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5/2/2012
Dave Lefebre - Finished with Beaver Lake
All I can say about Beaver Lake is I did not catch what bit and thus I didn’t do well. You can read my FLW Tour ReCap at www.flwoutdoors.com to hear my complete sob story if you care, lol. Bottom line is it just hasn’t been going my way lately, but that’s okay, I’m ready for a change.
Anne’s driving as we head toward Erie, PA all together in the Frosted Flakes Suburban. We dropped the Silverado HD and 5th wheel off in Benton, KY last night. We left home just long enough to miss the foot of snow that fell last week, haha, its supposed to be in the 80s all week and the full moon is coming. That means its hammer time in the North Country, can’t wait to get some revenge on them!
Potomac River is next and I feel at home on that river. Im looking forward to fishing there in a couple weeks and winning another tournament hopefully…it’s been a couple of years. The rest of the schedule is exciting, lots of good lakes with little clear water, no spotted bass, and no standing timber…yay, I prefer dirty water, grass, and no stupid spots.
DC here we come. Talk at ya next week!
4/26/2012
Dave Lefebre -Excited about Beaver lake
It’s the night before the Beaver Lake FLW Tour Major and I’m excited to fish here for a change. This place has had my number over the years until I stopped going up the river 2 years ago (ironically). Since then, I’ve managed to get a big check and even led after day one last year. I’ve had a great practice this week and honestly to not make the top 20 cut in this one would be a huge disappointment.
But then again this is fishing and anything can happen…as in Table Rock last month…ouch. If it happens it happens, if it don’t; it don’t, but if I catch what bites I should do very well…fingers crossed.
Nothing else has really been going on since last week, just practicing hard and trying to rebound from my worst finish in a long time. We are all looking forward to getting home after this one, lots happening. We plan on leaving the diesel, boat, and 5th wheel in Kentucky somewhere because we head there after the Potomac in three weeks. After this event the schedule gets hot…Can’t wait!
www.davelefebre.com
4/17/2012
Dave Lefebre - From the Scrap Heap
I feel like a pro-scrapper now for some reason. I look at everything I pass while driving across town and wonder how much it’s worth and if there’s any copper or brass in it, lol. I’ve spent five days hauling various types of metal to the scrap yard, and the last three days moving our furniture into Big Box storage units and Grandpa’s garage. I’ve been fishing only three times since getting home from Table Rock, MO 2 ½ weeks ago. I’m pretty sure I’d rather fish for a living, but scrapping is a bit addictive I must say. I made over $1000 dollars in rusty old metal, copper, brass, and aluminum in three trailer loads, not too shabby, a lot more than I was expecting for sure…and I made a rookie mistake on the aluminum that cost me $200. Live and learn. The money from scrap will almost pay for the tree removal scheduled to begin later this week.
Oh and while packing plastic totes this week, I found all my old sponsor clothing, most of it brand new in bags with tags still on them. I sold most of it dirt cheap to buddies and made $2600, which will almost pay for the electrical lines and poles I’m having put in next week…funny how things work out sometimes.
Now the old house is completely empty and ready for demolition. I have bittersweet feelings about it. It is exciting to be getting close to starting our new house, but it will be so sad to see Grammy and Gramp’s old house go away too. We have so many great memories in that house over the years. I practically grew up there. Our plan is to make our new place open to family and try to bring back the family closeness my Grandparents always encouraged for so long. My Grandma was the glue in our family and since she passed last fall, things have been different. I miss her so much. She was looking forward to seeing our new house, now we are looking forward carrying on the tradition that she so beautifully set in place.
I could go on and on about her…sorry.
Anyway, now its time to start thinking about Beaver Lake. I’ve heard nothing and know even more nothing about what’s going on down there, lol. The water was high when we left the area, I can only assume the worst, it will be clearing and falling for our tournament. I hope it will be high, but I always plan for the worst-case scenario.
Well Smiley and I have a mess of crappies to fillet, so I’ll talk to you all after practice next week sometime!
4/4/2012
Dave Lefebre - Table Rock then Home
A lot has been going on lately, everything good except the last event on Table Rock Lake, lol.
My family and I just returned home after dropping our Diesel, RV, and boat off at Beaver Lake. It was nice riding together for a change, but the trip from Rogers, AR to Erie, PA is way too long to do in one day, especially with a little girl who has to pee every 30 minutes, haha.
But we did make it and have a jam-packed schedule over the next week and a half before we hit the road south again. We haven’t had the opportunity to travel without towing a boat in the new Suburban until now, and I can say we were impressed with the fuel economy. I reset the gauge and we averaged over 19 mpg…awesome.
While we are home we have to get our taxes done and finalize our house plans and a few other things. We hope to be breaking ground before we leave, but knowing how slow this whole process has been so far, I’d be surprised if that happened. I have people coming to fish on the weekend too, always look forward to that especially here on the Bay, its so good right now. We’ll be fishing out of my new little boat since my Ranger is in Arkansas. We plan on a day of smallmouth fishing and a day stocking up on the crappies!
Well, I really don’t want to talk about what happened (or didn’t happen) at Table Rock. I really love fishing there too, it’s a sick feeling that will never go away. I cant even sleep at night thinking about how close I was to checking Long Creek on the last afternoon of practice…it would’ve been right up my alley…oh well. I need to go rebound on my favorite lake; Beaver Lake, ya right, lol.
I actually led that event on day 1 last year; maybe I can do it on day 4 this time around. Now that AOY is probably out of the question and I’ve already made the Cup, maybe I can be a little more relaxed the rest of the year and gamble a bit more…who knows? I know I cant wait to get back out there and get some revenge on em!
www.davelefefebre.com
3/21/2012
Dave Lefebre - Hartwell Wrap Up
Sorry I missed writing last week, I was fishing so much I forgot, I’m sure you can relate, lol. The weather is crazy here, we are a full month ahead of where we should be right now. There are actually some beds already in the backwater areas in Erie, PA the 2nd week of March…WHAT?
Anyway, a couple friends and I have been putting the smack down on bass and crappies for the last five or six days, since I got home from Hartwell, SC last week. Its been fun. Macy came out one day to help break in my new Mercury 20 hp four stroke motor. She actually put the first largemouth in the new little boat. Then the following day Smiley and I went out crappie fishing and had a ball, the days just aren’t long enough!
The first FLW Tour Major on Lake Hartwell went pretty well. I missed the top 10 cut by a measly 2 ounces though, which is a little hard to swallow. Somebody needs to break that Andy Morgan’s thumbs, lol, kidding of course, he’s a dang fish-catching machine. I definitely didn’t feel like my work in South Carolina was finished yet, I think winning was out of the question, but 3rd was attainable on day 4 for sure and it’s a sick feeling to leave my areas prematurely like that. I was dealing with a lot of bites and about a 50% hook up ratio throughout the event as my co-anglers will concur, it was just one of those weeks.
If I had it to do all over again I honestly don’t think I would change a thing except maybe not talk to a cameraman when he asks me a question in mid retrieve, haha. That scenario likely cost me a five pounder on day 1. He asked if I had any good ones yet, and as I turned to answer him a big one swallowed my Phoenix Vibrating Jig. I basically set the hook like a four-year old and the fish rolled on the surface and came un-plugged…. I was not real happy, but I immediately put my Power-Poles down and two casts later caught a 3 ½ pounder which eased the pain slightly. The photo of that catch is on flwoutdoors.com.
I had two exceptionally wonderful co-anglers throughout the event who I would like to thank publically for their understanding of the Pro/Am format. Shannon on day 1 and Phillip on days 2 and 3, I hope I get the pleasure again sometime.
Well, we are beginning to unpack and repack for the next event on Table Rock Lake, we leave on Thursday. The family really likes going to Branson, lots to do there, cant wait! The fishing should be good too, I’m just hoping the umbrella trolling rigs don’t work as well there as they have been over the last few months. I’m not going to worry about though, just fish as hard as possible with one bait at a time like it was meant to be. By the way, for those who have not yet signed the petition, you can do so here:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/ban-the-a-rig.html
Thanks, you can follow me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DaveLefebre, and I’ll talk to you again next week right here!
3/7/2012
Dave Lefebre - Lake Hartwell FLW
Just wrapped up official practice for the first FLW Tour Major on Lake Hartwell. South Carolina is an awesome place in the spring. We are staying at Tiger Cove just across the lake from Portman Marina where we will taking off each day. The weather is cool here, it actually dipped into the 20’s this morning, but it is supposed to get a little warmer each day. It’s nice to finally fish an event when the conditions are improving for a change. It was in the 80’s the day before we got here and then those bad storms rolled through and it cooled off.
Despite the cold front and nasty muddy water, my practice was good. Whether or not I can catch winning type weights remains to be seen. I’m just not sure what my potential really is, but I know I’m really excited to get started. I’ve got three completely different patterns all working and I’m not even sure which one will be best come tournament time. I plan to start close to take off, see what happens, and then go from there. This is my favorite time of year and I like this lake a lot, I just wish the water level wasn’t so low.
Fantasy Fishing begins this week and your 10 man teams have to be submitted by tomorrow night. I made the top 10 here last year and have a pretty good feeling about it again this season, but you never really know. My only concern is how much damage the umbrella type rigs are going to do here; I will not be throwing it. Go to www.fantasyfishing.com to play
2/28/2012
Dave Lefebre - Classic Congrats
First of all, congratulations to Chris Lane for winning the Classic…great job! I watched everything you could watch online, I even supplied Dave Mercer some one-liners for on stage again this year. We have a lot of fun with that on my FB page during the Classic, thanks to those of you who helped out. I think Dave does a great job! “Nick Knack Fatty Whack, Give that Hawg a Bone!”…Brilliant! The live blog was a bit disappointing this year though, not sure what happened there. Us fans need to know what’s going on out there right?
