This is what the room looks like when someone else is paying for it! I was living large down in South Carolina.


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Sorry to leave you guys hanging like that. It's been a little over a week since I left South Carolina. I fished with Kevin Vida on the second day and caught a big fat goose egg. I dropped into 38th place and made enough money to pay for gas to the next tournament on Thousand Islands. I left the Fun Zone at 5pm on Sunday and drove through the night arriving home at 4am. I slept until 10am, got up, packed my boat (I say that loosely), went to lunch with my wife, and was on my way again. I drove for another 5 hours to Thousand Islands for the second Stren Series event of the year. I arrived about 6pm into what looked like a scene from the movie Twister. The sky was filled with crazy black and grey clouds, it was pouring and lightning was striking about every 30 seconds; so much for getting my stuff ready for my one day of practice. I was rooming with Dusty at this one and he had been there practicing with Dennis. Dusty and I got up the next morning at 7. It took me about and hour and a half to get everything I needed from the truck into the boat. I wanted to spend my time practicing out on Lake Ontario because I thought that would be where the biggest bags would be caught; unfortunately the wind was blowing about 25mph. Apparently if the wind blows more than 5mph hour the lake is wicked rough. So Dusty and I practiced in the river. I poked around for a few hours and then Dusty took me to some of the places where he's caught good fish in the past. After our 6 hours of practice I was confident I could catch 12-14 pounds, which Dusty assured me would keep me near the top 10 cut. I caught 10lbs the first day which I didn't think was half bad until I got back to weigh in. I ended the day in 103rd. The weights that came in were unbelievable; I had missed the boat. I decided to run out onto the lake the second day as long as the wind didn't blow. It didn't and I caught a respectable 15lbs. I climbed a little higher in the points up to 85th. I was figuring the fish out, unfortunately a little too late. By the last day I knew exactly where to find them and what they wanted to eat (if you go to Thousand Islands make sure you bring plenty of Berkley Gulp). The problem I had the last day was I lost some fish. I ended up with 14lbs, and my Co weighed in 18lbs. I finished the tournament in 75th; a comeback of sorts. One more day and I'm pretty sure I could have come in with a 20lb bag. Not having any practice on a lake I had never been to before really hurt me in this one. Dusty had 16lbs a day of course, and almost won it. The luck of the draw on the Co-angler side can be a killer. That's alright, anyone who knows Dusty is kind of relieved, because there would have been no living with him had he won. Save your win for a big payday Dusty! I left for home straight from the weigh in at 5pm on Friday night and arrived home at 10pm. I was exhausted!
I will leave you with a picture of what the hotel looks like when you stay with Dusty and have to pay out of your own pocket.


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hate to tell ya, but you guys were prob safer under the sheets than on top of them. My wife worked for a hotel a long time ago and told me this one time.... "at least the sheets get changed after each visit. the comforters on the other hand..." well, you can figure out the rest. To this day, wherever we go, the comforter flies off the bed before anyone even sits on it...

It's been awhile since I had access to the internet. I was at Champlain for the FLW Series 2 weeks ago. The weather was horribly cold and windy in practice and then somehow became beautiful. The first 2 days were warm and sunny and both species of bass were biting. We were not so lucky on the third day however. I think the wind blew so hard that if you made the run down to Ty, all you had to do was idle back and the South wind carried you back to Plattsburgh in 2 hours. I was lucky fishing just 5 minutes from the launch all day. We stayed in one spot out of the wind on the north end of Valcour Island. I fished with Brian Hensley and him and I both caught decent limits; my 14lb limit was good enough to put me in a tie for 5th. Unfortunately, I lost the tie breaker and an extra $1,000. Dusty made me a $50 bet that he would finish higher than me; he hasn't paid up yet! I left Champlain immediately following the weigh in on Friday evening and drove straight home. I got home at 11pm, spent some quality time with my wife, and went to sleep. My wife and kids and I went out to breakfast in the morning and then it was back on the road for me. I now had a 7 hour drive down to Kerr Lake on the Virginia/North Carolina border. I had heard the fishing there was really tough this time of year. The Strens had always been there in the spring, and last years tournament was moved to Lake Gaston because the water was too low to launch at Kerr. Unfortunately this year they got a bunch of rain in the weeks before the tournament and the water had risen to acceptable launching levels. I say unfortunately, because it was as bad as I had heard it would be. Had it not been for the one decent day I had in three days of practice I would have sworn that something killed all the bass in Kerr Lake. That good day I only caught 6 fish, but they were nice ones including a 6-10 I caught on a pop r. In three 11 hour days of practice I caught 10 fish; it was difficult to stay focused. I was truly worried that I might not catch a fish in the tournament. As luck would have it, I caught a keeper in the first ten minutes. I felt allot better and went on to catch 3 more keepers for 6-8 that day. The second day was a little tougher, but the bites were bigger; 3 for 8-12. The last day was what I thought the whole tournament might be like; I registered a big fat goose egg. Even with the “0” I still ended up in 50th which was good enough to move me up 2 points to 21st in the overall standings. I don’t think I can make the top 10 for the year after this finish, but I’m going to try anyway. The next stop is our last Stren Series tournament on the Potomac River. I have to leave there and go directly to the last FLW Series down in Georgia. For now I’m home enjoying some much needed time with my wife and kids

Thanks for the update Jess. It's not an easy road to glory!

Today didn't go as well as I had hoped. To start off, I forgot to fix the transducer yesterday, so I had to fix it this morning. I drilled some holes and zip tied some things and it was good. That fix lasted about an hour before I ripped it off on something else. Luckily I brought everything to fix it out in the boat and did an on-water repair; it's as good as new! It was another sunny, warm day but the fishing wasn't near as good. We fished a few places where I did well last year and only got one bite. The only place I caught any fish today was in one particular grass mat in Mattawoman creek; I caught 3 fish and Dusty missed one all within 5 minutes. Other than that it was an uneventful day. We did see a 10 point buck about 10 yards from us today. We snuck right up on him with the minn kota. Dusty said we were so close he could have thrown an arrow at it and took it down. The plan for tomorrow is to go back up north and expand on the pattern we found the first day. I think If I can find 2 more good areas I have a chance at making the cut again.