Almost Game Time!

First off... This is a new computer (old computer "crashed")and I'm still getting used to it so if there is typos, you're just gonna have to deal with it because I'm far to lazy to care.  On to the topic at hand... I'm leaving for Tennessee tomorrow night, timing it up to get to Douglas Thursday morning so I can get a full day of practice in on Thursday. I'm about as ready as I can be, gear is ready, boat is ready, truck is ready, all I have left to do is pack my clothes and I'm Audi 5k.  My game face is locked in and I'm more focused on winning then I have ever been. It remains to be seen whether or not it will actually translate on game day but non the less, I'm ready to throw down...  Which brings me to the point of this blog entry. A few weeks back I posted some videos of a few country songs that I happen to like, so this time around, I'm posting songs that get me jacked up. These are songs that are on my playlist when I wake up for practice and tournaments. We all have them, music moves everyone in some way and these are my songs.  DISCLAIMER! some of them are pretty hardcore, others not so much, I hope the slayer cancels out the Britney spears. And yes, I have my Ipod playing (extreme low volume) all day long during tournaments, these are just a few of the 1000s of songs on the Classic.

 

 

Honorable Mentions

Pantera - Strength Beyond Strength

Jay-Z - The Blueprint 2

Machinehead - Bulldozer

Eminem - Business

Metallica - Carpe Diem Baby

Cake - Going The Distance

Big and Rich - Save a Horse

Metallica - Creeping Death

Mudvayne - Dig

Brittney Spears - Early Morning

40 Below Summer - F.E.

Godsmack - Awake

Tim McGraw - How Bad Do You Want It

Hed P.E. - Killin Time

Nine Inch Nails - We're in this Together Now

L7 - Shitlist

Beastie Boys - So Watcha Want

Metallica - Blackened

Imagine Dragons - Radioactive

 

 

ENJOY!!!!!!!!!!!

Newfangled...

Never been one to jump on trends or fads but this Twitter thing has gotten me... So, the only thing missing is followers...  Thats where yall come in...  steven priest @lordofthepunks....  I promise to try to be funny,  not unlike me trying to be funny on this deal...  So join me in some wacky twitter hijinx...  It will be a blast. Well, as much of a blast as you can have in 140 characters or less...

ITS THE BASSMASTER CLASSIC BABY!

It came and went... Now just a memory, the 2013 Bassmaster Classic... This is going to be a long one!

I awake at 4am on thursday morning start packing and hit the road at 5. I arrive at crazy Troys house around 6ish, he loads his stuff into the truck and we are gone. Everything is going smoothly until we hit the storm and it wasnt just a normal storm,  this was an epic version that eventually dumped 8'' on St. Louis and now here we were driving in it... I get a text...

Luke - "where are you guys?"
Me - "you can find me in st. louie"
Luke - "oh gad, you guys wont be here for 8 hours"
Me - "gps says 6"
Luke - "yeah, right, took us an extra 2 hours"
Me - " ITS ON NOW, GUARENTEE WE GET THERE INSIDE OF 7 HOURS"
Me - (pic of speedometer at 75mph)
Luke - "you guys are gonna die"
Me - "negative nancy"

I told Troy to get ready to throw, we werent slowing down for snow covered roads, ice pellets, sleet, frozen wipers and all the other crap that goes along with driving in the winter... You guys have to know that for some unexplainable reason, I feel absurdly comfortable driving in snow... Most of the confidence comes from the truck I drive... You will have a hard time convincing me that a 2500 Sierra 4x4 isnt the greatest snow driving truck on planet earth... I am not exagerating when I say that you can drive it as if you are on dry pavement and as long as there isnt idiots driving 25 mph, you will be perfectly fine. So thats what we did, the speed limit was 75mph at times, so there were times I was hitting 80, with mostly 70-75 in between random slow downs for traffic. We only nearly died one time and considering we prob passed 1500 cars, I would say thats a good ratio... Unfortunately, that one time was a pretty close call, and Troy nearly shat himself but no harm, no foul...  Just for the record, that one close call involved a trio of vehicles driving 30mph down the interstate. I dont care if it was snowing, thats DANGEROUS... Ok, ok,  maybe I was the one being dangerous but it was Lukes fault, he said the time to beat was 8 hours, no way I was going out like that... We got there 6.5 hours later so that damn storm cost us 30 minutes... The entire trip took 13 hours, on a side note, Crazy Troy drove home, with sunny, dry weather and we made it in 11.5 hours... He did 80+ the whole trip, at least I wasnt excessively speeding in 65mph zones...

WE ARE HERE!
Day 1
Troy knows nothing about the industy and he is fine with it... As soon as we get there, we head to the hotel where everyone is eating and hanging out. The Doubletree in downtown Tulsa. The first guy we see is KVD who immidiately stops to talk to Luke. Troy could care less, Me? I couldnt speak and I rarely have that problem.  We head in, and nearly all of the big timers in the tournament are there hanging out... I tried to put it in perspective for Troy, who is a nascar fan, by comparing guys to drivers he knows... KVD is/was Dale Sr.   JVD is Dale Jr.  Iaconelli is Tony Stewart, Gerald Swindle is whoever is in nascar that is a badass... and on and on and on... Troy - "AWESOME" 
I had a conversation with someone in the Vandam crew that I think was either his mom or his grandmother,  Im not sure but she was old and she was funny. We talked to John for a minute, wished him good luck. Talked to Johns dad and his mom for like an hour. They were both really nice people. In case you didnt know, Randy Vandam (Johns dad, Kevins brother)is the Ohio state record holder for biggest smallmouth bass. Pretty impressive, has held the record for years...