The family and I are still hunkered down in Ocala, FL waiting to head northward to Lake Hartwell, SC for the first FLW Tour Major. I have been fishing for 8 straight days with my friend, Glenn Browne. We are trying to wear each other out, but I don’t think any of that is ever going to work out, lol. We’ve been all over the place catching bass and even fished a local team tournament on the Harris Chain, which we won with 30 pounds. We are having a lot of fun and have caught over 250 bass with a bunch of big ones mixed in. Our biggest so far is around 8lbs, but I think we are going to get a bigger one before it is finished, I’d love to get a 10! We took the last couple days off and plan to hit the water again tomorrow morning and Thursday. Anne, the kids, and I went to Silver Springs yesterday and are going over to St. Augustine Beach today. It’s just so awesome down here we hate to leave. The only negative is that we’ve been eating way too much, lol.
Besides fishing, I’ve been talking on the phone way too much. We are building our new home soon, construction will begin in April and I’m trying to get things rolling with easements, power and cable companies, gas and tree removal services, and our contractors, bank, and designers. Everything is moving right along, but not going home after Okeechobee has made things quite a bit more challenging. Our final plans are supposed to be completed this week, the house is being designed around the boat garage/tackle room, it’s going to be cool.
Well, I’m going to go work in my boat for a while. Mitchell is getting ready for school and the girls are still in bed. I will catch you all next week from South Carolina!
www.davelefebre.com
2/16/2012
Dave Lefebre - Valentines Day Fun
Happy Belated Valentine’s Day!
Well I am not talking to you from my ice shanty as expected, and I’m not talking to you from PA either, ha ha. With the help of my Facebook fans (thank you) I was able to convince Anne that we need to stay where it’s warm until the next tournament on Lake Hartwell in South Carolina.
We have a lot to do back home but we are going to try to get it all accomplished through phones, emails, and faxes…we should be fine…I hope. So now we have two weeks before we need to start driving north to Hartwell. We left Clewiston on Wednesday and headed to Ocala for the remainder of our time in Florida. We are going to visit Glenn Browne and his family and hopefully do a little fishing, maybe even hit Disney World a day or two.
I wound up 23rd in the first event on Okeechobee. I had a good area as it turned out, better than I had thought, but a few bad breaks cost me a run at the top 10. I’m always relieved to get out of Florida with a descent finish though, and at least I did that and got some good points and a good check.
This was a mentally tough tournament with some harsh weather conditions, I’m glad I was able to get a couple quality bites each day, it very easily could have went the other way. I did lose a 5 plus lber on day two that hurt my feelings pretty bad, I’ll be thinking about that one for quite a while.
We haven’t had much time to do much as a family during the last week. Anne and Mitchell have been working extra hard on school work so we can play a little more in the coming days. We did manage to get out for a couple hours and catch a bunch of bass on shiners. That is so much fun, it blows your mind how many fish are actually in this lake when you toss a bobber out there, lol. We have a pile of big shiners left in the live well, so we plan to go out again and try out another spot that Steve Daniels told me about. I’d like to thank Steve and also Tom Mann Jr. for hooking me up on the shiner deal…it’s a ball!
I will be doing the FLW Tour Re Caps this season again on flwoutdoors.com, so keep your eyes open for those. And, as always, you can follow me on Facebook throughout the season, which is now officially underway. I’m looking forward to a great year!
2/8/2012
Dave Lefebre - Okeechobee Practice Wrap
Okeechobee is fishing a little tougher than I was anticipating this year. I think the weights will still be high though because this is Florida after all and they always are. I’m thinking the over-all weights will be about like the EverStart event a couple weeks ago but I expect to see a 35-40 pound sack or two, hope it’s in my livewell.
Practice wrapped up yesterday and I can tell you I’m not all that thrilled about it. I did find a couple areas with some fish though and I’m ready to rock and roll!
I think the problem is this dumb tropical depression that is sitting on top of south Florida right now. It has been raining and super windy every day, which makes the fishing harder and makes it more difficult to see into the water. Sight fishing is normally a big deal here this time of year, but the conditions are definitely making that a problem for sure. The locals and guys who have been down here fishing for weeks have to be loving the weather we’re getting for this official practice period.
We have today off, and after not fishing for a couple months I need it. I’m whooped and ready to sleep in, lol. I have a photo shoot around noon and a couple of interviews lined up and then the pre tournament meeting in the afternoon.
I’m hoping to find some time to get rigged and organized; I have so much to do. I don’t think I have ever had so much tackle and so many rods in a boat in my life. Usually as practice goes on I keep thinning it out, but this time I kept adding more and more every night. Its funny, I have tackle in every single compartment in the boat and even have spools of line in the cooler, LOL. After I get everything ready tomorrow my boat should weigh at least 300 pounds lighter.
Anne and the kids are sick of the wind and rainy weather too. They were supposed to go to the beach today with some friends, but decided to stay home instead. They have a nice pool here at the campground, so the kids are loving going swimming every day.
It will be sad to go home after this week, I wish we could stay until the next tournament in South Carolina in three weeks, but we have things to do back home. Mitchell and I have to bake a cake with no female assistance, ha ha. Yes, it is another Cub Scout challenge that we hope to win this time!
Talk to you next week from Erie, PA, hopefully in my ice shanty!
www.davelefebre.com
2/1/2012
Dave Lefebre - Sunshine State
The family and I are hanging out in the Sunshine State for the week leading up to the first FLW Tour Open on Okeechobee. It is so nice to be away from all the unseasonal rain and mud up north, it’s depressing. I usually want to ice fish as long as I can before we head south, but this year I never even went on the ice one time because of the warm weather. I will get another chance however after this event when we head home for a couple weeks before the next Tour tournament on Lake Hartwell, SC.
Our trip down here was uneventful really. We took two full days to drive 23 hours to Clewiston, finally getting here on Sunday evening around 6pm. We played shuffle board last night, which is right beside our camper. Mitchell beat me, but he just got lucky. We plan on heading over to the ocean on Wednesday while the marina puts a trolling motor on my new boat. The kids are so excited to hit the beach, last year we saw a ton of sharks swimming close to shore so we didn’t spend much time in the water, lol. Mitchell and I actually reported seeing the sharks to the lifeguards, who then closed the beaches. The sharks made the national news the following day, haha, all because of Smiley and me!
I got most of my boat rigged and ready to hit the water, but still have a lot of tackle stuff to do. I will need a couple days to work before practice begins on Sunday. We always spend a few hours breaking in the motor and looking for alligators while we’re down here, so we are looking forward to that too. We’ll probably get out on the water Thursday and then I’ll spend Friday and Saturday matching up rods and reels and spooling line. I’m still using and loving Dobyns Rods, but I switched back to Shimano Reels which I’ve used since I was like 16 years old.
Well time to go practice on the old cornhole boards; lol. Randall Tharp is camping here with his wife, Sara, and as most of you know we are the cornhole kings on the FLW Tour. Randall’s texting me now, lol, I guess we have some cocky challengers coming later in the week who need a serious beat down. I’m off
www.davelefebre.com
1/11/2012
Dave Lefebre - Home and New Power
It’s been a busy last week to say the least. The weather is so nice up here we’ve been working outside on the property and getting things ready for when we start to build in the Spring. I’ve been meeting with Electric people, Cable people, Gas people, Contractors, Tree people, Demo people, kitchen cabinet people, and so on. Probably shouldn’t have scheduled everything for the same week, lol, but at least we are getting ahead of the game and getting several ideas and estimates. It appears, at least for now, that the Amish will be doing our kitchen and steps down to the lake. They do awesome work and are surprisingly better yet inexpensive…perfect!
In my spare time I’ve been working with Mitchell on his first Pinewood Derby Car for his Cub Scouts. He wanted to do a Suburban…”that’s my boy!” So we figured we might as well sponsor it up a little, Macy agreed. We are having a lot of fun with it and he’s really working hard, doing most of the sawing and sanding. We only have two weeks to get it ready for his first race, so we try to do something to the car everyday. It’s almost done, probably wont be the fastest one out there, but it least he will look good, ha ha. Mitchell and I are heading to the post office after school to weigh his car, we need to know how much tungsten (lol) to add to the back to get it up to 5 ounces.
That is really about all that’s going on around here. I don’t want to talk about the Steelers and I haven’t been fishing in a long time, so nothing to speak of there either. I’m getting some good rest to my elbow, which is feeling great and I’m getting hungry to get on the water. We leave for Okeechobee at the end of the month. My new Ranger Z521 is finished and ready to be wrapped any day. I cant wait to get it up here and start modifying it into “my” boat, quite a bit to do there.
For 2012, I have all the same sponsors as last season with the exception of adding Mercury Outboards. From what I’ve been hearing, I’m really going to like going faster than I’ve ever gone before in a 21 ft boat. I’ve ordered my new motors, a 250hp for the big boat and a 20hp for the little boat. I can’t wait to swap out my old engines and start a new chapter! I just started talking to the people at Merc and they all are so kind, helpful and quick. I’m still working on the other sponsor I’ve been telling you about, shouldn’t be too much longer.
www.davelefebre.com
1/4/2012
Dave Lefebre - Happy New Year - Fish
Hard to believe another year has gone by already. We had a good holiday season with family over Christmas and New Years. Christmas day was a little strange because there was no snow on the ground. We spent half of the day traveling to Anne’s Mom’s house and then to my Mom’s house after spending the morning at home with just the kids and Gramps. We enjoy watching the kids get excited, Mitchell is 9 now, so he’s just starting to get enthusiastic about “giving” and not just “getting”. They had a little Christmas store inside his school where the kids could buy things and get them wrapped, so Smiley took advantage of it. He got me a pair of sandals for Florida and a few other things.
I haven’t been fishing in about two weeks now, and the last time I went was on the creek for Steelhead…blah. I caught 9 fish that day, but other than the scenery, it is boring to me. I only go once a year if that.
