Teddy Bradley
Professional Bass Tournament Angler
Professional Bass Tournament Angler
Okeechobee FLW Tour Open ~ Feb. 9th - 12th 2012
Practice Day 1 ~
Well after the long 20+ hour 1300 mile drive to get to the Big-O , Me, my good buddy Leo Reiter, and his friend Mike Daley, who both reside in Illinois now, checked into one of the many condos at Roland Martin's Marina. It was nice to be staying right around the corner from the ramp that we would be taking off out of. Mike and Leo would be fishing the tournament as co-anglers, while I would be fishing as a pro. Leo practiced with me each day, while Mike was able to tag along with Gary Yamamoto one day and another with my friend JT Palmore from Virginia. My plan for day one of practice was to figure out what stage the fish were in as well as to try and determine what I needed to be looking for during the next 2 days of practice. I decided to trailer my boat to the North side of the lake and launch in the lower part of the Kissimee River to explore some of the areas that I had caught fish the year before. I fully expected the fish to be spawning and roaming the shallows like crazy with the warm weather recently and the forthcoming full moon. My first stop was to a large spawning flat on the north end that the bass had been abundant in the year before. We made a quick pass with swimbaits, frogs, and swim jigs without more than a couple small bites to show for it. The vegetation had really taken over the area and it was pretty clear that the bass were not using it like they did the year before. I told Leo we were going to keep moving. My next stop was a shallower backwater area where I had caught a 6.5 and a couple 4's the first day of the tournament last year off beds. The sun was not really up good yet so it was a little hard to see but I figured if they were there we would get bit on our swimbaits and frogs. As I pulled in and started fishing around Luke Clausen pulled up shortly after and started fishing, as did Andy Morgan and a couple other pros. We shook off a couple bites with the other boats around and I had one that wouldn't spit the bait and was forced to reel in a solid 4.5 lber on a skinny dipper. Leo shook off another quality bite on a horny toad. I figured this was good enough for me and knew that there would be a few to be caught in the tournament here. The only thing I didnt like was the fact that the vegetation in the area seemed to be dying, like it had been sprayed recently. In my experience this can force the majority of the fish to pull out of an area. My next move was to an area that I hadn't fished before but has been known to produce some heavy bags at times. We made the run and proceeded to flip a beaver, chigger craw, and throw some moving baits around the area and it seemed dead. We caught a couple little ones and saw a ton of empty beds around. We explored about a 1.5 mile stretch of cattails and backwater areas with nothing to show for it. There were a lot of other competition boats around but I wasn't real confident with what we found. We then moved back North to an area near the mouth of the river and spent our last 2 hours of daylight fishing around the area and only had about 6 bites to show for it and none of them were quality. All of the bites we had in the last 2 hours were flipping a mix of matted vegetation and hyacinths with a 1 to 1.5 ounce weight and either a beaver or chigger craw. What I learned the first day of practice was that the bass were either not really spawning, or that they were mostly done spawning on the north end of the lake already.