Day 2
Spent most of the day walking around the Expo, shaking hands, meeting people, checking out new gear and so on. Kyle won a nice Fenwick rod by beating me in a flipping/pitching contest. Good for him, he needed a nice rod. Me? I blame the equipment, if all else fails, blame the gear, they werent G Loomis rods we were using so that made me in-accurate.  Finally got to meet JoAnn O'bryant, the promotional director for Skeeter. She handles all the endorsements and the entire Skeeter team... She hooked us up with sponsor passes so we ended up sitting with the Skeeter family at the weigh in. Managed to find time to meet up with Fletcher (Shryock)and his brother Hunter, they were hanging out by the Spiderwire booth all day (Fletchers new title sponsor) it was good to see him, its been awhile but he was ultra busy so we left him to work. Got a chance to catch up with ole Cliff Crochet as well.  Always a trip to talk to him, he is hilarious and gave me one great bit of wisdom
Cliff Crochet - "Just remember, when you get to the Elites, nobody gives a shit about Steven Priest"
words to live by!

The weigh in was spectacular. Honestly, it was the highlight of the trip for me and one moment in particular. We got to our seats and nearly instantly, the lights went dim and the lasars started bouncing all over. Over the PA system, loudly you here a bell. BONG, BONG, I knew it immidiately and I got chills, it was Metallica (my favorite band EVER) For Whom the Bell Tolls. It was followed by a highlight reel of past classics. It was fantastic...

As for the tournament itself, yall can check out the results and the footage on bassmaster.com and the airing will be on ESPN 2 this coming weekend.  I found myself cheering for anyone to beat him but in the end, Cliff Pace is now a classic champion regardless of how much it looks like he doesnt care. If you watch it, Im sure you will notice what Im talking about.
You will also notice a guy named Hank Cherry... This guy was in my shoes just a year ago and now he is going to be remembered forever because he nearly pulled out a huge comeback but unfortunately, you will see, why it didnt happen and its excruciating. I hope he recovers because he seems like a great guy and a great fisherman. Also congrats to Brandon Palanuik, pretty cool that the Classic runner up put a picture of me on his facebook page just a few weeks ago...

All in all, it was a good time. I wish I could share more but my pinky finger is cramping up and Ive been typing for an hour solid, Im done....

Classic Time!

Its here! The 2013 Bassmaster Classic!  Unfortunately, I failed to qualify this year but a distant 2nd option is being deployed in the morning. My buddy Troy and I are driving to Tulsa Oklahoma tomorrow morning to take in the festivities. Luke and Kyle invited us months back to join them (they are family freinds with the Vandams) so Im not really sure how this is going to play out but I couldnt turn down the invite. Troy knows absolutely nothing about bass fishing or the bass fishing industry so he hasnt really grasped the totality of the event. I tried to explain to him that its the equivelant of being asked to join the Earnhardts at the Daytona 500, you just cant say no... Unfortunately, Ive acquired a nasty chest cold but I said screw it, Im going anyway, and if those guys get sick, its there own fault because they said they didnt care...

Grand Lake is the scene and its going to be a grind,  its bitter cold there, water temps are in the low 40s and they are getting pounded by a snow storm as we speak... Not my kind of deal but I like to think I could have figured out something.  Check out this pic of last years Classic champ, Chris Lane, this was taken today after his day of practice.... He wrote "never fished in snow"

Its not something I highly enjoy, but I guarentee you can crack some bass in the snow.. Its not much different then rain in the summer,  low pressure usually equals active feeding fish...  No matter how bad the weather gets, someone will figure out the fish and someone will put some hefty sacks on the scales....

My favorites, obviously KVD, there isnt a cold weather fisherman alive better then KVD so this tournament could work out for him...

Local favorite, Jason Christie... This guy has been big timer on the FLW tour for some time, last year he entered the central opens just because the classic was going to be on his home lake... That bastard went and won 2 of the 3 tournaments, double qualifying!... I would be shocked if he doesnt make the 3rd day cut

Off the beaten path? Mike Mcleland- dude is a master at the suspending jerkbait and that deal may be the ticket...

Cant wait till morning!

The Jesus Pose!

Im not sure it ever had a name,  the act of holding two fish out for the camera with your arms spread as wide as can be but when I saw my lil chubby buddy Luke do it at an event a few years ago, I couldnt wait for the opportunity to spread my arms, with two slaunch donkeys and a look of bad assness that cant be described in any other way then "THE JESUS POSE"...

The Jesus Pose has been going on for awhile but I truly believe that over the past week, I was the first person to give it a name and now I give you examples of the Jesus Pose...

This is my buddy Adam, also known as the wolfpack leader. He nearly won the Smith Lake tourney last year and only ended up losing by a few ounces, finishing 3rd. He is utilizing a conservative version of the Jesus Pose with the lack of spread but its still bad ass although that big smile is not very intimidating.   Ladies and gentleman, sir ADAM HOCK....

And here is my inspiration, my lil chubby life partner Luke. This was the photo that made me want to catch the hawgs that would warrant such an epic pose. Not quite the spread that I deployed but to be fair, this was well before the Jesus Pose concept surfaced... He is LUKE GRITTER...

