Me and my buddy Ryan Skoczylas decided to fish a little open tourney on Tippecanoe last Saturday. Only 8 boats showed up so they decided it would be winner take all along with a big bass prize. I had fished a tournament the previous weekend on Tippy and it had taken little less than 10 lbs to win, but with the weather we had and the fish pushing shallow, I expected that it was going to take more like 13 lbs or so to win. We headed out and started in a channel and I put a small keeper in the boat on a Berkley Grass Pig swimbait. We noticed that the water was off colored and there were carp spawning in the shallows, which can turn off the bass bite. We headed for the main lake and immediately started seeing tons of little bass on beds. The water had warmed up about 10 degrees in a week. Im not going to detail the rest of the day, because we caught so many fish that it was absolutely ridiculous. We searched and searched for a big fish on a bed. At the end of the day with an hour left I found the one we needed. It was at least 4.5 lbs and there was no male on the bed with her. I spent about 30 minutes trying to back off and let her settle down, but she just would not stay on the bed. We knew our lack of a big fish would cost us, and it did. We ended with a limit for just shy of 10 lbs. and the winner had 12 something. That fish we found would have culled us up into the high 12 lb range. But it was definitely a fun day, and we had somewhere in the ballpark of 45 to 50 keepers. We caught them on a wide variety of baits, from a dropshot, to a senko, a Berkley Power Hawg, and swimbaits. All were largemouth except one 15 inch smallie that I caught off of a bed. Fun day but no win. We'll get them next time........ Oh and Sunday I went with Andy Buss to a mystery lake for his R&B Bass Circuit's Day on the Lake article. I wont be blogging about that day until after the article, but you can see it on his website www.randbbasscircuit.com later this week

Another Wednesday nighter with Mike Smoker last night. 17 boats showed up to fish and we were feeling confident about our chances. The river has been good to us this time of year. We drew boat 3 and headed for the channels to try and catch some spawners. I boated a little keeper about 10 minutes in. We scoured the seawalls looking for beds but with the clouds and rain it was tough to see anything. Mike added another little keeper to the box a little later on a texas rigged craw. We headed further back into the channel only to find my buddies Kris Thornton and Chuck Lee putting their 5th fish in the boat already. We worked around the channel looking for beds and throwing a senko, swimbait, and small craws. We I made a long cast to a bed and caught another keeper on a little craw on a shaky head. By the time we left the channel to head to another, we had 4 keepers in the box between 13 and 14 inches. We headed for another channel and looked around but werent able to find a decent fish locked on a bed. I finally caught another little 12 inch keeper on the little craw in the middle of the channel. We left knowing we needed to find some better fish. We headed for one more area to spend the last hour of the tourney. As we cruised down the bank I made long casts ahead of the boat at any light spot that could indicate a bed. I caught several more keepers that helped our bag slightly, but we just couldnt find a good one. At the very end of the night we finally found a good one, about 3 pounds. Problem was we only had 15 minutes left and the light had faded enough that I couldnt see good enough to fish for it. We headed out towards the main river and I made one last cast to a big rock in the water hoping a nice smallie might be bedding next to it. I threw my craw next to the rock and my line started swimming. I set the hook and fought the fish to the boat, only to have it shake off as I swung into the boat. It was about a 1.5 or so pound smallie and would have culled us about a half pound. I wasnt really worried about it because I thought we were a long shot to even cash with a measly limit anyways. We watched as team after team brought up limits weighing between 5 and 6.7 pounds. Our whopping limit weighed 6.84 lbs and beat out several other bags weighing 6.77 and 6.76 and 6.3 lbs. Somehow we ended up winning 1st place. There were a lot of fish caught, but I think there were only 2 or 3 fish over 2 lbs caught, with the team of Fletcher/Fletcher taking big bass with a 2.37 smalljaw. Just need the weather to stabilize and the fish to get on a normal pattern and the weights should start to go up. Water temp was 53 degrees.