Practice Day 2 ~
So day 2 I wasn't yet convinced that the north end of the lake wouldn't produce. A lot of the top finishers always catch them on the north end. We trailered about and hour north again to launch the boat out of Harney Pond Canal this time and spent the first half of the day fishing the north shore with very spotty results. I hadn't yet found the clear water on the outside hard edge that I was looking for. This is where I messed up in my practice. I didn't spend the time flipping the thick matted vegetation in the Dyess Ditch area of the north shore or in the Monkey Box. These are both known areas, but I was running out of time and didn't see anything that made me excited. This would be 2 of the areas where some of the monster bags were caught in the tournament. So half way through my second day of practice the wind is blowing like 20 and I was starting to go into panic mode. I know I still have 1.5 days of practice left, but I dont have anything solid to go on yet and conditions (rain, clouds, wind) were getting frustrating. So I told Leo we were making a run. I ran about 15 miles South to an area on the West side where I had found good numbers of spawning fish the year before and also had found some flipping fish on the outside edge of the cattails. With the waves bucking us around and the clouds, looking for bedding fish was out of the question so we picked up our flipping sticks and started working the edge of my best area from the year before. The edge was beautiful. It was exactly what I was looking for. Let me explain why. The area featured a mix of vegetation with a wide band of eelgrass that kept the dirtier water out in the lake and kept the water on the edge clean. There were also a lot of blown over cattails with pockets of chopped up eelgrass that gave the bass a lot of cover. Working with the wind we were covering the edge very quickly, faster than I would have liked. But nonetheless I quickly connected on a solid 5+ lb largemouth flipping a beaver with a 1 ounce weight. About 10 minutes later Leo set the hook on another big one, this time in the 7 lb range. About 10 minutes later Leo gets another bite and looks at me like, "what should I do?" I told him to shake it off if he could. The fish half hooked itself and we got a look at another big one in the 5 lb. range. By now the wind was blowing even harder so we started heading back north to get out of the wind a little and check some other areas. I now had some confidence, but still only one area that I had confidence was holding quality and some numbers. We had 3 quality bites in about 40 minutes. I decided that I would come back and expand on the area the next day. We headed north and fished around the north shore and I caught another one like 4.5 lbs at the end of the day flipping some matted hyacinths. Other than that we only had a couple other small fish to show for our efforts.
Practice Day 3 ~
So I decided that we would launch on the south end of the lake for the last practice day and try to expand on what I had found the day before. We ran to the area we had caught the quality fish and started working the other way down the hard edge. This stretch didnt look quite as good to me with less knocked over reeds and chopped up eelgrass, but we fished it flipping beavers and chigger craws and we had like 8 bites in the first 1.5 hours, but only one or two quality fish. The couple we set up on were only 2 to 2.5 lbs. but would be good filler fish for a limit. So I dropped waypoints along the stretch where I thought I could catch some quality fish and waypoints where I thought I could fill my limit if needed. I had about a 300 yard stretch for big fish and about another 400 yards where I could catch keepers. I was fairly confident with the area except for the fact that the wind was forcasted to blow 10 to 20 mph out of the NE which would make it hard to fish. I headed South towards the ramp to try and find some areas for the end of the day, and the pickings were slim. A couple small keepers was all we could manage. I decided to make the run to the far Southeast side of the lake and fish South Bay to make sure I wasnt missing something. We caught a couple decent fish down South, but nothing to justify the run down there during the tournament. I would later find out that some guys were catching some good fish down there, but most were grouped up in one small area that I apparently never found. So we fished around down South and then looked around a little right near the ramp and never found anything good enough to constitute fishing in the tournament. Now I just had to get all of my tackle around and sit there on the off-limits day and think about the tournament. I had mixed feelings on how my practice went. I knew from talking to a few of my buddies that the bite was a little off right now and it seemed that there were few areas that were producing much consistently.
