Entries from March 2008 ↓

This was another one of those times where I had several business and sponsor issues pressing. I swear I wasn’t intentionally avoiding this blog - or I guess I should say I wasn’t trying to avoid talking about what it’s like to NOT catch a big bag of fish in Florida.

Anyway, before I get to my fishing, I need to answer a question. Nick M. asked which of the LTX rods I would recommend for the shaky head. … The one I’d go for is the 6′-7″ medium spinning rod.

 I’m in between tournaments and, as is usually the case, business piled up on me. I was going to just move on, but I’m still thinking a little bit about Florida. And Florida, well, Florida was Florida again. As far as the tournament went at Toho went, I didn’t do as well as I’d like, and that’s the nicest way I know to put it. In fact, after fishing four days in two tournaments,  I never had less than seven pounds, but I never caught as much as 10. Some days I was proud to get what I did.

Before I talk more about Florida, let me tell you that I’m about to spend some time competing in the Ultimate Match Fishing tournament on the Outdoor Channel. I get to do it again because I won it last year. I’d love to tell you about it. I seriously would. Unfortunately, I’m not allowed to do that.

Anyway, if you followed the results in Kissimmee, you know I didn’t have a great tournament for the second time in a row. I vowed to change what I was doing when we went to Lake Toho, and I sort of did that. But nothing I tried helped enough.

Florida is just a funny state to fish in sometimes. There are several ways to fish, everybody knows it. The best way is a lot of times is to sight fish. But the thing about it is you’ve got to see the fish first. And that’s not as simple as it sounds.

You have to make a conscious choice during practice on how you’re going to fish the tournament. You have to set up your plan. One of those ways is to look for them. But you could spend all your time looking for fish, and then if you don’t see them what have you accomplished? I looked, but the beds I found were empty. And like I said, if you look for beds and you don’t find anything, you’ve blown a day. And it’s not like you can see everything. There’s 700 miles of shoreline on Toho.  

At Kissimmee, five guys found a spot on about 200 yards of shoreline where they found fish. That was a good spot, but that was about it. At least that was all any of us found. The five that fished in that 200-yard section did good.

KVD, who won the tournament, was not one of those sight fishing. He caught his fish on offshore grass. He was catching 15 to 16 pounds a day, so he fished a good tournament. … I believe I’ve said this before. But he’s one fine angler. No matter what, he’s going to catch them.

But no matter what you do, you’ve got to get a big bite to finish in the money. Forty of the 50 guys that finished in the money in Florida got one big bite in two days. I didn’t, so I didn’t make the cut. That’s what it’s like in Florida.

Well, Texas is next.

Today we finished the Sunshine Classic. Well, I didn’t finish today. I actually finished Friday. I struggled again. 

I came to Florida, knowing I’ve always had trouble. But I came here with a plan, and that plan was to fish these lakes differently than I have in the past. Here, what you have to do to be successful is to sit on an area. You sit and be patient and hope they bite in an eight or nine hours. That’s what I planned to do.

I finished 62nd, and that’s a lot better than 92nd, which I have done. But it’s not what I was looking for. I came in with a plan to be totally patient, but I didn’t have the confidence that I was the right area, so I moved. And, as a result, I didn’t get the fish and, therefore, didn’t fish a good tournament. It’s a guessing game sometimes, and if you’re not in the right spot, you can burn your whole time up and not catch a thing.

My style of fishing is moving around, finding them and then hunkering down - but it just doesn’t work here. And to be honest, luck plays a role sometimes on these Florida lakes. Just look at what happened today. Mike McClelland caught them today. Brian Snowden caught big bags for three days and didn’t catch a thing today. Look at the weights on the final 12. There were some awfully good anglers that didn’t catch many pounds worth of fish.

I’ll be perfectly honest, my goal coming here to this tournament was to get a check, finish in the money. And I didn’t even do that. My goal going into tournaments should be a lot higher than to finish in the top 50 and get a check.

Well, we’re in Florida again this coming week at Kissimmee.I’m going to change the way I approach things this time, I assure you.

Well, the Elite Series starts tomorrow. It’s the Sunshine Showdown on the Harris Chain of Lakes. As you can see in this picture, there are some administrative chores to take care of before we get on the lakes tomorrow.

But that wasn’t my biggest headache of the day. My biggest headache was knowing there are some killer spots on this lake, with big, big fish. And I’m leaving the boat ramp as No. 96. And that’s a bad piece of luck. Somebody might have a 20 pounds before I ever leave the dock.

And really, this is not as if there are all kinds of secret places on these lakes. It seems like there are four or five really good places to fish, where you can flat bring ‘em in. I saw an 8-pounder today and whole bunch of fives. But the thing is, everybody seems to know where the fish are.

It’s kind of a gut-check time for me. I’ve been fishing in these Florida waters since 1982. And I’ll be honest, I’ve never done real well here. In a way, I’m glad we’re here, because I always want another shot at these lakes. But I’ve got a lot of history that’s not good.

So, wish me luck. I’ll need some tomorrow.