The first R&B tournament of the year was here and Mark Fennell and myself were feeling good about our chances of repeating as points champions this year. Well I can say that there is now a new points leader for the first time since last April. We won the first R&B last year and never gave up the lead. We hit the water to fish against 34 other teams. We drew boat 7 and I headed for the little honey hole that I had caught them in on wednesday night. However the water temp had dropped and the dish were not cooperating very well. We left the cut without a fish in the box and decided to hit another channel. The plan we had come up with was to fish around until the water warmed and it was easier to see the bed fish. Great plan! 2 hours in and we finally boxed a little 14 inch smallmouth as our first keeper on the main river. By now the sun was up and we started running around hitting all of the beds I had marked. We slowly put together a limit with a couple decent 2 lb range fish but couldnt find a good one that would stay put. I caught most of them on my favorite bed bait which is a berkley power hawg, which is similar to a brush hog. We zoomed around the channels looking for a big fish, and with an hour and a half left, we found it. I was a solid 3.5 lb largemouth and it was on a bed. I backed off and started to work the fish. After about 20 minutes I hopped the bait in front of the fished face and he sucked it in. I set the hook and fought the fish beside the boat. Mark grabbed the net and it got caught up on the windshield of my boat. I fought the fish at the side of the boat and it turned and came off. So there went the kicker we needed. We stuck around for the next 20 minutes and it looked like the fish was gonna calm back down, but it eventually left the bed and wouldn't stay on it. We headed to the ramp disapointed at the missed opportunity. The fish would have culled a little 1.25 lb. largemouth. It would have bumped our weight at least 2 lbs and probably more like 2.5 lbs. We weighed our limit for 9.72 lbs and were 2 tenths of a pound out of the money in 8th place. That one lost fish cost us 2nd or 3rd place and more than likely big bass being that a 3.2 lb smallie won big bass. Thats just the way it goes I guess. But I promise this... we are not out of the running for the points title. I hate getting beat, and from 11 points back we've got a mountain to climb, but it aint over yet!

Well me and gimpy. .. a.k.a Mike Smoker (still fishing left handed due to shoulder surgery) fished the River Wednesdays tourney on the 18th. There were a lot of boats (i think 18) that showed up for the evening tourney. Mike was able to get out for a little bit before the tournament to scout out some channels. He found a couple decent ones on beds and we drew a good number to we headed to some of the better ones. We pulled into a channel and started fishing for a couple on beds. We finally found a fish that would stay put and quickly boxed a 2.5 lb fish. We headed further back into the channel to the best fish Mike had found on a bed. It looked to be a solid 3 lb fish. The fish was staying on the bed but not real interested. After about 20 minutes of fishing for it I hooked it on a 4" berkley power hawg and Mike netted it. It was a solid 3.25 lber. So we exited the channel and went to another to catch a couple more that he had spotted. We arrived to find several of the fish he had found gone and several wouldnt show any interest in our baits. We moved further back and finally found 2 more that would eat. I caught one on the power hog and a minute later Mike caught the other on one of our hand poured craw baits. However these were only 1.5 lbs or so apiece. So now we've got 4 in the box for about 8.5. With an hour and a half left we headed for another channel. I picked up my rod with a berkley grass pig (swimbait) and made a long cast down the middle of the channel. A big fish waked behind the bait and came up and ate it. I dropped the rod tip and jacked him hard. I fought it to the boat and Mike netted it as the bait came flying out of its mouth. I was a solid 3.5 lb largemouth. I proceeded over the next 30 minutes to boat another 5 keepers on the swimbait with several other fish in the 2.5 lb range. We came in to weigh in confident and were pleased to see that our 13.3 lb limit was good for first and my 3.59 largemouth was good for big fish. We won $220 for our $30 entry. There were a couple good bags brought in and Kevin Fletcher and Mickey Thomas had over 11 lbs for second place.