A nice variation of the Jesus Pose, Kyle is sporting the gangster lean method of Jesus Posing which is totally acceptable but only if you are cool enough to pull it off. Clearly Kyle is cool enough...

Break some off for KYLE KEMPKERS.....

Here we have the very first verifiable, documentably named Jesus Pose. Others came before but the moniker had not been established.  I need no introduction...

 

 And the exclusively first documented Jesus Pose re-creation by Lukes girl Heather..

Nice job HEATHER (soon to be) GRITTER!

 

Coming down...

It was an awesome week,  now the highs are wearing off and the reality of every day life has set back in. I went nearly two weeks without drinking enough water, eating enough food, not sleeping enough and working 14 hours a day on everything that involves a tournament week. After the adrenaline wears off, my body shuts down and I spend a few days just feeling like utter crap mentally and physically. So now the planning starts for Douglas Lake, stop two in the Bassmasters southern open circuit. If you recall, thats a lake that I had success at last time we went there but the tournament will be completely different...

Heres something to think about...  I am not a country music guy but lately Ive been drawn in, reasons unknown. During the week our cabin was next to Marty Robinson and Casey Ashley, both are big timers on the Elite series and both are pretty close freinds with Luke and Kyle. They also both happen to play country music on the guitar and Marty ripped off a version of a song I love, so using that as inspiration, here are my favorite three country songs of all time!

Cruise

Songs about Rain (notice the Gambler bass boat)

What I need to do

 

 

Alot of meaning behind these songs, again, not the biggest country fan but good music is good music, enjoy!

 

BIG SHOW

Scroggins was essentially making the same run as I was, locking down to Kissimmee from Toho. Its somewhere around a 40 mile boat ride. This video is a sped up version of the trip. Its pretty cool if you ask me, made me want to get one of those cameras to mount on my rig...

Its a celebration!

After collecting my $3,300 check, Luke, Kyle and I went down to the restuarant to get dinner. The only other people in the place was Brandon Palanuik and Ish Monroe. Fisherman know who these guys are but for those that dont,  they are both Elite Series superstars.

In celebration, I decided to order a 3lb hamburger for dinner, Ish and Brandon were in awe, we all decided that an entire homeless family could eat for a week on this hamburger. Brandon snapped a pic and posted it on his facebook page.  Follow him at https://www.facebook.com/brandonpalaniuk,  awesome angler and a good dude...

If I had eaten this thing in 1 hour, it would have been free. As it turns out, I didnt even get to the bun...

 

 

Splash!

Well, I pulled into the driveway last night at midnight after 10 days in Kissimmee Florida for the 1st Bassmaster event of the season and for the last 200 miles, it snowed and it snowed hard. Towing a boat on icy roads is not my idea of a good time. Although,  the boat seems to keep the truck stable, getting sideways gets corrected rather quickly when you have 2500 lbs dragging behind you. It was a strong start to the season considering Florida has always been an unholy place to go fishing for me.

Where do I start?  First off, I didnt really have time to blog and internet service wasnt accessible to my computer and as you will find out, my phone wasnt really an option either.

How bout with the mishaps... On monday, the monday before the tournament started, I was talking to the wife on the phone while simultaneously fishing an extremely thick matt of vegetation. Phone wedged between ear and shoulder, 8ft flipping rod in hand with a 2 oz tungsten weight and a warrior baits quiver bug at the end, between them, 65lb rope...  When you get a bite with that set up,  you can feel the shockwaves through your whole body and wouldnt you know it,  I got bit at that very moment.  The phone becomes "unwedged" and in slow motion, dropped straight into the lake... OMG!  what the hell am I going to do now? A cell phone has become an extension of every day life,  you might as well have removed one of my testicles at that point because I felt incomplete.  The water was only about 4 foot deep and my boat hadnt moved an inch so I decided it would be a fantastic idea to strip down to my underwear and retrieve the iphone 4 from Lake Kissimmee.  Now, that doesnt sound all that bad right?  Except this lake is infested with gators, and some big ones too. Just a few days earlier, there was a discussion back at the hotel room between myself and my two roomates (Luke Gritter, Kyle Kempkers) about how many gators are actually in the lake. I suggested that there was probably a gator under every single vegetation matt and at the moment I was stripping down, it hadnt occured to me that a dead iphone wasnt worth getting my leg or my crank torn off. None the less, I proceeded and got the phone back. I let it sit out all day long and when the day was over, I stuck the thing in my heater vent and cranked it on the way to the Apple store at the mall. What a disappointment!  I thought those guys were "geniuses", they cant fix a little water damage?  What good are they? Had to buy a new phone, lost all my contacts, essentially flushed 150 bones into the lake.

As for the fishing...
I had a pretty solid practice and by the time the final few days of practice were winding down, I was feeling more and more capable of throwing down a 20 to 25lb sack of fish on the scales. I had 3 really workable patterns and they all seemed to be very consistent.

The matt fishing - for those that dont know, matts basically are small islands of vegetation just growing in random areas of the lake. There is usually about 2-4 feet of water under them and some of them are loaded with fish. The challenge becomes 3 fold. Finding the productive matts, getting through those matts and getting down to the fish, and lastly, extracting those fish out from underneath those matts. Big gear is a must, a huge flipping rod, heavy line, huge sinkers and big hooks. Most of the time, when you hook one of those fish, you wont get it out without actually going to the fish and manually removing them with your hands.  You have to pull them to the top, pin them there and motor into the matt and physically remove them, otherwise, they arent coming out.  Anyways, this was the best way to get big fish but it was also the least reliable and provided the least amount of bites for me but almost always, it was a 4lber or more.

