B.A.S.S. Top 150 Tour
December 9-14, 2001
Lake Toho, FL
71st
$0.00
Practice seemed to go well. The temperature was in the mid-eighties, and the weather had been stable for days. The water temperature was in the upper seventies. Lots of fish were being caught, but most of them were small keepers. The fish were schooling over grass flats in 6-8 ft. of water. It was great fun when you found a school of fish. You were able to catch keeper after keeper!! I tried other patterns, like flipping heavy vegetation and Kissimmee grass, but I was unable to get enough bites. I planned to fish the grass beds in 6-8 ft. of water. The first day of the tournament I caught most of my keepers on a Carolina rig, watermelon Riverside Air Fry. I tried to find some schooling fish and wasted time in the morning. I never ended up finding any. The next day I didn’t try to find the schooling fish and went straight to fishing a Texas rigged worm. I caught a good limit of over 10 lbs. on a Riverside junebug worm. I felt the last day I could catch 8-10 lbs. again, but I was unable to get the quality bite I needed, so I finished out of the money. I was able to maintain good overall point standings.
B.A.S.S. Central Open
November 5-10, 2001
Lake of the Ozarks, MO
2nd
$36,000
This was an excellent tournament for me!! It was my highest finish ever in a B.A.S.S. event. I felt very confident after the first two days of practice. I was catching nice limits of fish flipping boat docks with a black neon Riverside tube and a black and brown Riverside Flip N’ Jig with a black neon Big Claw trailer. I was fishing shallow boat docks in 1-5 feet of water. The fish seemed to be relating to the shade and the brush on the backs and sides of the docks. I tried several other areas and patterns without much success, so I decided to spend the first day of the tournament flipping boat docks.
I was fortunate to have four fish the first day putting me in 13th place. I caught all of the fish flipping the Riverside jig around boat docks. The second day of the event we had a fog delay, and I didn’t begin fishing until 11:15. Luckily the fish bit, and I caught three fish within forty minutes. This moved me into fourth place, tying with Denny Brauer. The final day went smoothly with no fog delays. The camera boat was on us, which made me a bit nervous, but I still managed to fish slow and thorough throughout the day. The water had dropped eight inches, which I feel hurt my fishing the final day. I caught several short fish and two keepers with one over 5 lbs. I caught all of the fish on a Riverside tube using 14 lb. clear Silverthread line with a 7 foot medium-heavy St. Croix rod. Those two fish moved me into a tie for second place with 23.14 lbs. of fish.
BASSMASTER Tour
October 28-November 2, 2001
Red River, LA
67th
$0.00
The Red River was a difficult tournament due to the condition of the river. It was extremely muddy, due to high waters, but it had been falling for several weeks. I worked on a pattern in pool #4 trying to establish a bite on a crankbait in the main river. The fishing was slow and sporadic, but I was able to find a few wing dams with some fish holding on them. I also found out that the fish seemed to like a spinnerbait over a crankbait. The spinnerbait was a 1/2 oz. white and chartreuse with double copper Colorado blades. I would work the spinnerbait slow casting up current and working it back down along the rocks. I had also found, in pool #4, several isolated laydowns with clearer water that seemed to have some fish in them.
The first day of the event I did well and caught a limit the first hour of fishing! I caught keepers on a spinnerbait, crankbait, and also flipping wood with a Riverside black neon tube. This limit of 9.6 lbs. put me in 16th place for the day. The next day the main river bite was not there for me. I fell to 42nd place. The last day I spent more time flipping in the backwaters with a tube. I had the opportunity for a nice limit, but I lost two fish. I fell to 67th place, but only fell to 31st in the overall point standings.
B.A.S.S. Central Open
October 11, 12, & 13, 2001
Ft. Gibson Lake, OK
222nd
$0.00
This event is one I will not soon forget. Not because of the good fishing, but because of all of the other circumstances. It began raining the second day of practice, and it continued to rain until the final day of the event. This was an even greater problem, because camping and rain don’t comfortably go hand in hand. Everything from my shoes to my boat stayed wet for four days. The rain never let up enough for anything to dry out. Ft. Gibson has recently suffered from a major fish kill, and the affects were definitely seen during this event. The fishing was scarce with only a few bites per day, most of those being short fish. Some of the better fish were caught on jigs and spinnerbaits during this tournament. This was the first time ever that I was unable to catch a keeper for each day of the event.