We finally got a win! Seems like we've been stuck with a bunch of seconds, thirds, and fourth lately. Me and my buddy Jason Cook headed for Maxi early Sunday morning to fish an Anglers Dream tournament. I'm fishing the circuit with Mike Smoker so that we can try to defend our Championship crown from Houghton last year, but due to his shoulder surgery a few weeks ago, we decided I would use a sub due to the forecast of 30 MPH wind and possibility we would be fishing in 3 footers. We arrived at the ramp and were greeted by stiff winds already howling by takeoff. We drew boat number 3 out of 12 boats and decided to start on a main lake spot where fish stage before heading shallower to spawn. We pulled up on the spot and I was already fighting the wind to hold and work it over. I was throwing an Golby colered Erie darter on a 3/16 oz. D's jighead and 8 lb. Berkeley trilene 100 % fluoro. I tossed the darter towards the shallow break and felt a little tick. I reared back on it and realized it was a big fish. I told Jason it might be a walleye. I fought it near the boat and saw it was a long fish. I still thought it might be a walleye. I dug under the boat and I pulled it up where Jason could scoop it up. It was a giant large mouth. To start the day with a 4.5 lb large mouth 10 minutes into the day was huge. We settled down after dropping it in the box knowing if we could put together a decent limit to go with it we would be tough to beat. We fished the area for the next hour and only caught 3 more shorts. We headed for the channels to try and catch a couple more keepers. An hour later and about 10 more shorts we still had one in the box. Still not panicking I re rigged a couple road and told Jason we needed to change things up. I tied on a 3/4 oz spinnerbait and a drop shot and we headed out into the wind. Over the next 45 minutes we caught 5 keeper smallies on a spinnerbait, trap, and a couple I caught off beds on the drop shot. But they were small keepers. We headed to a new area and I immediately saw a good one on a bed with another decent one 10 feet away on another bed. Jason worked on one while I worked the other. He caught his fairly quickly and it was a solid keeper that helped us. I could not get the bigger one to cooperate. I switched baits and made a long pitch to the bed and the fish bit. It came up and jumped and I saw it was a good one. I fought it on my 6 lb test drop shot rig and Jason scooped it up. It was a solid smallie in the 3 lb range. A good one for Maxi. We knew if we could upgrade a few more we would be in good shape. We worked through a few more areas and were able to make a couple more small culls with tubes, drop shot, and traps. We headed to the north side of the lake to fish in the 3 foot waves. Jason threw his trap out and loaded up on a good one. He fought a 3.5 lb range large mouth to the boat and it turned 10 feet away and came off! Killer miss. Nonetheless we headed back towards the ramp 30 minutes later when I could no longer keep my long shaft Minn Kota in the water due to bucking 3 foot waves. I pulled up to an area where I had marked a good one on a bed earlier and couldn't catch to try it again. It wasn't there. So we got 15 minutes left and I decided to try another one on a bed that I hadn't been able to catch earlier. However the clouds had moved in and I couldn't see it. I got close to the way point and pitched my drop shot where I thought the bed should be. I got bit immediately and set the hook on another upgrade fish. We netted it and I quickly put it on the balance beam to see if it helped. It did and we headed for the ramp to check in. We went to the scales pretty confident but worried thelost large mouth would cost us. We put the fish on the scales and were pleasantly surprised to see the big fish weighed 4.77 lbs and our total bag was 12.98 lbs. It was good for first and big bass worth $590. Second place was a buddy of mine Jason Ditmar with his partner Dave Eggers with a limit for 10.5 lbs. Fun day on an awesome lake. Thanks for reading.

