My first trip to Green Lake in Spicer, MN didn't go as planned and left me with a lot of ground to make up in the points to make the Silverado Pro-Am Bass Tour T.O.C. Finishing a dismal 33rd out of a 49 boat field and them taking the top 14 guys in points I have some catching up to do. This was my first experience here and it is one heck of a smallmouth fishery though it is very small! I had to things to get over at this tournament, one is fishing in crowds and the other bed fishing which is not my thing. Not knowing the deep water bite has been the dominate winning pattern there I went with the perception this was going to be a bed fishing deal. Well come to find out the night before the tournament there are some guys finding quality fish and less beat up fish in some extremely deep water it was a little late to change my game plan so I stuck with what I found in practice. Spending 3 days scouring the shallows looking for those 6 big females that would put me over the top I marked over 150 beds around the lake except where I should have been. Drawing boat one for this tournament as I got to my spot I watched as a dozen boats headed for one flat on the lake I didn't prefish and a I got a little sick to my stomach when only two other boats started around me, that's when you know you are probably not on the right fish. During practice I tried not to stick to many fish and kept the trolling motor on high and looked for as many beds as possible and it became very apparent that was exactly what many others where doing also as I was always following someone or was being followed. I did manage to find some quality fish up but the majority seemed to be smallers males.

Tournament day I decided to start in an area that I had marked 3 good fish and being boat one felt good about having first shot at them. Well even the best layed plans do not work all the time. With a West wind for 3 straight days we wake up to rain and 25mph East wind for the tournament day with 50 degree temps. As we approached the first two beds they are both vacant but the third one still had a nice coal black smallie on it and with a quick pitch of a tube to her she is hooked for about 3 seconds as she jumped and threw it, not the start I was looking for! With the waves from the wind and rain beating down on the water it was very difficult to see the beds and many had been vacated either done spawning or moved off do to the weather. We did manage to get our limit by 9:30 and culled a couple of times using a drop shot and a mojo rig with 8lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon and copolymer lines on a 7' MH Tactical Series rod couple with a Shimano Stradic spinning reel. The most disappointing thing was thinking we were having a good day and had good weight considering all our fish were over 17" which should be a 3lb fish. Thinking we had somewhere around 18lbs, not enough to win but maybe check, we felt good about our day. They scales at the weight in told a different story with our 6 fish limit only weighing 15.53lbs which was way of the pace of the 19lbs it took to take a check. So now it's time to buckle down and make up some ground at the next stop in Alexanderia and the Lake Le Homme Dieu chain of lakes. First though I will be back here in 2 weeks with Mary to fish the Fishers of Men tournament and you bet I've learned a little from this trip that I will be looking at then, until next time Tight Lines.

Hello Hype fans!!!! Well the spring started out a little slow as it usually does but the end of the month was all go. Mary and I headed down to Kentucky for the Triton Gold Elite tournament and to do some more house hunting on May 21 and ended May on the 31 in Red Wing, MN for the first ABA/BASS Weekend Series tournament for the MN/WI division.

I can't say enough about Kentucky Lake, it didn't go so well last year for the Weekend Series regional in October but I did catch my personal best 7.9lb Largemouth. This spring though WOW!!! I went down with the total mind set that the major spawn was over and I would concentrate on the ledge bite. We started prefishing on Sat. the 23rd after looking at houses all day Friday. Craig Powers was staying at the same hotel we did on Friday night and with talking to him there was still a strong shallow top water bite going on with a some good fish still up on beds and lots of little fish out on the ledges. Well with my mind already made up to fish deep I spooled up with 10lb and 12lb GAMMA EDGE and Copolymer and Strike King Series 5 and Bomber Fat Free Shads and yes even tied on a top water.

First morning of practice I decided to visit a bay I had fished in October to familiarize myself with the water conditions and started by throwing a top water and Mary throwing a swim jig. After fishing about a 150 yds of bank it was obvious that there where fish shallow but not much size so we headed for the ledges. There seems to be a school of fish on every ledge in this lake it's just a matter of what size they are and from what I've seen this lake has an extremely bright future as there are hundreds of thousands of fish in the 12"-14" in class with 15" being a keeper. On any given spot you can make 50 repeated cast and catch a fish on every cast!!! with multiple doubles on the same bait. Second morning of practice started out with a bang as I boated 6 fish on my first 3 cast yes I said 6 fish on 3 cast, 3 good keepers and 3 shorts. Over the first two days of practices we kind of put a little something together and that was to keep the boat in 10 -12 feet of water and fish the tops of the ledges in 5' with most fish coming on the points, with gravel, rock, of mussel beds on them.