Tournament Day 1 ~
Well day 1 began with stiff winds and my head was spinning wondering whether my water would be fishable and how many boats were going to be on it. I was boat 96 I believe first day so there was plenty of time to get nervous while I sat and watched 95 pros head out in front of me. My number was finally called and I headed out of the canal towards the open waters of Okeechobee. When we reached open water we were greeted by more chop on the water than I thought there would be. My co-angler and I made our way towards the edge I wanted to fish and was delighted to see there were only a couple other boats in the area. The problem was that the wind was making it difficult to fish the edge and to hold with the trolling motor. I decided to give it a shot and see whether it would work or not. I had to, it was the only decent concentration of fish I had found. The water stayed clear on the edge, which told me the fish would still be there, they just might be a little harder to catch. The other obstacle I ran into was that with the wind blowing hard into my side of the lake, the water level was probably a foot or so higher than it had been before and the cover was being pushed farther back into the cattails. I started off about 15 minutes in with a fish in the 2 lb. range. This gave me confidence that I could at least still catch a few here. A while later while working my prime stretch I caught a fish in the 5 lb range and swung it in the boat. That's the beauty of using a 7'6" heavy action rod and 65# braid. The fish was clearly just post-spawn and very beat up and weak looking. I put 2 more small keepers in the box in the next hour while fighting the bucking waves and wind. I grinded it out flipping methodically down the edge and made a pitch with my 1.5 oz. weight and black/blue beaver into a little point in the cattails. I got bit immediately and jacked one about 4 lbs. the fish got caught up in some matted up reeds and I used the trolling motor to go in after her. I reached down and lipped the fish and it went in the box. So now I'm sitting on 2 good fish, a 2 lber, and 2 dinks. But a limit nonetheless and I still got 4+ hours to fish. My next bite was way back in some matted junk and somehow I set the hook and busted my 65 lb. braid! It was my own fault. Sometimes when we are using big line we don't think there's any way to break it, but with a tungsten weight and a stiff rod, you still gotta watch it. I dont know how big the fish was, maybe 12 inches, maybe 8 lbs. I'll never know. I caught another one about 3 lbs. or so shortly after to get rid of a 13 incher. I caught a couple keepers in the next hour that culled ounces apiece, but I still had one about 1.5 lbs. As I worked around a point on the edge I made a long pitch into some heavy cover and set the hook on another decent one. The fish hung up in the junk and I couldnt get him out. So here I am about 8 feet from a 3 lb. fish that will cull me 1.5 lbs. I did the only thing I could think of and pulled the trolling motor up and holding my push-pole in one hand and my rod in one hand I pushed the nose of my boat back into the thick matted junk. I finally got close enough I could reach it and got my hands on the fish. So now I figured I had a decent enough bag to not be out of contention for a check anyways. When I came in to check in, I didn't think I had as much weight as I did, but my 5 fish weighed 17 lbs. 15oz. on the scales. Unfortunately the big post-spawn fish I had caught died in the livewell and I lost 8 ounces in a penalty bringing my total to 17lbs. 7oz. I was thrilled with the weight and was even more thrilled to be sitting in 27th place out of 160 pros on day one. With the practice I had, I didnt expect to be sitting just outside the top-20 cut weight. And the best part was that I thought if the wind would die down a little like it was projected to, I could catch them even better.
Tournament Day 2 ~
I was a slightly earlier boat number on day 2 which meant I would get to leave earlier, but my day would be slightly shorter as well. When we arrived at my key stretch, the wind was a lot less violent, but the number of boats in the area had quadrupled. I immediately noticed that the water level was down in the area and the water had cleared substantially. I even noticed a couple of small bass on beds around the reeds, but most looked to be barely keepers. I caught 2 small keepers fairly quickly and continued to flip the edge where I had caught them the day before. About 3 hours into day 2 I was still sitting on 3 small keepers and was starting to panic a little. I told my co-angler I was going to make a run to the area up north where I had caught a couple decent ones the first day of practice. I figured if nothing else I could at least add a couple 2 lbers to fill my limit. After making the 20 minute run north, I pulled up to my area and noticed there were not any other boats around. For those who have not been to the Big-O, when there aren't any other boats around, there probably aren't any fish around either. I idled in and started fishing down the key area where we had probably 6 or 7 bites the first day of practice. The next 45 minutes fishing around the area produced exactly one bite from a short fish. Now its time to panic. Half the day is gone and Ive only got 3 in the box for about 3.5 pounds. So back to the west side we go. 20 minutes of running and we're back on my best stretch. I made one pass and caught another small 14 inch keeper. So now I decided I was going to stick it out and flip the rest of the day. Surely I could manage one decent keeper in the last 2 hours. So about half way down my best stretch I made a pitch into a thick clump of blown over reeds and a fish popped it on the way down. I swung with all my might and a solid 3.5 lber comes thrashing to the surface and