The only good thing about not fishing lately is that my elbow seems to be healing quite a bit. I had some tendon problems starting this spring and then (ever so gracefully) I fell on the slimy boat ramp during the Potomac River event and chipped a bone in my elbow. Anyway, I’ve been doing some exercises to help my tendons, I had the bones checked and they seem to be healing nicely also. I’m starting to feel dramatically better lately, so maybe the lack of fishing is a blessing.
I’m anxious to get the next season going, so pumped that I’m trying to talk Anne into heading down to Florida a week or two early, but that will never happen. Our first tournament is the FLW Tour on Lake Okeechobee on February 9th, always a good one for me. Problem: I’ve got all of my stuff piled in a small unheated garage, most of it in boxes and hard to get to. It will probably take me a week to get organized and ready to roll. My plan is to wait until the last minute, because that’s just how I always do it, lol.
Usually I like to be on the ice every minute possible while I’m off, but this unseasonably warm, windy, and rainy season is not letting the ice form on our lakes, it is driving me absolutely crazy. You can’t do anything because there’s just enough ice that you can’t launch the boat, but not near enough to walk on. Looking at the extended forecast, I think there is a slight chance that we could get enough ice by mid-week, but I’m not counting on it, temps are supposed to be in the teens tonight and tomorrow night. All I need is 3 inches, a life vest, and a long rope! First ice is always the best time to be out there, but also the scariest sometimes.
Keep me up to date on your fishing success through my Facebook page, nothing better than a good fish story on a boring fishless day!
www.davelefebre.com
12/23/2011
Dave Lefebre - Christmas Activities
It’s been cold, got down to 17 last week. Unfortunately it is supposed to warm back up and rain every day this week, so it doesn’t look like I’ll be on the ice before Christmas this year…major bummage. I’m especially anxious to get out this year because I’ve got some cool new underwater camera equipment from Vexilar to play around with. But it wont be anytime soon, I’ll have to keep loading up on the walleye and crappie from the boat for now.
There is really not much going on here at all. Anne and I have mainly been hauling kids, Gramps, and our Moms back and forth to after school activities and various doctor appointments. We are constantly running all over the place, especially Anne, poor girl. Gramps has a dentist appointment this morning actually and a doctors appointment on Friday, lol.
I think our Christmas shopping is all finished. We are actually planning on wrapping stuff today while Smiley is in school and Macy is over at Nana’s house. I’m looking out the window now, and it is a sloppy muddy mess out there. Usually we all go sled riding somewhere over Christmas weekend, but there will be no “white” this time around, which is so disappointing.
My 2011 Ranger is now for sale too by the way. It would make a great Christmas gift for your wife or kids, lol. If you might be interested, look me up on facebook.com/DaveLefebre
Well, I hope everybody has a great holiday weekend and takes the time to remember the reason for the season.
12/8/2011
Dave Lefebre - Fishing and Gravel
It’s been nothing but nasty, cold, and raining every day for the last week, it’s really getting old. I’d rather have snow, but it is what it is. I’ve still been getting out on the water though. This is my favorite time of the year to fish, everything is biting, and everybody’s in the woods…perfect!
Anne and Macy came out on Friday for a couple hours before dark, and I took Gramps and Mitchell out on Saturday. I’ve been going to a small lake close to our new property and loading up on the big crappies. I just got home from the lake again and will be sitting down the fillet more fish after I’m done with this blog, lol. I think I’m addicted.
The only other exciting thing I’ve done since my last blog was rake gravel, tons of gravel. We had several truck loads of rocks brought in for the driveway on Wednesday, so Anne and I spent the day raking about 200 yards of road. We were so sore the next morning, but its good to get it over with. We still have a lot of outdoor work to do like clearing brush and a few trees before they start to build our house next spring. We do a little bit every week, we are so excited for next year to get here.
I’m going to get the ice-fishing stuff out this week and start getting ready for that, I’m hoping to be on the ice early again, like last year, a week before Christmas. The water temps are finally starting to get down there, tonight it was 39 degrees, so it won’t be too much longer. It takes about a week of low 20’s at night to get things going, my guess though is it won’t be for at least another month, the extended forecast is a little too warm unfortunately. I’m addicted to ice-fishing too!
www.davelefebre.com
11/29/2011
Dave Lefebre - Thanksgiving and Walleye
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday, we sure did. It was special this year because we had dinner at my Grandparent’s old house for the last time. As most of you know, my grandma passed away a little over a year ago.
Since then, we moved my Gramps into a smaller, nicer house that we purchased right next door, and now we are using the old house to store our belongings until we get our new house built next spring. Anne and I worked hard to clear out the old dining room, get the heat going, and get tables and chairs set up. But it was so worth, we had a wonderful time with family and all the food was perfect! We will be demolishing that old house when we start to build the new one early next year, so that’s why Thanksgiving was a little more special this year. Their house was always the place where family gathered and we will try to carry on that tradition in the new house.
After Thanksgiving Day, we went to State College, PA to hangout and eat more turkey with Anne’s family. Her brother had a bad sore throat, and now as I sit here typing, I can hardly swallow. So thanks Uncle Tony, at least I beat you down in boxing on the Play Station, lol. We had a great weekend to say the least, now it’s time to work off the pounds.
I’ve been fishing quite a bit lately. I got my boat order in last week and think I have all my sponsor stuff lined up and ready to go. Still waiting on that new deal I told you about a couple weeks ago, but it is looking good too. So there is plenty of free time to do some angling and stock the freezer up.
The walleyes are biting at a lake called Pymatuning, about an hour from my house, so that is where I’ve been spending most of my time. I’m catching them on 1/4oz Rattling Raps and 1/4oz blade baits, jigging them vertically in 18-24 feet of water. It’s something different and really is a lot of fun. Our limit on walleye is 6 fish and I’ve been getting 6 almost every time, though the last couple trips have been getting tougher.
Soon I will start going to the Allegheny River, fishing current with big creek chubs. We’ve had a lot of rain lately, so the rivers are too high right now, but this is usually prime time for that…can’t wait, I hope to get down there by this weekend. There’s nothing like catching big walleyes in the dark while your boat fills up with snow, ha ha, I love it. Speaking of snow, we are supposed to get our first major snow storm of the season this weekend or early next week…Bring it!
www.davelefebre.com
11/16/2011
Dave Lefebre - Walleye with Uncle Denny
Is anyone else sick of hearing about this Alabama Rig? Geeze, yee haw, giddy up, yeah we know…Tie on an Alabama Rig and you too can win a tournament! There’s absolutely nothing positive from allowing this thing for bass fishing, tournament or meat hunting... it’s all bad. Not faulting anyone for using it and winning a tournament, just to make that perfectly clear. And if they don’t outlaw it, I guess we’ll all have to throw it. Someone needs to start a petition if they haven’t already. I know a thousand people who will sign it.
Enough about that. I took my Uncle to a lake not far from home known for small walleyes on Saturday, it was an interesting day. My Uncle Denny doesn’t have the time to fish very often; only about a half dozen times a year, so when we get out we really try to hit everything just right. Well, we were planning on going to the Allegheny River, but that hinged on trapping some creek chubs, which for some unknown reason didn’t work out right. Mitchell and I went to the creek and set two traps the night before. We saw zillions of chubs in the water, but they just didn’t go into the trap over night. I’ve never seen anything like it. Uncle D and I even went to the store and bought some bread for the traps, went to breakfast for an hour, and checked them again, lol…no dice!
Without chubs, I made a change in the plans and got on the highway south to Pymatuning. We didn’t get an early start like we planned, but it turned out to be a good move. Uncle D landed two of the biggest walleyes I’ve ever seen from that lake and I’ve fished it a long time. We have huge walleyes in Lake Erie, but for Pymatuning it was quite a catch. We ended the night with 4 walleyes and 4 bonus crappies, I will be heading back down there again someday soon for sure.
As for now, I’ve got a sore throat and cold and as usual, the last one in the family to get it. I’m sitting here watching the Packers and Vikings on Monday Night Football with a cup of hot tea. I was going to hit the Bay tomorrow, but now I think I’ll just stay in and get some work done. I’m working on a new sponsor, which I’m excited about. It’s a company outside of the fishing industry and if it all works out, should be a lot of fun next season. I hope to announce some good news within the next week or two.
Have a great week everyone, make sure you head on over to my FB page and like it, I’m running a contest there where you can win some free tackle and caps!
www.davelefebre.com
11/7/2011
Dave Lefebre-View of Lake Erie
Well, not a whole lot going on this past week, just relaxing and hanging out with the family mainly. I did get my new boat ordered, but really that’s about it. This morning Anne and I are figuring out our 2012 schedule and starting to make reservations, trying to at least. I’m obviously fishing the 10 FLW Tour events, but don’t know whether to fish the BASS Opens or the Ever Starts next year. BASS registration starts today, so not much time to decide. The Ever Starts are a lot better as far as payouts, locations, and a big championship, but that “cheap” Classic birth is tough to pass on….hmmmmmmmmm? I honestly can’t believe they are doing that again after all the flack this season, strange. I’ll be posting my 2012 schedule within the next couple days on my website, DaveLefebre.com. If they weren’t all on the same exact weeks I’d fish them all…I hate that!
I plan on doing as much fishing as humanly possible during the off-season. I had a photo shoot with Darl Black for an upcoming FLW magazine article last week and caught a couple big walleyes afterwards. It’s a little early for that to be starting already, but it’s something I really enjoy doing each fall. We use live creek chubs for bait, Mitchell likes setting the traps and checking them in the morning, its different, but a lot of fun. The crappies and perch are also biting right now…basically it’s time to stock the freezer! So much fishing to do and so little time.