Andy Buss and I hit up Lake Manitou near Rochester, Indiana today for an early season tournament. With the crazy weather we've had lately, I didn't really know how far along in the spring movement the fish would be. I met Andy at a gas station and threw my gear in his boat and we headed to the lake. We arrived and saw a long line of boats waiting to dump in. There ended up being 34 boats signed up. We drew boat 22 and got in line to take off. As our number was called we decided to head to the south end of the lake with about 75% of the other boats in the tournament. We started outside a pad field and Andy quickly added a keeper on a lipless crank. We worked our way around the edge of the pads and I lost a keeper on a chatterbait. We fished around the area for about another 30 minutes without a bite and decided to make a move. Andy said he had a little area that can produce good fish occasionally and we headed for it. There were a lot of there boats in the area but none right on the spot. It was a little trough that was slightly deeper than the surrounding area. Andy caught another keep on the lipless crank. While he was putting it in the box I missed a bite. I fired my trap back to the spot and hooked up with our third keeper. Well, long story short, over the next hour we absolutely slammed them. We caught and culled about 20 fish. Lost track of exactly how many because a few were only 14 inches or so and wouldn't help our bag. It was insane at times with several doubles and getting bit several casts in a row. The only problem was that we only got one good bite about 3.5 lbs only to have it pull off just outside the nets reach. Over the rest of the day we ran around looking for a kicker. We caught several more keepers but couldn't find the big one we were looking for. The tournament was only 6 hours, so we headed for the ramp at 2 pm. There were a ton of fish weighed in and like typical manitou there were some big ones, but very few. A lot of teams had limits and ours left us in 5th out of 34 with 10.35 lbs. They paid 4 places and 4th weighed 10.60, 3rd weighed 11.09, 2nd weighed 11.9, and our buddies Steve Orange and Dennis Losee weighed a monster 17.5 lb. bag with a 4.5 kicker. They unlocked the pattern of the day (which they wouldn't reveal) and my lost fish cost us 3rd (and possibly 2nd) place. Still a fun day, its hard to complain about catching 30 keepers in 6 hours. The hot baits of the day for us were 1/2 oz. Lipless cranks, chatterbaits, and green pumpkin Erie darters on 1/4 oz. D's jigheads. Thanks for reading!

Well my good buddy Leo Reiter joined me tonight to fisha wednesday night tournament on Maggie's stretch of the joe. We had a total of nine boats show up on this freakishly hot March day. We fished 5pm to 8pm. The night started out on an interesting note with Leo being 20 minutes late due to having to pick up his vehicle from having the starter replaced. I started on a main river seawall and caught a little 12 inch keeper largemouth on a crankbait. Leo called shortly after and I picked him up at the ramp and we headed up river to try and find some monsters. We spot jumped around fishing jerbaits, crankbaits, and a couple other baits. I caught a decent keeper smallie on a crank off a shallow flat area. We caught a couple more small keepers off a point on a lipless crank. Leo added a decent keeper large mouth on a shaky head in a main river cut off some wood. We exited the little cut and worked our way up the bank to a little point, I added 2 more keeper large mouth on a square bill crank on a nothing looking bank. We worked over a little area with a bunch of wood looking for a kicker largemouth. We caught a couple small keepers the didn't help us. We moved up river a little farther to try and find a couple better fish. Leo hooked up with one and I started to go for the net but he realized it was a walleye. I started cranking my square bill again and my rod loaded up. A nice smallie came up and thrashed on the surface. I fought it to the boat and Leo slid the net under our best fish of the night. We fished a couple more spots and were soon out of time for the night. We headed back to the ramp not too thrilled with what was in the live well. We caught 10 or 11 keepers but never figured out a solid pattern for bigger fish. We probably should have slowed down a little and worked the better spots over. We weighed a limit for 7.82 lbs. Good for second place out of 9 boats. Scott Beard and his son beat us again for the second week in a row with a nice limit of large mouth weighing 10.80 lbs. They also had a kicker that weighed 3.2 lbs. The team of Lee and Guerrera had 5 that weighed 6.81 lbs. For third. There were two other limits as well but the bite was a little tough overall. Probably the fact that the water has warmed rapidly to 66 degrees on the main river and supposedly over 70 in the channels. It should be a very interesting spring fishing season. Oh on a side note apparently the genius' at indiana dnr decided to pass a slot limit I think for all rivers in indiana. Supposedly will take effect sometime this summer.

