Bassmaster Elite
September 10-15
Lake Toho, FL
37th
$10,000.00
Practice was very difficult and bites were hard to come by. The surface temperature hovered around 90 degrees. This was amazing to me, because most of my bites came in 1-3 feet of water. I was casting or pitching a Zoom, Trick Worm in June bug rigged Texas style with a 1/4 oz. weight. I also found that the fish would bite a prop bait, like a Devil’s Horse or Crazy Shad, worked around the holes in the Kissimmee grass. The first day of the tournament started out tough with no topwater bites at all. I switched to pitching the Zoom, Trick Worm to isolated clumps of reeds and Kissimmee grass. This produced four fish, including one that weighed 5.12 pounds. My four fish weighed 10.5 pounds putting me in 13th place. The second day I slipped in the standings by only catching three, small keepers on the Zoom, Trick Worm. On day three of the event I decided to start in a new area. This produced a limit of fish for me, all taken on the prop bait. I finished the event in 37th place, which left me short of making the Classic.
Bassmaster Major
August 20-24
Lake Dardanelle, AR
42nd
$0.00
The first day of practice was one of the better days I have had on this lake. I caught a lot of fish working a Zoom, Horny Toad around shallow vegetation. I was also able to catch several nice keepers working a Texas rigged Zoom, Mag II Worm in red shad along sandy points with laydowns and current. The first day of the event started out slow. I caught only one keeper, but I did have numerous small fish. I was very disappointed, because I was unable to get any bites on the horny toad. This hurt my chances for success at this event. The second day was much better. I concentrated flipping the shallow, shoreline vegetation and lily pads. I was able to catch a nice limit weighing 12.2 pounds. This landed me in 42nd place for the event.
Bassmaster Elite
August 6-11
Potomac River, MD
32nd
$10,000.00
The first day proved to be a disaster for me. I ended up starting on the location that I thought would produce a good limit of fish, but by 11 o’clock I had only had one bite and lost it. I ended up with two fish, which weighed 4.14 lbs., putting me in 96th place. The next day I switched areas and began flipping matted vegetation with a 1 oz. weight with a Zoom, Super Hog, in Okechobee Craw. I was flipping this bait with a St. Croix, Legend Tournament, 7'11", Flipping Stick, which is a perfect rod for heavy grass flipping. By 10 I had a limit that weighed 18.4 pounds, and moved up to 39th place. The third day wasn’t as productive, and I was unable to catch any size. I caught four fish using a frog in the open holes of the grass. I had one three pounder flipping the matted vegetation. I finished the event in 32nd place.
Bassmaster Elite
July 16-21
Lake Erie, NY
24th
$10,000.00
Lake Erie is truly an outstanding fishery! I was amazed at the number of quality smallmouth that seem to be lurking in the clear water of Lake Erie. I felt right at home fishing the off shore reefs and rock piles using a drop shot rig. Throughout the event I used a medium action, St. Croix, Legend Elite, Spinning Rod with 8 or 6 pound fluorocarbon line. The majority of my drop shotting was done with a 3/8 oz. weight and a 1/0, circle hook about 18 inches above the weight. The favorite baits were a Zoom, watermelon candy, Finesse Worm and a green pumpkin, Fat Albert, Grub. Most of the fish were holding in 30-35 feet of water on isolated groups of rocks. The first day of the event I was able to catch a limit weighing 17.8 pounds. The second day of the event was cancelled due to high winds. The third day the top 50 were able to fish, and I was able to catch five more smallmouth weighing 19.9 pounds.
This put me in 24th place. I can’t wait to get back on Erie again!
Bassmaster Elite
July 9-13
Lake Champlain, NY
103rd
$0.00
This event was very difficult for me to find a consistent pattern, and I was unable to find a way to catch quality keepers. I made long runs each day to the Ticonderoga area where I caught a limit each day. I fished a Zoom, black, Horny Toad and flipped a Zoom, Super Hog, in Okechobee Craw. The fish seemed to be relating to the water chestnuts in 1-3 feet of water. I was able to catch using these techniques, but I failed to get quality bites. Quality keepers is what it took to do well in the event.
