Signed up for this event for a couple of reasons. One, close proximity to home (2.5hrs), two, didn’t have any more BASS Elite events that I could get in on. The FLW Series is a different animal altogether, from registration to the overall way in which the tournaments are run. The bottom line is it’s bass fishing and I wanted some more. There are some big names and great fisherman on this trail and my hopes for some good partner pairings was the main goal with the focus still on learning and improving overall.

Practice Oct. 10-11

Contacted touring pro Kotaro Kiriyama and hooked up for the practice period. His focus when I arrived was trying to find a shallow, dirty water flip bite way back in creeks. Neat to watch a pro go about his business navigating and precisely picking apart shallow water. Although I fish very regularly during the week at home, it is evident there is a plethora of work to be done in the realm of pitching, flipping and most importantly skipping with a baitcasting reel. Trying to find fish that the rest of the 180 boat field wouldn’t find proved to be challenging. Saw four or five other boats looking for the same things, we were back in the boonies. Got some good bites throwing my “ace in the hole” Yammamoto Fat Ika. Kota was flippin’ a jig and was amazed at the power of the Ika. Regularly getting fish to take my bait after he had just presented the conventional fare really turned his head. Needless to say he asked for a few after we finished.

Overall, practice didn’t turn up any real secret spot, I think he set his sights on just making a top 50 and collecting the 10K that goes with it. For me, a lot was learned about boat positioning and shallow water driving in areas that go off a lake map and where GPS doesn’t show any more creek channels. To a true fishing professional their boat is a tool; it is never more evident that in a flippin’ situation. More than once I said to myself, this isn’t some place I would be in my own boat. We used the 250hp Yamaha to power over numerous logs, sandbars, gravelbars etc. Headed into the competition without much to go on as far as solid patterns.

DAY ONE-2lbs-6oz

Headed out into the early morning fog on Pickwick with a Yamaha pro from Iowa who assured me he was on good fish throwing a frog over matted vegetation. First three hours went by not really learning anything about frog fishing other than my opinion that fishing over a mat is better after the sun bakes the water and gives the fish a reason to be under it. Meanwhile I was wearing out the 9-13 inchers on a number of soft plastics targeting scattered grass clumps out toward deeper water. The whole problem to me was we were too far from a definite creek channel or any significant depth change at all. Basically, we spent half the day on a windless flat with no current being generated by either dam above or below us. OUCH!

Suggesting that we try a ledge that my buddy Dustin had showed me earlier this summer finally paid off since it was only one mile from where my partners beloved grass flat was. Fished the ledge with a good drop from 3’ to 12’ resulting in my partner losing 3 fish on a crank and my only keeper of the day, “worth a shot” my partner said as we were off to another one of his “great flats”. Two hours left and he hadn’t boated a fish yet…current started to flow and he wanted to be back in the area of the ramp where the released fish from past tourneys should be. Sounded good but one big problem was facing us, all the other pros that couldn’t find fish were already up there. Take a number, “combat fishing” is not what I had in mind for this derby but that’s what we ended up doing the rest of the day. Going to weigh-in with one little fish was brutal, but after I saw the other bags being toted up on stage made me realize I wasn’t dead yet. My weigh ticket had my next day partners name…David Fritts, N.C. That was a total attitude adjustment immediately; David is the undisputed “King of Cranking”. Didn’t get much sleep that night as anticipation filled my thoughts.

DAY TWO-2lbs-5oz

Got a good ol’fashioned fishin’ lesson from the crank bait master all day long. With all the time I spent holding the net that day you would’ve thought I was born with one for an arm. He told me to throw a “Carolina Rig” as he cranked the main lake for cruising fish in the depths of 13’-20’. He said the boy that practiced with him caught a couple that way. Asking him endless questions about what he was doing didn’t seem to bother the “good ol’boy” at all. In fact I think he kind of liked answering the sometimes intelligent questions I was bombarding him with…trust me I tried to duplicate what he was doing. Same lure, line size and what I thought was the right depth just wasn’t getting it done. Realizing that I needed to fish in a way that I was confident in came to me a little too late this time around. He said his partners usually zero when he gets on’em reel good. Finally, a bass tried to commit suicide by chewing on my chatterbait after the millionth cast or so.

