TOUR SUMMARY

Bass Southern Open – Lake Okeechobee, Okeechobee, FL  Jan. 14th-16th

Welcome back to my tour journal. This year’s entries will be familiar in that I intend to chronicle my tournament efforts, but it’ll also be a little bit different. The difference will be about my attitude. I’ve had some success in my career, qualifying for multiple Bassmaster Classics and an FLW Championship, even a Stren points championship, but frankly I’m a little bit disappointed – I figured by this time I’d have some tour-level wins and either a championship victory or an Angler of the Year title. So I headed into 2010 with a renewed focus on taking some chances to pick up my first major win.  Read More

Toyota Texas Bass Classic – Lake Conroe, Montgomery, TX  Oct. 16th-19th

One of my goals for the 2009 Tournament season was to qualify for the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, which for two years prior was a four-man, team concept, which changed in 2009 to our Carrot Stix PAA Tour Series Championship. Read More

Carrot Stix PAA Tournament Series – Toledo Bend, Hemphill, TX  Oct. 8th-10th

Toledo Bend, Texas is an awesome fishery that is seldom on the Tour line-up.    It was great to be back on the lake hunting for giant largemouth and competing in the final Carrot Stix PAA event of the season.  It was a nice change of pace from Lake Champlain and Erie.  Read More

BASS Northern Open – Lake Erie, Sandusky, OH  Sept. 24th-26th

I spent days reorganizing the tackle in my Phoenix prepping for this tournament in an effort to make my boat lighter in anticipation for battling the main lake.   In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t done such a thorough job of clearing out the majority of my largemouth tackle.  The plan was light equipment for finesse fishing in my hunt for giant smallmouth.    I also spent quite a bit of time modifying my drift socks, which I ended up not using.  I was ready to head to Erie, but not really sure I was ready to battle the wind.  Read More

BASS Northern Open – Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, NY  August 20th- 23rd

Lake Champlain is the second stop in BASS’ Northern Open line up.   Champlain is always an awesome lake to compete on, but for some reason it’s not been very fond of me.   I’ve always fished north, and never felt comfortable putting all my eggs in one basket and making the long and oftentimes dangerous run to Ticonderoga.   This tournament was no exception.

After the FLW event I was able to spend quality time on Champlain this summer.  I specifically wanted to focus on certain areas north and become familiar with the Ticonderoga area.   Read More

FLW Tour – Lake Champlain, Plattsburgh, NY  July 9th – 12th

It is always great to end the season on one of our Country’s greatest fisheries, Lake Champlain.   This lake is full of giant sized small and largemouth bass.  Because the water is so vast it can be a little tricky finding the hot spots that are holding kicker fish.

It’s pretty much a fact that everyone is going to catch fish on Champlain.  The weights are big and the standings are stacked pretty tight.   Taking out of Plattsburg anglers have to make a decision, make the long often times dangerous run to Ticonderoga and fish for largemouth, or stay on the northern end and hunt for smallies.  Read More

FLW Tour – Kentucky Lake, Murray KY  June 11th – 14th

It was really nice to finally fish a tournament that was so close to home.  Kentucky Lake is only 2 ½ -hours from my house, which is a “bonus” when considering miles spent traveling to tournament sites across the nation.  Even though the lake is relatively close, I have not spent much time on it over the years.  It has been at least three since I’ve been on the lake, so I decided to go early before the off limits period.  Read More

FLW Tour – Beaver Lake, Rogers AR  May 14th – 19th

Beaver Lake in Rogers Arkansas is a very familiar body of water to anglers who has competed any length of time on the FLW Tour.  Rogers is the home of Walmart, and I’m fairly certain that Beaver has been on the schedule since Walmart started sponsoring Tour.    Typically this lake is crystal clear and can be a sight and finesse fisherman’s dream.  For the last two years the lake has been high and dirty.  This year it was clearer, but still very high with tons of floating debris from the recent storms.   Read More    

FLW Tour – Lake Norman, Charlotte NC  April 16th – 19th

This is the third year in a row that Lake Norman has been one of FLW’s Tour stops.   Always about the same time of the year, so I pretty much knew what to expect.  I also spent a little bit of time after last year’s event ridding around and becoming more familiar with the lake.  There are a lot of bass in Norman, but they are small and roughly about the same size.  I knew going into this event that the field would be tight, and a few kicker fish each day would make all the difference in the world.

For some reason I have never done exceptional well at Norman.  I started practice with a preconceived notion of past years and ready to kick butt.   Unfortunately the tournament set up a little bit differently than in years past and my plan went out the window.   The fish were spawning, but they were few and far between.   The water was also higher and dirtier, which made them hard to locate.  Still, I knew that we were coming into a new moon, so I decided to spend some time looking for beds during practice.  Read More

Carrot Stix PAA Tournament Series, Neely Henry, April 9th – 11th

I wish had a little more time to explore the Coosa River system before the tournament, but since I didn’t, I had to get busy and make the most of the official practice period.  

I located a sizable population of largemouths in the mid-lake region.  Then I spent a day and a half up the river searching for those mean spotted bass.  I felt that I had them pretty locked in and it was just a matter of getting a good bite or two each day to place well enough in the standings.  Read More

FLW Tour – Table Rock Lake, MO  March 12th – 15th

It’s been a few years since I’ve competed on Table Rock, but I’ve had my fair share of success on the lake. I really like how it fishes this time of the year, so my confidence was high heading into this event.

During practice there was a warming trend with windy weather, which is always good on Table Rock.  It stains the clearer water and sends the fish on a feeding frenzy.  Practice went well and the bass were pretty predictable. The jerkbait bite was prevalent, but as the water warmed that pattern started to dissipate, and the fish started to bite jigs and crankbaits.  Read More

FLW Tour – Lake Guntersville, AL  February 12th – 15th

Lake Guntersville was the first stop on the 2009 FLW Tour.    Alabama lakes are awesome and Lake Guntersville is no exception.  Despite the continuous pressure from anglers these bass have adapted and are certainly thriving.     The weights that are consistently pulled from this lake never cease to amaze me.  This State obviously knows how to manage their fisheries.  Read More

BASS Southern Open – Harris Chain of Lakes, FL  January 29th – 31st

Practice on the Harris Chain was grueling and some of the toughest conditions I’ve ever fished in.  I’ll rank it right up there with the Pittsburgh Classic.  Grinding out a few bites within a 12-hour day was brutal, and I’m not talking about big bites; I’m talking about barely bumping the board bites.  Read More

Carrot Stix PAA Tournament Series, Lake Toho, FL  January 15th – 17th

To say that practice was tough is an understatement and the chatter among the anglers was fairly consistent, where is the big bite?   This time of year Toho should be a flipping or sight fishing slug fest.  Not this year.  With warm weather and a full moon the giants should be on the beds or staging up for the spawn, but they were nowhere in sight.     To make conditions even tougher a cold front settled over Florida bringing in 40-year lows.  Florida bass are very sensitive to cold weather and tend to shutdown and not bite. Read More