Pattern on the FLW-Lake Hartwell

I was blown away by the size of the crowd at the final days weigh in at the Coliseum here in Greenville. It was a real grind on the water for me, only getting six bites all day, but my 11-15 limit was enough to move me from 10th to 7th place in the final standing on Lake Hartwell. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't extremely happy! I felt like I maximized what I had to work with, only losing one fish the whole event! 

 For those wondering my pattern, here goes: I was fishing a 1/2 oz. Chatterbait on 17lb fluorocarbon line, which I was slow rolling in the back of stained water pockets up in the Tugaloo River. The key for me was targeting shallow pockets off the main river with shallow flooded shoreline grass. The key, though, was that they had to have a ditch with a little deep water running into them. A pretty basic pre-spawn pattern, but for me it was with $16,500 and a smile on my face!

Day 3 - FLW Lake Hartwell

It was a squeaker, but I made the Top Ten Cut! I finished the day in 10th place with 11 pounds 4 ounces. Had it not been for an unfortunate mechanical failure causing Jimmy Houston to be late and ultimately disqualified, I would have finished 11th and sent packing.

The weigh in was held at the Convention Center in Greenville

 and the fans really came out in force.

We signed lots of autographs and met some great fans!

Regardless, I'm in and proud of it. My only concern now is that the massive amount of rain we are getting will blow out the backs of the shallow pockets I'm fishing. I'll just have to wait till tomorrow to see if I'll need to go to Plan "B". Oh yeah, I just remembered, I have no plan "B"!

Made the Cut

I made the 20 cut! It wasn't pretty, but I hung in there. The cold, bright, calm conditions were really not conducive to the shallow water fishing I'm doing. I got just enough bites on the Chatterbait I've been using exclusively to get the job done. I weighed five fish for 11 pounds 4 ounces.

I'm hoping the forecast of rain will help me tomorrow. Either way, I'm in the top 20 cut and very, very happy!

Before the Big Day

I slept in 'til 9 A.M. today. I love the FLW off day between practice and competition. It gives me a chance to catch up on emails and phone calls, work out, and prep my tackle. 

We had to drive 30 miles to Greenville for the pre-tournament meeting. The facility was very nice and they provided us all with a great complimentary meal of traditional southern barbecue. Tomorrow is a big day. Hope it goes better than practice!

Good Company

Today I continued to struggle in my practice round for the Lake Hartwell FLW, but at least I wasn't bored today!

Steve Redwine from Ohio

Steve, a co-angler in the tournament, fished with me today and kept me company. I caught seven keepers on various baits,  but still fairly small fish and I've found no area that I feel comfortable fishing the tournament  in.  I did see some big fish cruising shallow today which is a sure sign there are fish starting to spawn. Tomorrow is the off day. Can you say, "Sleep in!"

Staying Connected

Today was an easy one for me.  The drive to Lake Hartwell from my brother Doug's home in Atlanta only took me about an hour and a half. I had not made a room reservation so I wanted to get there fairly early to scope out the hotels before the bulk of the other competitors came rolling in.

At tournaments you pick hotels based on availability of truck and boat parking above all else. I hate having to unhook and try to find a place to keep connected if at all possible. Oh yeah, you gotta have electric outlets available too. I found a decent place fairly quickly within 10 minutes of our host marina for the tournament. I found my room to be plenty nice with the bonus of a micro / frig which is always nice when you are staying for a week.

I spent most of the afternoon studying my map to formulate a practice strategy and watching some of the NCAA tourney on TV. Weather forecast looks very nice for the week. Fishing should be good. Looking forward to getting out tomorrow!

Heading Out

Another full day today! I hit the gym this morning at 6:30 AM for an hour and a half then headed home to pack my clothes and tackle for my ten day road trip which will consist of shooting on Dale Hollow in Tennessee for Stihl's Reel in the Outdoors and then on to the FLW Tournament on Lake Hartwell near the South Carolina - Georgia border. Before I could head out though, we had to shoot a promotional piece for Arkie Jigs for a new Signature Swim Jig we recently designed. As soon as it was in the can, our editor, Larry, headed back to our studio to begin rough cutting it and our producer, Jim, and I headed out on a five hour drive to Dale. The hotel bed will definitely look good tonight.

Getting Ready

Today, I had the opportunity to do a car commercial for Kerry Automotive, my truck sponsor. Man, did I have to pack a lot of info into that 30 seconds! No wonder those guys talk so fast in car commercials!  Later, I spent a couple of hours working on tackle to get ready for my second FLW Event on Lake Hartwell. Not much down time right now. Seems like every day, heck every minute is accounted for.  


I'm going to take my daughter, Reanna, out for her birthday tonight since I will not be home for the actual day due to the tournament. It seems like I average being home for about one birthday out of every three. I'm not proud of that, but it's just the way is when you have to travel as much as I do. Guess I better get her a really nice birthday gift, huh?