What do you do with over a month of downtime?

I haven't had a fishing tournament since the first week of October, I think I now understand the term "Stir Crazy", that, or I'm going through the DTs, haha.  I have been fun fishing several times, and that was a hoot, no pressure, just plain old catch em if you can, if you don't, no big deal. 
I have spent a few days getting ready for duck season.  The pit blinds are ready, firewood is split, the only remaining item is to put the pump in and add some water to our field.  Duck season doesn't start until Thanksgiving day, so that still leaves a month of what to do?  There is a buddy tournament at Kinkaid lake on November 7th, its an Anglers Choice event.  I think for lack of a better thing to do, I'll go fish this one.
Other than that, I'll spend the next month working my Labrador retrievers, Calli my oldest dog is seasoned veteran, Harley, my youngest dog (just over a year old) has been getting some training every day, he's at a pretty critical stage in the learning curve (he's learning hand signals right now) so I'm sure I'll be busy with him.  Other than that, not much going on here!
God Bless,
D

The season is over...

Last week's PAA event marked the last tournament on my schedule.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend, so minus a buddy tournament or two, the 2010 fishing season is over for me.  That's a bummer!  I'll spend the next few weeks storing tackle, checking inventories of baits, and trying to decide what direction to go next year.  I have a couple of leads on potential sponsors, they're slim chances though.  This is the area of fishing that I have had the most difficulty in getting going.  I have been able to acquire several tackle sponsors, Lunker Lure and Hawg Caller Baits, my newest sponsor Powell Rods (www.powellco.com) , even with over 22 million media impressions in the last two years, it has been difficult to acquire any paying sponsors.  So, It looks like, Lord willing, I'll start 2011 with enough revenue to get the year started and see if anything materializes.  I'll just have to let the Lord guide the business, and do my part with preparatory work.  On a bright note, duck season is about 5 weeks away, and it looks like we are in position to have a fantastic season.  I'll post more about that later.
God Bless,
Duke

BFL Regional is finished

I just competed in a BFL Regional event at Lake Barkley in Eddyville, KY.  To tsay the least this was not a very good event for me.  I was able to locate a couple of areas holding quality fish, but never capitalized on the bites that I got.  My day one co-angler did however manage to catch all of teh fish that bit for him, as he finished day one in 2nd place.  On day two of the event, I managed to catch several nice fish, but it was not enough to pu tme in the check line, or advance me to the BFL All-American.  My day one co-angler made the cut in the strength of his day one catch, and managed only one keeper on day three, but it was enough to give him a berth into the All-American.  Congrats Louie!!
For me, it looks like the season is over, I have opted not to compete in the last PAA Tournament at Table Rock Lake, or the American Fishing Series Invitational on Lake Wheeler.  Hopefully, I can get a few things going in the sponsor world and be able to fish again next year.
God Bless,
Duke

BFL Regional on Lake Barkley

3 full days of practice are complete and two have been good, and one has been brutal.  I'm looking at a pretty long run to get to where I am fishing, Lord willing the wind won't blow too bad.  I'm going to spend a half-day on the water tomorrow, closer to take-off to see if I can locate a back-up plan if the weather is rough.  Lord willing I'll be able to get to where I'm wanting to fish, and have a successful day. I may not have any internet service during the tournament, I'm switching from the hotel where I'm at, to a friemds house. so I may not be able to update until after the tournament.  Stay tuned!
God Bless,
Duke

The BFL Super Tournament is over...

The Illini Division super tournament is over.  I finished somewhere in the mid-forties.  I could give you a laundry list of reasons, but all boils down to this:  if you don't figure out what the fish are doing, it makes it very difficult to be successful.  I had practiced a day and a half for this event, and actually thought I had an idea of how to catch a few.  I thought I could catch 8-9 lbs if everything went right. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.  The river rose an additional 6-12 inches overnight, which I believe repositioned the fish I was targeting.  Regardless, I finished the event with three fish for 3lbs - 15oz.  I did however finish the year in 17th place overall, which qualifies me to fish in the BFL regional on Barkley Lake next week.  I'm looking forward to this tournament.  I like Barkley Lake, it should be a good event.  I'll keep you posted on my practice.
God Bless,
Duke

Final event for the 2010 Ilini Division set to take place this Saturday

The last stop of the 2010 Illini Division BFL is scheduled to take place this Saturday and Sunday at Golconda, IL on the Ohio River.  The final tournament is titled the "Super Tournament", it is the only regular season two-day event on the schedule.  20% of the field will advance to the second day.  Lord willing I'll be one of those. I'm hoping to head to the river on Thursday.  That will give me a  couple of days to figure out what the fish are doing.  Stay tuned, I'll post the results.
God Bless,
Duke

A few pictures from the PAA Event at Lake Tawakoni

Standing for the National Anthem on the final morning

Just about to weigh-in on Day 3

Some more video from the PAA Event at Lake Tawakoni

Day one:
http://www.anglerschannel.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=radio.home&filename=2010-09-09-05-paa.wmv

Day three weigh-in:
http://www.anglerschannel.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=radio.home&filename=2010-09-11-06-paa.wmv

Some Video from the Final Day Weigh-In

Here's some video from the final day weigh-in taken by my friend Chad Morgenthaler's wife Debbie.

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/3d1b24b3b956d42c6c994910ecb2aa6b/video/18330941

Check back, I'll have some more video links posted form Angler's Channel.
God Bless,
Duke

PAA Tour: Lake Tawakoni...finally, a good tournament!

I just finished the third stop of the PAA Tour at Lake Tawakoni, near Garland, TX.  I finished the event in 23rd place, Yahoo!! Finally a finish in the money.  The troubling issue is 23rd is not indicative of how well I had figured out the fish, it's more of an indicator of how well I could have done. I had a lot of trouble landing the fish that bit my lure on the las two days.  I had about a 25% landing rate, in other words, for every four bites I got, I only landed one, that's just downroght terrible!  The lost fish were due to the vegetation I was fishing, it was a very thick, tightly woven vine, I believe it's name is aquatic smartweed, it's very similar to the plant called Gator Vine found in Florida lakes, regardless, it's tough to land fish in this type of vegetation.  Boy, did I learn that the hard way.  With all of that said, I'm still excited about the finish, I was very blessed to put a good limit of fish together on day one, which helped propel me in to the final day cut.  All in all, it was a great tournament!
Next up is a BFL tournament at the Ohio River in Golconda, IL on September 25th.  Lord willing I'll be able to piece together another strong finish.
God Bless,
D