Day 3 of practice I decided I wanted to run south past the New Johnsonville area and see what was there for grass and maybe do some flipping. Well that wasn't going to happen as we pulled up to the first flat I didn't see a stitch of green weed to pitch to. So out came the crankbaits again and we started cranking a creek channel that ran through this flat. On maybe every third cast you would come back with a 3' stock of hydrilla and few fish. So with that not panning out I put the cranks away and went to the bank to flip what ever got in the way. This did produce a 5lber and  a couple 3lb fish but nothing worth running all the way down for.

Day 4 found us back up by Paris crankbaits in hand out on the ledges again with the same results, lots and lots of short fish with an occasional descent keeper thrown in. It wasn't the practice I had hoped for but I did learn and that is what it's about. So I at least have a few place I can fish the first day of competion.

First day of the tournament I go out boat 74 out 82 and planning on starting on a total community hole as I watched boat after boat work it in practice after I had caught a couple good fish on it. As I rounded the corner to my surprise no one was on it so I sat down on it and pulled out, you guessed it, my trusty sex shad series 5 on tied on 12lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon and began dredging the top of the ledge. After an hour of beating the place up and only one keeper and a bunch of shorts it was time to move. Stop to produced the same thing so off to stop three. As I approved my spot there are several boats in the area but luckily none of them on what I wanted to fish. I started fishing a short distance from my way point and never made it there. The fish had moved off the point and down the ledge about 50yds and it was a fish on every cast for an hour, I've never seen anything like it. Needless to say I left there with my limit and decided fish some new water on the way to my fourth stop, wise decision. I began cranking this long road bed and for the first 200yds never felt a thing on the bottom and then that tell tail tick tick tick as the bill on my bait started but into hard bottom. I caught a short fish on the next cast and hooked another short on the following cast. As I was reeling that fish to the boat and about to lift it in a 5lber come out of now where and eats the bait also that made the day. At the end of day ones weigh in I am in 21st place making the top 25 cut with 15.81lbs. 

Day 2 we are going to fish from 5:15 to 4 pm yes that is 11 hours of tournament fishing!!!  Normally 4 hours into a tournament I am having sandwich for lunch but that is only 9:30 here at that makes still breakfast. Well I decide to make the same rotation as I had on day one and it started out well with a nice 3lb smallie and a keeper from stop number one. Stop 2 gave up nothing and stop 3 which was loaded with fish yesterday had a boat parked on it and I managed on keeper and a few shorts from it. So bailed on the deep stuff to try a shallow spawning bay to see if I could get a couple quick keepers on top water or possibly flipping. With only on good fish swirling short of the bait in the bay I headed back for the ledges. I decided to give stop number 3 one more shot there where just to many fish to leave it even with other boat boat pressure. On the first cast I lost a nice fish in the 3lb range and boated a 3lber and thats all she would give up. So I decided to run to the mouth of a creek that ran through a shallow flat that had a school of small fish in practice hoping something bigger moved up. There I was able to get my limit fish and cull one but with time running out I made the move to run back to were I had started the tournament both days. When I pull up to the spot there is another competitor sitting smack dab on the "spot". This was a blessing in disguise as I decide stay there but start out farther and work my way in. I didn't make a dozen cast and hooked a 5.78 that jump 3 times and looked like a 8lber out there after netting and a couple high fives from my observer it was time to check in. With 5 fish weighing 17.13lbs I jumped from 21st - 16th not bad for my first time there in the spring.

Now with the Gold Elite Tournament over Mary and I spent Friday continuing our house hunt and then in the truck for the trip back to Red Wing. We got into Wabasha at 4a.m. Sat. morning and got an hour and half nap in before Connor shows up to get me going. He had spent Friday on pool 4 and was going to stay there today also so I went down to 5 to maybe put something together for us down there. The bite turned out much tougher than expected and from what was being said at the meeting there had been a decent bite until the dropped the water. I was able to put together a deeper wood pattern but that was about it. Connor seem to find the same thing up on 4 along with finding our fish from the St. Jude tournament hadn't left yet either. So Connor was going to stay on 4 and I was going to run down to 5. As my co angler John Peterson and I arrive at the lock we find a barge in it so I turned the boat around and head for the fish that Connor and I had going in the St. Jude tournament. Not sure which part Connor was going to start on I picked a side and started fishing and boating 3 nice fish right away. Connor stop short on his way in not knowing it was me and I didn't recognize it was him coming and not showing up John and I continued to fish the entire area. John broke off probably the biggest bass I've seen on the river on 50lb braid on the hook set. I did manage a limit from the area but with some nice fish missed that definitely cost me a check and also cost John in a bring a zero to the weigh in. All my fish were caught flippin a craw tube with 20 GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line on a Tactical Series 7'-6" flippin rod and Shimano Castaic reel. With 5 fish weighing 11.62lb I was the first guy out of a check in 17th place with 11.72 being 16th. Congrats to my buddy Josh Douglas for whacking a sack of smallies for 15.85lbs and a well deserved win, with a 2nd and 1st place finished in his first two money tournaments he is on a roll.







