14 March 2013
2013 Season underway
My 2013 tournament season has started off fast this year with several redfish and bass tournaments already being completed and several more in the coming weeks. I also had the privilege to do some marketing for Zman at the FLW Tour Event on Lake Okeechobee. Here are a few pictures of the FLW tour event and some tournament pictures. In the coming weeks, be on the look out for some informational videos and reviews of several new exciting products I will be using this season.
05 November 2012
BASS Open-Smith Lake, AL
It has been a month now since I traveled to Jasper, AL for the final BASS Southern Open of the year which was held on Lewis Smith Lake. I have been very busy since coming home with work and other travels and haven't been able to get a lot of fishing in. The recent Hurricane/Super Storm Sandy has also kept the winds extremely high here in Florida the last few weeks. It has left me plenty of time to reflect on my last tournament in Alabama and to look forward to the 2013 season. More details to come on what I have planned for next year.
My tournament partner and buddy Chris Adams also made the trip with me to fish the Open. I was fortunate to be able to travel up to Jasper a few days ahead of the tournament and learn a little about the lake and habits of these spotted bass. Growing up in Florida, you tend to grow accustomed to a few different types of bass fishing mostly consisting of throwing some type of soft plastic. It is pretty simple for me here in Florida. Clear water means I am throwing a green/watermelon worm. Dark water means I am using junebug colored worms. From the outside looking in, that sounds pretty one dimensional. But as most Florida bass fishermen know, it is hard to go wrong with soft plastics. My go to worms for casting are the Zman Saw TailZ and ZinkerZ. When flipping/pitching, I use the Zman Punch CrawZ and the new Palmetto BugZ. If you haven't tried the new Palmetto BugZ out, you really need to. They are going to be a dynamite bite for me next year flipping for the big spawning bass that always show un in the spring time.
Smith Lake was going to be different and I was excited for the challenge. Fishermen on this lake can expect to catch both largemouth and spotted bass on topwater, crankbaits, drop shotting and shaky heads. The lake was absolutely beautiful as well which made for very enjoyable fishing days. It is not often I get to fish in a creek that has waterfalls and rock cliffs with higher elevations than any spot in Florida.
I met up with my buddy Luke Gritter, who I met at the BASS Open in Florida. Luke and I fished together on the final day of that tournament where he finished in 6th place for the boaters. Luke is a former Elite Series pro and an excellent bass fisherman. We headed out on Tuesday to do some prefishing in a fog and misty rain that stayed with us most of the day. By 11:00 in the morning, I had already caught four nice keeper fish with three of them being spotted bass. The first two fish in the morning were caught on a Spook Jr. and Strike King 5XD crankbait. Throwing that crankbait was an experience enough for me because I rarely fish in waters deep enough to handle that 20+ diving bait. After moving around to several new places, I started throwing a Zman Shaky Head rigged with a Green Pumpkin colored FattyZ. This is a new bait designed by FLW Tour Pro and Zman Pro Luke Clausen. It was my first experience using it but I ended up catching the majority of my fish on it this day and during the tournament. I ended the day catching 12 fish with 5 of them being good keeper sized bass. I was pretty excited for this tournament to start after this. The only problem was fishing as a co-angler meant I had no idea where or how I would be fishing. Things did change come the tournament.
The day before the tournament started, Chris and I went looking for a local tackle shop to find some other lures we might need. As most fishermen know, there is always something you can buy to have in the tackle box. We stopped in Pat's Archery & Outdoors in Jasper and were immediately at home. Just like any other good small Southern town, the people in the store were all friendly and hospitable and willing to help you however they can. They even gave us a great recommendation on a local restaurant which we both enjoyed. I purchased several of the 4x4 Jigs which are manufactured in Alabama. I had never seen these Jigs before but loved the way they looked and were made. It was a good thing we purchased them because both of us caught several nice fish using them. I also purchased some 4x4 Black/Blue Jigs to use in Florida and am looking forward to trying them out this winter/spring.
Day one started out with the same kind of weather but the fog was worse this morning. The coolest site of my day was seeing two deer swimming across a creek as we fly by them heading to our fishing spot. Based on their reactions and the speed at which they turned around to head back to shore, they must not have ever seen two guys in a funny shaped object doing 75 MPH by them. Thank the Lord we did not hit them. We made about a 45 minute run to a creek in the north part of the lake. I realized quickly the type of fishing I was going to be doing this day was totally different than I expected. It was basically a shallow water creek/river and we just worked the laydowns and creek edge. I worked behind the boater of course trying to cast in areas he had not. He was working the creek with a Jig rigged with a Pumpkin trailer and caught many good largemouths. I did not have many good opportunities in there but I did catch my three bass limit on a Green Pumpkin/Blue FattyZ rigged Texas style and a Green Pumpkin 4x4 Jig rigged with a Zman ChunkZ. It was one of those situations where nothing else was working for me so I decided to fish like I would at home. The strategy paid off and I was able to salvage the day with a limit and a 50th place finish for the day. I was not very happy about where I was after day one, but in a tournament like this one where 50th and 10th were only separated by a couple of pounds, I was close enough to be able to move up quickly.
