Away for a few days, but I swear I’m not avoiding talking about Florida

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.