 

The St. Jude/Dick Hiley Bass Classic was held this past weekend on the Mississippi River pools 4&5 out of Wabasha, MN. 72 teams set out to find the winning bag this year with Brent Haimes and Matt Larson doing just that with two limits weighing in at 47.15lbs, great job guys! As for Connor and I it was a good tournament ending day one in 7th with a limit weighing 22.47lbs. Day 2 didn't go as planned and fishing for most was very tough, we did manage to scrape together a limit weighing 17.63.bs giving us a 2 day total of 16 fish for 40.10lbs. The standing though will show we ended in 39th place with 22.47 as we were late to check-in on day 2 and had that days wight DQed.

3 lessons learned this year,
1. Never answer your phone while standing on the deck of the boat one bounce and it will hit the water!!!
2. Always be aware of where your partner is standing in the boat as we both took a bait to the back of the head, ouch!!!
3. PAY ATTENTION to the time, even if you are 2 min. from the check-in point.

Our practices went well for this event and we both learned a lot of new water. I spent 6 days down there Weds-Fri the week before and went back the Weds. the week of the tournament. Connor was able to go down Sun. and Mon. and the Fri. before hand. As I like to power fishing I spent most of my time throwing a 1/4oz. Outkast Swim jig, shallow running crankbait, and did some flipping. Connor did much of the same as we were trying to cover as much water as possible. The weather was perfect the first 3 days down there with temps for 70-80 and sunny. Weds. was my best day on the river in the spring period as for numbers the fish just plain had the feed bag on. Thurs I spent my time down on pool 5 and caught a bunch more fish and one thing was becoming apparent, the fish were in certain areas. You could fish for miles and not get bit then hit the right area and it was like every cast. I wasn't able to find the quality fish I was looking for though, so I spent Friday back on pool 4. Checking some new and old water the bite was much slower for some reason. The water temps have stayed constant around the 53-55 degree mark and the water was lower than any other St. Jude tournament I've fished. 

The week of the tournament I went back down on Weds. and started back down on pool 5 with about the same results as the week before, with fish being a little more scattered and few bites. They seem to be pull water as the flow was very strong but still found most the fish I did catch on wood in current, flippin a Outkast Tackle  naughty bug. So Thurs. I spent the day back up on pool 4 and fished all new water and found our starting spot again spending the day covering water with the swim jig. Friday was a blessing in disguise as I planned on fishing Lake Pepin but with the wind that was blowing I decided to stay in the backwaters of pool for checking areas I've fished in past years but hadn't checked yet. This helped solidified our pattern we would fish for the tournament as we have found most our fish in the dead shallow grass waiting to move to the bank to spawn. 

Tournament days found us starting on pool 4, which as we approached our starting spot ,realized they were drawing the pool down hard with the  recent rains. Things started out well, with us putting 3 fish for 12lbs. in the boat in about 10 mins. but that was it. We checked a couple more spots around the area that had fish in practice but with the hard draw down there was now water left and the fish had pulled out. So we ran to another area of grass that we both had fished and caught our other 5 fish to complete our limit. All these fish came on the swim jig or spinnerbait. Day 2 we started back on the same spot as day one only catching 3 fish again but with a large difference in size. We left there with 3 for only 6lbs and headed to our other grass spot catching 2 more there including a 3lber. Hurting for bites and size we decided to head for pool 5 hoping to fish some new water, though as the gates of the lock opened for us to head down another boat was pulling in heading up with only 3 fish now we aren't sure if we made the right decision. Our first couple of stops didn't net us anything but frustration as we fished past another boat they hook and land a 3lb fish.  We start bouncing around and are able to put 3 more fish in the boat and decide to head back to pool 4 and check our starting spot. This produced nothing for us and with only a half hour left we ran up towards the check-in area in hopes of some last minute heroics. Instead we boated 2 short fish lost track of time and came in 2 min. late! This resulted in our bag for day 2 being disqualified. We decided to way our fish anyway to see what might have been. They weighed 17.63 and would have put us in 10th place good for a $500 check.