Yet another amazing day weather wise here in Northern Indiana. We got some guys together for a tournament on Duke's Bridge (Waldron Lake) today from 8 to 3. This has got to be one of my favorite lakes in the area to fish during prespawn/ spawn. There are some giants living here and me and my partners have weighed several 17 and 18 lb. bags early in the year. My hopes were high for the day and me and my partner Mike Smoker planned to hit all of our best prespawn areas looking for big staging females. The day started quickly with a small keeper mike caught on a lipless crank. We headed to another area and I caught another keeper on a 4" green pumpkin senko off a sand spot on a weed flat. We worked our way around the shallow weed edge and I connected with a solid keeper on a jerkbait. We kept working the area with a combination of lipless cranks and jerkbaits and mike hooked a giant on a crank. He carefully fought the fish to the boat and it made a last surge at the side of the boat and just pulled off. It was every bit of 5 lbs. Heartbraking. We proceeded to lose another couple small keepers on cranks and mike had one about 3 or 4 lbs swipe at a jerkbait and miss it. We moved back to our starting spot and I caught another small keeper on a lipless crank. We had an hour left and fished our way up the river towards the ramp. We caught a couple shorts and Mike had two more good fish both 3 lbs miss a jerkbait at boat side. We had 15 minutes and I decided to tie on a green pumpkin chatterbait. About my 3rd cast filled our limit after using almost all our fishing time. We caught a limit but were left wondering what would have happened if the fish would have cooperated and stayed buttoned. Oh well, can't win every time. Kris Thornton and Mark Fennell won with 5 fish for 12.98 and big fish with a monster 5.72 large mouth. A couple guys that entered our tournament after showing up to fun fish today, the team of Likens and Cline got second with 5 for 12.46 lbs. They also had a nice fish that weighed 4.38. Third went to the team of John Leader and Ken Holder who caught a limit for 10.35. They also had a 4 kicker! We were 4th with 5 for 8.65 lbs. There were I believe 8 or 9 teams and everyone caught at least one keeper. Good job today guys, we'll get you next time!

Fished against a bunch of my buddies tonight in a singles tournament on Six Span stretch of the St.Joseph River. It was unbelievably warm again today and its got the fish chomping. 14 guys showed up today and put in the $20 entry fee. So it was each guy for the self best five fish win. They decided to pay 4 places and big bass since it was a fun tournament. After getting off work I hustled home and hooked up my Champion boat and headed to Elkhart. I didn't get to the ramp until they were already taking off so I dmped the boat and parked my vehicle. I headed down river and stopped on one of my best stretches of bank after the first three spots I wanted to hit were being fished already. I threw everything in the boat, traps, cranks, tubes, you name it, for the first hour my only bite was about a "35 inch pike that took my redeye shad from me. So an hour into a 2.5 hour tourney I had nothing in the boat, zilch, not one fish. I adjusted a little and decided to try some spots with a little more current on them. This was a good move. I caught a couple keepers with one about 2.5 lbs on a lipless crank. I moved to a little point on a seawall and caught 3 more keeps on the crank and 2 on a D's tube. So in 30 minutes I had filled my limit and culled twice but still had some doinks in the well. I moved to another area that was a flat with a nice break and caught about 4 more keepers on the trap. So now I had 5 in the well for about 8 or 9 pounds. So now I got about 1 hour or so left and I moved up river a ways to another seawall with current on it. It was on fire. Over the next half hour I caught about 12 keepers and culled who knows how many times. Half the fish were on a trap and half were on a wiggle wart. I was catching them so quick that I was just eyeballing their size and culling. I had 30 minutes left and hit one more spot. It was on here too. I caught another 5 on the trap and 3 on the wart. I headed to weigh in with a solid bag but had lost 2 bigguns that would've helped considerably. I weighed five fish (4 smallies and 1 large mouth) for 12.57 lbs with a 3.07 lb smallie for my big fish. It was good enough for 2nd place. My buddy Scott Beard whacked them and edged me out of first with 5 for 12.68lbs. And a big fish of 3.10. Kris Thornton got third with 5 fish for 11.10, and Jason Horvath took the last pay spot with 5 fish for just shy of 11 lbs. It was a good night and I think 7 guys caught limits with some others close. Water temp was shockingly high for march 14th at 54 degrees on the main river and the water was pretty clear. Awesome 2.5 hours of fishing!

