Still hot here in Vegas, and that seems to have helped the fishing on Lake Mead. We got out early today and checked the upper basins(Overton, Temple), and fishing was good, but the size was smaller. The topwater bite has gotten good, and my best bait was a paycheck Repo Man in striper. Worms, jigs and cranks, also worked, but finding the better size bass will be important. We found one area that is promising, and will check more tomorrow.
Well, the FLW is over and I don’t have any great stories to tell! Just some congrats and thank yous. First, my tournament turned out good, not great. I ended up 26th place and cashed a $4700 check, so that was nice. But I never got on the right fish to win the event. The first day in the monsoon rain, I fished shallow up the Tonto till 10am with only a couple small keepers. I then moved out to 30feet and dropshotted an 9lb limit. The second day was my bad one. I gambled all morning up in the salt river and never caught anything. About 11am, I moved out to dropshot and only boated three keepers that day. I knew that took me out of winning, so the last day I stayed deep all day, and caught three limits of keepers and weighed almost 10lbs. Should have done that everyday. For me the best set up was my Powell 714 spinning rod, 6lb floro, 6″ roboworm [murrays classic craw] and 3/8oz kangii tungsten weight. My fish were in 30 to 50 feet off structure. Congrats to Keith Espe for his big win, he was long overdue! Big thanks to Complete Fire Protection for sponsoring me in this event! I also want to thank Powell Rods, Ranger, Mercury, and the Hook-up for getting me thru this tough year. I’m leaving for Mead this week for the ABA championship, so I’ll be blogging my results…
1st day of practice, and still hot! I only fished a half-day and came back to Phx to spend the afternoon with my family. Didn’t learn much, but didn’t fish anything great either. Had a great time at Payson for FLW days, thanks to everyone that showed! I don’t have any Internet at the lake, so I might not blog till the tourney’s over, hope I have some good stories to tell…
Getting close to the FLW event on Roosevelt! This will be the first (and possibly last), nationally televised bass tournament in central AZ. I am ready to fish! I spent two days up there last week, one prefish, and one tournament. I fished the ABA tourney with my partner Steve M, and ended up 4th place with just under 12lbs. Fishing is still tough up there, and our weather is staying hot, so I don’t see much change ahead. Many patterns are working, but none real well, so a versatile angler should do well. I will be doing some promotions up in Payson Thursday and Saturday, then start practice on Sunday, let’s get going….
Just returned from the FINS night at Anglers Marine in Santee. What a great program, free food, raffle, great crowd, I would highly recommend attending these events. I stayed the next morning and went fishing with Rusty Salewske on a lake by his house, 59 degrees, and some good bass, thanks Rusty for the hospitality! Next up is the ABA tourney at Roosevelt, I’ll be using it as a prefish for the FLW. Things are cooling off here in AZ, so Roosie should be getting good. Next week don’t forget about the FLW days in Payson, will be a lot of fun!