Bassmaster Elite
June 18-24
Grand Lake, OK
56th
$0.00
With a tremendous amount of rain prior to the event, Grand had risen to 750, but the GRDA had every floodgate open so the lake was falling rapidly. The lake stabilized at 746.5 and maintained a fairly constant level throughout the event. The first day of practice was spent from Honey Creek to the Dam. I worked main lake and secondary points with a DD14 and DD22 in chartreuse and blue. I also fished a Carolina rig and football jig. The morning started out nicely with seven or eight keepers with one over four pounds on a crankbait. The rest of the day the fish were caught on a Carolina rig brushhog with the largest fish being just under four pounds. The second day of practice was spent shallow flipping and pitching to the willows in the Sailboat Bridge area. It was amazing how many bites and how many fish could be caught out of the willows. The only problem I had was size, most of them were only two pounds with an occasional four pounder. After seeing this I spent my final day pra cticing around the Duck Creek area fishing off-shore structure with a Carolina rig and football jig.
My game plan was all laid out. I would start shallow and catch a 12-13 pound limit out of the willows. The first morning I caught 12 pounds by 7:30, and I headed down lake to try and improve my weight. I caught 10-15 keepers down lake, but I was unable to get the quality bites needed to have a good stringer. I finished the day with only 13 pounds. The second day of the tournament I started out in the willows again and caught two three pounders and a limit by seven. I then went back down the lake and caught several fish on a Carolina rig brushhog. My co-angler started fishing a 3/16 oz. shaky head with a Zoom trick worm and caught a 6.5 pound bass, so I decided to also try the shaky head. It produced one more three pounder for myself. I finished the event with 26.9 pounds and ended up in 56th place.
Bassmaster Elite
June 4-10
Smith Mountain Lake, VA
65th
$0.00
This was a very picturesque lake with a lot of beautiful homes, all of which had boat docks. It reminded me a great deal of Lake of the Ozarks, so I tried to gear my practice toward what I would do at Lake of the Ozarks. I started out working main lake points, humps, and shoals with a Carolina rig using a Zoom baby brushhog in green pumpkin. This produced a few nice keeper smallmouth and a couple of keeper largemouth, but it was a very inconsistent pattern. So I spent the rest of the afternoon working a 5/16 and 7/16 oz. jig around boat docks. The next two days of practice I tried to branch out, and I caught several fish using a watermelon candy finesse worm on an 1/8 oz. shaky head around rocky points and docks. I also caught a few fish on a fluke worked around laydowns and stumps.
For the first day of the tournament I decided to concentrate the first hour of the morning on fishing a topwater on rocky, main lake points. As the sun got higher I switched to the Carolina rig, which produced three nice keeper smallmouth. I then proceeded to the docks, but I was unable to catch another keeper. I finished the day with three fish weighing 8.9 pounds. The next day of the event I started out with a topwater hoping for a quality bite. With no success I switched to the Carolina rig, which produced one keeper. I then tried fishing an 1/8 oz. shaky head worm around boat docks, and this produced four more keepers. I finished the day with a small limit weighing 9 pounds. I finished in 65th place for the event.
Bassmaster
American
May 14-20, 2007
High Rock Lake/Townsend, NC
2nd
$38,000.00
The first two days of practice I spent my mornings covering water quickly with buzzbaits and spinnerbaits along rocky shorelines where the shad were spawning. Unfortunately I was unable to find any aggressively feeding bass in these areas. Later in the day I concentrated on shallow docks with a 3/8 oz. jig in a green pumpkin with orange color with an avocado Super Chunk. This produced 8-10 bites a day with one of them being over five pounds. The final day of practice was short, but it was the most beneficial day for me. I tried the shad spawning pattern one more time in the morning with no success. This prompted me to try some shallow water cover, mainly willows and buckbrush. This move lead me to the most productive pattern I had found on High Rock. Within two hours I had caught five or six keepers and had 10-15 more bites while pitching a 1⁄4 oz., Texas rigged, black and red or black and blue Super Hog.
