The final day for me unfortunately came on the 3rd day. Lost fish from the 1st and 2nd day left me just short of the cut. I started once again in the North end of the lake. My first fish was close to 4 and I thougt it might be a good day. I caught 4 fish for about 9 lbs in the first 10 minutes and then it was over. At 12:30 I hadn't had another bite. I made the decision to head over to the Inland Sea and look for some Largemouth; the smallmouth were not biting at all. I talked to Terry Baksay who was fishing about 75yards from me before I left the area. He had 1 fish and was going to stick it out there. He was in the top 10 and thought the area would give up a few more smallies if he stuck it out. I made the drive over into Vermont and started throwing a buzzbait. I caught a small keeper on my first cast which gave me a limit and the confidence to keep going. The grass was a little thick so I got out my Ribbit and started throwing that. My co was throwing a toad also and was getting giant bites, but missing them. If he had caught the fish that bit his toad he probably would have had about 20lbs. Just as the bite started getting good the Vermont Marine Patrol boat came pulling up. They were not here to harass us they said, but my fishing time was quickly slipping away. I knew I was 2 good bites away from making the cut. They asked for everything and I had it until they were about to leave and asked for my safe boaters certificate. I left it in my truck and I got a ticket for failing to have it with me. So the ticket writing process started which took another 15 min. The officer told me I could fish while he was writing the ticket; so I did. I caught a 3+ on a toad and felt a little better about gettting the ticket; he still hadn't told me how much the ticket was going to cost me. He wrote me a ticket for $48 even though the minimum he could have given me was $36. Whatever, I needed a few more good bites and went on my way. About 5 minutes after they left I got one of the bites I needed. I dragged in a greenie about 4lbs. My plan was coming together. I ended up weighing in 2 smallmouth and 3 largemouth for just over 15 lbs. It came down to the fish I had lost; I missed the cut by just over 2 lbs. Close but no cigar! I was happy with my finish though; 2 days of practice make it tough. I made some really good decisions in this tournament, ones that could have put me in the cut had things gone a little differently. Not making those key decisions could have had me somewhere down below 100, so all in all it was a good tournament. Also a plus was getting a check; I now had gas money to make it home. My next stop is in South Carolina on Lake Murray for the FLW Tour Championship. I would really like to win this one; this will be my last tournament as a Co-angler on the FLW Tour.

Way to hang in there Jess. Sorry about the bad breaks.

Good luck at your next Tourney!! :ca:

Well, it was as bad as I had heard it would be. Gabe and I left the hotel at 5:45 and were out on the lake by 6:15. We put the boat back on the trailer at 8pm. I don't know what that adds up to be, but we only caught 6 fish in that whole time. It was s-l-o-w! Everyone I've talked to says they think it will take about 10 lbs a day (or possibly less)to make the top 10 Pro cut. I think it will take about 6 for the Co's. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. At least it was only in the low 90's today; that was a plus!

I was too tired to post last night. I pretty much got back to the room, called my wife and went to sleep. It was another long day. Today was more of the same. So far we've practiced 41 hours in 3 days and I've caught 4 bass, 1 alligator gar, and 1 catfish. I like tough tournaments though. Most of the tournaments that I've done well in have been ones like these. Everything will come down to the draw. Gabe and I have been fishing deep (20-40'). I will be throwing a drop shot in the tournament. I don't think many Pro's will be throwing them and I think if there are fish around I can catch them on it. I didn't really have anything to take a picture of at the lake. The lake looks like lots of other lakes, so I took a picture of something that bothered me all day long.


Click to enlarge...

The scorching sun beat down so hard today that I'm pretty certain I could have fried eggs on top of my feet. There wasn't even a hint of wind, and the clouds decided not to show up today. Still we practiced 14 hours and man am I glad tomorrow is the last day of practice. I don't think I could handle anymore than that!

Today wasn't quite as hot, and the fishing was a little bit better. I was able to get 5 good bites today; 3 I caught and 2 I swam off. The highlight of the day, besides it being the last day of practice, was our slaughter of the Stripers. At 7:30 this evening we were fishing a deep point and the stripers started schooling about 50 yds from us. We proceeded to catch them on every cast for 15 minutes. It was awesome! We caught more fish in those 15 minutes then all the other practice days combined. I would have taken a picture of one, but I had to keep casting while they were biting. After 15 minutes Gabe said we needed to get back to the Bass. We fished for another 30 minutes and then called it a day. 14 hours of practice a day is grueling, but if Gabe can come away with a cool $1,000,000 it will have been worth it; I hope he wins! I have him on my fantasy fishing team. If you’re looking for a good pick for you're team I think Michael Bennet is another good pick. I actually won a pair of $100 Solar Bat sunglasses for my picks at Lake Norman. Hopefully my picks at this one will win me $100,000 to go along with the $50,000 I'm going to win here. I wish!