Something that really struck a cord that day is when he said 80% of the fish he catches cranking come somewhere in the middle of the water column. He explained to me fishing for “feeding fish” and not fishing for “reaction bites”. This opens a whole new chapter in bass fishing for me. Everything you read about crankbait fishing revolves around making contact with some sort of structure or cover. Whether it be rocks, wood, or grass of some kind, he didn’t run into a thing other than numerous largemouth bass in the 2.5-4.5lbs range all day long. What an experience that day was, one that will never be forgotten, for sure. He ended up weighing over 18lbs of Wilson Lake bruisers, the largest sack of the day. Blowing my chance to catch a big sack was definitely overshadowed by the experience this day. Reality struck home being faced with a sixty something standing going into the final day of co-angler competition.

DAY THREE- 5lbs-8oz

Riding in the FUJI FILM boat with Louisiana pro Sam Sweet the final day was fun, but not to great of a learning opportunity. He said he had one little area that we were gonna hammer all day long if the current and wind was right. He has a lot of confidence in a spinnerbait when the going gets tough. That was evident in how much he threw it. All day long, back and fourth in the mouth of Coffee Slough we cast to no avail. With about 30 minutes to go, the fish started to school and we were like a couple of kids turned loose in Disneyland. Don’t know how many fish total we caught, but it probably would’ve set some kind of record. The problem was the size…he managed 4 keepers “15 inch min.” and 2 went in my side of the box. Before we knew it we had 11 minutes to make a 13 minute run back to check in. Barely squeaking in on time I didn’t have any thing bad to say about the performance end of the Evinrude powered Ranger he runs. Sam was great to fish with and we laughed all day long about various events and places fishing had taken us.

Summary

Finishing 29th out of 180 co-anglers isn’t as bad as it sounds. The goal is to have eye-opening experiences when entered in these events and David Fritts pried mine open with a crowbar the second day. That crankin’ lesson was well worth the $700 entry. Fishing was brutal for just about everyone. If you didn’t fish summer patterns like deep ledges or creek channel bends with a football jig your bags were just too light. Wishing that my draws were different doesn’t do any good, fishing hard everyday and trying to make something out of nothing when your faced with adverse conditions or poor locations teaches just as much and reminds you not to put yourself in that same place when it’s time to make the high dollar decisions. Too many people resort to shallow power fishing when faced with tough fishing. You see it over and over in these high dollar events…I’m glad that I’m comfortable with deep structure fishing already and this tourney reinforces my beliefs that deep fish hold up better over three or four days, especially when the water is in the 80’s.

All the winners were on true summer patterns, not fall or summer-fall transition fish. Denny Brauer told me earlier this year, if you’re having trouble finding them look at where they’ve been instead of where you think their going. I’ll never forget that advise, it’s helped me tremendously this year fishing on my own. Thanks to Brian Stangel for letting me tell my side of the story and getting some of the angst out. I really appreciate it, it’s been a great learning year and hopefully I can do more writing next season, if ABQ Sportfishing will have me. [Bryan is not only a true friend, but someone who I learn from every time he writes a story or we talk on the phone…we WILL continue to share his successes and frustrations…they are all part of the learning experience.]

Left Pell City AL. for the 10 hour ride to Grove, OK Monday the 18th, traffic on I-40 was brutal around the Little Rock area due to big rigs turning over because of bad weather. It turned into a 12 hour ordeal that stomped out my hopes of getting any practice in on the first official practice day which left me one full day and one half day due to registration times on Wednesday.

PRE-FISH

Had lined up four different pros to practice with for the last day and a half in case some of them forgot/flaked out/were busy/ couldn’t take me for whatever reason and still was left on the dock the first morning. Ended up standing on the ramp with my thumb out trying to bum a ride with anyone who wanted someone to split the gas bill for the day. Jon Bondy, a guide on St. Clair and the Detroit River and an Elite Series Pro told me to load up my stuff and get in. Never met him till that day but had a good practice and figured out some things to go on for the event. We did a little bit of everything from flipping flooded willows to deep cranking. (Shook off a lot of fish drop shotting behind him while he was flipping shallow cover.) When we got out deep the fish responded very well to finesse football jigs from OPEN WATER CUSTOM BAITS.