Skinny dipper -  No, im not talking about me and phone retrieval. This is a bait that has been pretty hot in florida for a few years. Its essentially a swim bait.  It seems like a common fluke has been over used down there and the dipper has pretty much taken its place as a staple in florida lakes. It was very easy to catch 2lbrs all day long but getting quality size was few and far between, every once in awhile you would get a 3 or a 3.5 but the big ones didnt seem to want anything to do with this.  Its also a bite that required fairly open and shallow water. So if the weather changed, which it did, this deal would be useless, which it turned out to be.

Swimming a jig - this was an extreme back up plan that i was only going to use if the others were not working or panic was to ensue. Why?  because I felt the quality was a huge risk. I couldnt see getting enough good fish for this to be a good to pattern but if i happened to get a few big bites flipping the matts, I could always use this to fill out a limit.  I also felt that if a major cold front came through, which almost always happens to me, this bit would remain regardless of the weather because I had found deeper water and deeper water fish are less effected by cold fronts.

 

Game day! - We had temps in the mid 80s the entire week leading up to the tournament and wouldnt you know, the night before a front went through which lead to a 1st tournament day high of 68 degrees. I flipped matts until 1 oclock before bailing on it. I had only had 2 bites, one 4lber and another smaller fish that came un-buttoned in the matt.  I immidiately went to the swim jig bite that I had only wanted to use as a backup plan and Im glad I did it when I did. Within 30 minutes I had added a 5lber and another 4lber to the sack and by the time it was time to head back to the launch I had a filled out a limit that ended up weighing 15lbs! Horray for me!

Day 2 was even worse,  we woke up to temps in the 30s and I dont know if you know this but a 45 minute boat ride at 72mph in 30 degree weather is pretty tough.  This time I didnt wait until 1 oclock to hit the swim jig, I bailed at 10 and by 1 I had a solid bag of about 10lbs. The problem was that I had a major dink in the box. It was barely 12 inches, prob only weighed about 3/4 pound and it was killing my weight. I spent 2 hours trying to cull that fish but just couldnt do it. I knew I needed 12 or 13lbs to make the cut so that dink had to go and I just couldnt make it happen.  When I weighed in, I was in 7th place but half the field hadnt weighed in yet and I quickly fell out of the cut mark which is top 12.

18th?  I'll take it. Florida has whooped my ass for a few years now and it felt good to make a run at the title. On to the next one!

IM BACK!!!!!!!

Holy shit I needed a break...   Relentless ass whoopins this year took a toll but after 1000s of requests (really, it was only 1 or 2 requests but whos counting) Im back bitches!  My third and final season fishing the opens (unless its wildly successfull) and it starts next week as I will be heading to Florida for another crack at fishing stardom and riches beyond comprehension in the first southern open on Lake Toho in Kissimmee Florida...

I have some more awesome stories to share about the end of my summer, some good, some bad, and some in between...   Happy to be back and hope everyone starts reading again!!!

Indian Lake....

I pretty much choked my season away yesterday and it was more of the same. Its June and I already cant wait for this season to be over and move on to next year. There absolutely has to be something physically wrong with the way Im setting the hook on fish because I have no explanation for why I am having so much trouble landing fish. Its an epidemic as far as Im concerned, a pandemic, its been a nightmare, a long viscious nightmare of headshake/jump then lure flying out of the water. Ive cost myself thousands of dollars, numerous quality finishes and most importantly, my dignity.  Its fishing, its not the end of the world but it feels like it.

So let me tell you about Indian Lake.   First off,  its 120 miles to the lake from my house so I had to get up at 2:30am which is zero fun, especially if you go to bed at a normal time like normal people do.  I get up and start driving. A note about driving at 3am, anyone on the road at 3am is either drunk or getting drunk or going fishing so you got to be on your A-game because EVERY car is a potential head on collision. Luckily I didnt have any run-ins with DUIers but the craziness wasnt completely missing from the morning. A mile from I-70 I see, what appears to be a child knealing on both knees in the side of the road. WTF?  I am not ashamed to admit that Ive been known to "see" things that didnt exist and after a double take I usually am left wondering,  why did I think I saw that?  This time, I drove by it so quickly there wasnt a chance for a double take.  I get to I-70 and I tell myself "what if that was a kid, I have to turn around because that shit aint safe".  So I turn around, start to get close and see what I had hoped was nothing more then my imagination, a person knealing on both knees facing a guardrail on the side of RT 13.  I do another illegal u-turn, while towing a 21 foot bass boat and I pull of the side of the road and I yell over to the opposite side "HEY!, What are you doing? Are you ok?.  This young girl pops up, sobbing, says she doesnt know where she is, where her car is and she doesnt know what to do. I ask her how old she is and if she is hurt, she says she is 22 years old and that she wasnt hurt. I then ask her one more obvious question, "are you drunk?"  I already knew the answer but I get a definitive "yes" to the question. What the hell do I do now? I tell her to get in my truck and that I will take here up to the gas station so she can get help. We stop at the station and the manager called the cops. No clue the outcome though for all I know shes in jail. She looked alot like this....