comes off! When you're fishing this way you are gonna lose fish, its part of the game. So as irritated as I was, at least I was getting a couple bites. I worked my way down the edge and made another pitch back in some matted eelgrass and got bit again. I set the hook and this time a 2lber. comes to the surface and this one comes off too! Now I'm steamed. I flipped the edge for the next 45 minutes or so and couldnt manage another bite. So as thrilled as I was to be sitting in 27th after day one, now Im 30 minutes from bringing in 4 fish and maybe not even getting a check. Then the little spawners I had seen earlier came to mind. If I could at least catch another keeper it should be at least enough to salvage a check and get my money back. I made my way down to the area where I had seen the small fish on beds and buzzed along looking for one that would meet the 12" minimum size limit. I finally spotted one that looked like it would keep and it took about 5 minutes and I had a 13 incher to fill my limit. I went back to flipping for the remainder of my time and wasn't able to get bit. As I idled in to check in I had a million thoughts running through my head about what I did wrong. I weighed my fish and my total was a whopping 6lbs. 3oz. It looked to be about 50/50 whether my little limit would be enough to keep me in check range, but almost surely wouldn't be enough to keep me in the top 50 for a $10,000 check. As I watched the bags come to the scales it was a little frustrating seeing guys bring in little limits with one great big fish and slip by me in weight. After the dust cleared my 2 day total of 23 lbs. 10 oz. was enough to secure a 59th place finish (they paid down to 70th) so I got a check for $4,000. Looking back, I can't really be too dissapointed with my finish when I look at some of the big names I did beat. It is only dissapointing if I look at the ending I had after a solid day one. But this sport is all about learning, and I learned a lot in this tournament and I will be able to use the knowledge I've gained to achieve better finishes in the future. This was my 3rd pro tournament at the top level and I have cashed in 2 out of 3. I am happy with my consistency and with finishes of 45th, 59th, and 86th out of 160 pros I've still got a lot of room to improve. I promise you that with time and more experience I can get to the level I know I can be at. Thanks for reading!
Well after the long 20+ hour 1300 mile drive to get to the Big-O , Me, my good buddy Leo Reiter, and his friend Mike Daley, who both reside in Illinois now, checked into one of the many condos at Roland Martin's Marina. It was nice to be staying right around the corner from the ramp that we would be taking off out of. Mike and Leo would be fishing the tournament as co-anglers, while I would be fishing as a pro. Leo practiced with me each day, while Mike was able to tag along with Gary Yamamoto one day and another with my friend JT Palmore from Virginia. My plan for day one of practice was to figure out what stage the fish were in as well as to try and determine what I needed to be looking for during the next 2 days of practice. I decided to trailer my boat to the North side of the lake and launch in the lower part of the Kissimee River to explore some of the areas that I had caught fish the year before. I fully expected the fish to be spawning and roaming the shallows like crazy with the warm weather recently and the forthcoming full moon. My first stop was to a large spawning flat on the north end that the bass had been abundant in the year before. We made a quick pass with swimbaits, frogs, and swim jigs without more than a couple small bites to show for it. The vegetation had really taken over the area and it was pretty clear that the bass were not using it like they did the year before. I told Leo we were going to keep moving. My next stop was a shallower backwater area where I had caught a 6.5 and a couple 4's the first day of the tournament last year off beds. The sun was not really up good yet so it was a little hard to see but I figured if they were there we would get bit on our swimbaits and frogs. As I pulled in and started fishing around Luke Clausen pulled up shortly after and started fishing, as did Andy Morgan and a couple other pros. We shook off a couple bites with the other boats around and I had one that wouldn't spit the bait and was forced to reel in a solid 4.5 lber on a skinny dipper. Leo shook off another quality bite on a horny toad. I figured this was good enough for me and knew that there would be a few to be caught in the tournament here. The only thing I didnt like was the fact that the vegetation in the area seemed to be dying, like it had been sprayed recently. In my experience this can force the majority of the fish to pull out of an area. My next move was to an area that I hadn't fished before but has been known to produce some heavy bags at times. We made the run and proceeded to flip a beaver, chigger craw, and throw some moving baits around the area and it seemed dead. We caught a couple little ones and saw a ton of empty beds around. We explored about a 1.5 mile stretch of cattails and backwater areas with nothing to show for it. There were a lot of other competition boats around but I wasn't real confident with what we found. We then moved back North to an area near the mouth of the river and spent our last 2 hours of daylight fishing around the area and only had about 6 bites to show for it and none of them were quality. All of the bites we had in the last 2 hours were flipping a mix of matted vegetation and hyacinths with a 1 to 1.5 ounce weight and either a beaver or chigger craw. What I learned the first day of practice was that the bass were either not really spawning, or that they were mostly done spawning on the north end of the lake already.
