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Fall 2019
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last senior tournament. They did well the first day weighing 18 pounds and landing in fifth. Day two started with some adversity and mechanical problems, but they recovered and got back on the water only losing an hour of fishing time. They still caught another 18 pounds and finished 4th.
They will compete for the High School Bass National Championship on Kentucky Lake next week and this will wrap up Laker‘s high school fishing career. He will start on the college team at Bryan College in Dayton, Tenn. We’re very proud of the great young man he has grown up to be and are looking forward to his college years starting next month.
KAYAK BASSIN’ - G-VILLE
Later that week the guys from Hobie Kayak came into Guntersville with the new Hobie Mirage 360 kayak that they were preparing to launch at ICAST, and we spent a few days fishing and filming out of these awesome new kayaks. We caught lots of fish and made some great video that would be showcased. This is my first year to partner with Hobie and we are super stoked to be working with the leaders in Kayak innovation.
STAGE 8 FINAL - WINNEBAGO
This would be the final tournament to settle the points race for the Red Crest Championship, which is our $300,000 classic. I found myself sitting in 37th, just 13 points out of 30th. Mathematically, it appeared that I would need a top-25 finish to qualify.
This was a stressful preparation to say the least. We had three lakes available to fish and only two days of practice. One of those days the wind blew 25 MPH all day so couldn’t accomplish much.
In the end, I got on a solid dock pattern with my “old faithful” – a wacky Senko again!
Nobody knew what to expect on these Wisconsin fisheries, because we had never had any major tournaments there in the past. The smallmouth were not as prevalent as everyone thought and it became a largemouth fest.
I did well both days catching lots of numbers, and for the third time in a row found myself fighting for that 20th spot again on the elimination round.
This time it was even more important to make that 20 cut to keep my Red Crest chances alive.
This time I had a camera man to start the day, and I finally got a good start to the morning. I made one adjustment and changed to a bream colored Rattleback swim jig in an area that I thought had some better fish.
That paid off. I jumped all the way to 12th place, before hitting a slow period. I slipped down to 22nd and it was another nail biter in the final hours, but the Yamamoto Senko pulled me through once again and I got the 19th spot.
The first half of the goal was complete, now I just had to go to this new lake, the next day and try to finish high enough to qualify for the Red Crest.
This new lake was one that I had never seen before called Butte-De-Mort. I didn’t use any of my
practice time there, because I knew I had to find enough on Winnebago to make it to the knockout round and needed all the time I could get there.
In our 30-minute Mercury ride-around, I saw lots of boat docks, which gave me confidence that I could ride the Senko pattern to success.
I also found a good frog area where I started the day and caught a few good fish early.
Everything was flowing smoothly throughout the day and I was hanging in the teens. At about 1 p.m., the boat traffic got busy and the water started getting churned up and muddy in these areas. The bite shut down.
I struggled for nearly an hour and a half as I watched my name drop down the standings on the score tracker. Finally, in the closing minutes I caught a few fish and lost one good one on a frog.
Little did I know that one fish that I lost would cost me the Red Crest qualification. I finished 24th and thought that would probably get me in, but Mark Daniels Jr and Randall Tharp both made big moves in the final hours and passed me. I came up six points short, just 1 pound and 5 ounces out of that 30th spot. The first man out!
This was my biggest let down of the year! I really thought I was getting it done that day; but this field of anglers are the best in the business, and you can’t have any mistakes and expect to be rewarded.
I live by the principle that God is in control and HE directs my paths! I worked hard all year and made six out of eight cuts, but the two bad tournaments were just too bad to overcome, so it wasn’t meant to be this year. I’ll still attend the Red Crest championship and support my great lineup of sponsors that will attend the expo in Lacrosse on August 23- 25. I’ll be working for Daiwa, Triton, Mercury, Lowrance, Power pole and Gator-guards, so hope to see you there.
ICAST - FLORIDA
This is the annual industry show that we hustle for three 14-hour days to make everyone happy. Lol
This year lots of our sponsors had new products to introduce, so it was busy. Daiwa had the new Tatula Elite
Protypes before ICAST