Fished the second half day out of my friend’s boat who gave me a place to stay for the week…flipped some docks and threw the drop shot and jig off main lake points trying to cover all the bases in case I was put in any off those situations. Caught good fish 2.5-5.5lb everywhere I went so confidence was very high going in. I wasn’t really concerned with who I would draw since the fish were really chewing up everything you offered them. My goal was to have at least 15lbs the first day to keep me in the top ten and then go from there the next day, here’s how it went…

DAY ONE 14lb-12oz

Darren Swhenkbeck’s name was called just before mine at the pairings meeting the previous night. We talked a little about the plan of attack for the next day and he mentioned his practice was filled with short fish and not a lot of them. Didn’t worry me too much because he said we would be fishing everything that looked fishy to him. That was good enough for me since I had caught them good in practice doing anything I wanted. We headed out in the middle of the pack at blast off and straight for some flooded willows. Tommy Biffle on one side and Denny Brauer on the other of our first spot gave me confidence we were in a good area. We snuck in between them and started flipping away. Didn’t take too long to get bit as my first pitch to a willow trunk with my new Pro Series Jig from OPEN WATER CUSTOM BAITS tipped with a ZOOM Super Speed Craw never made it to the bottom in the 2’ muddy water. It was inhaled by a toad that ended up weighing 5lb-1oz. What a way to start the day! Not five minutes later I hooked a 3.5lb fish and had him in the box. Darren had a few choice words to say about his luck verses mine as he hadn’t been bit yet. The fact was he was simply jacked up for the tournament and needed to slow down and cover the water more thoroughly, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. He slowed his pace down and caught two small keepers on a tube then we ran out of water.

Made a move to some docks down the lake a few miles and he pulled fish out of brush stuffed under the walkways from the shore. Left with the corners of the docks and the long sides of the boat slips I made due with the drop shot. By 9:30am we both had limits and were looking for some big bites to cull up. He threw medium diving cranks in between docks at some great looking banks that had mixed sized rocks and good little ledges on them. Every time he got around a point of any kind I was able to upgrade a few ounces here and there with the casting jig. He lost one really good fish at the boat when he asked me to grab it for him. Needless to say the fish pulled off when the crank he was using ended up in my arm and shirt sleeve. He moaned about it for a while but ultimately said it was his fault and said he is an Elite Series angler and should land his own fish. HE WAS RIGHT! I did not like being put in that position. It made me sick to my stomach for over an hour thinking, what if he didn’t make the top 50 cut because of that lost 5+ lb fish. Everybody says just to shake that stuff off but it’s much easier said than done. He shook it off and upgraded to around 13.5lb for the day. Went to the scales content with what I had since I fished well and made adjustments according to where we were and what the fish were doing. Sixth place when it was all said and done for the day, right where I wanted to be only 1.5lb off the lead.

DAY TWO 12lb-1oz

My partner for the day was Lee Bailey Jr. He said we would be around keeper fish all day long and just needed a few key big bites to keep us both in it to fish on Saturday. He was right on the money with his first spot as I had a 10lb limit in the boat by 6:45am. He was using an Evolution Jig and the fish seemed to short strike it. I knew exactly what that meant for me, DROP SHOT! Whenever he put the boat at an angle that gave me a fair shot at the small sweet spot on the point the line would just start swimming off and it was just a question of whether or not the next one was going to help me upgrade or not. He asked if I had any extra worms he could use to finish his limit with and I kindly gave him a couple. Two more casts with the worm and he had his limit as well. It was time to run and gun the rest of the day, hitting as many main lake points as we could with the river channel adjacent to one side or the other. Everywhere we stopped we caught keepers the rest of the day. My hands were bloody by days end from so much culling. We estimated catching between 50-60 14”-16” largemouths and spots. Awesome day of fishing! This day ranked up there as one of the most memorable tournament days ever. Went to the scales praying my fish would weigh at least 12lb since that was my goal for the day. Perfect day, 12lb-1oz, that moved me up to third place going into the final day. Was very confident awaiting the top fifty pairings that took place after the second day weigh-in.

