Sorry there weren't any posts during the Championship; we were staying at a house that had no internet service. Dusty and I practiced hard for five days, even through a massive thunderstorm that produce torrential rain and almost marble sized hail. At one point during the storm when the precipitation let up I decided it would be a good time to move and drove straight into a flurry of some very painful hail. It was too late to stop so we drove about 2 more miles getting pelted by the hail. At the registration dinner Bobby Curtis asked if that was me out there driving through the hail storm. I smiled and said "damn strait, and it hurt just a little". Here's a pic of the tail end of the storm.


Click to enlarge...

In the first fifteen minutes of practice Dusty and I(mostly I) caught 2 spots, a smallmouth and a largemouth. All were over 14" but not quite the lake limit of 15". It would prove to be a difficult mark to overcome, but we did eventually catch a couple keepers. If it had not been for one exceptional day of practice, we would have only caught 7 keepers in 4 days of practice. We caught lots of fish, but not the quality we were looking for.


Click to enlarge...

The one exceptional day we had we caught probably 15 keepers and close to 50 non-keepers. The spots were suspended in 10-30’ deep over 50’ of water in the backs of long deep pockets. They were relating to the bait, just hanging out waiting for the opportune time to strike. We were watching the fish on my Humminbird units and letting the drop shots down to them. It was like playing a video game. We had a blast, staying out until it got dark. Many people would have left the school alone, but I'm of the mindset of "smoke em if you got em" when they're biting; and we did we ever! It was stupid.

This school of fish would end up producing 8 keepers the first day of the tournament, including a 4lb largemouth caught by my Co. My co-angler ended the first day in the top ten and I wasn't far behind in 33rd. I told Dusty that he should pray really hard that he got drawn with me the first day. It didn't work out that way and Dusty drew a bonehead and only ended up catching 1 keeper. I caught 10 keepers that day for 11-8. I was excited, knowing that a school that big could last for days. I was only worried about one thing, people had seen me smokin the fish the day before and wanted to be me. When I arrived there the second morning one of the guys who had seen me the day before was dead on the spot where I had been catching them. If you were 25' off the spot you couldn’t get bit. I couldn't get in close enough to catch them, and he wasn't going to budge. It took all my willpower to refrain from getting into it with him. I left to try some of my other spots. My Co caught a good spot on a jigging spoon, but that was it. After about 3 hours I went back in hopes the guy would be gone. He was still in the same spot commencing on ripping their lips off. I've never had that happen to me and it was heartbreaking to say the worst. Dusty and I put in allot of time to find an area like that and he just saw me and got a better draw. I'm still frustrated about it. I ended up zeroing and falling to 104th, which was good for nothing. Dusty's day wasn't much better, but he did catch one fish that held up for big fish for quit a while. But in the end it was good for nothing. We did see some beautiful scenery on the way there though. Here’s a picture of the St Lois arch in MO; taken just minutes after I received a speeding ticket.


Click to enlarge...

The trip was a good learning experience. I always try and be positive about things. The ride will be a grueling 20 hours back to CT. Unfortunately for Dusty there will be allot less of this on his ride back to CT:


Click to enlarge...

I flew out of St Lois Friday morning and into Philadelphia for my buddy’s wedding on Saturday. So while Dusty was driving that long 2 day drive, I was partying in Philly. Dusty was a pretty good sport about it. I sent him this picture while he was driving


Click to enlarge...

This year ended pretty much like it began; not good! Last year I had and exceptional year and felt like things could only go down hill from there. I was right. Now that I am at the bottom, I feel as though I can only do better! I haven't heard from FLW about my sponsorship for next year. Hopefully the next post you see from me is the good news of me being added to a pro team for next season. It would be a nice Birthday present.