Practice Day 2 ~
So day 2 I wasn't yet convinced that the north end of the lake wouldn't produce. A lot of the top finishers always catch them on the north end. We trailered about and hour north again to launch the boat out of Harney Pond Canal this time and spent the first half of the day fishing the north shore with very spotty results. I hadn't yet found the clear water on the outside hard edge that I was looking for. This is where I messed up in my practice. I didn't spend the time flipping the thick matted vegetation in the Dyess Ditch area of the north shore or in the Monkey Box. These are both known areas, but I was running out of time and didn't see anything that made me excited. This would be 2 of the areas where some of the monster bags were caught in the tournament. So half way through my second day of practice the wind is blowing like 20 and I was starting to go into panic mode. I know I still have 1.5 days of practice left, but I dont have anything solid to go on yet and conditions (rain, clouds, wind) were getting frustrating. So I told Leo we were making a run. I ran about 15 miles South to an area on the West side where I had found good numbers of spawning fish the year before and also had found some flipping fish on the outside edge of the cattails. With the waves bucking us around and the clouds, looking for bedding fish was out of the question so we picked up our flipping sticks and started working the edge of my best area from the year before. The edge was beautiful. It was exactly what I was looking for. Let me explain why. The area featured a mix of vegetation with a wide band of eelgrass that kept the dirtier water out in the lake and kept the water on the edge clean. There were also a lot of blown over cattails with pockets of chopped up eelgrass that gave the bass a lot of cover. Working with the wind we were covering the edge very quickly, faster than I would have liked. But nonetheless I quickly connected on a solid 5+ lb largemouth flipping a beaver with a 1 ounce weight. About 10 minutes later Leo set the hook on another big one, this time in the 7 lb range. About 10 minutes later Leo gets another bite and looks at me like, "what should I do?" I told him to shake it off if he could. The fish half hooked itself and we got a look at another big one in the 5 lb. range. By now the wind was blowing even harder so we started heading back north to get out of the wind a little and check some other areas. I now had some confidence, but still only one area that I had confidence was holding quality and some numbers. We had 3 quality bites in about 40 minutes. I decided that I would come back and expand on the area the next day. We headed north and fished around the north shore and I caught another one like 4.5 lbs at the end of the day flipping some matted hyacinths. Other than that we only had a couple other small fish to show for our efforts.