In the end the kids still win with the 72 teams raising over $100,000 dollars again, with over $750,000 being raised over the past 11 years. Thanks to all those involved in making this tournament happen and look forward to being back next year even if I am living in KY.

    Well it's fishing season finally here in MN with the mighty Mississippi river ice giving way to soft water. There are a couple tournaments this weekend on pools 4&5, Full Throttle will be holding there tournament on Saturday and Brian Brecka will be holding his Great River series on Sunday. I had planned on fishing the Full Throttle but it coincided with my turkey season and when you only get a shot at a tag every 3 years you go try to get a bird.

    It might be fishing season by my hunt has started and ended as I write this. Mary and I began house hunting in KY last weekend, leaving Thursday after work and back mid morning on Sunday. We rolled into Gilbertsville/Benton area around noon on Friday and met our Realtor Sandra from Park-View-Properties, we couldn't have gotten lucky with a Realtor as was great to work with. We started hunting for house around 1:30 and by 6 we had looked at 9 different properties with two really catching our attention. With the long drive and and busy day we got our room and a bite to eat,catfish of course, at the Willow Pond in Calvert City. 9am we met Sandra at the office to start our house search again with another 9 properties to look at. Yesterday we spent most of our time in the Marshall county area, today though we had picked houses from all over the area. Starting in Kuttawa down to Murry and back up threw Mayfield and back to the Benton area. Again 9 house and on two really got our attention. So we left with four house in mind really only 2 but you have to keep the options open. We planned to meet with Sandra again at the end of May when we will be back down for the Triton Gold Elite and Owners tournaments to spend another day possible looking or making an offer but that hunt continues.

    As for the hunt that has ended I was able to bag my MN turkey on the opening afternoon in Red Wing, MN. Hunting with the Pinke brothers Jim and Joe. I arrived at Jim's house around 6 Tuesday night just in time to run to the store and get a couple big steaks, potatoes and beverages we grilled out and came up with a game plan. Since Jim had to work opening day Joe and I would be heading into the woods to fool a gobbler into range. Arriving before light we did some calling try to locate a roosting tom in hopes of setting up on him when he decided to get down. That didn't go as planned as the only tom that answered us was on property we didn't have permission to hunt, so we set up in couple fields we planned to hunt anyway. As the sun started to rise the wildlife started to awake except the turkeys around me only seeing 3 hens by 8am. Watching a group of 15 hens with 3 tom I decided we should see if we can get permission to hunt the property unfortunately we never did get the okay. After driving around looking for some different areas we noticed no one hunting a chunck of public land. So we bailed out of the truck and headed for the woods were I stopped in a picked bean field while Joe kept going up the valley. After sitting for a couple hours with no action I got restless and decided to for a hike and try to get a tom to answer back to some calling. Walking from one end to the other of the property I was headed down a field road back to the truck when I got the answer I was looking for. Calling back to him a couple of times I could tell he was coming looking for love. I staked my decoy in the road and found a tree to lean against across from it and started calling back to him.  What seemed like forever to about 15 minutes for him to make his way off the field above and down the hill to the road puffing up and gobbling the whole way, what a show. He wasn't a giant but a good turkey for only my second one and second time hunting, with a 3/4" spurs, 9" beard and weighing 22lbs. So with that hunt done we will continue hunting even during fishing season for that just right house.

  

    Well I am now back from the first tournament of the year, Fishers of Men National Championship, which was held on the historic Red River in Shreveport-Bossier City, LA. I fish with my wife Mary at these events and we had a great time. I had a few melt downs on the water that weren't so much fun for her but that is part of the reason I fish these with her. So that she can see the ups and downs during the day first hand rather than at the end of the day and not understand while I feel the way I do, good or bad. This is one exceptional fishery. There was a 11.70lb fish caught, numerous 3+lb fish and a number of 18+lb bags weighed in each day. Consistency paid off again though with the winner bringing in 3 bags of 17+lbs each day. Mary and I never got on the big bite, though we had found some numbers of 2lber and figured we could get a limit each day between 10-12lbs. Which is exactly what we did by weighing in 11.94 and 10 each though not enough to make the top 28 cut which took 23.5lbs. This body of water is one equipment testing and breaking machine. If anyone watched the Classic they seen all the stumps and trees that are in the water. Moving around in the backwaters was and absolute chore. Not only did you bounce back and forth off the stumps you are continually hung up with the boat. You had to work double duty watching you line for a bite but also watching for the stumps under the water to pick a path to move as freely as possible. 