Central Pro-Am Championship
October 6 & 7, 2001
Table Rock Lake, MO
13th
$0.00
This was a very tough tournament with only one limit weighed in the first day. I was in third place, with three fish that weighed 8.15 lbs. and felt good about the next day of competition. I had spent a lot of time on the first day fishing for deep fish on a drop shot rig. We caught several short fish while drop shotting, but we had no keeper bites. My partner and I caught a total of five keepers fishing gravel points with crankbaits. After the first day weigh-in I felt I could catch a limit of fish crankbaiting if I didn’t spend so much time fishing out deep. The second day was not as I had anticipated. The wind was calm for the majority of the day. This kept the crankbait fish from biting. I only caught two keepers and lost another one the entire day. The tournament was won fishing boat docks in 5-25 feet of water using a brown jig with a craw trailer.
B.A.S.S. Central Open
November 5-10, 2001
Lake of the Ozarks, MO
2nd
$36,000
This was an excellent tournament for me!! It was my highest finish ever in a B.A.S.S. event. I felt very confident after the first two days of practice. I was catching nice limits of fish flipping boat docks with a black neon Riverside tube and a black and brown Riverside Flip N’ Jig with a black neon Big Claw trailer. I was fishing shallow boat docks in 1-5 feet of water. The fish seemed to be relating to the shade and the brush on the backs and sides of the docks. I tried several other areas and patterns without much success, so I decided to spend the first day of the tournament flipping boat docks.
I was fortunate to have four fish the first day putting me in 13th place. I caught all of the fish flipping the Riverside jig around boat docks. The second day of the event we had a fog delay, and I didn’t begin fishing until 11:15. Luckily the fish bit, and I caught three fish within forty minutes. This moved me into fourth place, tying with Denny Brauer. The final day went smoothly with no fog delays. The camera boat was on us, which made me a bit nervous, but I still managed to fish slow and thorough throughout the day. The water had dropped eight inches, which I feel hurt my fishing the final day. I caught several short fish and two keepers with one over 5 lbs. I caught all of the fish on a Riverside tube using 14 lb. clear Silverthread line with a 7 foot medium-heavy St. Croix rod. Those two fish moved me into a tie for second place with 23.14 lbs. of fish
BASSMASTER Tour
October 28-November 2, 2001
67th
$0.00
The Red River was a difficult tournament due to the condition of the river. It was extremely muddy, due to high waters, but it had been falling for several weeks. I worked on a pattern in pool #4 trying to establish a bite on a crankbait in the main river. The fishing was slow and sporadic, but I was able to find a few wing dams with some fish holding on them. I also found out that the fish seemed to like a spinnerbait over a crankbait. The spinnerbait was a 1/2 oz. white and chartreuse with double copper Colorado blades. I would work the spinnerbait slow casting up current and working it back down along the rocks. I had also found, in pool #4, several isolated laydowns with clearer water that seemed to have some fish in them.
The first day of the event I did well and caught a limit the first hour of fishing! I caught keepers on a spinnerbait, crankbait, and also flipping wood with a Riverside black neon tube. This limit of 9.6 lbs. put me in 16th place for the day. The next day the main river bite was not there for me. I fell to 42nd place. The last day I spent more time flipping in the backwaters with a tube. I had the opportunity for a nice limit, but I lost two fish. I fell to 67th place, but only fell to 31st in the overall point standings
B.A.S.S. Central Open
October 11, 12, & 13, 2001
Ft. Gibson Lake, OK
222nd
$0.00
This event is one I will not soon forget. Not because of the good fishing, but because of all of the other circumstances. It began raining the second day of practice, and it continued to rain until the final day of the event. This was an even greater problem, because camping and rain don’t comfortably go hand in hand. Everything from my shoes to my boat stayed wet for four days. The rain never let up enough for anything to dry out. Ft. Gibson has recently suffered from a major fish kill, and the affects were definitely seen during this event. The fishing was scarce with only a few bites per day, most of those being short fish. Some of the better fish were caught on jigs and spinnerbaits during this tournament. This was the first time ever that I was unable to catch a keeper for each day of the event.