Day two is another story completely. As a co-angler, your success is somewhat hinging on your draw as a boater. I knew I was in trouble the night before we fished together because my boater told me he had no idea where the fish were. Per tournament rules, I could not give him any information on where I had fished previously. Unfortunately, the day ended up as I had expected because neither one of us caught a keepr sized fish. It was a frustrating and somewhat humiliating end to my Smith Lake trip but that is fishing. We worked hard all day and fished in areas that looked great to me. Nothing worked for us though and I missed my opportunity to weigh in a fish. Despite my disappointment, Chris had a great second day and made the top 10 to fish the final day. I was excited for him to be able to experience this as I know how much I enjoyed it at the Harris Chain Open. Chris finished up strong on day three and moved himself up to 5th place to take home a nice check. We had a great time learning the lake and competing together in this Open. Bass fishing in Alabama is some of the best there is to offer in the nation and I look forward to my next trip to Bama country.
The remainder of the year is going to all about learning some new areas in the Tampa Bay region for the upcoming season of the West Coast Pro Redfish Series. This is an exciting challenge for me and something I have been looking into doing for several years. I will still be fishing open bass tournaments next year to go along with the redfish tournaments. Look for some more reports/videos later this year of some of Zman's new lures for 2013 as well.
Tight lines!
My tournament partner and buddy Chris Adams also made the trip with me to fish the Open. I was fortunate to be able to travel up to Jasper a few days ahead of the tournament and learn a little about the lake and habits of these spotted bass. Growing up in Florida, you tend to grow accustomed to a few different types of bass fishing mostly consisting of throwing some type of soft plastic. It is pretty simple for me here in Florida. Clear water means I am throwing a green/watermelon worm. Dark water means I am using junebug colored worms. From the outside looking in, that sounds pretty one dimensional. But as most Florida bass fishermen know, it is hard to go wrong with soft plastics. My go to worms for casting are the Zman Saw TailZ and ZinkerZ. When flipping/pitching, I use the Zman Punch CrawZ and the new Palmetto BugZ. If you haven't tried the new Palmetto BugZ out, you really need to. They are going to be a dynamite bite for me next year flipping for the big spawning bass that always show un in the spring time.
Smith Lake was going to be different and I was excited for the challenge. Fishermen on this lake can expect to catch both largemouth and spotted bass on topwater, crankbaits, drop shotting and shaky heads. The lake was absolutely beautiful as well which made for very enjoyable fishing days. It is not often I get to fish in a creek that has waterfalls and rock cliffs with higher elevations than any spot in Florida.
I met up with my buddy Luke Gritter, who I met at the BASS Open in Florida. Luke and I fished together on the final day of that tournament where he finished in 6th place for the boaters. Luke is a former Elite Series pro and an excellent bass fisherman. We headed out on Tuesday to do some prefishing in a fog and misty rain that stayed with us most of the day. By 11:00 in the morning, I had already caught four nice keeper fish with three of them being spotted bass. The first two fish in the morning were caught on a Spook Jr. and Strike King 5XD crankbait. Throwing that crankbait was an experience enough for me because I rarely fish in waters deep enough to handle that 20+ diving bait. After moving around to several new places, I started throwing a Zman Shaky Head rigged with a Green Pumpkin colored FattyZ. This is a new bait designed by FLW Tour Pro and Zman Pro Luke Clausen. It was my first experience using it but I ended up catching the majority of my fish on it this day and during the tournament. I ended the day catching 12 fish with 5 of them being good keeper sized bass. I was pretty excited for this tournament to start after this. The only problem was fishing as a co-angler meant I had no idea where or how I would be fishing. Things did change come the tournament.
The day before the tournament started, Chris and I went looking for a local tackle shop to find some other lures we might need. As most fishermen know, there is always something you can buy to have in the tackle box. We stopped in Pat's Archery & Outdoors in Jasper and were immediately at home. Just like any other good small Southern town, the people in the store were all friendly and hospitable and willing to help you however they can. They even gave us a great recommendation on a local restaurant which we both enjoyed. I purchased several of the 4x4 Jigs which are manufactured in Alabama. I had never seen these Jigs before but loved the way they looked and were made. It was a good thing we purchased them because both of us caught several nice fish using them. I also purchased some 4x4 Black/Blue Jigs to use in Florida and am looking forward to trying them out this winter/spring.
