Guest appearance on Sportsaholix with Jon Schieszer & Erik Marino

Check out my guest appearance on Sportsaholix with Jon Schieszer and Erik Marino.  I had a great time talkin' with these guys and they do an outstanding show!

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2011 BFL Regional - Lake Dardanelle

This year's BFL Ozark Division season was one of the most enjoyable I've had thus far.  Although it was a 3-way tie and I walked away with $85, I was able to take part of a Big Bass award on Table Rock.  I caught a few swimmers on LOZ in March, and managed to pull a line-burner out of a stingy Stockton Lake.  I fished behind a vacuum cleaner and hell of a flipper on Truman, caught one, and married my best friend the next weekend.  Lago Carraizo, Puerto Rico...my first fish as a married man!After taking some time to chase Peacock Bass and relax on the beach with the wife, I made my first cut in a BFL Super Tournament on Lake of the O.  I was fortunate enough to fish with a great group of boaters...Jerry Maple, Richie Marsh, Josh Busby, Marcus Sykora, Mark Dunbar, Mick Fenn, Greg Ingram, and Michael Thompson (Eagle Creek Guide Service).  I heard that I didn't miss much at last year's BFL Regional on Texoma, but this year I was fired up about making my way down to Dardanelle for 4 days of practice and 3 days of competition.

Omega Custom Tackle Pro-Staffer Kevin Crady and I reserved our hotel over a month in advance and covered an enormous amount of water during the official practice period.  We literally fished every creek arm and cove from one lock & dam to another, and even locked through for a little straight river fishing.  The sun was high, wind was non-existent, and bites were few and far between.  AfterFlippin' the beav on 20lb Seaguar with my new Dobyns a largely fruitless day one in Illinois Bayou, we dropped the trolling motor down while idling through the fog on day two.  Kevin caught a solid fish on a shaky head, and 5 feet down the bank I flipped my beaver into a laydown and yanked out the first good one Dardanelle had given us.  It was the first 5lb-class fish I'd caught on my new Dobyns DX795 Flippin' Stick, so I got a little crazy and boat-flipped her over the gunnel while hootin', hollerin', and makin' a ton of noise.  We were so jacked up and the fog was so thick neither of us noticed the boat 30 feet away from us...whoops!  The diversity of Dardanelle's different creek arms is amazing, but made it hard for us to find the same type of bank and cover.  Over the next two days we continued to burn up the trolling motor batteries and accumulate as much knowledge as possible...catching keepers here and there and getting bites, but without much frequency.  

My Day 1 partner was Mick Fenn, a Fire Captain out of the Okie Division.  We were greeted with monster 35mph winds, 4ft swells on the main channel, and wave after wave over the front of the boat.  While many still ran up to the fish they'd found in practice, we took off as boat #10 and stayed close to maximize time and avoid the brutal run (and Mick still lost one of his nav lights!).  We were both catching more shorts than we had in practice, but I had a rough one and failed to get a 15" bite.  At one point in the day while cranking around a rock pile, Mick caught a keeper, I caught a short...then put 15-20 casts on the rock pile without another bite.  Mick throws back down the side of it one time...catches a keeper.  I've definitely had better days! 

