Go get'm Jess, If no one else says this!!!"I really live for these reports, as I miss fishing the events" Your time will be rewarded,....this is YOUR YEAR,.....Look at the draws,.......already a good one!!!! I and the rest will be waiting with baited braeth(no pun intended) GET'm 'kid!

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So the first day of the tournament didn't go great. I knew the guy I got paired up with, and he's a really nice guy. He doesn't fish the Tour for a living though, and that can be bad when conditions change. The day before the tournament there was a bad rain storm and the front that preceded it was a cold and sunny one. Luis had been catching as much as 30 lbs a day in practice, but his fish on the main river were not biting due to the new mud-lines that covered the grass flats. I knew immediately that the guys fishing in the creeks were going to crush them. With the new "no information" rules in effect, I couldn't suggest to him that we fish a creek that had not been affected by the wind and rain. We stayed on the main river the whole day and ended up boating 4 fish. He caught 3 for 6lbs and I caught my only fish with 5 minutes left that weighed a little over 4. My first day pretty much followed suite with my practice. The bad part about my day was that if you were with the right person, you slaughtered them. There were 2 co-anglers with bags over 25 lbs and many more over 20. I ended the day somewhere around 100th with my one fish. To tell you the truth, I was happy to have it. The thought of possibly having a double goose egg on a lake like this was completely disturbing to me. On the positive side, when fishing on a lake like this anything can happen; I could be the one weighing in the 25lb bag. I got a call from my partner for the next day; it was Berkley FLW Team member Glenn Browne. He's a great grass fisherman and I had heard he had a stellar practice. I'm sure there were many people out there who had him picked for their fantasy fishing team. As it turns out, his fish did not bite either and he only caught one fish for 2 lbs and his Co zeroed. I was a little concerned, but I had confidence in the fact that Glenn does this for a living and does it well. I knew he would give it his all to try and catch up. I caught my first fish on a gold red eye shad about 10 minutes into the day. I decided to live or die by one bait and continued to throw it exclusively for the rest of the day. I was convinced that color made no difference and if I stayed with it I would get bit. My decision paid off and I ended up catching 4 fish; I did lose 2 fish, but that's expected when you're throwing a trap. Glenn had not caught a fish by 1pm and felt the need to move even though I had caught some good ones. I can't blame him for wanting to make a move, he had caught some good fish really shallow and wanted to go and check them. He had been catching fish on a skinny dipper that he was buzzing across the top of the grass like a horny toad. When we pulled into the area where he had been catching them I couldn't believe it. The water was about a foot deep and there was matted grass and vines everywhere. It didn't take long; he had a 5lber on his 5th cast. The water temp had reached 53 and the largemouth were smashing the surface like a warm summer evening. He told me he had found these fish in practice when the water temp was 47 degrees. Sometimes fishing as a co-angler can teach you things that you never would have thought possible. I didn't have the right rods for this type of fishing, and ended up loosing 4 or 5 fish that I couldn't get a proper hook into. I wasn't able to finish my limit, but the 4 I did catch weighed almost 16 lbs. Not the 25lb bag I had hoped for, but a nice comeback none the less. I went from 100th to 37th. It wasn't where I wanted to finish, but considering how the rest of my trip went, I was happy to have caught anything at all. I ended up getting a check for $1200, which is better than a sharp stick in the eye (I'm told). Because I'm paying my own way this year that puts me in the hole about $200; that's definitely better than no check and being $1400 in the hole. I'm glad I'm fishing this year even though I'm still on the Co-side and I have to pay my own way. Some of what I learned during this tournament is invaluable and will come in handy down the road. I didn't have the kind of finish I would have liked, but the tournament ended on a good note and it has me looking forward to the next Tour event on Table Rock Lake.

Good job earning a check, I guess as a co-angler it tough to be limited to what you can carry for poles. Is it against the rules if he offered you a flipping stick or does that just not happen.

Way to hang tuff Jess. Too bad you couldn't suggest going up
the creeks.
Looking forward to more of your Tales from the Trail.

Congrats on making a check Jess.
I enjoyed the great report as always.

Just think, you could be up here ice fishing just waiting to make a cast.

Stay positive and stay focused.