Well the title says it all for my past two months. Starting the last week of August we loaded a 16' tandem trailer with a load to bring down and put in the garage of our new place here in KY. We made that trip in a 48 hour turn around. Then spent the next week and a half packing and running a week long garage sale. Then it was time to go down Minnetonka for the final Silverado tournament before the T.O.C which would be back there in the following week. I returned home to pack for a couple days again before we left for the final Weekend Series event in Wabasha on the river, which I fished after not qualifying for the Silverado T.O.C.. We returned home from Wabasha to begin loading the UHauls for our trip to our new home in Kuttawa, KY. We closed on our house in Breezy Point on Weds and closed on the house down here on Friday morning and began unpacking to have the UHauls back by Monday morning. We spent the next week unpacking and organizing the new place. That Sunday we left for TN and Old Hickory Lake for the BASS/ABA Midwest Weekend Series regional and now that that is done here I am finally taking a minute to catch up. 

    Minnetonka Silverado didn't go as well as I hoped. The water was much warmer than I was hoping and the fish weren't set up shallow as they normally would be. I spent one day of practice shallow trying to make that pattern work for me but it was just not going to happen. The other day of I spent trying to catch fish deep on the rocks and that didn't go much better and in the end I had caught a fish pretty much any where I had fished but there was no pattern to any of it. Tournament day arrived and I decided to start on a confidence rock spot and after 45 mins without a bite I had enough and jumped up shallow on an inside weedline. Working a couple hundred yards of that mixed with a couple docks I only had two small squeakers to show for it. I then ran to some other docks that generally hold fish this time of year and they did but they also were just keepers. With the day slipping away I decided to put the trolling motor down and go fishing. In the end that was the best decision of the year, no it didn't get me a win or a check or even qualify me for the T.O.C. but it did take me from 6 fish for 7lbs to 6 fish for 14 with a couple 3's mixed in. Every fish I caught came flipping a craw tube on 20lb GAMMA Fluorocarbon line, with a 1/2oz tungsten weight. This was the end of a pretty dismal year on my first year fishing the Silverado with 3 finishes in the high twenties or worse, it's time to look forward to the river next weekend.

    September 19-20 brought the final BASS/ABA Weekend Series of the year to the river on pools 4&5. This is a week later than the MN federation nation state tournament last year which I had led day one and ended up 10th after a stupid mistake. Anyway I had an awesome practice last year and was looking forward to this tournament all year. Unfortuneatley the Mighty Miss had something else in store. We arrived to very low water and virtually now flow and weeds choking out normally clean waters. I gave myself 2 1/2 days of practice on day on each pool and a half day to resure what I had found was right. In the end I spent the first day Weds. the half day on pool 4 checking past memories and was able to catch some fish throwing topwater and some fish on swim jig. My second l spent down on pool five. I started by checking some wing dams with a C-rig to no  avail then moved to the bank with a crankbait. I caught a nice smallie and good green one doing this on the main river. I then began running some backwater areas with a swim jig and top water toad. The bite was tough but I did notice quite a bit more current down there. Day 3 I spent back up on pool 4 checking what I had found on day one and running some new water. The fish were still there that I had found on Weds so I began checking some new stuff. For the most part it was very tough going until I found the mother load. I found this little sand spot that normally is choked out by the weeds but for some reason this year it was clean while everything else was choked out. I had caught two nice 2 1/2lb fish on a swim jig and show a couple off before I went up to look at the area. As I got closer I started seeing fish cruise by the boat and not small fish, these are legit 3-4lb class fish. I pulled off and watched the area for a couple hours and no one was even close to finding them. Needless to say I am stoked for tournament day and a little nervous, I never like having my eggs in one basket. As day 1 arrives I find myself blasting off as one of the last boats and am sick someone else will be on those fish. To make matters worse the lock is broke so the entire field is on pool 4 today. As I rounded the corner I noticed that there wasn't a single sole on those fish and my excitement level went thought the roof. I thought this might finally be one on those tournaments that you just blow everyones doors off. Well it didn't take long to figure out that that wasn't going to happen. After fishing for a couple hours around the the area I had two okay keepers to show for it. Not only did the fish scatter I to fight off one other angler that had happen to find this small sweet spot also. I decided to make the run to the fish I had found on Weds. and this paid off nicely with 3 quality keepers giving me 5 for 12lbs. Day 2 I was one of the first boats out and knew I would be on the sweet spot first but with those fish not going yesterday I decided to reverse my run and go to them in the afternoon and start where I left off yesterday. This worked out in the morning with 4 keepers including a nice 4.44lb smallie in the well but things slowed quickly after that. So I decide to go back and tr the sweet spot but as I got closer I could see a boat on it and it turned out to be the same guy I kepted off it the day before. I knew he wasn't going to let me in there today so I just scratched around the outside and was able to boat my fifth fish and weighed another 12lbs.  With a two day total of 10 fish for 24.56 I ended up in 18th place and made the top 40 that qualify for the Midwest regional down on Old Hickory Lake in TN, Oct. 5-10.