Went to lake Manitou near Rochester, Indiana today with Mark Fennel. The weather was absolutely amazing. For March 11th it was unbelievable to be fishing in 65 degree weather. We met up and towed my boat to the ramp. We met up with my buddy Bob Johnson and his dad to have a little fun tournament. We decided on fishing from about 9:45 when we got there until 3:00. Two biggest bass per boat $20 bucks per team. . . This was serious. We launched our boats to find the water at 42 degrees and a little color to the water. Mark and I started out on a shallow flat throwing lipless cranks. About 5 minutes in I hooked up with a fish in the 2.5 lb. range only to have it come unbuttoned. A few casts later I hooked up again and swung a small 14 inch keeper in the boat. I laughed and told Mark it was gonna be a good day and we didn't need this little runt and threw it back. Well probably 40 minutes later we hadn't had another bite. Smooth move throwing a keeper back huh? Well we worked our way back around to the little area where I caught the first fish and I turned the boat to work the area over. I hooked up again and swung a 2 lb. Fish in the boat. This one went in the well. Over the next 10 minutes I caught 6 more keepers and one short in the small area and we culled twice leaving us with two keepers about 2.5 lbs. in the live well. We worked over a few more main lake areas over the next couple hours and Mark caught one little keeper that didn't help us along with one more runt I caught. After the smoke cleared we ended up with 2 for about 5 lbs. Nothing special but can't complain. Bob and his dad caught about 10 keepers, but came up slightly shy of our 2 fish bag weight. They reported that most of their keepers came on blade baits. Still a great day to be out and we got the $20.....this time.

Hit the river with my buddy and tournament partner Kris Thornton tonight in his ranger. It was warmer than a typical February day, but not warm by any means. Between the drizzling rain and howling wind, it was chilly. We pretty much devoted our night to the channels, and were able to fish from about 3:30 pm until about 6:00 pm. The fish were biting surprisingly well. I won't get super in depth, because all of our fish were caught in 2 to 5 foot of water and all were caught on small erie darters in green pumpkin copper that I hand pour with Mike Smoker. We caught them on the darter rigged on drop shot and also on 1/8 oz. D's jig heads. We tallied about 20 smallmouth (all but maybe 2 were keepers) for the night, and Kris lost one decent largemouth. Nothing real big, but we probably could have squeezed out a 9 or 10 lb. limit. Not near as big as the limit that the guy in the aluminum boat fishing with shiners on my prime spot could have had.. . .but it beats ice fishing I guess. Oh and I wouldn't throw any expensive lures in the channels on this stretch, we saw enough pike that I would be a little nervous swimming in there. Not really. . . .but lots of pike. By the way water temp was about 40 and clear.

My first tournament of 2012 is officially in the books. I'm not gonna sit here and pretend like I'm super satisfied with my 59th place finish, but it is what it is. If I only looked at my final placement and some of the guys I beat (guys like Omori, Jordan, Scroggins, Thliveros, B.Lane, Fukae, Wendlandt, etc.) Then I can't be too disappointed. It is simply the fact that I had a strong start on day one that leaves me kicking myself a little for not capitalizing on it. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't on anything real consistent in practice, but was able to capitalize on the few bites I had day 1 and make a run at a good finish. I only caught a small limit day 2 but lost several fish that would have moved me up substantially. I caught my fish this week flipping with a 7'6" heavy rod, 65# braid, a 5/0 trokar flippin hook and either a black/blue beaver or berkley chigger craw. The cover was just so heavy that it was hard to get the fish out of. I had to resort to catching a couple little keepers on day 2 to fill my limit at the end of the day. Lack of experience in florida killed me day 2 when my fish shut off. Its something that I will improve on with more time on the water. Later this week I will post a detailed article on exactly how my practice and tournament days went and what I did. Thanks for reading.