We love this time of year up in Erie. We are going to be spending the winter and most of next year living with Gramps right next door to the property we will building our house on. We plan on starting to build in the spring…can’t wait. The view of Lake Erie is amazing, here’s a pic Anne took of the sunset lastnight.
I’ll talk to you next week!
11/2/2011
Dave Lefebre - Guntersville to Conroe
I’m so sick of driving, comes with the job I guess, but glad to be OFF for a couple months. I’m ready for lots of snow and ice!
I just got home from the TTBC in Conroe Texas, where I got my stuff handed to me big time. Congrats to Kieth Combs on winning. I felt good after the 90 degree heat and slick conditions in the 3 day practice period, but when the front, wind, and rain came my deal completely fell apart and I missed the boat on the deep cranking thing. Oh well is all I can say, I had a great time down there as usual, and met some dandy fine people. I hope we go back there again because the deal I was doing in practice will work there at some point. That is truly a great event, probably the biggest one we have in this sport as far as size and fans, I know I’d like to see about 20 of them per year.
The last Tour Open at Guntersville took place just before Conroe and now I’m officially qualified for the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier next season….YESSSS!!!!!!! This was one of my main goals as I’ve said many times, so I’m so relieved to get that over with and to be able to fish the Tour Majors with a little less pressure next season. I was close to the AOY again, finishing second for the second time. Congrats to Shin for beating me…but he cant beat me at cornhole at least, lol. Team USA defeats Team Japan on a regular basis throughout the tour season and I expect that trend to continue for many years to come.
In the meantime, tournament season 2011 in finished and there are tons of things happening here locally on the fishing scene, the big crappie and perch are biting, and the bass are putting on the feedbag too. No time to relax, I have a photo shoot in the morning about 2 hours from home and several interviews lined up for the end of the week. I also have to sell a boat, order a boat, and get all my sponsor stuff figured out for next year by the end of the week….hopefully. After all that is done, I can play for a while. The kids are dying to get out fishing, so that’s what I’m really looking forward to asap, maybe on Saturday if the weather cooperates.
I had to eliminate my Face Book profile and start a Fan Page so please head on over there and “like” it. So many people have asked why I stopped being so active on FaceBook over the last couple of months because they stopped getting my updates, so anyway…that’s why. I’m still as active as ever and posting most every day.
Well, now I must get back to work. I still have to unpack the diesel from the last month…what a disaster area!!! I dropped my Ranger Z521 off for the refurb on the way back from Texas yesterday. If you can imagine fitting everything from my boat into the cab of my truck along with everything else I packed…..it’s sick!
I’ll talk to you next week!
www.davelefebre.com
10/19/2011
Dave Lefebre - One More Guntersville
At least the drive to Alabama’s Lake Guntersville was nice, a little 45-minute delay between Cincinnati and Louisville, but other than that…good. Unfortunately things have been everything but good since I got here, lol.
The cabin we had booked for the week came complete with its own little friends who liked to tick across the floor as soon as you turned the lights off. It was 1:00 AM, so I couldn’t really go looking for another place to stay. Needless to say I got a grand total of 2 hours of sleep that night.
My family couldn’t make it to this one, so I am staying with my co-angler again, Tom Rizzo and his wife, Gwen. They found another house on the lake and we thankfully got out of that other infested joint. We are now staying close to Buck Island right on the water with our own boat garage and launch ramp. We even have a regulation pool table in the living room, its very nice place.
Right now I’m getting ready to drive 1 ½ north to Hixson, TN, my motor blew up on the first morning of practice right out of the gate, it was perfect! It was Sunday of course, and everything was closed, so I couldn’t get a hold of anyone.
Thankfully, Art Ferguson let me ride along with him for a few hours so I could at least see the lake. Thanks Arty! On the second day of practice, Monday, I started calling around and ended up having to drive my boat up to Chattanooga Fish N Fun http://www.chattanoogafishnfun.com. Lee Haas (the owner) and his team are awesome, they got my boat right in and got the parts I needed right away. So now I’m going back to get my boat and load her back up.
A generous co-angler fishing this event brought his boat and let Tom and I use it on the 3rd and final day of practice, so that worked out great. I emptied my boat out and loaded up his boat with all my stuff, and believe me it was way too much stuff. Its so hard to not bring everything you own because the fishing is so tough here right now. I had 18 rods on the deck, ha ha! I think I found some fish (I think) but I’m worried about this one more than any other in the past.
The top 5 in the standings after this event qualify for next year’s Forrest Wood Cup and I’m currently in 5th, that means I need to catch some fish, which for me at least is not going to be easy. This tournament is shaping up to be a local’s dream…extra tough fishing and a super major cold front on top of it. Yesterday’s high was 84 and today it is 53; it happens every time!
www.davelefebre.com
10/13/2011
Dave Lefebre - Potomac Wrap - More Ahead
So going to the Potomac EverStart Series tournament without practice wasn’t a train wreck after all...whew! What an awesome place to fish, I was hoping it would be fun and worth the trip and it never disappoints. I finished 4th and made $8,000 for 3 days of fishing, not too shabby…I’m glad they had room for me and that I decided to go at the last minute.
My limited practice was quite eventful. I actually got there around 3:30pm and had the boat in the water at around 4:00pm. I was allowed to practice until 6:30, not much time at all, but I felt I could eliminate a lot of water at least in a hurry. Well that was wishful thinking, lol. I was staying on the Virginia side of the river so I launched at Leeslevania, after checking a little spot close by, I ran across into Mattawoman Creek and idled all the way to the back to see if the fish had moved in yet. It’s a long idle, I had two bites but it was obvious it wasn’t right back in there, so I idled back out. That burned a little over an hour. As I was running back across the river to start looking for good grass, an ear broke off my prop. It was now almost 5:00 and I had to idle four miles back to the launch ramp, nice! So that was my practice.
Wouldn’t you know it I drew boat #9, my best boat position of the season, and the first time I had absolutely no idea where to go, ha ha. With the brand new prop I borrowed from my good friend, Steve Chaconis, I ran to the area I was headed to the night before and there was still some pretty good grass there from way back in June when the FLW Tour was there. I ended up camping in that grass bed for the next three days and learning more and more each day. I caught a ton of fish every day and it was an absolute blast.
The only bad thing was that after the day one weigh-in (on my birthday) I slipped on the boat ramp and landed on my elbow. I have never hit the floor so fast and hard in my life. At first I thought I was going straight to the hospital and not able to fish day two, but with lots of ice it gradually got to feeling a little better. Unfortunately now I think I have a problem with that elbow because it still hurts over a week later. I’m going to go get it looked at after the season is over…two more to go!
I’m in the processes of packing for Guntersville, I leave tomorrow morning, and now I have to go straight from Alabama to Lake Conroe Texas. The PAA called yesterday and said they had a position open for the Texas Bass Classic, so how could I refuse that? I’m in and I couldn’t be more fired up. Anne and the kids can’t make it to G-ville, but I’m hoping they can fly to Birmingham, AL and make the trip to Texas with me, that would be perfect, not likely, but perfect!
During my week off I’ve been fishing of course. The bass are biting big time, the jumbo perch are biting, and I just caught 50 huge crappie last evening. Needless to say, I cant wait to get back home in 3 weeks and pick up where I left off, I love this time of year up north…LOVE IT!!!
www.davelefebre.com
10/3/2011
Dave Lefebre - Homeless and Fishing
Hey everybody, sorry about my absence over the last few weeks, I’ve just been so busy with moving and trying to fish tournaments in between. My wife’s Mom broke her leg at the same time, life was crazy there for a while there, but it’s finally starting to settle down a bit now.
I guess the tournament news has been crazy as well since I last posted. Hard to believe the Wellman deal, that’s pretty much where I’ll leave that… wow!
I’ve been home now for three days after a long road trip in New York by myself. It was actually the longest I have been away from the kids since they were born, I hope I never have to do that again, I missed them terribly. I went to fish the FLW Tour Open on Champlain, NY where I finished 19th and then the Bassmaster Northern Open where I finished 13th. That wraps up the BASS Opens for 2011, I finished 7th in the AOY surprisingly without any real strong finishes.
My main goal and reason for fishing them this year was not to qualify for the Elite Series (top 5), it was to try to win Sandusky and make the Bassmasters Classic in February. I’m perfectly happy fishing the FLW Tour, it’s quite a bit tougher because of the field size and co-anglers, but I like the way they run things better and the people there are like family.
I’m actually taking a break from packing my clothes right now to write this. I’m leaving for the Potomac River tomorrow sometime. There is an EverStart Series tournament there that starts on Thursday and I just can’t resist going, lol. I love that place, especially this time of year and later. It’s exciting to be fishing an event with no practice, but it could turn out to be a train wreck too, especially if the river is rough and I can’t run around. I have about a six-hour drive from Erie, not too bad.
My last event of the year is in Alabama…yeah! I’m anxious to head to Guntersville in a couple of weeks, I’ll be starting to prepare for that one as soon as I get home from DC. It is the last Tour Open of the four and I’m sitting 5th in the AOY points. The top 5 after G-Ville will earn an early berth into the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup, so it’s a very important week to say the least, looking forward to it.
Well I’m back to work! I’ll talk to you all next week, I have to get back on track here, I’ve been slacking, LOL.
www.davelefebre.com
8/19/2011
Dave Lefebre - Dead Fish Disagreement
For what it’s worth…
I really think the dead fish penalty should go away, and not just because it has cost me personally thousands of dollars and an AOY title. I absolutely commend Ray Scott for creating it, let there be zero doubt that it was needed back in those days. The penalty has also been responsible for many great inventions over the years to help protect our tournament fish. But in 2011, I think it’s time that we move on. Professional bass fishing has been stuck in a rut for so long and the 8 ounce dead fish penalty is simply unfair to everyone and too steep, especially on lakes where 8 pounds is a good bag.