   
 We started practice on Monday the 23 on pool 4. The wind blew a lot the entire week we were there which made made boat control and fishing a new body a water a struggle. We managed a few fish this first day of practice on blades and crankbaits. I was trying to find fish that were relating to the miles of rip rap revetments leading into the backwaters. This is didn't seem to be the best deal with only two fish caught this way and the others relating more to the wood. Day 2 and 3 of practice we decided to stay on pool 5 which is the pool we would be launching from, this would give us more fishing time rather than locking down to 4. I was able to find more fish on 5 relating to the rip rap but they were all in the very backs of the bays nothing out by the entries into them. We did find some fish in an area called White House that were related to the 45 degree laydowns and one bank in another bay that had floating vegetation, about 2-3 feet of water on it. This is the bank we started each day of the tournament.



    
Tournament days we started on our bank that we had found and began throwing blades. Our first 2 passes each day gave us a limit, small limit, but still a limit. The first day we stayed on it for 3 hours upgrading on each pass. Around 11 on the first day I decided we need to leave it for the next day and look for some bigger fish with about 10lbs in the well. We ran into White House and were able to flip up a couple good fish in the 3lb range to up our limit to 11.94lbs. This put us in as the bubble team at 28th place. Day 2 started out like day 1 two trips down our bank and 4 fish in 20 mins. things are looking good to make the cut now. Not so fast we fished there for another couple ours with nothing! I decided to make a move to an area called McDades, this thing is an absolutely nightmare boat gouging, scratching mother to get into. Thinking very few boat would make the venture back there I would have some water to myself. Not at all as we rounded the corner to the best area we counted 18 boats. Come to find out later at the weigh in this is where they caught the 11.70. We managed to catch number 5 while in there that was it, other than watching half dozen other fish caught we left. We ran back to White House hoping for a couple more good flipping bites and we got one right of the bat a solid 2 1/2lber. Spending way to much time in McDades and realizing I was running out of time, I could feel our chances slipping away and that my friends is never a good feeling!!! With no other flipping bites we headed back for weigh in. Our 10lbs kept us in the cut for about a half hour until the last two flights weighed in and we came up 1.5lbs short.





All in all it was a good trip, we did break anything and NO speeding tickets. It was a good learning experience as I will be back again to fish the Red River, probably for an BASS Open or Stren series in the near future. The accommodations at the Red River South Marina were great, other than now wireless connection for the computer, I would recommend then to anyone going down.

OH! I think I forgot to mention the other critters other than the little green fish.







Next up will be the St. Jude Children's Hospital tournament on the Mississippi River pools 4-5 out of Wabasha, MN after I chase some turkeys around Red Wing in mid April. I'll keep you posted as to how that goes. 

  Well with the Classic now over and me watching it over and over I'm ready to get it on on the Red River. Mary and I will be heading to Shreveport, LA and the Red River for the Fishers of Men National Championship on the 20th. This should be a great body of water to fish with lots of power fishing to be done. It looks like it will play havoc on the equipment but it will be nice to float the boat again.

    I will get the chance to use my new Tactical Rods from Midwest Rod and Reel there also. I have joined their prostaff to help promote their new Titanium Series rods. These guys make a great rod and will help you custom fit any thing you want or need. You can give Al McColl a ring at 1-952-237-0534 or check them out at www.tacticalrods.com . You check them out at the Northwest Sportshow at the Minneapolis Convention Center. At Outkast Tackle this year we have come out with two new products. One is a beautiful finesse jig in a 3/16oz size with a lite wire hook. The other is a Texas Worm Rig, this is a wide gap worm hook with the bullet style weight molded right on the hook. This also has a light wire hook and smaller weight sizes for finesse fishing. I will work on getting some pics up for you to see, you can also visit www.outkasttackle.com. Gamma Technologies has been wonderful to work with the past few years and  I signed on again this year. For those of you that think fishing line is fishing line think again. They are not all created equal especially when it comes to the popular fluorocarbons. Most companies out there now are trying to hard to either make a manageable line but with sacrificing strength and abrasion resistance. Or they go the strength and abrasion route and have a very unmanageable line. Gamma's Edge has everything you want and need in a fluorocarbon. It is by far the most subtle easy to use fluoro out there and has the highest abrasion resistance and strength combinations available. If you would like to see what you are missing with your current fishing line click on the following link  

My 2007 tournament season is underway. With a little fund raising warm up tournament ( Brian Brecka's Great River Team tournament) to help raise money for the Wabasha area youth. It was nice just to get back down the old muddy. Learning where you can run and how to run it changes every year down there and that's what makes it such a special place to fish. Though this is what also deteirs alot of guys who are scared to scratch there boats. Guess I didn't buy mine to look pretty in the garage or only use it in the middle of the lake.