When they start calling names off they do it in order the pros are placed first thru fiftieth. The computer pairs the co-anglers randomly with them. They kept going down the list and finally got to the fiftieth and last place pro and guess who was left, ME! Russ Lane was in last place going into Saturday and would be my pro partner for the final round of co-angler fishing. We talked very briefly and he said he was just lucky to be where he was and to make the cut. He wasn’t confident in anything he was doing the whole tourney and said he was swinging for the fence the next day. Asking him to throw me a bone and give me an idea what to prepare for he responded, “Hell I don’t know, just don’t be late in the morning!” Shaking it off I remained confident I could catch them no matter where he took us, after all, he is an Elite Pro with a great track record of cashing checks every weekend no matter where they go.

DAY THREE 2lb- 13oz

This is still a sore subject with me. Catching good fish all week long with ease, then getting paired with someone unpleasant and that was missing out on what the fish were doing by a thousand miles made for a long day to say the least. You know as a co-angler going into these things, even at this high level, unfortunate situations can occur. You have to find the positive through negative experiences…learned more about what not to do this day than ever before. He fished really fast on water he didn’t know and didn’t have confidence in. We were fishing places he had seen other people fish instead of fishing how he had made it to the final round. The biggest factor was we weren’t around the baitfish. That was one common factor my first two days partners were concerned with the most. They both had it in their minds, no baitfish-no fish here! Russ seemed to miss that ever important ingredient altogether. He scratched out four squeakers that day and I got one lucky bite on the jig when he broke off and the wind drifted us by a point while he was re-rigging. Had done all that I could do to pull a rabbit out of a hat but it just wasn’t happening for me…just one of those days I guess. Got to weigh-in and they said I needed 11lbs to win. Lifted my only bite of the day on the scales and felt like I would throw up on stage. Congratulated Chad Kallina on staying consistent and went on my way down from third to sixteenth. OUCH!

SUMMARY

The bottom line in these events is that I’m there to learn from the best in the business. Learn I did! Guarantee this experience will stick fresh in my mind of how not to fish when in the future I’m faced with a lack of confidence headed down the final day and the moneys on line. Need to say thanks to John Storer, an old friend from Albuquerque who now lives on the shores of beautiful Grand Lake for letting me stay with him all week and for putting up with my mess. Forever in debt to you buddy! Thanks to friends and family for the support, it means a lot! Last but not least, Dave Theilman for the financing and Brian Stangel for letting me spill my guts out on his site. YOU GUYS ROCK! Next tourney is the ABA GRAND SLAM Championship on Kentucky Lake Aug. 22-25. Grand prize, Triton Boat, That sucker is mine!

My regular fishing partner Tom Frink picked me up Monday 23rd and we made tracks for beautiful Lake Guntersville in northeast AL. Tom offered his boat and companionship for my practice time. Seventy miles from Pell City where Lisa and I live went by pretty slow with all the built up excitement to get this fishing derby started. Prepared very long and hard for this tournament i.e. gathering info/ fishing reports, baits and praying for some good draws. Now it was time to figure out the puzzle know as “The Big G”.

PRE FISH –APRIL 24-25

Tom said he would fish as if he were in the tournament and made fishing decisions during the practice days accordingly. We looked over the map and decided to look for spawning areas and check for bedding fish since we knew there would be a lot of fish up and plenty of pros would be doing the same thing during the tourney. He picked off spawning fish at will and I resisted the urge to get caught up in the sight fishing bonanza; during the tourney I wouldn’t get any shots at those fish anyway. Spent my time throwing Senkos and drop shots out the back of the boat trying to figure out what the other 90% off the fish were doing. We actually got on a very good post-spawn bite throwing Chaterbaits and Swim-Senkos on outside grass lines in 4-10 feet. Ended practice with a great deal of confidence believing that I could sack up 15-18lbs fairly easily put in a sight fishing situation. To most co-anglers, having a partner bed fish all day is the kiss of death. Figured out along time ago by fishing with Franco Vallejos (still the best bed fisherman I know) for so long that there’s still a bunch of hungry fish out there in the “dead sea” behind the big Mercury, the trick is to identify what stage the majority of them are in and fish for them as efficiently as you can. Being versatile is the key to success when back deck angling.

