the tournament, I decided to fish the deep water to go for a big win, but the bites just weren’t there. I wound up with 7 lbs, 11 oounces and it put me in a six-pound deficit to the leader, Casey Ashley.

TOMORROW is another day.

The picture is one of my catches today!

Here is an audio report of my day three at Smith Mountain

It’s Day 2. Smith Mountain Lake. I had another good day today, but not as good as Casey Ashley, who pulled in 22 pounds and he’s right there. But I feel good.

I had a fantatic day yesterday. Caught 19 pounds. I dropped a little today, down to a little over 14 pounds. I’m still in the lead, even though I lost my margin some.

But I’m really proud, because on Day 1 I caught most of them in deep water, about 19-20 feet of water. And mostly around mid-day. I didn’t get the early bites the way a lot of the guys did.

Today I didn’t get the deep bites. They did not pull water. As a result, I wasn’t able to pull them on the deep humps. So I went to Plan B. I went up on some shallow bars. Back in some creeks. On Boat docks. All of my shallow water plans, I went to them.

I sort of ran back and forth between deep and shallow, hoping to get a few deep bites. But you’re going to have days like this up here, especially this time of year. The fish are here today, gone tomorrow. I’m just happy I was able to recover.

Plans for tomorrow? My hands are in the air. My mind’s open. I’m leading by 13 ounces. I don’t want to make mistakes.

I’m hoping my deep fish will come back. And I certainly intend to fish for them.

Maybe we can put together another 14 or 15 pounds tomorrow.

But overall, I’m having a fantastic time. What can I say?