Well practice is over. I don't really know what to say besides this tournament could go real good or real bad or somewhere in between. Let me clarify that anything outside of the money would be considered a bad tournament. I think I've got one area I can catch some fish in consistently and one area that could have potential but is more of a gamble but has better size fish. I didn't catch a lot of fish in the one area, but the ones I did catch were good ones. So now I have to figure out whether I want to gamble on being able to get enough bites or go with the more consistent area. I guess I will have to decide tomorrow based on the weather and my gut feeling. I feel like the weights will be down from what they were last year because the fish seem to be acting a little funny. This will not be a spawning tournament like I thought it would be, that I am almost sure of. So I need to make a decision which of the staging areas I will fish. It all comes down to decision making in this game, and I have 1 day to decide which direction to go. I have faith in my skills and my areas so we will see. Today didn't go great cuz the wind blew like 25mph but I will work with what I got. Stay tuned to my facebook and blog for more updates. Thanks!

Alright, well the Big O was fun today, but a little stingy. Me and Leo hit the water at daylight (6:00am) and fished hard right until dark (7:00pm). I'll admit the fishing was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. I expected the bite to be crazy good everywhere, and that was not the case. We started out checking on a couple spots that I fished last year and there were some fish there. I caught a 4.5 lber right off the bat, a couple small keepers, and shook off a pretty good one. Leo also caught a couple little keepers and shook off a real good one. Our bites were on a combination of reaction baits and slow baits (i'll have to get into that more later in the week. . .) So after 30 minutes or so in the area we left looking for new water. We spent the rest of the day looking at new water. We fished the outside edge, reeds, hyacinths, hydrilla, pads, and everything else in between. The bites were jsut very sporadic throughout the day. We saw very few fish on beds and the ones that were there were small bucks. But most of the beds we saw were empty. We flipped til our heads were spinning and just couldnt get anything consistent going. The bright sides to the day was that I do have one area holding at least some decent fish, and I still have 2 days of practice left. I will fish daylight to dark every day, and I will do everything in my power to put together a solid finish. So overall, I'm not thrilled, but I do have something to look forward to. By the way the water temp was 70 to 75 everywhere and the water was clear inside the grass lines and a little dirty in most areas outside the grassline. Thanks for reading I'll update tomorrow.

Well I will be on the road in less than a week now. I have been watching the weather in Clewiston, Florida for the last 2 weeks now and it is shaping up to be great conditions for our tournament. This week the high temps down there are going to be between 70 and 80 degrees with lows in the high 50's to low 70's. Stability is everything in Florida, and with the full moon hitting right around the start of our tournament the big pre-spawn females should be cruising the shallows looking to spawn. The extended forecast shows cloudy weather for the first 2 days of practice next Sunday and Monday which could make it a little difficult to locate the big bedding fish, but it should still be prime. This week I will be finalizing my tackle and boat preparations to make sure I can manage my time during the practice and tournament. With approximately 11 hours of daylight each day, I will have about 30 hours of time to locate enough fish to last at least 2 (hopefully 3 or 4) days of the tournament. And with only a 3 day practice period we are allowed, I will fishing daylight to dark every day to cover as much of the 730 square miles of water. That's half the size of the state of Rhode Island. . . gotta love it. The area I fished last year was a 35 mile run one-way to get to my first spot. Keep posted for my updates during practice and the tournament.