Central Pro-Am Championship
October 6 & 7, 2001
Table Rock Lake, MO
13th
$0.00
This was a very tough tournament with only one limit weighed in the first day. I was in third place, with three fish that weighed 8.15 lbs. and felt good about the next day of competition. I had spent a lot of time on the first day fishing for deep fish on a drop shot rig. We caught several short fish while drop shotting, but we had no keeper bites. My partner and I caught a total of five keepers fishing gravel points with crankbaits. After the first day weigh-in I felt I could catch a limit of fish crankbaiting if I didn’t spend so much time fishing out deep. The second day was not as I had anticipated. The wind was calm for the majority of the day. This kept the crankbait fish from biting. I only caught two keepers and lost another one the entire day. The tournament was won fishing boat docks in 5-25 feet of water using a brown jig with a craw trailer.
Woods & Waters
September 8, 2001
Table Rock Lake, MO
2nd
$600.00
The weather had begun to change as the tournament started. It had been sunny all week and the deep fish where biting on 3/4 oz. C.C. Spoons and drop shotting Riverside Finesse Worms. Due to the changing conditions we started off fishing shallow gravel points with a Brown Crawdad Fat Free Shad Fingerling and a War Eagle Spinnerbait with double willows. My partner caught our first keeper smallmouth on a gravel point the first twenty minutes of the event. We continued fishing this type of structure until 8:00 a.m. without another keeper. We then moved out to the deep areas where the fish had been the previous week with no luck. After several hours of deep fishing without any bites, we moved back shallow and finished out our limit. We caught two more keeper smallmouths on the crankbait and two nice largemouth’s on the spinnerbait. We finished in second place with five fish that weighed 12.30lbs.
BASSMASTER Tour
August 22-25, 2001
Lake St. Clair, MI
28th
$3,200.00
This is one fantastic fishery, which everyone needs to experience once in their lifetime. The first day of competition was windy and cloudy, just perfect for spinnerbaits! I was using a seven foot medium-heavy St. Croix rod spooled up with 17 lb. green Silver Thread line. This allowed me to achieve greater casting distance in the clear water and the line size helped handle those aggressive smallmouths. I caught a limit weighting over 14lbs. on a War Eagle 1/2 oz. spinnerbait. I was burning the spinnerbait just under the surface over isolated grass in five to seven feet. The next day was sunny and relatively calm. I caught one nice keeper on a spinnerbait in the morning and the biggest fish of the day on a Fire River Minnow Bomber Long "A" all over grass. After this bite slowed I went to an offshore hump with scattered grass and rocks. In this area I fished a Riverside Vibra King Tube in green pumpkin, on a 1/4 oz. lead head. I worked the bait slow along the bottom to finish out my limit. The last day of competition was also sunny but with more wind. I tried the spinnerbait with no luck. I tried the jerkbait and lost one fish over 4 lbs. right at the boat. I then moved out to the hump and caught my limit. It was a good start for the year by finishing in 28th place with 38.0lbs.
Central Pro-Am Association Tournament
August 4-5, 2001
Grand Lake, OK
3rd & Big Bass
$4,900.00
The first morning was calm, hot and sunny, perfect for Grand Lake. I started off fishing brush piles in the mid-lake area. I caught four keepers using a Fat Free Shad, Jr. in Citrus Shad while targeting brush in six to ten feet of water. After this bite slowed I went to my primary pattern of flipping boat docks. I went to a seven foot medium-heavy St. Croix rod with 25 lb. clear Excalibur line to get the fish out from all the dangers associated with dock fishing. I swam a 3/8 oz. Riverside Jig with a Riverside twin tail grud in one to three feet around the foam of the docks. I caught over fifteen keepers the rest of the day, including the big bass of 5.30 lbs. I was leading the tournament with 16.70 lbs. The second day started off bad and just got worse. My first area had several other competitors by the time I arrived. I got to fish the area for an hour, then my trolling motor quit working. I quickly got my spare trolling motor, but it also wouldn’t work. I called the tournament staff as I returned to take off to have the mobile service crew look at my boat. After several hours of waiting, the problem couldn’t be found. Thanks to a staff member allowing me the use of their boat, I was back in action around noon. Now, with no fish and only three hours to fish, I moved straight to the docks in hopes of salvaging the remainder of the day. The bite was slow, but I managed to catch four keepers. I finished in third place, which also allowed me another opportunity to fish the Championship.