    Well after getting moved and most of the house unpacked and organized it was time for the Weekend Series Midwest regional at Old Hickory in TN. My boys Connor Summers and Josh Douglas made the trip down Saturday night to see the new place. We all left the house and headed for O.H. which is now only a 11/2 hrs away rather than 14. We had all done a bunch of research as what to expect and it all came back the same, very tough fishery and hard to duplicate day to day weights. Day 1 of practice found me up river East of the 109 bridge looking at shallow pockets along the main river. I was throwing an Outkast swim jig and a Strike King 1 XS crankbait in dirt shallow water, I mean six inches to a foot! I managed to get 5 keeper bites and boat 3 of them. That night we sat down and discussed what we had all found and for the most part all had the same thing going other than a couple deeper flipping bites. Day 2 I spent about the bridge again but got away from the super shallow bite and worked water that was 2-3 feet deep and had little better day boating 5 keepers -15"ers and had a few more short fish to boot. I was still throwing the same crankbait and swim jig and added a little deeper diving crank to the mix a Lucky Craft RC 2.5. I would throw the swim jig on 16lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon and 12lb on the crankbaits. Day 3 I decided I had better at least look at what I consider to be the lake portion of O.H. which would be everything West of the 109 bridge. Running a bunch of ledges with a Fat Free Shad and C-rig I ruled out this bite as I only boated 3 shorts fish. I ran into Connor and he had caught 4 quality keepers by noon fish that dirt deep water and shallow grass. So off I went looking for some of the same stuff and was only able to boat a couple small keepers and a few short fish. Day 4 I was going to get as far away from everyone so I thought as I could and run to the farthest good looking creek on the map. I did manage to get away from most of the crowd but did run into a few boats but not enough fish to make the run on tournament days. This also turned out to be the most frustrating days on the water ever physically mechanical wise, I couldn't keep a bait out of the trees and brush to save my ***! With talking with the guys as to what they had found it was clear there was a pattern building and that is what I worked on the final day of practice. Day 5 I went back up river to the first major creek arm and began running flats that had a creek channel swing into them and it was like clock work. Not all the fish were keepers in fact only two but I caught a whole lot more fish today. Again throwing a Strike King 1 XS crank in ultra shallow water mixing in a chatterbait .

    Day 1 of the tournament brings excitement of what could be, I didn't come planning on winning but to make the top 50 so all I felt I would need is 3 keepers a day and I would be golden. So off I went boat 24  with co-angler Greg Freeman heading up river for a 30 min run. As I rounded the corner I noticed only a couple boats in the area but fishing much deeper than I was. We put the trolling motor down and didn't pick it up for 6 hrs fishing everything in sight that was in less than a 2' of water. Switching back and forth from a chatterbait, baby 1 minus and the 1 XS crankbaits I was able to boat 4 keepers for 6.43lbs good for 42nd and possible a 5th but decided to throw him at the bump tank as I didn't want to take the chance at loosing a pound over a short fish. Overall it was a productive day with 20-30 short fish boated and 3 other keepers that came undone before the boat. At weigh in I find out that Connor had blown his lower unit and needed a ride back to his boat to retrieve his truck keys. So he jumps in and we head for his boat only to have my lower unit gear blow out in the exact same spot in the river!!! After rounded up some friends to help tow me back and run him to his boat we need to get stuff fixed and fast. Off to C and O Marine we are headed as they have the only to lower units for a Mercury Pro XS motors in the states. These guys are awesome and have truly talented guys working there. It is 5 pm on a friday and they would rather be going home instead they are working their butts off to get us back on the water and that they did. We were both out of there by 8:30 and with plenty of time to get tackle taken care of and something to eat.

    Day 2 I am just excited to be back on the water and able to go fishing. I am boat 146 today but get and extra hour to fish that turns out to be very beneficial. My co-angler and ran back to the same creek arm I was in yesterday and began the same trolling motor down and fish everything in sight attitude. Today was much slower fishing than yesterday the only good thing there are a lot less boat up here. I am still surprised to see there is only one other boat fishing this same super shallow water pattern. My co catches a keeper right away to start the day off and I boated my first keeper within 10 yds of that on our second pass down the bank. As we worked into one of the pockets there was another boat in there fishing another tournament today so we jumped around him and I immediately boat my second keeper. I am now stoked that I am one fish away from my goal for the day of 3 which I figured would get me to the National Championship. We jumped across the creek to another shallow bank that had a lot of short fish on it yesterday and began working down that. As we reached one of the small coves I notice a bunch of shad being chased and fired my crankbait into the middle of them and came back with a nice 16" keeper and my goal of the day met. Now it's time to catch a bonus fish and with time running down I decided to run back down river to a secondary point in a major creek arm. With about 30 minutes of fishing time left we noticed bass busting shad all over on top of the point and with a long a cast with the crankbait I was able to boat a fourth keeper and knew I had made it into the National Championship. I had the chance to bring 5 to the scale again today but had 3 more fish pull off on the point there at the end of the day. Todays 4 fish weighed 7.14lbs giving me a two day total of 13.77 good for 30th place out of 169 boaters well with in the top 50 and a trip to Lake Dardanelle in Russelville,AR at shot for $205,000 and a spot in the Bassmasters Classic.

    Tackle that I used this week was a 6'-10" med. hvy. action rod with 16lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line for throwing the Outkast swim jig and the chatterbaits. A 6'-6" med. action rod with 12lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line when throwing the baby 1 minus and 1 XS crankbaits.