Thats how my day started and it went down hill from there. It took a little over 10lbs to win, I lost several keeper fish and one tank that I have no good estimate of and I ended the day with around 6lbs on only 4 keepers.  Im so sick of the excuses, I have been on winning fish over and over again and I havent gotten it done.  For awhile I thought it was just a bad streak but clearly there is a technical flaw in something Im doing and I have no idea what it is. I need to figure something out or its just going to keep happening.

Thanks for the support even though Ive sucked terribly this year. To the reader that asked the question on the last post,  dont pay any attention to some of these people, its the interwebs, lot of crazies out there...

Later
S.T.P.

Practice? We talkin about practice?

So, Indian Lake is up next, sunday is the day. I need a solid tournament (top 10) to stay in contention for a state team spot in the Ohio Bass Federation. I currently sit in 10th place, 7 points out of the last spot. I have been extremely busy with other stuff lately and beleive it or not, my only day I could make the 120 mile, one way trip to Indian Lake was last friday. It was worth it for the fishing but Ive convinced myself that the stuff that I did last week will be of little help this sunday.  The weather is going to be completely different so there is no way I can expect to have another day like I did friday but Im hoping the fish are in the same areas so my adjustments will have to be only technique related, not necessarily different water.

Im praying its not a re-deux of last year. I had a great practice leading up to a tournament on Indian Lake last year and ended up struggling majorly in the tournament.  This past friday I caught an insane sack of bass that was anchored by a spawned out female that weighed between 5 and 6lbs.  A true Ohio tank. If she would have been pre-spawn or even had regained some mid-summer weight, I think she could have been 7+, add that donkey to the multiple 3lbers I caught, I would have been culling 2.5lbers. Conservative estimate had me at 15lbs, realistic estimate 17lbs and  a possible but doubt it bag of 18lbs.


So at the risk of taking a wicked beating,  I feel pretty good about sunday.  I guess we will see how it goes.

Go Celtics!  Game 6 tonight!

Federation Nation Rocky Fork...

Great news,   no lost giants!  Bad news, no hooked giants!  I actually was pretty happy with my performance. I caught a shit load of bass, mostly keepers too but never did get into a donkey. The final results havent been posted so Im not sure where I finished but Im thinking it was somewhere around 18th or 19th out of around 45 guys. I caught a solid limit and I caught fish all day long,  I just didnt get a big bite. I practiced the day before the tournament and the lake had cleared up immensely from a few weeks before, it had also dropped down to a normal level (it was about 3 feet high just a few weeks earlier). The fish had all backed off the bank and guys were catching them near the drops. I on the other hand didnt have that bite going, so I stayed shallow, sort of. Alot of the lake had some thick grass building up around it, during practice I had several blow-ups on a frog and several more blow-ups on a popper just on the edges of the grass.  This is what I roled with. I figured since the "popper" fish were more abundant and easier to land, I would do that for most of the day, or at least until I had a solid limit, then I would shift to frog fishing. Frog fishing is awesome and the fish you drag out of the slop are usually pretty quality fish but the flip side is either A- not landing those fish, or B - not getting a hook into those fish. After getting a limit of about 7lbs, I shifted to the frog bite and had 5 blow-ups in about the last 2 hours of the tournament. Not a single one of them got the frog in their mouth so my bag stayed at that 7ish lbs mark.  I cant really complain, of all the lakes on the schedule, this is the tournament I feared the most. I shouldnt drop that much in the points and I should still be in contention for a state team slot. Next up is Indian Lake, a thorn in my side for years but at a minimum, I know the lake and what it takes to win there. I reckon we will see.

For those who might wonder or might want to know what type of popper I was throwing, and trust me it matters, it was a Lobina Lures Rico. I have absolutely zero connection with them but they make the best freakin poppers ever made. Straight up nasty, at Rockyfork, I probably caught 15 keepers throughout the day, lost a handful more while at the same time, my co-anlger, with a generic popper didnt get a single blow up. Rig up a 6'6'' medium action spinning rod and reel with 10lb braid, you can cast it a mile, work it the way it was meant to be worked, and hold on.....

Old Times....

Its been awhile since I posted, laziness the biggest factor for that, sue me. The Warrior Baits tournament did not go as planned although my lil' bro and I was on some really solid fish. The story of my season so far, lost fish killed the opportunity to throw down a big bag of fish on the scale. It wasnt meant to be. My brother, once again put a nice fish in the box, just like he did at Mosquito Lake last summer. We had a fun time, I always have a blast when I get to fish with my family, whether its my dad or one of my brothers or both. We got to talking out on the boat about some of the crazy times we had as kids while fishing and I thought it might be remotely interesting to share a few stories from my childhood.

Im not going to go all in depth on some of these stories, for all I know, these stories might only be funny to me, so I am sorry in advanced if you feel like you "had to be there". Im also probably going to make this a 2 or 3 part deal as I recall new stories.

