THE 2010 FUTURE PRO TOUR CLASSIC

The year always starts with great anticipation, nervousness and delusions of grandeur. Then the grind starts and by the end of the year you are worn down mentally, physically and your hoping you did enough to make the championship. Well for the third year in a row I did.

The classic is a whole different beast from the rest of the year; it’s a two day event and there is restricted pre-fish days. So for those who spend three and four days preparing for events your time gets shorter and more fishing know how steps in. The one day format allows a lot for luck, two day and more events become consistency challenges.

The first day of the tournament was on Lake Camanche not my favorite lake but I understand it’s potential. Now I’m not one of those guys that give up on baits, so my first casts of the day were with my favorite top water big fish bait the snag proof tournament frog. Like it often has it produced again, 4.12 pound spot engulfed it (after three misses) so I was feeling good. She was positioned on an island top that was beneath five feet of water. I kept throwing the bait off and on for the next few hours with no results, so down it went and the drop shot and jigs took its place. I was really trying to get that deep water bite but I haven’t figured that out yet. So I went back to what I knew was catching fish for me, grass.

This lake has an abundance of grass; you just need to find the big isolated clumps. The pattern that worked for me was to pitch my drop shot right into the weeds and drag it out. Leave the hook exposed, just nose hook the worm; the hook being ripped out of the weeds gets the bites. As for the jig I used, it was a quarter ounce jig from LBS TACKLE it was a smoke color with a smoke twin tail grub trailer. Same basic idea, throw it into the grass clumps and as it fell down they would hit it. The twelve foot depth really seemed to be the winner for me.

I finished the day in eleventh place with 11.25 pounds and had only lost one fish all day, it felt big but you know how spots fight. I felt this was a great position to be in, not at the top but going into the delta I was close enough.

The delta has been as cruel to me over the years as any body of water. Going into the day there was a sense of gloom from most the competitors. The forecast was for heavy rain and big wind, it was spot on.

The first place we stopped was the ladds marina meat wall; we hit it with top water and crank baits. They may want to change the name not much meat there. Then we ran towards franks stopping along the way to fish wind blown tulle points with mats of grass around them. Finally I decided to go to a place that has produced several fish over five pounds. Third cast fish over five pounds eats my chatter bait, bring her to the boat partner gets the net ready she buries in the weeds, GONE! The grass flat on this island sits in around four feet of water with the winds blowing at thirty plus and the rain driving down the bite was off the hook. It was a breeze staying out in the weather good rain gear, great trolling motor and four optima batteries is all I needed. The chatter bait became the staple for the rest of the day we were catching fish at a regular pace just not a lot of size, two pounders mostly. As we went threw the rest of the day, just driving the delta looking for decent areas we would fish pick up a couple cull then hit the next spot. No big secret spots or right tides just fished what looked right for our pattern. Wind blown grass mats in four feet of water.

At the end of the tournament we had 10.49 for our days weight which gave us 21.74 for the tournament enough to secure us fourth place. I felt the win was in my hand but execution failed me this tournament. I will keep my head high and look forward to the delusions of grandeur of next season.

Thank you to all my sponsors this year Thunder Valley Casino, Strings Restaurant in Auburn, Tracewell Media and LBS Tackle.

To my family and friends that support me all year I give all my love and respect without you it’s not possible to have my success.

Thank you

BIG ED