Day one started out with the same kind of weather but the fog was worse this morning. The coolest site of my day was seeing two deer swimming across a creek as we fly by them heading to our fishing spot. Based on their reactions and the speed at which they turned around to head back to shore, they must not have ever seen two guys in a funny shaped object doing 75 MPH by them. Thank the Lord we did not hit them. We made about a 45 minute run to a creek in the north part of the lake. I realized quickly the type of fishing I was going to be doing this day was totally different than I expected. It was basically a shallow water creek/river and we just worked the laydowns and creek edge. I worked behind the boater of course trying to cast in areas he had not. He was working the creek with a Jig rigged with a Pumpkin trailer and caught many good largemouths. I did not have many good opportunities in there but I did catch my three bass limit on a Green Pumpkin/Blue FattyZ rigged Texas style and a Green Pumpkin 4x4 Jig rigged with a Zman ChunkZ. It was one of those situations where nothing else was working for me so I decided to fish like I would at home. The strategy paid off and I was able to salvage the day with a limit and a 50th place finish for the day. I was not very happy about where I was after day one, but in a tournament like this one where 50th and 10th were only separated by a couple of pounds, I was close enough to be able to move up quickly.
Day two is another story completely. As a co-angler, your success is somewhat hinging on your draw as a boater. I knew I was in trouble the night before we fished together because my boater told me he had no idea where the fish were. Per tournament rules, I could not give him any information on where I had fished previously. Unfortunately, the day ended up as I had expected because neither one of us caught a keepr sized fish. It was a frustrating and somewhat humiliating end to my Smith Lake trip but that is fishing. We worked hard all day and fished in areas that looked great to me. Nothing worked for us though and I missed my opportunity to weigh in a fish. Despite my disappointment, Chris had a great second day and made the top 10 to fish the final day. I was excited for him to be able to experience this as I know how much I enjoyed it at the Harris Chain Open. Chris finished up strong on day three and moved himself up to 5th place to take home a nice check. We had a great time learning the lake and competing together in this Open. Bass fishing in Alabama is some of the best there is to offer in the nation and I look forward to my next trip to Bama country.
The remainder of the year is going to all about learning some new areas in the Tampa Bay region for the upcoming season of the West Coast Pro Redfish Series. This is an exciting challenge for me and something I have been looking into doing for several years. I will still be fishing open bass tournaments next year to go along with the redfish tournaments. Look for some more reports/videos later this year of some of Zman's new lures for 2013 as well.
Tight lines!
10 June 2012
Snook!!! and Hurricanes???
As a boy growing up in North Central Florida, I was blessed with many species of fish to target and catch. One of those was not the infamous snook. Snook are primarily found in the areas of Florida south of the Big Bend region such as Tampa Bay, the 10,000 Islands and the Palm Beaches. The reason snook did not habitate in the northern parts of Florida were due to the colder water temperatures reached during the winter months. Thanks to Al Gore's discovery of global warming (well, he does take credit for it) and the snook hearing about this, they are now being caught as far north as Cedar Key and Suwannee.
This past week has been a welcome site for people in Florida with huge amounts of rainfall being dropped each day. Thankfully, the front decided to drift away just in time for some fishing. We headed out of Yankeetown early in the AM after a visit to Captain's Cove Outfitters for some Zman lures. The goal for the day was to target redfish during the high tide which happened to be right at day break. As much as I wanted to catch reds, I knew there would be a small window of opportunity to target snook in a close by area because of the overcast conditions and outgoing tide. When it comes to choosing between snook or reds, I am always going to run at the opportunity to catch a linesider. We started fishing the area with topwater lures but did not have any success. I switched to a Zman ShrimpZ in the New Penny color rigged with a weighted Trigger HookZ and worked the flooded grass patches. Within a few casts, I hooked up with a nice slot red. Surprisingly, this would end up being the one and only red we would catch today. I did lose a 30" + red in this area that also took the New Penny ShrimpZ. As we continued on, Jake switched back to topwater and immediately had several big fish blow up at his Skitter Walk. We both suspected it could be snook but couldn't be sure unless we actually caught one. I followed his last blow up by throwing the ShrimpZ in the same spot. This fish did not miss grabbing my ShrimpZ and took off for the spartina grass. After a few minutes of fighting the fish, I boated a nice 28" snook. Jake switched to soft plastics and got another small snook on a New Penny PaddlerZ. These were the only two we got to the boat, but had several more misses that were probably snook. We also added three 18"-20" trout that made for a nice fish fry.