 The Bullet - There was a pond near one of the handful of houses my dad lived in while we were growing up. For whatever reason, we were only alowed to fish that pond for one summer. I think maybe someone bought the land or something, hell, maybe the landowners just didnt want some douchey kids raping their pond, cant really recall. Anyway, my step-brother and I (Heath) was fishing for whatever was biting. I was usually throwing some variety of plastic worm when I was that age. Heath was a little less evolved and was throwing some sort of rig that required a 1oz bell sinker. As you know, most anything with a 1oz bell sinker will get away from you in a hurry if youre not careful.  Well thats what happened to Heath, he heaved that rig out and it went about 30 yards up and into a tree. I have no idea what kind of line he was using but it was probably the most generic, heaviest mono you can imagine. Im guessing 25lb or more Eagle Claw economy spool. This snag is in there good, so Heath starts tugging and tugging and tugging. He is really leaning on this thing. It looked like a giant banjo string. When it finally let go, it sounded like a major league fastball. Im watching this whole deal unfold, I didnt know what was going to happen but I was pretty sure something was gonna go down. So the line breaks, but it breaks between the hook and the sinker and that sinker was making a B-line towards Heath at a speed that could only be measured with a high speed camera from Mythbusters. Can you imagine the sound it made when it hit him? You would be disapointed if you actually heard it because it wasnt as exciting as you would think but it still makes me laugh when I replay that sound. It hit him right in the bare chest and sounded something like movie punch. Left a welt on him that looked like a paintball wound and is burned into my memory as to what happens when you pull a little to hard on a snag in a tree.

The Lantern -  We spent alot of time catfishing as kids. I couldnt get enough of it. We always went at night, all summer long, seemed like every night of the week. My dad had a vintage Coleman lantern that we used for, of all things, lighting. It was old school, from the early 70s, but it worked awesome. I think he still has that old lantern somewhere. Anyway, one night, we were doing our usual thing, this time at Lake Alma in Vinton county. We were fishing off the only dock in the entire lake at the time, hell it might still be the only dock in the lake, and it was prob midnight. It was kind of spitting rain, kind of chilly, crazy windy, and we werent catching many fish. We decided to pack things up and head back to the car. Heath got up from his lawn chair and started to gather some things when a gust of wind kicked up and blew the lawn chair into the water and with it, the still lit lantern. It stayed lit, believe it or not, for about a tenth of a second. Panic ensued, mainly in part due to the fact that my dad was a hard ass and was likely to be ultra pissed about his lantern being dropped into an average at best catfishing lake. The water wasnt that deep so after gathering our witts, we shined a flashlight on the subject at hand and realized that we could hook the lantern and raise it from the depths. The next day, a 13 year old (yours truly) while dad was at work, completely disassembled the lantern, changed the fuel, put a new mantle on, lubed moving parts and re-glazed the sub-routine without anyone in a position of authority being the wiser. The thing worked like a champ, you would never know it had been drowned the night before.

I got more,  and considering how bad Ive sucked this season, these lame old stories are prob far more interesting then hearing about me losing another tournament because I cant drag a fish out of anything other then open water.

Later

S.T.P.

Breaking down the Cleveland Browns draft...

Well the draft came and went and the Browns (my lifelong headache) came away with some new talent to get us over the hump.  This is my in depth, probing, insightful breakdown of our 2012 NFL draft.



Trent Richardson, RB, Alabama - Beast

Brandon Weeden, QB, Oklahoma State - OLD

Mitchell Schwartz, RT, California - Ehhhhhh, whatever, another o-linemen

John Hughes, DT, Cincinatti - Prjected to go undrafted, Directed iconic 80s films, interesting to see how he will translate to football.

Travis Benjamin, WR, Miami University Florida - Burner

James Micheal Johnson, LB, Nevada - 3 names,  what else matters?

Ryan Miller, G, Colorado - 6'7''?   youre too tall to play guard dude...

Emanual Acho, LB, Texas - At least he looks like a linebacker

Billy Winn, DT, Boise State - guarenteed to have at least one winn, unless he gets cut of course,  then we might be stretching it..
.
Trevin Wade, CB, Arizona - economics major...

Brad Smelley, TE/FB, Alabama - Heckert admits mistake with Vickers/Marecic, drafts new fullback.  I likee.....

Federation Nation...

Well,   my first B.A.S.S. Federation Nation tournament is in the annals of history (sarcastic) and Ive noticed a trend about my game. It seems as if I am getting more consistency but other, newer problems have emerged and I think there is a relationship between the two.

First off,  I finshed 9th out of like 50 or 60 guys which isnt bad but isnt great either. I had slightly more then 8lbs, which again, isnt terrible but isnt great either. Buckeye Lake is pretty much fishing heavy lately, it took 15lbs to win there on saturday in a team tournament and as much of a sewage hole that place is in the summer, the bass are usually extremely healthy, easy to catch, and usually slightly obese, especially the smaller fish (they binge eat like a bulimic teenager).  But here we are again,  I had my chances. I hooked up with 3 really quality fish that I just couldnt muscle out of where they were, which was behind/underneath a dock. If each of those would have been 2lbs, I would have upgraded to around 11 lbs and that would have put me in contention as it took 12 to win.  Bad luck?  I have been a strong proponent against using "luck" as an excuse because in my eyes there is little, if any luck involved but christ, Ive had alot of trouble landing fish lately.

Heres where I think there is a connection between the loss of fish and the improvement in consistency.

A- Ive been hooking alot more fish, so just that alone gives you more opportunity to lose fish. The sheer numbers involved by themself simply gives a guy more chances to screw up.