Well I'm back now from my 9 day stay at the mighty Mississippi, what a great body of water. I left Friday morning the 27th to get one day of practice in for the MN Fishers of Men tournaments on Saturday. They combined both MN divisions the West and East together down there. You had the option to fish just one or both and chose to put my money in both, heck I was already there what was another $150. I'm glad I did I wieghed 5 fish for 12.61lbs, good for 5th in the West and 6th in the East division and received a check in both.

Friday I stayed up around Red Wing and the North end of the lake. It was more to eliminate water than to actually find a spot to fish. That is exactly what I did. Though I have taken some nice fish up there and didn't want to have in the back of my mind what if, I didn't catch anything that made me want to go back. In fact the only two keepers I caught were 15 inchers out on the lake with a jerkbait. The FLW walleye tour and series were holding tournaments all week up there and they had the water covered!

Saturday arrives and I am boat 58 of 72 and my first spot was taken so I ran to a shallow wing dam usually good for one or two fish. Starting with a pearl white jerkbait I caught my first keeper on the second cast 15 3/4". After fishing it with different baits for about 45min. I notice a fish chasing baitfish. I missed the first two bites on a  Outkast Tackle mustard 4"tube before catching my second keeper 15 1/2". Next cast was the jerkbait again and that landed another 15 3/4" fish. Things aren't looking to bad. The next cast was with the tube with a 3.45lb smallie eating that and now I'm feeling really good, only an hour into it and I have 4 fish. Though that was it for that, as fast as it happened it was over. Time to run and with no practice I just went checking out old and new areas. I came across a beaver house that just looked right around 2pm. Now throwing a 3/8oz red/wht blade I caught a 3lb lrgmth. This fish really helped with less than an hour left it was my limit fish and the rest is history.

Sunday through Friday was spent practicing for the St.Judes tournament. It consisted of being on the water at 8 and pull out at 8. I should have been on the water by 6 though this time of year the after noon bite is generally much better considering that is when it warms up the most. For the most part it was a tough practice with the exception of Wednesday on pool 5. Brent Carlson came down and fished pool 4 and found some fish also Wednesday. We both went back to 5 on Thurs. and 4 on Friday. We caught some quality fish but never nothing of numbers.

Saturday day one of the Dick Hiley/St. Judes tournament greets us with 40+ mph south winds. We decided last night to spend day one in pool 4. We started midway up the lake and let just say WOW!!! them some big wages. We made it dry all the way there till the last one we filled the boat full up, nice way to start the day. We managed 3 small keeper smallies on tubes. After a couple of other unproductive spots on the lake we headed back towards the river. Pulling into a small cut we managed 4 good green ones on Outkast Swim jigs and are feeling a little better now. Deciding we need a couple big bites we ran to some back water sloughs only to manage a small keeper smallie. Day one total is 8 fish for 17+lbs and middle of the pack placing.

Sunday day two brings more wind, in fact there are gusts recorded around the area at 60+mph. Today we made the run south and not sure what is worse the lake or narrow river channel.  The waves aren't nearly as tall in the river but very jagged and unpredictable. Fishing the south end for the better part of the day we had one large mouth on the swim jig and 5 smallies on a variety of baits to show for it. 2 clock we decided we should make sure we get through the lock. Once through we fished a stretch of rip rap that produced another smallie and a couple that we lost. Day two total is 7 fish for 15+lbs. Any normal year 32-33lbs will get you a check down here and that's what we had. Problem is everyone caught them this year and you needed 37+lbs to checks but the winners (Joe Hall and Aaron Larouqe) still had avg. winning wieght of 46lbs.  

Hello Hype fans!!! This is my blog that will go along with the website. Here I will be more in detail as to what I did during practice and tournaments to give you a better insight as to how, what, when, where, and why the year is what it is. Also starting in June I am going to be giving away some sponsor product packets, so keep checking back to see how you can get some great free product.