Illinois Bass Federation Open Trail Event - Lake of Egypt

Four words can describe my tournament...too little, too late!  I spent the better part of the tournament day cranking grass lines in 3-6 feet of water.  I had caught too many fish in practice to not give it a good try during the tournament.  What I feel like hurt me the most, was fishing history, and not fishing the durrent situations the lake provided.  I'll explain.  In years past I have had a lot of success cranking grasslines on this lake, and if you stay at it long enough, at some point during the day you will connect with a school or two of active fish and load the boat.  Currently, the lake has less grass in it than I've ever seen, which really limited the amount of water I could fish.  Instead of adapting to the current situation, I forced the issue and continued to fish the grass lines with a crankbait.  With about two hours to go, I pulled out my flipping stick and went shallow and connected on a couple of keepers before running out of time.  I managed to get 6 bites flipping in two hours, and only converted two of those into caught fish.  Had I committed a whole day to flipping, I believe that I could have overcome a few lost fish and still weighed a good limit, at least enough weight to get payed.  As it stands, I'm writing about another tournament where I missed getting a check.  This time by my own hard headedness and unwillingness to change.  History hurt me on this one, it's time to practice what I preach, and fish the current conditions, instead of forcing things that are not working.  For the record, I finished with two fish for 6.03 lbs.  That's about as "run-of-the-mill" as it gets.  Nothing like a large dose of mediocracy! 

On a better note, Lord willing, I'll leave April 9th for Lake Oauchita in Hot Springs, AR for the second tournament of the American Fishing Series Central Division.  Until then, God Bless!
Duke

Illinois Bass Federation Open Trail set to begin

The IBF Open Trail is set to begin this Sunday on Lake of Egypt in Southern Illinois.  This is a pro-am format trail put on by the Illinois Bass Federation.  There will be five tournaments across the state, with an end of the year championship.  These tournaments are always a good time.  If you're in the area, swing by Pyramid Acres marina around 3pm to watch the weigh-in.  Lord willing this will be a good tournament fro me.
God Bless,
D

Rounded the corner and the wheels fell off...

From hero to zero would be a good description of day two.  I managed to generate more bites on day two than I had generated on any single day of the event, practice included, I just failed to catch any fish that met the 15" minimum length requirement.   I gotta tell ya, that stinks.  After a good day one, I was sitting great position to cash a check.   No keeper fish on day two pretty much derailed that effort.  If I had the opportunity to do day two all over again, I don't think I would fish any different areas, a friend of mine fished the same area as I did and caught four keepers that weighed 9lbs and 11 ounces, so I know the fish were there, I didn't make the proper adjustments to catch them.  Overall I finished in 58th place, not good, but not disasterous, so its off toLake Quachita in Hot Springs, AR.  Hopefully I can keep the wheels on for this one!
God Bless,
D

Day one is in the books....

Day one is in books, I had three keepers that weighed 8lbs and 7 ounces.  Currently I'm sitting in 21st place, can you BELIEVE that!  I got to tell ya, I thought I might catch a couple of keepers, 5 lbs of fish at best.  I was very fortunate to catch any, even more fortunate to catch a 4lber that's what moved me up the leader board.  Talk about divine intervention, it was a huge blessing to catch what I caught, I can't wait to see how tomorrow turns out, it's going to be tough, but I'm excited!  I even got a little media exposure on the FLW website (just click the link) http://stren.flwoutdoors.com/tournament.cfm?cid=3&did=27&t=news&tday=1&atype=4&tid=6494&tyear=2010&aid=150806
Hope everyone else had a good day!
God Bless,
Duke

Day one...starts tomorrow

Tomorrow starts it all, the start of a season, the start of the third year in fulfilling your lifelong dream of being a professional angler.  It's day one of my junior season, and it looks fairly bleak here at Lake of the Ozarks.  I said when I strarted this deal that I'd turn it over to let the Lord handle it, and I'll tell ya, when the fishiing gets tough I start second guessing what to do, why I'm here, why I passed up job offers, I second guess a lot of things.  I truly believe that it's been an answer to prayer to get to be a professional fisherman, and I take comfort in the passage in the book of Matthew (Matthew 6:25-34) that promises that we'll be taken care of, in the way God chooses. 
So when my boat number is called in the morning, Lord willing I'll be headed down the lake in search of a winning bag of fish, praying for divine intervention, it's all I can do.  Keep my head down, my line wet and do my best to grind out five keepers.  As tough as the fishing is, it really is going to be an exciting start to the new season, and I got to tell ya, I got goosebumps thinking about it.
Check back tomorrow, I'll post the results.
God Bless,
Duke

It's getting a little bit better at the Ozarks...

I managed to get 4 bites today, adn I have to tell you, I'm excited about that. It's hard to believe that a person can get excited about four bites, but I am. I actually believe I got in the right part of the lake today, thae part of the lake that the fish are biting the best in. Of the four bites I got today, three were keepers, two were located on the same type of stuff, which in laymans terms means, I'm maybe beginning to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I've got two more days to figure it out, Lord willing I will! Stay tuned, the tournament starts Thursday.
God Bless,
D

Lake of the Ozarks...a cold rainy mess!

Day one of practice for the American Fishing Series event at Lake of the Ozarks is in the books, and man was it terrbible!  The weather didn't make the day very enjoyable, it was 44 and rainy most of the day, what a crummy day.  I think what bothered me the most, was the fact that there was a tournament on the lake today, and they caught them pretty good.  Nothing like having your competition whack the heck out of 'em on a day where you struggled.  I had one bite today, a two pound fish that barely measured big enough to be a keeper.  Things are going to have to change in a hurry,or I am going to get clobbered in this event. 
Its, early in practice though, and I have several days to try and figure out how to catch 'em.  Lord willing it will all come together.
God Bless,
D

It's finally warming up...

It's finally warming up here in Southern IL, its 64 degrees today.  I shot a little video while driving the boat other day, as you can see, it was not warm that day!  I can't tell ya how glad I am it's warming up!
God Bless,
D

4 hours and counting...

I'm up to 4 hours on the new motor, and so far so good!  I made it through the portion of the break-in that allowed me to open it up for no longer than a minute...all I can say is wow!  I didn't expect the hole shot to be as good as it is, there is definitely a night and day difference between the Series 2 motor and the 2.6 liter HPDI 200 hp motor that I had.  Top end so far has been a GPS speed of 68.4, that too is better than my previous motor.  I truly am surpirsed at the difference in the motors. 
I'll be spending the week getting tackle ready for the American Fishing Series event at Lake of the Ozarks.
God Bless,
Duke

Fired up the Yamaha for it's maiden run...

I spent a few hours on the lake today, breaking in my new Yamaha HPDI Series 2 motor.  I'm very pleased to say it ran like a top!  What a blessing and comfort that is.  Maybe it's just me, but anytime I break in a motor, or fire one up after the winter hiatus, I'm always a little anxious about the initial run.  Well, I'm anxious no more, this new motor sure does seem like it's going to be a nice one!  After a couple of hours of running around the lake, I'm ready to go fishing! 
Stay tuned, I plan on doing just that this week, I'll keep you posted on the progress.
God Bless,
Duke