B - I think this is the most significant factor. The more and more time I spend on the water, the more efficient I get at putting a bait where it needs to be. Where does it need to be? Usually in the gnarliest spots in the area but that comes with a price. If now, you are able to skip a jig 10 feet up under a dock, past 3 or 4 posts, and you know a bass is in there, guess what? You hook up and suddenly that fish becomes much more difficult to extract. Where as before, you get that jig 4 feet up under the dock, you dont get bit, you dont lose (or catch) a fish and its on to the next dock.

Yall see what Im getting at?  Im getting worse because Im getting better. That makes stupid sense but its true. Im getting more opportunities to get it done, Im just not capitalizing. And in the end, I would rather have hooked that fish and lost it then to never have hooked her at all. At least you get to dance for a few seconds.  You cant be great unless you put yourself in a position to have an opportunity.

I have to think its like anything else,  If you keep working to improve, it will get better. Everyone loses fish, Everyone has a sob story about blah blah blah, you just have to fight through it. I lost those fish yesterday before I boated my second fish of the day so I had all day to rebound and really, if I just could have got one more bite for a good bookend fish I would have been set. I had a nice kicker in the bag (3.5) one more of those and that tournament would have went better.


A few notes about fishing boat docks in shallow water on crappy weather days. The weather was terrible, if your counting thats 2 days in a row with NNE heavy winds and a cold front during tournaments. Those are pretty much the worst conditions and if you dont slow down you wont catch a damn thing. The problem is that the wind usually does its best to keep you from fishing slow. Thats where Power Poles excell. Yesterday, I would nose in between two docks, put the power poles down and disect both the docks, then move to the next set of two.  The wind become a non factor and fishing slowly become far easier. If you got a bassboat and you dont have Power Poles, you are missing out.


On a personal note, I dont really know any of those guys in the federation aside from maybe two guys, Todd Thompson, Eddie Levin but I met some nice people despite keeping to myself for the most part. One dude introduced himself to me, said he followed me, here, on this blog.  Thanks alot bro, people like you are why I havent quit writing this thing.

On to the next one...

Warrior Baits held a free tournament in which you could use Warrior Baits only last season at Mosquito Lake. It was a big hit so this year, the idea has expanded to Rocky Fork and its next month (May 5th). I will be fishing with my brother, Jarrod, and we will try to keep all this consistency going.  Rocky Fork is another one of those lakes that is considered by alot of people to be one of the best lakes in Ohio. A couple of weeks ago, it took 18lbs to win the Weekend Series tournament so we will have our work cut out for us.  The good thing is, I grew up about 20 minutes from there, the bad news, I havent fished it for years. If nothing else, it should be alot of fun.

S.T.P.

Lake Norman Re-cap...

Things didnt go quite as planned but there are some good things I can take from the tournament, I will get into that in a minute.  Alot of minor stories to tell but Im not really in the mood for all that. I stayed with a total of 8ish guys, some were very cool, some not so much but as much as I want to, Im not going to call out the "ultra douche" of our bunch and only say that the guy has some issues. I will however give a shout-out to my freinds, guys I hung out with all week this week and all week in florida. It was good times and our bunch had alot of fun despite my outcome. Luke Gritter, who has himself in contention to make the Elite Series, again, this year after another strong finish at Norman (40th), Adam Hock of Kentucky who cracked us all up with his "I just glued my fingers together" story and  Kyle Kempkers who rebounded nicely on day two with a 10lb bag which moved him up nearly 100 spots in the standings.

On to practice and the tournament....

It took me a few days but I figured out a reasonable pattern for largemouth but the bites were not plentiful although they were usually either a quality fish or a buck bass. On the other hand, the spotted bass were insanely easy to find and even easier to coax into biting but they just werent that big. You had to sort through 5 to 10 spotted bass for every keeper.  Im sure that sounds difficult but Its not, there are millions of spotted bass in Lake Norman and you can litterally catch hundreds a day. Every once in awhile you get a truly quality spotted bass (2.5lb to 3lb) so if you hit it hard and you can get a limit of spotted bass that includes two of the quality fish youve got a decent start which is generally 7.5lbs to 9lbs depending on the quality of your fish. My plan then would shift gears and I would spend the rest of the day looking for a big female that was looking to spawn. I say "spawn" with hesitation because these fish were going in all directions. We had post spawners, prespawners, and fish that were locked on to beds, so essentially, I was looking for prespawners or a random bed fish (there wasnt many  of those in the area I was in).

My plan actually worked beautifully, my execution was not beautiful in the even the slightest of manners. All along, I decided that at noon, I was done fishing for the spots regardless of weight (I was certain I would have a limit of fish by then so a big largemouth or two would be a nice supplement). At 10am, I had a limit that consisted of about 5.5 lbs (this is what im talking about, 5 fish for 5lbs was what you had to deal with, the difference would come with the quality fish). at 10:30 am I landed a 2.5lb spotted bass that pushed my bag up to 7lbs and at 11:30 disaster struck.

I whipped a shakeyhead worm up behind a dock and feel the tick, followed by a slow swim away from the dock (typical bite from a spotted bass). I set the hook and its on, spots tend to dive down instead of surface immidiately but this fish did not, it came up, did a head shake, went back down, then came up like a rocket, shot out of the water 4 feet and that was it. A three pound spotted bass lost which would have been a nearly 2lb cull. If your counting that would have put my bag at that time around 9lbs, which was exactly what I expected.