DAY ONE- cancelled due to incoming weather.

DAY TWO 12lbs 13oz

Paired with a legend known as “Zell”. Zell Rowland is part of the prestigious Million Dollar Club with BASS. Needless to say I was jazzed to have the opportunity to learn from one of the all time dock fishing masters in our sport. He said he didn’t have the best practice, so we would be doing different things starting with topwater and ending up flipping docks that he had won two previous events on this lake before. Fishing docks behind him wouldn’t give me too good a chance at a strong finish in the standings, so I knew I had my work cut out for me and had better get off to a good start early with the surface action if any was to be had. Topwater was a bust and after two hours of “walking the dog” and chugging poppers all we had to show for our efforts was one alligator gar. On our way to his creek with the docks he made a bathroom stop out off some grass flats and I threw out my Chatterbait and started ripping it over some submerged hydrilla in 8’-12’. The third cast was abruptly stopped by a rude little fish of about 12’’ long. I asked if I could throw a few more casts and see if I could get lucky. He needed to retie so he gave me 5 minutes.

As luck would have it, 5 minutes only resulted in four more casts as I was fighting two different four pounders all the way to the live well. Before I knew it Mr. Rowland instructed me to leave my box of “stupid chatter-thingies” on the deck so he might see if the fish gods would be as kind to him as they obviously were to me. Apparently we were just a little late on the morning shad spawn due to the bluebird skies. Didn’t get another bite for the next hour fishing grass, it was 9:30 and it was time for the dock fishing lessons to begin. Spent the rest of the day trying to fill out a limit dock fishing behind arguably the best in the business with that specific technique. It was awesome to watch him pick apart the old wooden structures with such confidence and precision; liken it to a heart surgeon or a fighter pilot just going about his everyday routine, flipping stick in hand. The only problem was he leaves nothing in the water that hasn’t been stuck with a 5/0 hook. I’d say he caught 25 to30 bass finally culling up to14+lbs.

Versatility was my saving grace as I was able to pick off two barely legal [15’’min] size bedding fish in between docks that he didn’t see using a Roboworm on a drop shot rig…couldn’t get my fifth fish however. Frustrated by not going to the scales with a limit and also knowing I would have to dig myself out of a hole the next and final day. P.S. Bedding fish can’t stand to see that little thing off the bottom 6’’ right in their grill. They eat it the first time, every time so you better be ready. My buddy Tom showed me that. Thanks bro!

DAY 3- 16lbs 5oz

Woke up Saturday at 4:00am and said WOW! I’m in the same boat with Kevin Van Dam today…nervous…just a little! Said to myself “Just don’t make a fool out of yourself and you’ll be fine. He’s only the best bass fisherman in the world”. Turns out he’s an all right cat, very intense and focused but easy to talk to and learn from. Bet some people would have coughed up some serious $JACK$ to be in my shoes for the day. KVD picked me up curbside at the Holiday Inn and immediately school was in session. Asking him what I should tie on and he looked at me like I just fell off the back of the turnip truck. Realizing what the dumbfounded look on his face was simulataneously he said with a slight chuckle; “Did you bring any spinnerbaits?” He probably thought he was hooked up with a blockhead. He said we were going to take full advantage of the hopeless shad spawning on the grassy main river ledges up lake about 15 miles or so. His confidence is contagious, and I felt good about my chances to improve on my 17th place start.

The first spot we stopped he said to be ready as he caught two 5+lb fish there the day before and then left it alone. Trying to keep up with him throwing a spinnerbait for about 5 minutes or so, something in my mind said to try a little different approach on these fish. Asked if he ever threw a chatterbait at these ledge fish before? “NO!” he replied, “Never caught a fish out here on one of those things”. Call it fisherman’s intuition or whatever you want, but when you have a gut feeling you have to listen to it. My larger-than-the-average-mans gut had only one thing to say, CHATTERBAIT BABY! Second cast with the choice from the gut and I was brawling my first keeper of the day! Shortly after that I was scrapping a 5+ all the way into the box. By the time I was closing the lid to the NITRO Z9’s livewell on my third fish the boss up front had had enough. Up 3 to zip on KVD in the first hour and I was looking around at all the spectator boats {about 15 or so with two camera crews in the mix}and thinking to myself, “Look what I can do!”

