I'll answer some of the questions posted here before I get to today's events. Mark S asked a question about traveling; I only fish the Stren Series as a Pro-Angler, so there's only 4-5 tournaments that I have to trailer my boat to (I fish about 17 tournaments a year). Fishing as a Co-angler on the FLW Tour and FLW Series allows me to travel with just my clothes and fishing gear. It's good in some ways and a pain in others. Flying saves a whole lot on gas. My flight out of Hartford into Tampa for the last Okeechobee tournament was only $160 round trip. Gas for my truck would have cost about $500 to go down and back.
OHMYGOD was right on track suggesting the carolina rig. That's one of the top 5 baits to throw down here. I threw it quite a bit, and caught very few. The fish seem to be feeding directly off the bottom. Gabe was throwing a texas rig with the same bait I was throwing on the carolina rig and he was out fishing me 10 to 1. I despise the carolina rig anyway, but sometimes it just can't be beat.
Today was an interesting day. We were only going to fish until 1:30 because Gabe had to go and film the around the town segment for the FLW TV show, so no matter what it was going to be a short day. The wind was blowing about 10mph so we started fishing the windy banks with swim baits(the wind forecast for today is 30-40mph with gusts to 50). So we start fishing and I catch a smallmouth on my third cast. Imagine that, a Northern boy goes to Mexico and catches a smallmouth. The fish hit a big wooden swim bait no less. The first time it jumped I looked at Gabe and said "I'd swear that was a smallmouth". It only weighed about 2 lbs, but I can now say I've caught a smallie in 3 different countries(2nd being Canada). So we continue fishing down the bank when I see something up ahead on a rocky ledge. It was a mother goat and her 2 babies. The mother had fallen and died on the rocks and the babies were there crying and trying to nurse from her. It was a very sad sight. We didn't know what to do so Gabe called Byron Velvick and he said he would take them. If we had left them there they probably wouldn't have made it more than another day. I got Gabe up to the bluff and let him off. He went over and got the babies and handed them to me. I thought they would bite or try and get away, but they didn't; I think they knew we weren't going to hurt them. I sat on the floor and Gabe drove us back to the ramp to drop the goats off.


Click to enlarge...

Our short day of practice had become even shorter due to the goat adventure. We dropped the goats off and headed back out onto the lake. At this point, the wind was blowing about 20mph. We continue to fish without any bites, with the wind speed increasing by the minute. At about 11am Gabe decides it isn't worth staying out in the wind which is now blowing about 30 sustained. It's true about everything in Texas being bigger. Bigger is not always better however. We were barely able to get the boat on the trailer with the wind blowing so hard.


Click to enlarge...

It was a weird day to say the least. Now I'm here in the room watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off, writing this post. Tomorrow is the last day of practice before the tournament. I'm ready to go!