I woke up on Day 2 knowing I need to make an 8lb move to cash a check, and sacking 10-12lbs might help me make the cut.  To be honest, I felt like my day one blank had probably punched my ticket home, but I ended up making a huge move (and still can't believe I did it).  My partner Greg Ingram (hell of a nice guy, also out of the Okie Division) and I ran all the way to the other end of the lake...and from a style-standpoint it was going to be completely different from what I'd done on day one.  We took off as boat # 141 and fortunately the wind speeds were back down to zero and we cruised up there comfortably in his brand new Skeeter.  Because of the pace we would likely maintain throughout the day, I almost left the dock without my new shaky head rod...a Dobyns DX703SF, spooled with 8lb Seaguar Tatsu it's one of the most sensitive set-ups I've ever fished.  My motel neighbor for the week, a well known stick out of the Ozark Division, talked me out of that and said, "Buddy, I have got a worm you need to be throwing."  He was nice enough to give me a couple packs and after fishing 10-12 jetties without a keeper Little BTT Shaky Heads catch big fish!crankbait bite, I decided to try and make a cast or two with a 1/4oz Bass Team Tackle Shaky Head.  The stand-up football head comes through rocks very well so you can maximize a cast, and the stout EWG hook has helped me boat fish after fish in competition without fail.  Knowing my casts would be limited, I had to pick the most productive part of the jetty and soak that worm.  My first cast on the deeper downstream side netted a 10lb drum, but on my second cast I hooked a gorilla!  I didn't expect a green fish that big to be living on the end of a jetty, and after 3 or 4 jumps she was in the box and my hands were shakin' for sure...and more importantly my mindset had changed a little.  I only needed 2-3lbs for a check and a few more keepers might bump me to Day 3.  I got those 2lbs with another BTT shaky head fish several jetties later and I was ecstatic.  The jetties yielded another 13" spotted bass, and while running back Greg was nice enough to stop on a creek mouth that had caught my eye.  Many of the creek mouths on Dardanelle are narrow and with a little bit of wind blowing, we'd noticed that the current in those areas tended to put fish in fairly predictable spots.  Sometimes they'd be tiny, but sometimes they were the right kind.  I picked up my new Dobyns 705CB Glass and fired my squarebill into an eddy created by a concrete wall.  Two cranks of the reel later my 4th keeper of the day was on.  Greg did a great job with the net, and after he managed another keeper throwing a shaky head of his own, we buttoned up and ran to the marina to weigh in.

Being boat # 141, I was one of the last co-anglers to weigh in and didn't have to wait long to find out my 10lb 13oz bag was good enough to put my in 11th place.  I hung out for the Top 12 meeting, met my day 3 partner Michael Thompson, and then I was off to book another night at the motel and pick up some clean socks.  Day 3 was again going to have me doing something completely different.  Ozark boater and good friend Jason Perrego helped me fine tune my lipless crankbait set-up and I was ready to fish dirt shallow.  The cloud-cover and wind was supposed to give way on Day 3 but it never did.  Around 8:30am I caught a 15 1/4" fish...first fish I'd caught on a trap in almost 4 years!  Around 9am I hooked and lost a fish that looked like it would have kept.  Shortly after that, another knocked slack in my line and by the time I caught up with it the fish was nearly under the boat...and after the fish stripped off a little line my empty hooks came flying up out of the water.  I'd fished clean up until this point, had brand new hooks, and my Dobyns 705CB Glass was the right stick, but this sort of thing comes with the territory when you're throwing a lipless crankbait.  I continued to fish hard and other than couple fish swirling on my bait at the boat I didn't see much more in the way of action.  Our convoy of 12 boats made it's way to the Wal-Mart in Russellville and my lone fish weighed in at 2lbs 15oz...barely a keeper and almost a 3-pounder.  I was 2nd to weigh in and moved into 2nd place, but was eventually bumped to 7th and missed the All-American by a lousy 12 ounces!  It was a sickening feeling.  It was hard to swallow and I couldn't help but think what could have been when I grabbed my 7th place check.  Once I'd fired up my truck and started to drive home, I had a lot of time to reflect on the year and reflect on my first regional...and 7th place after zeroing on day one left me nothing to be ashamed of.  If you fish as clean as you can, have the best equipment, and work as hard as possible, you're still going to lose one here and there...that's just fishin'!

Before I rig up to get back on the water, I have to mention the companies I'm proud to represent and extend a big ol' collective "Thank you" to them for their support.  Bass Team Tackle shaky heads are without a doubt my go-to bait and my confidence in them is through the roof.  Seaguar fluorocarbon produces the best line on the market and continues to innovate with new products like Kanzen Braid and Senshi Monofilament.  Fish I catch on TroKar hooks stay pegged, and my Navionics App on my iPhone continues to be an invaluable tool on the water.  Last but not least, my newest partnership with Dobyns Rods is the kind you dream about.  The balance in their rods is incredible, they use top-quality materials, they stand behind their product, and they were developed by a man who is truly a Legend of the Sport (click here to see the latest BassWest USA feature on owner Gary Dobyns).  Without these fine companies I wouldn't be able to catch what I catch, and without the opportunities provided to me by 7/24 Outdoors I probably wouldn't be partnered up with them.  Most importantly, thank you to my friends and family for your continued support and encouragement.  Can't wait for 2012!!!   

(Click Here to see my photo album from Lake Dardanelle)

(Click Here to see the full results from the 2011 BFL Regional on Lake Dardanelle)