The first day of the tournament started out with a bang! I was so excited to catch a limit weighing over eighteen pounds within the first 45 minutes of fishing. You know you are going to have a good day of fishing when it starts out this way! These fish were all taken on shallow willow trees with 20 pound, Vicious Fluorocarbon Line, using a 1⁄4 oz. weight on a Texas rigged Super Hog in black sapphire. I then switched to flipping the docks coming up with several more keepers. The second day of the event started out a little slower with a 4 1⁄2 and 3 1⁄2 taken by seven o’clock, but I didn’t get any other bites until after 9:30. The action picked up considerably around ten o’clock catching fifteen keepers by noon. I finished the day with five fish weighing 21.9 pounds and was in first place with just over 40 pounds of fish.
The field was cut to twelve, and our weights were zeroed, as we headed to Lake Townsend. The hole courses are always fast and furious. I was able to figure out how to get a few bites fishing a Texas rigged Sinko with a 3/16 oz. weight. I caught the majority of my fish around stumps on shallow, flat points, and my best fish came off of rip-rap rock on a bridge. I was the only angler to weigh-in a limit the first day, but it only weighed nine pounds putting me in second place with over four pounds behind the leader. The final day of the tournament was even more difficult. The field was cut to the top six, and I had a lot of ground to make up. I managed to catch the only limit again, fishing a Texas rigged Sinko around stumps. It was the heavy stringer of the day, but I was unable to make up the ground to take over first place. This ended my tournament in second place. It was a fun event!
Elite
Series
April 23-29, 2007
Guntersville Lake, AL
30 th
$10,000.00
Practice started out with sunny and windy conditions with temperatures in the 70 degree range. I fished the mid-section of the lake concentrating on main river humps and points. I was able to catch three nice keepers in the morning working a 3⁄4 oz. single willow leaf spinnerbait along the outside grass line in 4-6 feet of water. I continued to fish other areas like this with a spinnerbait and rattle trap with no success. I decided to switch tactics and started fishing shallow docks with a 1⁄4 oz. Texas rigged Super Hog in watermelon red. This produced several nice fish working the front corners of the docks in 3-4 feet of water. The next day I tried working several of the marinas, that had spawning shad along the foam, using a spinnerbait and white jig. The shad were present, but the bass were nowhere to be found. I decided to try and fish for spawning fish in 2-4 feet of water looking for small holes in the grass. I was pitching a watermelon red Super Hog and Speed Craw with a 3/8 oz. weight with 15 pound Vicious Fluorocarbon Line. This produced 15-20 bites throughout the day.
My plan was then set for the first day of the event. I would begin the day early with the spinnerbait on the main river humps producing three nice keepers. I then proceeded to pitching the docks which produced a four pounder and five pounder. I finished the first day with five fish totaling eighteen pounds, leaving me in 13th place. The second day slowed down considerably as the main river humps only produced one keeper for me. I then went to the shallow, grassy holes where I was able to catch two keepers. Around one o’clock I switched to the docks and caught two more keepers. I finished the day with a limit weighing in at 12.5 pounds. This gave me a total weight of 30.3 pounds and finished the event in 30th place.
Elite
Series
April 16-22, 2007
Clarks Hill, GA
72nd
$0.00
The first day of practice was cool, but it was sunny with the highs in the mid 60s. The water temperature was 58-61 degrees. I headed up the Little River to try and find some colored water. Upon arriving I used a spinnerbait and flipped a Texas rigged tube around shallow laydowns. After several hours of fishing this one with only one keeper I decided to move out of the river and fish some shoals and main lake points with a Carolina rig Baby Brushhog in green pumpkin. This produced six keepers by the end of the day. The second day of practice I looked for some spawning fish since the water was hovering around 60 degrees. I was able to find a few spooky fish on the beds, but I felt that they would be very difficult to catch in the tournament. I decided to work a Zoom Finesse Worm on a 3/16 oz. Shaky Head around shallow, gravel pockets. This produced five small keepers. As the water continued to warm late into the afternoon I caught three good fish working a topwater bait along sha llow shoals. The final day of practice I continued to work the Carolina rig and topwater bait on shallow shoals only to catch three keepers. I felt that going into the tournament if I continued to throw the Carolina rig I would be able to catch a limit.