That proved to be the start to a long dry spell for the chatter-slinging guru I had become. Reason being, the all time leading money winner in BASS history had tied on a Pure Poison from Strike King Lure Company and started cleaning up shop on the shad gorging pigs of “G-ville”. He had a 15lb limit before I could pick out my next backlash. “It’s rare that I learn something from a co-angler these days but I think I’ll add this bait to my ledge fishing arsenal” he stated. We fished on and on spot-to-spot and he kept whackin’ em on the Pure Poison, spinnerbaits and cranks. By 10:30 or so I had about 12lbs for three fish and just couldn’t buy another bite. Thoughts of not getting a limit were crossing my mind like the day before.

Sensing my lack of concentration as I was looking around at all the people and listening to the live interviewing he was doing with Mark Zona while cruising the ledges, he said to me, “Pay attention to what your doing and keep your bait in contact with the grass at all times!” That kind of took me by surprise, but I know he just wanted me to get my limit of 5 fish. On my next cast I was ready as a 4+ attempted to take my four hundred dollar Shimano rod-n-reel from me. He jumped off and just about broke my heart. KVD told me to forget that fish and keep working hard and I’ll get some more chances. Caught my fourth fish shortly there after, and confidence was restored. He continued to catch fish all day pretty much at will. Two here, and three more there but I just wasn’t getting bit. Tried some different things but couldn’t seal the deal and get five in the well. It was time to head back for our check in time of 3:20 pm and I just had that sick feeling in my stomach knowing that that fifth fish was gonna cost me some serious cash. He stopped on a spot he said he was saving for the final day that he caught two giants on in practice. He dug out his famous “Lucky Cookies” that his wife sends with him every tournament and told me to eat one and throw a big spinnerbait for the last 10 minutes. Although I did not get another bite that day, the cookie gesture and trying to get me another fish proved to me that this guy is human and not the fishing robot machine that doesn’t care about anybody else, especially his co-anglers.

RECAP

Sweated out the victory by a mere 3oz, doesn’t matter if you win by 1oz or 10lbs, winning is winning and it feels damn good! KVD came up to me and said “How ‘bout them lucky cookies?” tried to hug him but he wasn’t havin’ it…don’t blame him, I was a little excited, sweaty and the same gender.

Need to thank my wonderful girlfriend Lisa for her support and putting up with my obsessive quest to try and figure out this little green fish that drives so many of us to spend all our money and time away from our loved ones. Dave Theilman @ Performance Mortgage in Albuquerque, NM(pick your boat colors buddy, thanks for the financial support and somewhat suspect fishing advice). Thank you Brian Stangel for your friendship and letting me share these experiences with all your readers. Thank you to my awesome family who always supports my crazy fishing adventures, YOU GUYS ROCK! See you soon. “B”

Left Pell City, AL around 5:00am Monday the 5th and drove for sixteen hours straight. It was a long haul filled with thoughts of huge bass and hopes of a good start to my year. Arriving in Del Rio, TX around 9:00pm tired but anxious to get out on the water, I was greeted by a couple of good friends Dave Thielman and Franco Vallejos. Franco and I made plans to practice together for the next two days and come up with a game plan for fishing out of the back of the boat. Franco has extensive knowledge of the area which took a lot of the guess work out of the fish finding process.

PRE-FISHING

We decided to cover water using reaction baits to try and find areas where fish were active and narrow down the bait selection some. We threw cranks and jerkbaits with very limited success...traps and blades were not proving to be helpful either. Around 3:00pm Tuesday we decided to slow down and fish some plastics on some deeper flats we thought would be good staging areas for the lakes huge females. It did not take long for the better fish to start biting. By the time we got off the water late that first evening we had some confidence fishing deeper flats with submerged trees and bushes in 15’-30’ of water. The second day of practice was spent refining what we found and narrowing down sizes and colors of the bait we both decided would be our best shot at leaving the beautiful dessert lake with a new boat.

