We are in Illinois at the farm regrouping for the second half of the season. I spent last weekend at the Mississippi River prefishing with my friend Jim Johnson from LaCrosse. What a great fishery, and I’m really looking forward to it. The next Elite is at Toledo Bend, and I’m going alone, it doesn’t make sense to drive all the way there with the motorhome, then back again. Right now it’s mostly farm pond bass and crawdads in the creek!!!!

I thought Bull Shoals was my low point for the year, but I was very wrong. I caught about 13 lbs of smallmouths, but they don’t count here, so I only weighed 4 for 6lbs. Not sure why I am struggling so bad right now, but I have a month to get back in line before our next Elite on Toledo Bend. I want to thank all my supporters and sponsors, I greatly appreciate all the “love”! Tomorrow we are going out on Douglas and pick up some trash, then load up and head to Illinois. Those farm pond bass are waiting!!!

Gotta learn to count! I had a limit on a rover 128 by 7:20 this morning, then lost two big ones and didn’t cull on a sixth fish, which penalizes you 2 lbs. I fished deep, probably too deep, for 6 hours and only caught 2 keepers. All in all, as bad of a day I’ve had in a long time. Tomorrow, I’ll start over and try to figure something else out….

Another beautiful lake and campground! Fishing is a little tougher than I expected. I did well the first day mostly shallow, and this is known as a deep fishing lake. The last two days have been slower, again mostly shallow, but I’ve caught a few out deep. The strange thing here is that you can only have 1 smallmouth and over 20″, I’ve thrown back some 3 lb smallies that wouldn’t count here. Gonna start shallow and try to get them on a shad spawn, then move out deep and throw my River2 Sea bottom walker to catch a big one! Gotto start catching them here soon!!!!!