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Summer 2019
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up to the Bassmaster Classic. I worked
a feast or famine event. You either caught
booths for all my sponsors at the Classic.
‘em really good or you didn’t catch em at all.
We were with Daiwa to launch new
For me, unfortunately I was in that second
products. There was a good crowd for
group and didn’t catch ‘em at all. It was
the shows. I met a lot of fans.
disappointing. I only cut to the first day. I was
I moved on to work a
in Group B, so I was fishing the second day of
Project T event for Daiwa.
competition (which was Group B’s first day).
Once or twice a year, all
The lakes were kind of small – 13,000 acres
the Daiwa pros get together with the
with one day of practice. But, that’s still big
Japanese engineers that come
enough to be difficult to get on fish or to get
from overseas and we have three
on the right part of the lake. I never went far
days of filming, testing out new
enough up the river. I stayed on the main
product and offering our input on the
part of the lake; so, I missed the bite up there.
equipment.
We had really good crowds at the
It is really cool to be hands-on with
Raleigh event. We had a huge crowd that
the Daiwa engineers. They care so much
was waiting for us there at the Bass pro store
about perfection and it shows. When Daiwa
on registration night and they had a meet-n-
products come out in the store, they have the lowest
greet, so, the anticipation and excitement for the
warranty rate of any rod and reel company in the industry.
tournament was really high.
I worked with a couple of new rods and reels that will
No events have been out that way for a lot of years –
be released at ICAST this coming year and I’m really excited neither Bass or FLW, so the crowds were really excited to see
about that.
us. It was fun other than not doing really well.
Also, we did a college signing at the Classic with our
I hurt myself in the points. I finished like 79th out of 80
son Laker. He signed a fishing scholarship to fish with
overall, which was really disappointing. I dropped down to
Bryan College in Dayton, Teen. At Lake Chickamauga. He’s 34th after that bad finish. I shook it off and moved on.
worked hard to start his new journey in college fishing
and we’re proud that he’ll be representing Bryan Christian College. It’s a great school
MID-POINT - CHICKAMAUGA
and their moto is “Christ is
A couple weeks ago, we
above all”. He will start in
hit the fourth event of the
August.
season at Chickamauga. It
was another big fish
THE SLEEPER - RALEIGH
event. At the time of the stop, there had been like 55 fish over
Our next stop
10-poundsweighed in since
was Raleigh in North Carolina.
January on Chickamauga!
In my last article, I told you
We had a big warm up
that I thought this would be
right before we got there, and
our “sleeper” stop and it did
a lot of fish started going
not disappoint!
on beds. Some of the really
I think they set a record
big fish quit showing up and
of all-time big fish. The first
guys were catching a lot of
day of competition, there
numbers. There were a lot of
were 46 bass over seven-
those five to seven-pound
pounds weighed in in one
fish; but those double-digit fish
day. It was ridiculous - way
didn’t show up.
better than what most people
I got on a spawning
had expected it to be. The bad
pattern at the last minute. I
part was that I wasn’t part of
found a wad of fish and ended
that fun.
up doing what I did with
I just never found
the new Daiwa/Yamamoto
the right areas. It was
My son Oakley and I finishing 7th in the charity tournament Neko Straight Worm. It is