January 18, 2019
Guide trips are great opportunities to learn about bass fishing and to have an enjoyable day on the water without the pressure of having to find fish and figure out patterns on your own. I highly recommend them, especially if you’re sitting around during the offseason with nothing much to do. READ MORE »
December 25, 2018
Getting mentally prepared is the biggest thing for me. There’s a process, and it has to be done. Everything has to be ready so when I roll into Texas to start practice for Sam Rayburn on Jan. 6 I know exactly where every piece of tackle is stowed and exactly how every piece of equipment works and exactly what I need to accomplish to support my sponsors and keep my own media projects on schedule. Sometimes the preparation goes into panic mode, like I’m in hyperventilate mode or something, but that’s just part of it. READ MORE »
December 21, 2018
As busy as a Tour pro stays from August until December, getting things lined up for the following year, I still find time to relax a bit. Like most fishermen, I also enjoy passing time in the fall and winter by going hunting. READ MORE »
December 12, 2018
I know everyone isn’t in the same situation, but personally, I wouldn’t want to try to be a pro angler and not have kids or a family. I got married in 2008, and I fished the EverStart FLW Series the first year I got married. READ MORE »
November 30, 2018
Every season, my garage goes from organized to absolute chaos as I come and go from one tournament to the next. By the time I empty out my boat in the fall to sell it, I wind up with a mountain of tackle that needs to be dealt with. It needs to be culled, cleaned up, organized, re-stocked or replaced so it can be packed into my new boat, organized in the garage or stowed in my truck bed camper, keeping in mind all the lakes and reservoirs the FLW Tour will be visiting from January through August. READ MORE »
November 15, 2018
If you haven’t been living under a rock this offseason then you know there are going to be some well-known faces missing from the FLW Tour next year. Over the years, my brother Jared and I have run a lot with the Johnston brothers, Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson and Jeff Sprague, and now they’ve all switched to fishing other circuits. It’s like high school again. At least, that’s the best analogy I can find: You grew up with the same buddies, but after you graduate you go your separate ways. I’m really sad about it. READ MORE »
November 13, 2018
My wheelhouse is shallow power fishing, mainly with single hook-type baits such as spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, bladed jigs, jigs, soft plastics, and flipping and pitching baits. But I also really like topwater and shallow cranking, plus sight-fishing. That’s where I feel like I really excel. READ MORE »
October 30, 2018
Watching the Forrest Wood Cup and the Bassmaster Classic as a kid was the source of, literally, my entire life’s motivation. I want to fish as a professional angler, and I love what I do every day, but the thought of fishing the Classic and the Forrest Wood Cup – that’s really what I want to do. I want to walk across that stage and be fishing against the top 50 guys in the world. For some guys the dream is Angler of the Year or finishing well in a Tour event or whatever, but mine has always been that big stage. READ MORE »
October 2, 2018
It’s been a while since my first blog, and with the season wrapping up around the rest of the country I figure it’s time to talk about Florida fishing. The big national tournaments don’t come down here this time of year, but the fishing is pretty good. It’s pretty simple this time of year, too. You just need a couple of rods. READ MORE »
September 19, 2018
So, up north, what we call “long-lining” has become a popular technique. It’s not done with a crankbait, like Southern ledge fishermen do, but it’s similar. You get your bait out a long way from the boat, and then drag it over key areas. It takes a long time to reel a fish in, but you get probably five times as many bites just by getting your bait that far away. READ MORE »
September 13, 2018
These days just about everybody puts something on every square inch of their shirts. There’s even a style of jersey with elastic armpits. It’s so you can cast easier, but there’s also a place there where you can put another sponsor’s logo that shows up when you hold up a fish or a trophy. Those guys back in the day were nowhere in the same league as far as showing off sponsors. READ MORE »
September 11, 2018
In my last couple years in Australia I learned the FG knot, which is a Japanese knot that originated from the guys fishing for giant trevally. They wanted to be able to use 100-pound-test braid with a 130-pound-test leader and be able to cast it through the guides. It’s the only knot I know that has 100 percent knot strength. The FG knot is actually stronger than the line, and it’s a plaited knot, which means the braid is woven around the fluorocarbon, so it’s super thin and there’s no curl in the fluorocarbon or anything. READ MORE »
September 5, 2018
We used to have an opening weekend tournament for maybe two years. That was when the fish were at the end of their spawn, and my brother Cory and I finished with maybe 2 ounces under 30 pounds and were in third place. Both years that tournament happened it took more than 30 pounds to win. READ MORE »
August 29, 2018
For a while earlier this spring it looked like shoulder surgery would be the next in a long line of repair jobs. It’s no secret that I’ve had a lot of problems with my hands, arms and shoulders over the years. I had surgery on my left hand last August, and it was supposed to fix a chronic problem that was affecting my grip. READ MORE »
August 22, 2018
I’m 48 years old, but until a couple weeks ago I didn’t realize that made me a dinosaur. Well, I at least felt like a dinosaur a few times while I was conducting a seminar at the Costa FLW High School Fishing Summer Camp at Kenlake State Park. My age showed again when I competed with a couple of local high schoolers in the FLW Foundation Marshall Strong charity tournament on Kentucky Lake. READ MORE »
August 20, 2018
What I do value is torque, which is why I run an Evinrude G2. The extra torque means I get on pad faster, which adds up when I’m making 40 or 50 of those 2-mile runs in a day. That’s where I make up my time, by getting from zero to 50 mph in a hurry. READ MORE »
August 17, 2018
The main thing is, when I first catch a fish that’s going in the box I weigh it. So when I have my five fish, I’ve got exact weights. Especially in these Northern tournaments, specifically when catching a lot of smallmouths, if I was using the old system and caught a 3-pounder I’d be going back, opening that livewell lid and putting my smallest on a balance beam. Then maybe balance beam another one, and then let one go. That’s a lot of stress on them. READ MORE »
August 11, 2018
This is a blog written as a reminder to me, about how I had given myself no chance to do well in the Lake St. Clair FLW Tour event. I make no bones about it: I do not like St. Clair at all. It is the only lake I fear. I said exactly that when the schedule was announced. St. Clair is probably one of the top five lakes right now, but strangely enough, I fear it. How could that be? It all started with a bad attitude that kicked off a chain reaction that led to one of the most common mistakes anglers make – a mistake I often have to coach anglers out of in my coaching trips. READ MORE »
August 2, 2018
I’ve read interviews of my pals and fellow FLW Tour competitors Chris and Cory Johnston where they say they feel their skills are fairly well-rounded because we get to fish shallow and deep, in clear water and not so clear, in grass and in rivers and lakes. When we head south in the winter, we do so having experience with a variety of techniques to catch bass. READ MORE »
August 1, 2018
There’s been a lot of discussion about how to get rid of Asian carp; questions about catching them, processing them, using other parts of them besides the meat to make fertilizer or turn the skins into purses and pocketbooks. The state of Illinois is paying commercial fishermen to catch silvers and bigheads, and I understand that other states are paying bounties on top of what fishermen are being paid by processors. READ MORE »
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