For both days of the tournament I mainly concentrated on points and shoals with a Carolina rig Baby Brushhog in green pumpkin with chartreuse tails. On the first day this pattern produced a limit that weighed in at eight pounds. The second day of the event I was able to catch a better limit of bass weighing in at twelve pounds. I had the opportunity to weigh-in fourteen or fifteen pounds, but I lost one that was about 4 ? lbs. on a Pencil Popper right at the boat. The loss of this nice fish left me with a total of 19.5 lbs. of bass to end the tournament in 72nd place.
Elite
Series
March 26-March 31, 2007
Clear Lake, CA
27th
$10,000.00
The first day of practice was cloudy and rainy, as the
start of a severe cold front approached Clear Lake. The water temperature
was still 58 degrees at the start of our first day of practice, and the
fish were biting! I started the morning fishing the northern end of the
lake fishing the outside edge of tule points with a six inch Basstrix
Swimbait. I was swimming the bait slowly along the edge in 5-8 feet of
water. This technique produced numerous keepers, but I didn’t catch
any over four pounds. I moved to the docks in 8-15 feet of water with
a drop shot and a Texas rigged, green pumpkin, brushhog. This produced
several fish, but I was still not catching the size necessary for Clear
Lake. The second day of practice I concentrated on working rocky points
and docks alternating between a swimbait and a Lucky Craft Pointer 128.
The swimbait failed to produce any large fish, and the jerkbait bite was
slow. As the wind began to pick up I moved to some protected areas and
caught sev eral quality fish while flipping a watermelon with red flake,
Zoom, Super Hog.
The first day of the tournament I started out with a swimbait, which produced
three fish in the three to three and a half pound range. I then proceeding
down to the area where I had been catching fish flipping and went on to
catch 21.5 pounds on the Zoom Super Hog. The second day of the tournament
I headed straight to the flipping fish. This produced a good limit of
just over 23 pounds. This left me in 42nd place going into day three.
On the final day, knowing I needed to catch bigger fish, I spent three
hours fishing the swimbait with no success. I went back to the flipping
area where I had caught fish, and it produced another limit just under
24 pounds. I finished the tournament with 15 fish weighing in at 67 pounds
leaving me in 27th place.
Elite Series
March 19-March 23, 2007
California Delta, CA
64th
$0.00
The first day of practice I spent concentrating on dead
end sloughs working the inside grass lines on high tide and the outside
edges on low tide. I caught several fish working a bluegill colored Speed
Trap and spinnerbait along the grass lines. The second day was more productive,
as far as big fish. I was working the outgoing tide with a Texas rigged
Super Hog. Most of the fish came in 4-8 feet of water in little ditches
with scattered grass.
The first day of the tournament started out slow until the tide started
dropping. Once the tide started to fall I was able to catch a small limit
working the ditches with a watermelon/red flake Super Hog. The second
day of the tournament I was able to improve my catch to almost fourteen
pounds working a Super Hog for shallow, spawning bass on low tide. I finished
this event with about 24 lbs.
Elite Series
March 5-March 10, 2007
Lake Amistad
22nd
$10,225.00
Practice started off very well with sunny skies and highs
near 70. The water temperature ranged from 55-58 degrees, and the fish
were moving along points and ditches up to shallow locations for spawning.
I caught six to eight keepers on a deep diver, Lucky Craft jerkbait, but
the majority of my quality bites came while working a Mission Fish, seven
inch, swimbait. The next two days of practice I spent fine tuning areas
with the swimbait and working on a flipping bite working submerged trees
in 8-15 feet of water.
During the tournament days I was able to catch 20-23 pounds of fish per
day working the seven inch, Mission Fish swimbait along points with scattered,
submerged trees in the morning. As the water would warm up later in the
day I would switched to flipping the trees located in the center of creeks
with a one ounce weight and a green pumpkin Super Hog. This produced several
keepers and a few in the 5-6 pound range. I finished the event with over
60 lbs. and was in 22nd place.