I understand the reasons it still exists today, but only one of those I except as legitimate, and that has to do with the animal rights activists. The pro tournament organizations must demonstrate to those ridiculous activists that they are serious about keeping fish unharmed and thus must penalize competitors for dead fish, I get that. But my point is that most every time I have a dead fish, it has nothing to do with something I did wrong. Most of the time I know before I even put the fish in the live-well that its chances are not good for survival. If leveling the playing field is our goal, then this penalty obviously needs to be changed. Should a great fisherman be penalized because he made his lure look so real that a bass choked on it and died? …May sound funny or even ridiculous, but it happens.
You may say that the dead fish penalty is ok because it’s the same for everyone, but that would be inaccurate. It’s not the same when your factory installed live-well pumps quit working in the middle of the Forrest Wood Cup or BFL All-American, but Billy’s happens to work fine all day. Oh, too bad, you caught more weight than Billy, almost 2 pounds more, but Billy didn’t have 4 dead fish…Billy wins! And you just lost $500,000. Ooops, did I say $500,000, I meant $550,000, because a couple other guys passed you up too.
Of all people as a whole, bass professionals care more about the bass than anyone on the planet. We are not trying to kill our fish. If the need to demonstrate discipline must exist, I think there are many other directions bass tournament organizations could move.
I’ve talked to a lot of other fisherman over the years about this topic and I’m not alone. Unfortunate things happen in every tournament, things that are completely out of our control, equipment fails, fish swallow baits… that should say it all. If you catch a 3 pounder, you should get 3 pounds for it…simple. Maybe a small fine could be instituted for dead fish? That could be a positive thing for everyone involved, it would satisfy the activists (if that’s even possible), give the pro his proper points, and give the tournament organizations some bonus bucks.
My opinion.
Other than all that, I finished 30th in the 2011 Cup on Ouachita. I had higher hopes than I’ve ever had in a tournament, so I’m extremely disappointed in my outcome. But I believe that God has a plan for my life and I trust Him and follow Him. He knows what He is doing, sometimes we just don’t understand or have difficulty accepting things and I’m guilty of that. We need Him, He is real!
davelefebre.com
8/8/2011
Dave Lefebre - Hot Hot Springs
Just finished the regular season on the FLW Tour and now I’m getting excited for the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita, AR. After the Pickwick event last week we decided to head straight over to Hot Springs to drop off the camper, it was about a 5 hour drive. After we saw the campground here and started thinking about our 15 hour drive home, we decided to stay down here for the 10 days off before practice starts. So here we are enjoying the record heat, lol. I’ve never been in severe heat (114) like this; it is so dang hot I can only fish in the mornings and evenings, and even then you can actually ring your shirt out.
I’ve been fishing as much as I can, trying to get used to the heat a little and getting as familiar with these Arkansas bass as I can. I’m not allowed on Lake Ouachita so I’ve been spending my time on Lake Hamilton right next door. Our campsite is actually on Hamilton and the boat ramp is about 100 yards away, it’s nice. We are about 10 miles from Brady Mountain Resort, the official take-off for the Cup. I didn’t bring the right equipment for the Cup because I thought we were going home after Pickwick, so I’ve been ordering the things I might need and spending way too much money at Trader Bill’s (the local tackle shop).
Hot Springs is a really good place to hang out or vacation. There’s a lot for the kids to do here, the other night we went go-cart riding, road the bumper boats, and played putt-putt golf, it was fun. Macy rode with me in the go-cart and she couldn’t get enough of that. She loved it, I thought she’d be scared to death, but that car couldn’t go fast enough, lol…she’s funny. We are enjoying some family time and visiting with our friends, the Tharps, who are camping right next to us for the month. The only thing missing is some good corn-hole competition for me and Randall. The wives teamed up and got a bit cocky, but after beating them 50 times in a row it starts to get boring, ha ha.
Well, that’s about it. Practice for the Cup starts on Sunday. Oh yeah, I’ll be at the Wal-Mart at 1601 Albert Pike Rd in Hot Springs on Saturday from 2-4pm, so come on over and say howdy and maybe talk some fishin!
To read my recap of the Pickwick event go to flwoutdoors.com, and for more about our trip and travel experiences, check out… “On Tour with Dave and Anne” Presented by Chevy. http://ontourwithdaveandanne.blogspot.com/ .
Talk to next week!
7/26/2011
Dave Lefebre - MEOW
Hard to believe another week has come and gone. I’ve had two train wrecks in a row, first the Bassmaster Open on the James River where I finished 51st and now the Pickwick Lake FLW Tour Major where a scored an awesome 71st…Oh yeah! I’m not real happy with the way things have been going over the last month, especially since I’ve literally been on winning quality of fish and just can’t get thing to go my way.
At the James I was in the same tiny creek with the winner and on the exact same pattern, but just couldn’t get my big bites in the boat for some unexplainable reason. Well I cant really say that, I did get one big bite in the boat…Meow!!! At Pickwick I needed a better boat draw and a top 20 was going to be a piece of cake…literally. The guy that got my spot first weighed almost 19 pounds on day one. Bad breaks and my mind on other things, like selling our house, have really been affecting me. I haven’t been focused nearly as much on fishing and I can feel it hurting my performance.
I have next week off and should be going home to spend the last week off before our house closing moving furniture, but I’ve decided just this morning to head straight to Lake Ouachita, AR. The Forrest Wood Cup is about 3 weeks away and there’s one more week before our off-limits period, so I’m going there with 100% focus on winning this dang championship. I’ve been so close 3 times now, this will be my 9th consecutive championship and I think it’s time to bring the trophy back to PA! I’ll be rooming with Randall Tharp this week in Arkansas, hopefully some of his luck will rub off on me, he’s been red hot.
My next event will be the Cup and then off to the second Bassmaster Northern Open on Lake Erie out of Sandusky Bay. These are my two biggest events of the entire season back to back. If I win the Open I make the Classic…dumb?...yes, but I’d sure love to take advantage it. I will be gambling big time on that one, making an incredibly long run somewhere, you can bet on that. It’s hero or zero time…hopefully that big ocean doesn’t swallow me up. It scares me to even think about, who knows maybe I’ll spend the night on an island somewhere…been there before, lol.
Talk to you all next week!
davelefebre.com
7/7/2011
Dave Lefebre - House Sold and James River
Anyway it's been a pretty uneventful week just the main thing, the main reason for that is we've been trying to sell our house for quite a while now and I just got a buyer and just went through a bunch of paperwork and find everything so, YAY, we sold our house!
So that is pretty much what we’ve been doing, our property that we bought, about thirty miles from where we live, about twenty five miles from where we live and we have just been going back and forth just meeting contractors and just meetings with the bank and all that kind of stuff so that’s pretty much all I’ve been doing, haven’t had time to really prepare for the Bassmaster Open on the James River, the Northern Open.
I’m left for there on Sunday. I haven’t had time to pack up or get ready for that, we are still packed from the last tournament, been home for a week and still haven’t unpacked so, that’s about it, that’s what I’m doing, just busy with the house stuff and so hopefully on Friday or Saturday I will be able to unpack from the last trip to Kentucky and get things organized and ready for the James River.
I am definitely excited for that one, I haven’t fished a Bassmaster Tournament in a long time, and though I don’t really agree with the rules on an Open winner qualifying for the Classic, I don’t like that whole situation, but I got one on Sandusky which is my home water which is about two hours from my house, so I am going to try to take advantage of that strange rule, that you have to fish all three if you want to go to the Classic so anyway, I’m fishing the James, I haven’t been there since 2003 I think for an FLW Championship, and I made the Top Ten there, and I am excited to go back it’s my style – tide water, kind of dirty water.
So that’s it, thanks a lot, hope that’s helpful!
6/22/2011
Dave Lefebre - Getting Caught Up
Sorry everyone, I missed another week. I’ve been so busy for so long I can’t remember the last day I had off, I know it was way back before the Red River tournament….too long. I just cancelled our reservation at Lake Champlain this week for the Ever Start event, I just have to get some work done and get caught up on things and most importantly spend some time with Anne and the kids. I feel guilty because of my schedule lately and that’s when I know it’s time to take a break from the craziness. So now I have about a week off from fishing to get caught up and play with the kiddos; yay.
I’m actually riding as Anne drives the last couple of hours home. We left the Diesel and 5th wheel in Cincinatti, OH to save on gas and will pick it up on our way to the last FLW Major tournament on Pickwick Lake in about three weeks. I can’t wait for that one, I love that place and usually do well there, especially in the summer months. I will need about a 135th place finish or better to assure a Cup birth, and about a 50th or better to stay in the top 15 and gain a berth into the Texas Bass Classic on Lake Conroe, where I won in 2009. I have to say that is one of my main goals each year, what an incredible event and a loaded little lake!
I’ve had two unacceptable events since my last blog…a 36th (I think) at the Potomac and then a 70th in Kentucky. I had the bites to make the top 20 cut in both tournaments, but sometimes it just doesn’t quite work out right, I’m sure many of you can relate with that. That’s got to be the worst part of our sport, the uncontrollables, you really can’t worry about them though because it simply is going to be what it is.
Speaking of “uncontrollables”, I drew boat 115 on the first day of the Kentucky Lake tournament last week. I had a place I felt was a guaranteed 20 pound bag…That’s right…two boats parked on it, they had 19 and 20 pounds at the weigh-in. I was boat 29 on day two, but couldn’t bring myself to go there, there were enough confrontations on the water and I didn’t want to get into it.
I caught most of my fish on a Tabu Jig, but I’m super excited about a brand new bait we (Tabu Tackle) are coming out with very soon. It wasn’t quite the deal at Kentucky because the water wasn’t clear enough, but fish eat this thing and it’s just a matter of time before it all comes together, hopefully Pickwick next month. I’ll be trying them on the smallies soon and sending some to Joe Balog for the up-coming Ever Start in Detroit. It will be interesting to see what happens. I know the Tiny Tim has been working well in Detroit too.