Practice Day 3 ~
So I decided that we would launch on the south end of the lake for the last practice day and try to expand on what I had found the day before. We ran to the area we had caught the quality fish and started working the other way down the hard edge. This stretch didnt look quite as good to me with less knocked over reeds and chopped up eelgrass, but we fished it flipping beavers and chigger craws and we had like 8 bites in the first 1.5 hours, but only one or two quality fish. The couple we set up on were only 2 to 2.5 lbs. but would be good filler fish for a limit. So I dropped waypoints along the stretch where I thought I could catch some quality fish and waypoints where I thought I could fill my limit if needed. I had about a 300 yard stretch for big fish and about another 400 yards where I could catch keepers. I was fairly confident with the area except for the fact that the wind was forcasted to blow 10 to 20 mph out of the NE which would make it hard to fish. I headed South towards the ramp to try and find some areas for the end of the day, and the pickings were slim. A couple small keepers was all we could manage. I decided to make the run to the far Southeast side of the lake and fish South Bay to make sure I wasnt missing something. We caught a couple decent fish down South, but nothing to justify the run down there during the tournament. I would later find out that some guys were catching some good fish down there, but most were grouped up in one small area that I apparently never found. So we fished around down South and then looked around a little right near the ramp and never found anything good enough to constitute fishing in the tournament. Now I just had to get all of my tackle around and sit there on the off-limits day and think about the tournament. I had mixed feelings on how my practice went. I knew from talking to a few of my buddies that the bite was a little off right now and it seemed that there were few areas that were producing much consistently.
Tournament Day 1 ~
Well day 1 began with stiff winds and my head was spinning wondering whether my water would be fishable and how many boats were going to be on it. I was boat 96 I believe first day so there was plenty of time to get nervous while I sat and watched 95 pros head out in front of me. My number was finally called and I headed out of the canal towards the open waters of Okeechobee. When we reached open water we were greeted by more chop on the water than I thought there would be. My co-angler and I made our way towards the edge I wanted to fish and was delighted to see there were only a couple other boats in the area. The problem was that the wind was making it difficult to fish the edge and to hold with the trolling motor. I decided to give it a shot and see whether it would work or not. I had to, it was the only decent concentration of fish I had found. The water stayed clear on the edge, which told me the fish would still be there, they just might be a little harder to catch. The other obstacle I ran into was that with the wind blowing hard into my side of the lake, the water level was probably a foot or so higher than it had been before and the cover was being pushed farther back into the cattails. I started off about 15 minutes in with a fish in the 2 lb. range. This gave me confidence that I could at least still catch a few here. A while later while working my prime stretch I caught a fish in the 5 lb range and swung it in the boat. That's the beauty of using a 7'6" heavy action rod and 65# braid. The fish was clearly just post-spawn and very beat up and weak looking. I put 2 more small keepers in the box in the next hour while fighting the bucking waves and wind. I grinded it out flipping methodically down the edge and made a pitch with my 1.5 oz. weight and black/blue beaver into a little point in the cattails. I got bit immediately and jacked one about 4 lbs. the fish got caught up in some matted up reeds and I used the trolling motor to go in after her. I reached down and lipped the fish and it went in the box. So now I'm sitting on 2 good fish, a 2 lber, and 2 dinks. But a limit nonetheless and I still got 4+ hours to fish. My next bite was way back in some matted junk and somehow I set the hook and busted my 65 lb. braid! It was my own fault. Sometimes when we are using big line we don't think there's any way to break it, but with a tungsten weight and a stiff rod, you still gotta watch it. I dont know how big the fish was, maybe 12 inches, maybe 8 lbs. I'll never know. I caught another one about 3 lbs. or so shortly after to get rid of a 13 incher. I caught a couple keepers in the next hour that culled ounces apiece, but I still had one about 1.5 lbs. As I worked around a point on the edge I made a long pitch into some heavy cover and set the hook on another decent one. The fish hung up in the junk and I couldnt get him out. So here I am about 8 feet from a 3 lb. fish that will cull me 1.5 lbs. I did the only thing I could think of and pulled the trolling motor up and holding my push-pole in one hand and my rod in one hand I pushed the nose of my boat back into the thick matted junk. I finally got close enough I could reach it and got my hands on the fish. So now I figured I had a decent enough bag to not be out of contention for a check anyways. When I came in to check in, I didn't think I had as much weight as I did, but my 5 fish weighed 17 lbs. 15oz. on the scales. Unfortunately the big post-spawn fish I had caught died in the livewell and I lost 8 ounces in a penalty bringing my total to 17lbs. 7oz. I was thrilled with the weight and was even more thrilled to be sitting in 27th place out of 160 pros on day one. With the practice I had, I didnt expect to be sitting just outside the top-20 cut weight. And the best part was that I thought if the wind would die down a little like it was projected to, I could catch them even better.