Our bait of choice was 7” Senko, we found that by attaching a 3-16th oz tungsten weight to the head of the bait gave it just the right fall and enabled us to get down fast enough even in 30’ of water. Our only problem was the senko supply was running low. Between the two of us, we came up with about 15-20 baits; we tried the local tackle shops without any luck. Found one four pack at a gas station so we bought two cigarette lighters, went back to the motel and melted plastic back together for an hour or so. The registration and briefing/pairings meeting was a sight to see, all the Elite Pros were dressed to impress and had there wrapped rigs lined up for the border town to admire. Heard rumors of some pros signing autographs for people for over two hours straight, I would guess the crowd to be three or four hundred people. Was a little star struck when sitting at a table next to KVD and The BIG Show thinking how cool it would be to fish out of the back of one of their boats. When it was all said and done my partner was 2005 Toyota Rookie of The Year Dave Wolak. Dave is noted as being a great sight fisherman and knowing that there were some fish up and bedding I was a bit nervous about how the first day would play out. He was at the same motel as us so we talked there about his game plan for attacking the giants of Amistad. As feared he said he was going to run and gun using the extensive notes he had made of spawning fish. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear but when you’re fishing a Pro-Am type tourney the amateur is subject to “the luck of the draw”. Although disappointed about the possibility of being stuck in really shallow water all day, I was looking forward to learning all I could from this young gun on tour.

DAY 1—20lbs

Day 1 weather was cold and windy with thick clouds rolling through south Texas, not good conditions for Dave’s sight fishing plans to say the least. That bad weather wasn’t forecasted correctly and put my pro partner a little on the grumpy side. When he showed me his GPS on the boat the learning process went into full swing. He had at least 25 to 30 numbered waypoints and a little notepad in his pocket with detailed notes on every fish. His notes consisted of what size and how eager the fish at each location was to take a boat ride with us for the day. He explained the importance of time management when you are trying to win a tournament on spawning fish. Every Question I asked he answered thoroughly and precise. The weather that had him frustrated and making it hard for him to see was a blessing in disguise for me in the back. I was able to take advantage of the low light conditions as it took him longer to find exactly where his fish were. I was making long casts off every point I could reach. By 9:00am I had three fish come from the deep water weighing around 15lbs. I was very happy knowing that I had six more hours to finish my limit. We ran around like chickens with our heads cut off all day long as Dave worked fish with a number of different baits and techniques. Finished my limit using the Senko in watermelon red flake by noon, culled up a few times in the afternoon, but the big fish bit better early. When we pulled into the dock for weigh-in, I was excited to see where my bag would put me in the standings. Dave, on the other hand was disappointed with his performance. He had lost a couple of big fish late that day that could have really helped him. Overall he was a great guy to fish with and helped me land two of my big fish. Learned some new techniques that will help me down the road; watching the way he kept to his game plan using his notes and being careful not to waste time on fish that wouldn’t cooperate was one of many. He ended up bagging over 18lbs but should have had 26 or 27 we guessed because of lost fish…that’s why they call it fishing not catching.