I’ve had a lot of facebook messages, voice mails, and emails about the Frosted Flakes and various other Kellogg’s boxes with my picture on them the last few days. I guess they are at all of the Wal-Mart stores; After I cut the grass, I’ll be going there tomorrow to check it out, lol. Have a great week everybody!
Oh, I almost forgot…Check out what I can do at Cracker Barrel. Possibly a new “minute to win it” challenge???
www.davelefebre.com
5/24/2011
Lefebre: On the Road Again
Seems like we’ve been driving forever. We left Shreveport Sunday after the Expo and made it to Memphis. Then we left the Lackie’s house around 3pm on Monday and drove to Louisville, KY. Now (Tuesday, 2pm) we are between Cleveland and Columbus, OH somewhere, about 3 hours from home. I’ll only be home for three days, but it will be worth it to fish the Bay. It is downright hammer time there right now and I can’t wait to get out there and finish testing the last batch of Dobyn’s rods.
I had a good tournament on the Red River last week. I’m stoked to grab a 34th place finish and get the heck out of there. I was sick all week and was in 103rd after day one…yuck! It was almost another massive train wreck like Chickamauga, but thank God things happened perfectly on day two. I’m sure that it had something to do with my precious baby girl (Macy), who prayed for her Daddy that day, asking God to give Daddy five big fish, ha ha. I love her, she’s the best little girl in the world.
I caught most of them on a ½ oz Rapala Clackin Rap. The didn’t seem to want the louder rattling baits for some reason. The color is called Bone/Chartruese, it has a bone color on the back with a chartreuse belly and silver sides, great for muddy water like I was fishing. I used 17 lb test Berkley 100% fluoro, a Dobyns 705 CB Glass rod (the best trap rod ever made), and a Revo Premier high speed reel. I only lost one fish that last day that got hung on a stick, so that’s not bad at all considering I was reeling the bait fast and jerking the heck out of it. Those fish hit that thing so hard it was unbelievable. I only had 6 fish hook up all day and I bet I made at least 4 casts a minute for 8 hours, that comes out to about 2000 casts, lol. Wow, I got a bite every 333 casts, that’s exciting!!!!
I’ll be packing this week for the Potomac River FLW Tour Open, lots of jigs and D-Bugs. I haven’t had the new Bugs since we fished there last, they will eat that thing big time. I leave early Saturday morning and practice starts on Sunday. That place is going to be crazy on Memorial Day weekend, I hope it rains and the wind blows. I’m excited to be going back to the Potomac River again, it’s been a while. It is one of my favorite places to go in the world and I think we should be hitting it just right next week.
My turn to drive, I’ll catch you next week. I have s couple of friends from FLW coming to play on the Bay right after the Potomac event, they may not have arms when they leave, ha ha!
5/17/2011
Dave Lefebre - Stuck on the Red
Fighting Stumps and the Flu
Looks like I have plenty of time to write my blog today. This is supposed to be my third day of practice at the Red River, LA but unfortunately I have a bad case of the flu. Mitchell had it last week and Macy and I just came down with it Sunday night. This is obviously bad timing as this is going to be a very tough tournament, I’m praying to get on the water this afternoon if possible. I missed all of yesterday’s practice, couldn’t eat anything at all, and basically slept all day. I have some other work I need to get done, like change some line and some hooks, so I should be able to get that done at least.
Lackie and I put in a long hard day on Sunday on the Red. The water is really muddy, but it’s coming down and there’s not much debris floating on the main river. We didn’t catch anything worth talking about; I found one area with some smaller fish (under 2 pounds) and that is about it. If I can’t get on the water today, that is all that I will have to go to come tournament time. It took me over an hour to get into this area, but if I don’t get hung on a big stump it should only take about 20 minutes, lol. We really got stuck badly; I actually thought my boat was going to flip right over when I was trying to gun it free.
I did get out on Presque Isle Bay a couple times before we left to come down to Shreveport, LA. On Thursday, I had a photo shoot in the morning and then took a couple of friends out fishing the rest of the day. Dan and Denny from Reel Grip make it up about once a year to fish and we always have a great time. We caught 75 bass on tubes, jigs, and X-Raps in 3 hours. The smallmouths were just beginning to come up to spawn, it was crazy and I can tell you I hated to leave PA. We plan on heading home for a couple of days before heading to the Potomac River for the next event. Anne and kiddies will not be going to that one. After the Potomac, I’ll be fishing the Bay for 3 straight days with a couple of my good buddies from FLW Outdoors…can’t wait for that!
Well, I need to get some rest and try to get rid of this stupid sickness. You can keep up with me on Facebook throughout this event and don’t forget to play Fantasy Fishing!
http://www.davelefebre.com/
5/5/2011
Dave Lefebre - An Unscheduled Break
Right now I’m enjoying an unplanned vacation. As most of you know, our last FLW Tour event at Table Rock was canceled because of severe flooding in Missouri. I was there and it was simply unbelievable how much rain fell and how fast the water actually rose. I spent about four days in a cabin at the Lighthouse Lodge in Kimberling City. I want to thank Roger, the owner, for his hospitality and letting me stay there at such short notice. If you ever make the trip to Table Rock for a tournament or just a fun fishing trip, The Lighthouse Lodge is in the perfect spot on the lake, the cabins are very clean, and right on the water. We really like it there and I’m confident you will too.
The cancellation was a bitter sweet deal for me actually. I obviously wanted to fish the event, especially in that type of conditions, but I had been so worried about Anne driving the Diesel while towing 25,000lbs for 16 hours too. I was so relieved that she didn’t have to load up the kids and make that trip without my being there; it scared me as I’ve talked about in the last couple blogs. So for that reason I was thankful for the cancellation.
We also found out a couple days later that the event will be rescheduled for Pickwick Lake, AL in July, and that is great news as well. I love the Tennessee River and Pickwick has been very good to me in the past. I think July will be the perfect time for me too, looking forward to that one for sure.
Our next event is scheduled for the Red River, La. in a couple weeks, so as soon as I found out Table Rock was a “no-go” I jumped in the truck and drove straight home to Erie, PA. I think this was longest period of time I have ever been separated from Mitchell and Macy since they were born, so I was pretty excited to get home.
I’ve been home for about a week now and basically just catching up on things and trying to get everything re-organized. I’ve had three events back to back, so a little break couldn’t come at a better time. My boat has been soaked for weeks with no chance of drying out, it has rained everyday for as long as I can remember. I desperately need at least one sunny day… PLEASE!!!!!!
Despite the relentless rain, Macy wanted to get her rain gear on and go out in the boat on Sunday. We went to Pymatuning and had a great time. Mitchell came down with a throat infection the day before so he couldn’t come with us this time. We caught some big crappies, bluegills, and perch and even though it never quit raining, Macy can’t get enough, she’s just like me. She even helped me clean them; she kept saying “Gross”, “Oh Man”, and “Disgusting”, but she never left, ha ha. We had a fish fry that night, the kids love it and that makes me happy! Sunday was a great day and I can’t complain about how it ended either…perfect!
I went out to a little lake by my house yesterday and caught a bunch of pigs, I needed that big time. My first bite was a 5 1/2lber, which is a big one around this area. I skipped that jig up under a flooded bush onto the bank, and when I slid it into the water she boiled all over it, it was awesome! I caught about 30 bass in 5 hours on a jig and shallow crankbait in the lily pads and bushes. It was 37 degrees, foggy, raining (of course), and windy, it even snowed briefly; if you can imagine in May??? I plan on getting out a few times before we have to leave for the Red on the 13th. This is one of the best times of the year to fish around here and I usually miss it due to my schedule, I’m not going to miss it this year though for a change.
It was cool listening to Anne do a phone interview yesterday about fishing, lol. She will be featured in Beyond the Pond right here on Advanced Angler.com, so be sure to check that out, I know I will be interested to hear what she was whispering and giggling about on the phone…Oh boy!
God Bless America!
4/26/2011
Dave Lefebre - PAA All Star Recap
On to Table Rock for FLW Tour Major #4
The first PAA All-Star event at Lake Ray Hubbard, TX is el Dunno and I’m now in Kimberling City, MO. I finished 8th in the event; which is good, but I should’ve done a lot better. Jason Christie won it and said on stage that he caught every fish that bit all three days. How does that happen??? I can tell you that never happens for me, and this one was no different.
I had 20 pounds on day one but should have had about 22. I lost 10 pounds in two fish on day 2 when I only weighed 11.5 pounds, and on the last day I lost a 6lber and broke off another even bigger than that. I also missed a 3-4 lb fish 4 times and while letting it rest momentarily Ott DeFoe cast in there and caught it. I have to admit that that really made me mad. I had to either sit on that fish, or defend a 6 pounder guarding fry that I missed twice about 100 feet down the bank. As it turned out, neither actually happened, Ott went around me and fished passed that 6lber thankfully, which I caught 5 minutes later.
It’s frustrating to be on the winning fish and not have everything come together. It is such a fine line between winning and losing in this sport, finer than most people think. I watched Jason Christie catch several fish the last day including a big one late in the day. We were fishing the same area, close to where the rivers split. There was a huge laydown tree blown up on the point that split the two rivers, I caught a 5 pounder there on the first day and Jason caught an 8+ there on day two and a 5 the last day, I didn’t fish it the last day because he was leading the event. I’m glad that one is over, I liked the lake, but I hate fishing in a crowd more than anything.
I was throwing a prototype TABU heavy cover jig with a swimbait trailer called a Double Diamond by Optimum. The reason I was losing so many was because I was ripping it and working it erratically and really fast. When fish get as much pressure as they were getting in the river, you either have to slow down or speed up to try to generate reaction bites. Speeding up seemed to be the right deal to me, but unfortunately it made it difficult to get them hooked solidly. I will say that the bites I got this week were some of the best, most violent strikes I’ve ever had. The fishing fans around Garland were some of the best as well, and I had three great observers during the event too. I love fishing in Texas and wouldn’t mind going back to Ray Hubbard in the future, hopefully when the wind isn’t blowing 40mph.