Well in a little less than two weeks I will be on my way to lake Okeechobee in florida to fish the FLW Tour Open as a Pro. Yesterday the Everstart tournament on the Big O concluded with the winning pro having a three day total of just over 68 lbs. Thats about 22 lbs per day. While that sounds like a lot of weight, I am predicting the weights to be even bigger when we hit the lake for the Tour tourney. Based on the weather forecast and the fact that the full moon hits just before our tournament, it should be another slugfest like last year. I chose not to go down to the Big O to pre practice this year to try and concetrate on the current conditions more and try to dial in to the fish during the official practice just before the tournament. Right now I am finalizing my research and game plan for practice and getting all of my gear around. I can't wait for this tournament. I think I've got the rookie season jitters out of my system and I'm ready to go out and try and whoop on some of these legends of the sport ;) Ok well Im gonna try my best anyways. . .. wish me luck!

Went to my very very favorite lake in Indiana today! That was some pretty thick sarcasm (in case you didnt catch it). I actually dont care much for the lake. I enjoy fishing it, but it always seems to get the better of me. Mark Fennell and myself teamed up today to get whooped up on by Andy Buss and Steve Prange. We fished about six hours today in the 35 degree water. Our plan for the day was foiled pretty quick when the channels we were hoping to fish were frozen enough that we couldnt get it them. We resorted to fishing the main lake with blade baits, darters, grubs, and some other random baits. One short and 2 hours later we made a move to another spot that is always good in cold water and our competitors were locked on it. This proved to be the decision of the day by them as they continued to whack the bass ending with I think 7 keepers on the day, with their best 5 probably going about 10 lbs or so and anchored by a 3 lb. 5 oz. largemouth. After pulling up and watching them catch a few we went looking for a different spot. Never really found it. We struggled along to catch 3 shorts and one small keeper on a blade bait. Congratulations boys! Your $40 win was well deserved.

Well me and Mark Fennel hit up Six Span stretch of the st.joe today. The water was clear and the water temp was 37 on the main river and 40 in the channels. We had a 3 boat fun tournament $40 per boat (10 fish limit). The other teams were one boat with Andy Buss, Bryan Ritchie, and Gary Price. The other team was a boat with John Leader and Ken Holder. We started the day in a channel and caught 6 keepers pretty quick on blade baits and darters. The bite slowed and we hit the main river looking for bigger smallies. Well 3 hours later we were still looking for our first bite. So back to the channels to try and fill our limit in the last 1.5 hours. We filled our limit on darters and single tail grubs. We also caught like 7 pike today most probably between 22" and 34". So despite wasting 3 hours fishing 5 or so of mine and Marks best main river spots, we did eventually fill our 10 fish limit. Back at the ramp the team of Buss, Ritchie, and Price ended on top with 10 fish for around 15 lbs. We ended with 10 fish for just shy of their weight, and the team of Leader and Holder was just behind us with 9 keepers just shy of our weight. All in all, not a bad day for the last day of the year. Happy New Year everyone!

I had the pleasure of spending the day on magician lake with Andy Buss and Steve Prange in Andy's skeeter today. While it was an enjoyable day, the fish did not feel like cooperating whatsoever! We decided on a friendly bet of $20 per man for total inches of keepers (we didnt have a scale) with an additional wager of $1 for first keeper and $1 for big bass. I have to admit from everything I had heard about this lake I expected to whack some cold water bass today. We chunked silver buddies, erie darters, tubes, and jerkbaits for most of the day with only 1 short largemouth to show for it. I decided to put on one of my old standby's, a 5" kalins single tail grub (eds smoke color) on a 1/4 oz. D's worm nose jighead. This proved to be the most productive bait of the day for me. I put 2 small keepers in the boat on my single tail grub and Andy later added another short largemouth on a blade. After 6 hours of fishing I ended on top of the high stakes wager and took the $44 pot by the score of: Teddy (2 keepers) 29.5" Andy 0 keepers and Steve 0 keepers. Pathetic is all I can say. Oh well, great weather for December 18th. Can't complain too much.

Keep tuned to read my posts on my new bassin blog! I will be making posts after every fishing trip I make, whether it be tournament or practice or fun fishing. In these posts I will discuss my thoughts on the baits I used, observations about the bass, and other thoughts. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for updates! Feel free to leave any questions or comments I would love to respond.


Teddy