Back on the road...

After getting home for a few days in mid-February, I have been back on the road again for the past week.  I attended my first Bassmaster Classic last week in Birmingham, Alabama.  It was fun!  A big show, for sure!  The day after the Classic my good buddy Blake Nick took Bob Mahoney (from Shimano) and I out fishing on Lake Guntersville.  
After Guntersville, I drove over to Columbia, South Carolina to spend a few days fun fishing on Lake Murray, site of the Forrest Wood Cup later this year.  Tomorrow we get to start prefishing for the second stop on the FLW Tour, at Lake Hartwell, South Carolina.  

Back at home before I left for this last trip I got out ice fishing a few times and in my life I have never seen as much snow on the ice as we have right now across the Sunset Country Region.  Here is a shot of Jay Samsal drilling a hole in the ice, almost to the bottom of the auger!  It's been a long, cold winter at home!

My buddy Matt Peters from Minnesota with a lake trout that he caught jigging a spoon.  Not a giant, but a pretty one!  It's been a few years since we last fished together so it was good to get out.  

Big Dustin Byfuglien of the Winnipeg Jets with an eater sized walleye he caught...while most NHL players went on tropical vacations over the Olympic break, Buff spent his time ice fishing out at Lake of the Woods!  

One of the highlights of the Classic for me was getting to go to the Champion's Toast after the tournament was over on Sunday night.  Here is day one leader and eventual fourth place finisher, Randall Tharp.  

When we finally got out fishing on Monday, Blake took us to a few places where we could catch some fish on unbrella rigs.  It was my first time really catching good fish on it, so it was fun.

Bob Mahoney and I holding up some of our nice fish from Guntersville.  In addition to catching a few fish on an umbrella rig, we also caught some on a Jackall Aska 60 squarebill crankbait.  

Over at Lake Murray, we caught some really nice fish the first day of two that I spent fishing with some of my sponsor folks from International Comfort Products.  ICP represents several brands of heating and cooling products including Comfortmaker, Heil and Tempstar.  

Here are Dave Fuller and Marion Motley representing Heil with a big bass from Lake Murray.  

 Chad Taylor and Bobby Childers with some bass and a nice striper from Lake Murry.  They were representing Tempstar heating and cooling products.  Thanks guys!