The trip to Kimberling City was a little scary on Easter Sunday. It was raining so hard that the roads between Beaver Lake and Table Rock were flooded in several places. I even saw a bridge washed out in Eureka Springs. Everything is flooded down here, I drove over the Kings River on the way to The Light House Lodge and it looked ugly. This place is going to be pretty high for our tournament next week I think, I just hope they don’t pull the plug on it during the event like they did at Chickamauga a couple weeks back. It is going to be interesting though to see how it all plays out.
Anne and the kids will be meeting me down here on Thursday night. Mitchell has been sick with some kind of flu for the last 3 days; I wish I could be there for him. This is the longest I’ve ever been away from Mitchy and Macy so I can’t wait until they get down here, only a couple more days. My practice on Table Rock doesn’t begin until Sunday, so we have a little time to just relax and maybe see some attractions in Branson.
I’m hoping for another top 10 at the Rock next week. I will talk to you after practice is over just before the tournament starts and let you know how I feel about it. Until then, you can keep in touch with me on Facebook!
4/19/2011
Dave Lefebre - The Bottom Dropped Out
Last week before the Chickamauga tournament I think I said the water dropped out, but I should be alright???? Well, instead of being “alright”, as I drove from Tennessee toward Garland Texas yesterday I wrote a new song…it’s called I suck! I was obviously not alright and it’s been hard to sleep every night since then.
Even though I stunk it up last week, I still had the bites on day two to finish between 30th and 40th place somewhere, 89th is real bad. I lost not one, but two 5 pounders, but it could have been so much worse because I only had one fish at 12:30 on the second day.
It’s amazing what a little prayer can do. I’m thankful for what I did catch and that the others who were high in the points also struggled a little. The points race for AOY is a lot tighter now but I’m not completely out of it as I thought I would be after such a train wreck. We are at half time now with 3 FLW Tour Majors to go, the next one being at Table Rock in Branson, MO.
I’ve done fair at the Rock in the past and look forward to getting there next week. I’ll have a week off before that event to get all my stuff re-organized before the official practice period starts on Sunday. Anne, the kids, and the dog are meeting me there with the camper and we’re staying in Kimberling City somewhere. We are looking forward to the week off in Branson, there’s so much to do there and we never really have time to goof around. I can’t wait to get there, I miss my family so much.
Right now I’m sitting inside the house where me and Ott DeFoe are staying in Rockwall, TX. It’s pretty cool here; we are only 3 minutes from the lake. There is a bad thunder storm pounding us right now, so we had to get off the water. We’re practicing for the Bass Pro Shops PAA All-Star Tournament on beautiful (not) Lake Ray Hubbard.
Tomorrow is the last day and I really haven’t done all that well yet. We have to be off the water by 3 pm for the registration. It’s pretty much a nasty muddy mess which is making a super small lake fish even smaller. The wind has been blowing 30+ every day and making half the lake totally unfishable…perfect! I already know where I’m going to “camp” in the tournament…do or die, there’s really nothing at stake at all in this one. I be’s uh goin for the win and that there’s all there is to it!
Well I think Ott and I are going to go have a fish off in the pond by the house now, we still have an hour before dark. I’ll probably let him win since he helped me push my boat off a sand bar yesterday morning, lol. It’s the least I could do, right?
I’ll catch you all next week from Missouri!
www.davelefebre.com
4/14/2011
Dave Lefebre - Blood Sucking Leeches
Boy am I tired. I just got back to my room after an early morning photo shoot for Kellogg’s. I’ve put in a long hard three days of practice and would have absolutely loved to sleep in this morning, but I’m not complaining. Now we are getting ready to head to dinner and the pre-tournament meeting at 4:30.
Lackie and I are moteling it this week in Cleveland, TN. We’re fishing the 4th FLW Tour event on Lake Chickamauga and the fishing is awesome. We are hitting it at the right time of the year and the fish are just starting to spawn here. The bad thing though is that the TVA has been lowering the water dramatically throughout our 3 day practice period, and that is making the fishing tougher every day.
On the first day I had two limits in the mid 20lb range and caught 20 fish over 3 ½ pounds, it was amazing, one of the best days I’ve ever had in a boat. In the morning on day 2, Mike Surman informed me that they were about to drop the water 2 feet. Well they had already been dropping it all night, and when Lackie and I started fishing I could see that all the places I’d caught them the day before were high and dry. Scary yes, but fortunately I had 2 more days to work something else out and I think I should be alright.
I just hope I don’t have to get out of the boat and push myself off any sandbars tomorrow, lol. I swear I’ve spent more time wading and pushing over the past two days than actually fishing. As my feet sink in the mud, I worry about one of those stupid Lamprey things hooking up to my leg, and believe me this place has a problem with them. I caught several bass with those rascals hanging off of them, way too many… strange.
I really miss Anne and the kiddos. After this event I will be heading across the country, straight to Lake Ray Hubbard, TX to compete in the PAA All-Star Tournament and then after that heading to Table Rock Lake in Branson, MO, where Anne and the kids will meet me. She plans on driving the camper the 16 hours from Erie, PA, I’m not real crazy about that idea actually, but as of now that is the plan. That Silverado HD dually tows
25,000 lbs like nothing and rides like a car though so that’s the good thing.
Don’t forget to pick your Fantasy Fishing teams before midnight tonight and put me in the mix if you’re feeling brave. I’m looking for my 3rd consecutive top 10, and I feel that if I don’t miss too many or lose them I should do pretty well, at least I hope so. This is truly a great lake with a ton of big fish and I think the over-all weights will shock you. I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see a 30 pound sack this week and a 10 pounder or two. It fits my style for sure and I’ll be disappointed if I stink it up…very disappointed!
Talk to you all next week!
Visit Dave on the web at: www.davelefebre.com
4/5/2011
Dave Lefebre - Maps and a New Tabu
Since missing the PAA Lanier tournament, I’ve basically had a week off to twittle my thumbs, lol. I took the kids out crappie fishing a couple times, once on Lake Edinboro and the other on Presque Isle Bay. We caught a few both times, the last time Mitchell put a serious beat down on me and Macy…he was on fire! I don’t have the little boat ready to fish yet so we took the Frosted Flakes Ranger out, what a fiasco, everywhere we go somebody follows us…I hate that.
It’s been mostly cold here during the last week, but yesterday it hit 68 degrees with thunderstorms and big wind. I spent the day in the garage and boat trying to get re-organized after making a mess at Hartwell. I spent a lot of time going through my map collection and trying to make sense of it all. I’ve compiled an insane number of lake maps over the years and I have several copies of many of them. That happens when I forget a map and have to buy another one and also some lakes have 2 or 3 different types of maps. I forget to bring maps to events all the time, I have 5 sets of Champlain maps, 3 to a set…ha ha!
Anne and the kids may be staying home again from the next tournament at Chickamauga, TN. Her Mom is having a difficult time which is totally understandable; she needs her only daughter around right now. We are planning on hooking up either in Texas for the PAA All-Stars event on Lake Ray Hubbard, or the FLW Tour Major on Table Rock Lake, not sure yet. It’s tough not having them with me on the road and it really makes me appreciate the sacrifices so many of the other guys make to play this game. This life can be tough on families for sure.
I guess the BASS Elite Series event starts on Pickwick tomorrow (Wednesday). I’ll probably watch the live weigh-ins since I’m an “all things bass” addict. They should whack them there with the water up in the bushes this time of year. I’ve been having some fun texting Dave Mercer (the emcee) some one-liners to say on stage. One of my quotes made the show and all the highlight films… “Geepers creepers look at the peepers on them swamp donkeys!” Did you hear that one? LOL. Check out my Facebook page to see what I give Mercer this week.
Also, TABU Tackle is introducing two new colors in the Whip Tail Worm, black and green pumpkin. They will available at Tabutackle.com tomorrow!
Well I’m heading out to the garage to get some work done for now, first I need to put my ice fishing hut away. I’m planning on leaving on Friday so not much more time. Our official practice starts on Sunday and I can’t wait to get on the water. I’ve never been to the Chick before but have heard a lot of great things about it.
Talk to you next week after practice!
3/30/2011
Lefebre Blog: Hartwell Wrap-Up
I finished 8th at Hartwell this passed week. That last day of practice was the key day for me basically because I finally got a bite on a jig. I obviously tried it many times the previous days but the fish seemed to want a minnow imitating bait only, like a spinnerbait, fluke, or Rattlin Rap. I was comfortable with all of that, but for some reason when I got those first couple jig bites I really started to think that this could be a good event for me. I caught them on the TABU OW jig (Chameleon) the first two days, then a Kinami D-Bug and Brush Hog on day 3, and finally a 5” Yamamoto Cut-tail worm on a Giggiy Head on the final day. Hartwell is a great lake, a perfect place for a big tournament actually, and hopefully we’ll come back in the future. Great fishing fans too!
We picked up our new trucks from Chevy while we were in South Carolina, a new Silverado HD (dually) and a Suburban. Anne came down for the day 3 weigh-in to drive one of them home. She brought her Mom with her, and the kids of course. The drive home was weird because we hit a snow storm in North Carolina of all places, it looked like home. It lasted about an hour and then it was smooth sailing the rest of the way to Erie, PA.
The next afternoon, after getting home, I called a couple buddies to see if they could help me test some rods. I got another shipment of Dobyn’s rods (my newest sponsor) and still haven’t had the time to fish many of them. Most of the ones I needed to test out were crankbait rods and various glass models. We put reels on them and hit the bay with a pile of square bills, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, and rattling baits. It was a very productive 6 hours for sure, we only managed to catch 7 bass, but I really got a good feel for exactly what the rods perform like and which ones I would be needing to add to my arsenal.
