Elite Series Fall Run

Because of postponed events earlier in our crazy 2020 year, we had the final four Bassmaster Elite Series events of the 2020 season in October and November at Guntersville, Santee Cooper, Chickamauga and Lake Fork. Typically our season is done in the summer so I had not had a lot of experience fishing down south in the fall. 

Fortunately, things went pretty well overall on this trip and I have qualified for the 2021 Bassmaster Classic which will take place in March at Ray Roberts Lake in Texas. I ended up finishing 28th at Guntersville, 9th at Santee, 21st at Chickamauga before throwing down a bomb at Lake Fork, finishing 83rd, probably the worst finish of my career. 

At Guntersville, a frog was a key bait for me...also caught a few at Chickamauga on it as well. The new Z-Man Leap FrogZ and the Jackall Kaera both put fish in the boat. I was throwing them on a G. Loomis IMX-PRO Frog Rod, 65 lb Power Pro with a Shimano Curado reel - all available at LOTW Sports Headquarters.

The fishing at all of these fall events was tough. At Santee I was fortunate to catch my biggest bass of the year - a 9-7 giant that won big bass of the tournament. It also helped carry me into the top ten. It really went a long way! This lake is full of big fish, fall is just a tough time to fish this place. 

My good friend Carl Jocumsen finished 2nd at Santee and really helped me out a lot as far as getting on the right program to catch a few fish. I caught all of my fish punching heavy mats with a Z-Man Palmetto BugZ, rigged with a Gamakatsu Extra Heavy Flipping Hook, 65 lb Power Pro, fished on a G. Loomis GLX 894 rod. Here are Carl and I comparing notes in the bag line before weigh-in. 

Lake Fork was kind of a disaster for me, I caught one small bass each day, pretty hard to believe but I just didn't get on a program there and what I thought was going to work for me, just didn't. It's crazy because I had a great tournament at Lake Fork the year before but that's fishing. We're hitting Fork again in 2021 so I'm looking forward to turning it around at that place. 

A big thanks to Bassmaster for making it possible for us to fish our entire schedule this year! I'm grateful that we got the opportunity and that I was able to get over the border to fish. Competing in these events is my main source of income and not being able to guide a whole lot because of the Covid restrictions we had, I would have been in big trouble.

Huge thank you to all of my sponsors and supporters as well! I'm a regular guy and all of the help is greatly appreciated! See you all in 2021!