2019 Season in Review - Part 1

First off, for everybody who checks in here throughout the season I apologize for not keeping up the blog part of the website.  Between my writing assignments, keeping up the social media pages and fishing as much as I can, I kind of forgot about this but that will change in the coming months.  Look for frequent reports, good photos and some great fishing and hunting information.  Here is a look back at the 2019 fishing season:

After a rough start to the season in the first couple of events, I got things back on track at Lake Hartwell in April.  Mixing a combination of spotted bass and largemouths I landed a 13th place finish at one of my favourite lakes in the south.  

Traveling around the continent to fish requires quite a bit of gear so in between tournaments, this is a common occurance...switching out rods and tackle depending on where we're fishing.  I'm very lucky to have such a great, versatile boat - a Lund 2075 Pro-V Bass - it has a ton of storage so I can bring whatever gear that I want with me, it's a huge deck to fish from and it's good in big water.  

One of the most important pieces of gear that I carry with me on road is my Yeti Tundra 35 cooler.  We usually rent houses at the different lakes that we visit and stock up on groceries for the week.  I can carry whatever food I want with me on the road in between tournaments and have some good drinks while on the long drives. Essential part of the team!  

In early May we visited legendary Lake Fork, Texas and after a tough first day I had three great days in a row to earn my first top ten finish on the Bassmaster Elite Series with a 5th place finish.  I caught schooling fish shallow in the mornings on a Z-Man Jerk ShadZ then caught fish on offshore structure the rest of the day, mostly on crankbaits.  It was a fun week!

At Lake Fork we actually weighed our fish in the boat because of the protected slot size that they have there...but if we caught a bass over 24" we were able to bring it in to show the crowd and then the Texas Parks and Wildlife would sample the fish for their Share-A-Lunker program.  This one was a 7+ pounder that was part of my 27-12 final day bag!

After Lake Fork we were supposed to fish at Fort Gibson Lake in Oklahoma but that event was cancelled due to high water.  So my pal Seth Feider and I teamed up for the annual Sturgeon Bay Open tournament on Lake Michigan.  This is one of my favourite open, team tournaments and you are guaranteed to catch some giant smallmouths out there.  We had a mediocre first day limit that weighed around 21 pounds but on day two we cracked a 27+ limit to finish in the top 20.  It was a fun few days out there.