So I regroup and follow my plan. 12 oclock roles around and its time to hunt for some largemouth. I had been finding them at the backs of long narrow coves combined with a certain kind of dock. I took the time to mark EVERY dock that matched my pattern which turned out to be 26 freakin docks out of probably a 1000 in the area I was working the night before and I went to work. I knew that if I got 2 bites doing this in 4 hours that I would still have a chance to rebound because I usually got a really quality fish, it just took longer to do so.  At 2ish, I flip behind one of the docks I had marked and she hit it, came up twice and that was it. Another 3lb fish gone. For those good with the math, that would have been another nearly 2lb cull pushing my bag to around 11lbs which would have been good enough for top 15 after day one.

What a nightmare...

Day two went exactly as planned as well but I never got the bite I needed in the form a 1 big spotted bass so at 12, again, I left the spotted bass for the less plentiful but bigger largemouth with less then 6lbs. I managed to get one 3lb spawned out female that gave me a 2lb cull and put my bag at just under 8lbs.  Day two didnt consist of disaster, the fishing was much harder and I still managed to make it work, it just wasnt good enough.

The things I have learned and feel good about?

I feel good that my plan was solid and that it would have worked if not for a few unfortunate incidents. I know deep down that losing those fish was not my fault, I did nothing wrong, they didnt come unbuttoned at the boat, nothing I could have done differently would have put those fish in the boat.

I feel good knowing that I managed to be consistent, catching loads of fish each day despite terrible weather (blue bird skies, high winds, nasty cold front). I also feel good knowing that I got my limit both days when alot of guys didnt, even though both my limits were small.

I also worked my ass off for those fish. I caught prob 10 to 15 keepers each day, culled numerous times and caught at least 30 to 40 short fish as well (14 inch minimum at Lake Norman).


All in all,  Im not ready to jump off a bridge like after Harris Chain, Im already preparing for Alabama and I cant wait for my next tournament.

Almost forgot the love I got in the photo gallery. The second one is of JVD, Luke Gritter, and myself. (Im on the left, Lukes on the far right, JVD in the middle, some other dude in there that I dont know) JVD and Luke are close freinds, they actually are roomates back where they live in Kalamazoo Michigan...

S.T.P.

LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!....

I hope Micheal Buffer doesnt sue me for copyright infringement, If so.... Ill just change the title. Ill  be leaving Friday morning for Lake Norman, a few google searches indicated nearly 70 degree water in alot of areas, last year it was just getting into the 60s. Chances are, were gonna be dead in the middle of spawning action, with alot of fish just staging the deal, alot of fish spawned out and alot of fish doing the deed. This is some of my favorite fishing, you can work to your strengths because alot of stuff is going to be effective. Im trying to keep an open mind,  I keep reminding myself to not get locked on any one thing and stay versatile. This certainly is the type of lake and type of conditions to do just that.

One thing Im certain to try, likely to fail, and even more likely to look like a fool doing is throwing that giant behemoth, the alabama rig. For whatever reason, and I have no basis of fact for this thought, I feel like spotted bass would go nuts for an alabama rig and who knows, maybe thats what those bigger spots might be in love with. I plan on giving it a fair shake, if it works, so be it, if not, no sweat. Here it goes!!!


A few side notes - Ive been getting alot more traffic to the site, if you are visiting and you are not a "follower"  please, please for the love of mankind, click on the "follow" button. It makes me feel good AND gives me even more excuse to keep writing this nonsensicle manifesto...

When I get back, hit me up if you (reader) want to take a ride in a new Skeeter, no strings attached. If you are even remotely thinking of jumping in head first to a bassboat, heres your opp. to check out the best in the business...

Check out the tournament starting next Thursday on www.bassmaster.com and cheer me on, I need some people to "will" me to a top 10 finish. I know its possible to "will" someone to do something, I personally "willed" Mike Vick to throw 4 tds and run 2 against the Redskins a few years ago when I desperately needed a fantasy football win, so I know it can be done.

Talk Soon

S.T.P.

Crazy Winter...

Heres the deal, its actually still winter time and the water temps at buckeye lake are in the mid 60s by the middle of the day... I dont recall ever being involved with a winter of this calliber. In fact, not sure we even had a winter, more like a slightly harsh fall.  I can usually catch alot of fish throughout the month of march but it involves alot of slow work. Not this year... I took a freind of mine to buckeye lake to show him around. He is actually the father of one of my best freinds. The guy has been fishing since before I was born but he just got into tournament fishing at the club level a few years ago. His club is going to buckeye lake this year and he had never been to the lake. He asked me to show him around so I abliged and we set out. We prob caught around 10 or 12 bass total, a handful of keepers that prob would have went around 7lbs all together and if nothing else, Dan Rawlings is gonna have a few spots to work next month. Seems we are about a month ahead of schedule so his tournament might be ALOT different by then but at least he has a starting point....


S.T.P.

Springtime!!!

Short post of the year. Spring is here, thinking of heading up to Alum Creek to crack a few musky. Tis the season, water temps are rising and those toothy critters are thick on that lake. A few more weeks and Ill be heading to Lake Norman. Really excited to get down there. Wish I was leaving this week.

On a side note, my wife and I are now the proud parents of a 3 legged cat. One of our kittens got into some trouble (not sure how or where) but his leg was badly broken and will need to be amputated. I cant bring myself to put down an animal, especially such a young one so now a 3 legged cat will roam the Priest house as soon as he gets back from the vet.

S.T.P.