DAY 2 13lbs 12oz

The weigh-in slip they gave me the first day had the name Derek Remitz on the bottom… little did I know what he would end up doing in this, the first event of the year at the highest level of professional fishing. Went to his motel to talk about what we were going to be doing the next day and when to meet in the morning to head to the ramp. Derek told me to be ready for anything as his fish were spread out until we get sunshine later in the day. He fished deep stair-stepped ledges all day long. The morning bite was slow for him as he worked his Omega football jig methodically from 15 to 40 feet deep. Junk fishing behind him, he wasn’t killing them by any means, I was watching his technique. At 10:30 I had 13lbs 12oz, when noon rolled around the sun broke out and Derek looked up in the sky and said thank you in the direction of the sun a few times. We hadn’t really talked too much up to that point, not because we didn’t get along but rather he needed to concentrate on where his bait was at all times. He was dialed in to what he was doing with that jig like nothing I had ever seen. He only had two fish at 1:30 but that didn’t seem to bother him one bit. All he needed was the sun for an hour or so he said to stop his fish from cruising so much. He explained to me the sun will make the fish stop and become easier to predict...my fishing lesson was about to begin. Between 1:30 and 3:00pm, Derek caught 6 fish over 5lbs each and had others following the hooked fish to the boat trying to get the bait from it. When I saw the quality of fish he had found I knew he had the fish to win this tournament. He explained to me that he was fishing a winter pattern and said “These are fish that won’t spawn for probably another month or so”. He felt confident that he had these fish all to himself. Trying to duplicate what he was doing, I was not successful. Had jigs the right size but they weren’t exactly the same, his were OMEGA 3/4oz brown jig with round rubber skirt material trailed with a YAMAMOTO 4” hula grub in different green pumpkin colors. The way the jig and hula grub pulsated in the water was exactly what the fish wanted. His expertise in the deep presentation was something to watch, eventually I just watched and learned, it was cool to see someone so “in the zone”. Always had my line in the water and he tried to help me but I was hopelessly in awe of what was happening. He never got really excited at all; he kept his composure, his nose to the grindstone and just whacked them. We weighed in and the crowd went wild for both of us. He weighed first and moved way up the leader board. After I weighed, I was sitting in first for quite a while before getting knocked down to fourth going into the last day. Full of confidence when the day ended and praying to draw someone who would try to fish deep water of some kind. After the top 50 Pros and Co-Anglers were paired up I met with my partner for my final day, Denny Brauer. Just talking to Denny was an honor, even though he said he might be running out of fish. He said we would fish deep and shallow the next day and that gave me some hope of bringing a big bag in.

DAY-3 8lbs-3oz

Off we went in the stars and stripes wrapped Ranger Z-19 Strike King boat. Denny had a fish on a bed he wanted to start with that he thought was about 5lbs or so. He caught that fish on his first pitch then we were headed to Mexico. Excited to fish the Mexican side of the lake because Franco and I had caught some toads down there in practice, I was looking forward to the trip, my partners the first two days did not go across the border at all. Denny gave me a lesson on fishing lizards in deep trees,I think he caught 10 fish to my 1 for the next two hours or so, but we were not catching any quality fish. Getting a little nervous at this point…having only 1 fish that barely met the 14” minimum length requirement. At noon Denny decided to abandon the deep fish and get out his flipping stick and fish the way he has made over 2 million dollars in his career. That made me really nervous. Just the thought of trying to flip up a limit behind a legend like that, almost had me whooped. Managed to pick off quite a few little buck bass that were guarding some beds in 8’-12’. Think I caught the smallest limit in the history of Amistad Lake, but I did it behind Denny Bruaer by god! That was my personal greatest accomplishment of the tourney. Overall Denny Brauer was a great guy with the most amazing flipping and pitching skills I have ever seen. After we weighed that final day for Co-Anglers, I was proud to have a limit but disappointed with the size. Having positioned myself to possibly win the Coangler side of the tournament and to come so close was painful. Denny had just over 11lbs in his bag so he wasn’t too happy either. We shook hands and he gave me some constructive criticism to help me get better. I really enjoyed that day on the water with him and will remember it forever.

SUMMARY

Ended up in eighth place overall with 41lbs-15oz, not bad, but not good enough. Those of you that know me personally know I always want to win, and always know that I can win. The bottom line is that I went to learn and learn I did. Can’t wait to get home so I can try to improve with what I took away from this experience. Special thanks go to Dave Theilman of PERFORMANCE MORTGAGE who was down here supporting me 100%. He lent me rods and reels when I had some unfortunate problems with some of my stuff and hooked me up literally when I didn’t have the right Senko hooks.

Congratulations to Franco Vallejos of Albuquerque, NM on taking home second place and a boat worth $25,000. He stayed very consistent and even outweighed his partners on days 1 and 2. It’s Time to put this one behind me and look forward to the next tournament which will be the Elite Series Southern Challenge on Lake Guntersville AL, April 26-29. Glad this one is closer to home; I can be on G-ville in an hour from my new residence in beautiful Alabama. Happy to answer any questions about anything that I experienced at Amistad via my email.