Tournament Day 2 ~
I was a slightly earlier boat number on day 2 which meant I would get to leave earlier, but my day would be slightly shorter as well. When we arrived at my key stretch, the wind was a lot less violent, but the number of boats in the area had quadrupled. I immediately noticed that the water level was down in the area and the water had cleared substantially. I even noticed a couple of small bass on beds around the reeds, but most looked to be barely keepers. I caught 2 small keepers fairly quickly and continued to flip the edge where I had caught them the day before. About 3 hours into day 2 I was still sitting on 3 small keepers and was starting to panic a little. I told my co-angler I was going to make a run to the area up north where I had caught a couple decent ones the first day of practice. I figured if nothing else I could at least add a couple 2 lbers to fill my limit. After making the 20 minute run north, I pulled up to my area and noticed there were not any other boats around. For those who have not been to the Big-O, when there aren't any other boats around, there probably aren't any fish around either. I idled in and started fishing down the key area where we had probably 6 or 7 bites the first day of practice. The next 45 minutes fishing around the area produced exactly one bite from a short fish. Now its time to panic. Half the day is gone and Ive only got 3 in the box for about 3.5 pounds. So back to the west side we go. 20 minutes of running and we're back on my best stretch. I made one pass and caught another small 14 inch keeper. So now I decided I was going to stick it out and flip the rest of the day. Surely I could manage one decent keeper in the last 2 hours. So about half way down my best stretch I made a pitch into a thick clump of blown over reeds and a fish popped it on the way down. I swung with all my might and a solid 3.5 lber comes thrashing to the surface and comes off! When you're fishing this way you are gonna lose fish, its part of the game. So as irritated as I was, at least I was getting a couple bites. I worked my way down the edge and made another pitch back in some matted eelgrass and got bit again. I set the hook and this time a 2lber. comes to the surface and this one comes off too! Now I'm steamed. I flipped the edge for the next 45 minutes or so and couldnt manage another bite. So as thrilled as I was to be sitting in 27th after day one, now Im 30 minutes from bringing in 4 fish and maybe not even getting a check. Then the little spawners I had seen earlier came to mind. If I could at least catch another keeper it should be at least enough to salvage a check and get my money back. I made my way down to the area where I had seen the small fish on beds and buzzed along looking for one that would meet the 12" minimum size limit. I finally spotted one that looked like it would keep and it took about 5 minutes and I had a 13 incher to fill my limit. I went back to flipping for the remainder of my time and wasn't able to get bit. As I idled in to check in I had a million thoughts running through my head about what I did wrong. I weighed my fish and my total was a whopping 6lbs. 3oz. It looked to be about 50/50 whether my little limit would be enough to keep me in check range, but almost surely wouldn't be enough to keep me in the top 50 for a $10,000 check. As I watched the bags come to the scales it was a little frustrating seeing guys bring in little limits with one great big fish and slip by me in weight. After the dust cleared my 2 day total of 23 lbs. 10 oz. was enough to secure a 59th place finish (they paid down to 70th) so I got a check for $4,000. Looking back, I can't really be too dissapointed with my finish when I look at some of the big names I did beat. It is only dissapointing if I look at the ending I had after a solid day one. But this sport is all about learning, and I learned a lot in this tournament and I will be able to use the knowledge I've gained to achieve better finishes in the future. This was my 3rd pro tournament at the top level and I have cashed in 2 out of 3. I am happy with my consistency and with finishes of 45th, 59th, and 86th out of 160 pros I've still got a lot of room to improve. I promise you that with time and more experience I can get to the level I know I can be at. Thanks for reading!