I also wanted to briefly mention a fishing trip me and my tournament partner Chris Adams had Memorial Day weekend. The family and I spent the holiday weekend with them at their home in Jacksonville. As most of you might know, Jax had a tropical storm roll through town that weekend. We decided to ride it out there for the weekend and get as much fishing in as we could. The weather didn't allow for much fishing time, but we did get in a few hours of bass fishing and intercoastal fishing. Bass fishing was great with us probably landing 20 fish up to 5 lbs. in just a few hours on the lake. All bass were caught on White 1/4 oz. Jigalo Jigs and drop shotting Rain MinnowZ. Sunday was the day the storm made landfall but we were able to fish the intercoastal early that morning. We set out hoping to catch anything but expected to catch reds and trout. There were none of these biting this day, but lucky for us and the girls, the flounder were hungry. We ended the morning with 12 up to 19". Flounder were caught on Houdini - PaddlerZ and ShrimpZ. The biggest two were kept for a nice fish fry tht night paired with some local Mayport shrimp. All in all, it made for a great weekend and hurricane party!
25 April 2012
Rodman Reservoir under attack
Here is a great article about the conservationists who are trying to ruin one of the best bass fisheries in the State of Florida. Check out www.rodmanreservior.org to learn more about ways you can help save the reservoir.
http://www.bassmaster.com/news/rodman-reservoir-under-attack-again
http://www.bassmaster.com/news/rodman-reservoir-under-attack-again
13 March 2012
BASS Open-2012 Season
2012 Season Officially Underway!
I started the new year off with a long list of bass and redfish tournaments to fish this season but none bigger than the BASS Open held on the Harris Chain January 26-28. The Harris Chain proved to be an excellent bass fishery with many large bags of fish coming in during the 3 day tournament. Overall, the tournament was a great success for me as I ended with a 10th place finish.
I am looking forward to a great 2012 fishing season and will hopefully bring home some tournament victories this year. Keep up with me through my blog as I continue on the tournament trail.
I also did an interview with Z-Man regarding the details of the tournament. Here is a link to the interview:http://zmanfishing.com/cms/squad_detail.php?From-The-FanZ-Z-Man-Pro-Staffer-Nabs-Top-10-Finish-On-The-Harris-Chain-82
I started the new year off with a long list of bass and redfish tournaments to fish this season but none bigger than the BASS Open held on the Harris Chain January 26-28. The Harris Chain proved to be an excellent bass fishery with many large bags of fish coming in during the 3 day tournament. Overall, the tournament was a great success for me as I ended with a 10th place finish.
I am looking forward to a great 2012 fishing season and will hopefully bring home some tournament victories this year. Keep up with me through my blog as I continue on the tournament trail.
22 December 2011
Zman Flappin CrawZ
http://www.bassmaster.com/gear/z-mans-durable-flapping-crawz
Nice review of the new Zman Flappin Crawz.
Nice review of the new Zman Flappin Crawz.
08 November 2011
Cooler weather = Spec Fishing!
Growing up in Florida, you become accustomed to hot weather and summer time fishing patterns which tend to last the majority of the year. Contrary to what some people north of the state believe, it does get cold here in Florida and does have an affect on fishing. Most fish slow down in the winter leaving anglers scrambling for ways to find fish. However, the speckled perch (crappie) love the cooler water temperatures and will school up making for some fun days on the water. Saturday was one of those days for myself and Dad. It was around 48 degrees early in the AM with a 10+ wind expected to increase to 20+ by noon and the weatherman was right on his prediction. Since the wind was so high, we decided to "just" go spec fishing on the Withlacoochee River instead of chasing reds in the shallows. We ran up river to an old phosphate pit which is typically good for us around Thanksgiving/Christmas. Mostly it is open water casting in deep holes, but this time there was a large mat of grass/pads in the area we like to fish. As soon as we started dropping the Myti-Mite jigs down through the grass, we were pulling in 10" + specs. We ended up catching two dozen and keeping the 10 slabs for a fish fry at lunch. The grass was sitting over a 20 ft hole but the fish were suspended anywhere from 3-6 ft under the grass.
Spec fishing is something that all fisherman have probably done during their lifetime but doesn't get all the attention that bass, reds and grouper receive. I am guilty of this and don't go spec fishing as much as I once did. But there is no more enjoyable day on the water than what I had Saturday and it is something that any person/kid can easily do. All you need is a light action spinning rod or even a jig pole. I prefer to use jigs but live minnows are a staple for spec fisherman and provide a great way to catch a good mess of fish. The jig of choice for the day was the Myti-Mite in the Christmas Tree (Red/Green) and Powder Puff (Pink/White). Here are a few pictures from the day.
Spec fishing is something that all fisherman have probably done during their lifetime but doesn't get all the attention that bass, reds and grouper receive. I am guilty of this and don't go spec fishing as much as I once did. But there is no more enjoyable day on the water than what I had Saturday and it is something that any person/kid can easily do. All you need is a light action spinning rod or even a jig pole. I prefer to use jigs but live minnows are a staple for spec fisherman and provide a great way to catch a good mess of fish. The jig of choice for the day was the Myti-Mite in the Christmas Tree (Red/Green) and Powder Puff (Pink/White). Here are a few pictures from the day.
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