This may all sound like over-kill to some of you reading this, but for me it is so extremely important. I’ve been using the same rod actions for 15 years now, they were good rods, but throughout the years I have lost about 2.5 million fish. I always wrote it off because of my success, thinking that nothing was wrong. But I’ve since found out and proven to myself that my old way of thinking was completely wrong. Since switching to faster, less moderate sticks I have simply not been losing any fish. This was my third event with the new rods and the difference so far is blatantly obvious to me. You will never catch every bite you get, but I notice many things, most of them subtle, that are making a difference for me and I believe that these new rods are making me perform better and making a huge difference.
I’ve been preaching moderate for so long to so many people and in so many articles over the years, it feels bizarre to be totally abandoning those beliefs. I believe there is still a place for moderate action rods with specific techniques, mainly involving treble hooked baits, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits, but for everything else you can call me “Fast Man” from now on, lol.
I’m finding out there are a bunch of Dobyn’s rods fans out there and for the last several months you have all been asking what rods I like and why…Well, I’m still putting it all together, but these are the casting rods I will definitely be using so far, I still haven’t played with any spinning rods yet but plan to this weekend:
DX795: Heavy matt flipping, extra heavy baits
DX745: My main jig rod, skipping, pitching, deep structure
DX744: All-purpose rod, smaller jigs, Texas rigged baits, swimbaits, heavier spinnerbaits, Carolina rigs
DX743: All-purpose rod, Swimming open water series jigs, smaller swimbaits, spinnerbaits, light jigs, flukes, buzzbaits
DX742: Perfect for the Sworming Hornet Fish Head Spin, wacky rigged Senkos, Shakey heads
DX705: Frog with braided line
DX704: Normal sized spinnerbaits, flukes, accurate short casting
DX703: Skipping Senkos, accurate casting smaller spinnerbaits and buzz baits
DX702: Jerkbaits
704CB Glass: Tiny top-waters, crankbaits, jerkbaits
705CB Glass: Rattling baits and shallow square billed baits
804CB: DT 14, 16, 20, long casting deep crankbaits
764CBRM: Long casting rattling baits and shallow crankbaits
Hopefully this helps someone out there with your rod selections. I also appreciate all the feedback and recommendations from many of you too..thanks!
I mistakenly forgot to register for the PAA event at Lanier this week…major bumage. So I’m home now catching up on emails and other things. I’m looking forward to our next Major on Lake Chickamauga, TN in two weeks. I’ve never been there either, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it. Andy Morgan told be I will like it a lot, so I think I’ll take his word for it and go get me another top 10!
Oh, by the way, Gramp’s cane came in the mail, lol. He will surely cry when we give it to him when we see him.
I’ll talk to you next week; in the meantime look me up FaceBook and Twitter!
3/22/2011
Dave Lefebre - Going Against the Grain
FLW Tour Major #2 at Lake Hartwell
I just finished the last practice day for the FLW Major on Lake Hartwell, SC. It’s hot down here, it was almost 90 the day I got here and in the 80’s again today.
I spoke to Anne and the kids earlier and they said they were under a winter weather advisory back home, ha ha…amazing. I sure miss them. I think they are coming down though for the second day of the tournament and Anne’s Mom is planning on making the trip too, so that will be cool.
My practice didn’t really go all that great, but I do feel like I can catch some at least. The weather is so hot and the water is warming so quickly that I think this event is really going to be a major slug-fest. I saw water temps in the 70’s today and I guess the fish have started spawning, but I didn’t spend any time looking for beds,
I spent all my time in the mud way up the rivers. I hope it pans out, I know I’m going to miss the whole sight-fishing deal and that honestly scares me a bit. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see, I think there will be several bags over 20lbs this week, a good day for me will be more like 14.
Tomorrow is our day off and I have a ton of work to do in the boat. I figured something out today that is completely opposite of what I thought I was going to be doing, so I literally have to empty the boat of everything and repack.
I have until 4:30pm before our pre-tournament meeting starts to get everything done. I’ve got my practice partner, Alton Lackie with me, so I may have to put him to work!
Don’t forget to make your Fantasy Fishing picks before midnight tomorrow. I’ll see you on the weigh-in stage!
Visit Dave on the Web at www.davelefebre.com
3/16/2011
Lefebre Blog: Dancing with Grammy
This is the view from the property we will building our new house on soon. Lake Erie looks so cool with all the ice chunks floating around. It won’t be too long before you can get out there and catch some huge Smallies on spoons. Too bad I’m going to be on the road for 2 months.
I just started packing to leave for Lake Hartwell, SC. Well actually I’ve been working for the last 3 days, packing the boat and Suburban and organizing tackle. Yesterday I had to take the 5th wheel RV to the dealership to get the stabilizer jacks replaced because someone forgot to raise them one morning before we pulled out, haha. I can’t believe I did that, I was so mad. It’s always something especially when you’re in a hurry, which I usually am even when I don’t need to be??
I had to unpack my tackle from the camper and throw everything into the back of the Suburban too which was a nightmare. Anne and the kids will not be traveling with me to the next event so we will be leaving the camper at home this time. We think that Anne, the kids, and her Mom might be coming down during the tournament for a couple days and then going back home. Our new trucks are being delivered to Kentucky so Anne will hopefully drive the old Diesel down and the new one home and I’ll trade the Chevy wrapped Suburban for a new Frosted Flakes one.
It has been a busy and tough week since we got home from Arkansas. Anne’s Step-Dad passed away during the third day of the Beaver Lake tournament. It was completely unexpected. Hank was diagnosed with throat cancer a couple of months ago and was expected to get through it fine. He and Anne were very close and he was truly a great man, quiet, humble, and would do anything for anyone. He and Anne’s Mom live next door. Hank was the one who took care of our grass in the summer and the snow in the winter. We will miss him terribly but we are also confident that he is in a much better place now, not having to deal with the chemo and radiation anymore. Mitchell and Macy called him Papa. The other day Macy said “Papa Hank is now dancing with Grammy in heaven”. I love how the little ones see things sometimes.
Please keep my family, especially Anne and her Mom, Candy in your prayers.
3/8/2011
Dave Lefebre - Beaver Lake Wrap Up
7th Place on a TABU Topic
Yeah, I survived Beaver Lake! I finished 7th and actually was leading the event after day one, now pick yourself off the floor people, LOL. It was a great way to kick off the FLW Tour Major season and now I couldn’t be more excited to get on with the rest of the year. Poor Beaver Lake finishes have cost me Angler of the Year titles over the years and that will not be the case in 2011. It may be something else but at least it won’t be Beaver.
It was an exciting event and the crowds were big, especially for the final day weigh-in. One cool thing that happened was that I caught all those big fish on the first day on a TABU Tackle Tiny Tim. It’s a baby finesse swimbait that can be fished a bunch of different ways, but I used it on the back of a Sworming Hornet (Fish Head Spin) during this event and it was the deal.
If the weather would have just stayed sunny and flat I think I would have blown it away, but the clouds and wind changed everything and the bank fish went nuts, thus the fishing got better. I really had to change up dramatically to stay in the hunt for those four days. I caught them again on the Tiny Tim on day two, then on day three I caught them on a Rapala X-Rap and another deeper running jerkbait, and on day four I threw a Storm Wiggle Wart all day to get what I weighed.
The only dumb part of the whole event was that I never got to say what my secret bait was after day one. It’s actually kind of funny when you think about it, how when you’re leading everyone wants to know what you’re catching them on, but when you finish seventh, nobody cares anymore… Dave who?...what? Ha Ha! Anyway, it was Little Mr. Tiny Tim for anyone who still cares.
I got to thoroughly check out the latest shipment of Dobyns rods all week and I can tell you that the Champion Extreme 743 and 744 are absolutely perfect for that bait. I used the 743 in open water with the ¼ ounce and eight-pound-test Berkley 100% Fluorocarbon and the 744 with a 5/16 and 12-pound-test around underwater trees. It’s a bit challenging finessing that bait through the limbs of a 30-foot cedar tree, but with some practice and patience it can be done; It was a lot of fun.
On day three I had to quit fishing to rescue another competitor whose motor broke down. It was tough because I needed one more fish and they were biting late in the afternoon each day. I actually had just lost a 4 to 5 pound fish just a few minutes before I got the phone call. What made it a little worse is that he was broke down four miles further from the ramp than where I was fishing.
When I passed Dudley running the wrong way in the final minutes, he told me later that he’d thought I had lost my mind or something. We cut it a little too close, but it all worked out. I know I sure wish I could have had that last half an hour to fish though, I can’t stand weighing in four fish, it kills me. I was going to catch the last one too I promise you that, are you convinced???
Gramps had a great time and he was an asset to have with us. I hope he can come to a few more events this year, we love having him and he enjoys seeing the country. I just dropped him off at home a little while ago and I think he will sleep like a baby tonight; it has been a long two days on the road with the kids and dog. He probably forgot what quiet was.
Well, home for a week and then off to some lake in South Carolina, I can’t even think…oh yeah it’s called Hartwell. Never been there and I know nothing about it. I’ll probably start researching it tomorrow and start getting my gear unpacked and reorganized.
I love going to new places and trying to figure it out the best I can, no local info, no preconceived notions, no memories, just a clean slate. It should be fun I can’t wait to get there.
Don’t forget to check out my FLW Tour Re-Cap from Beaver Lake on FLW Outdoors.com, and also our blog “On Tour with Dave and Anne” presented by Chevy.
I’ll talk to you next week!
3/2/2011
Dave Lefebre - Beaver Lake
First FLW Tour Major of 2011
The first FLW Tour Major of 2011 starts in the morning. I’m excited to be kicking of the Major season, I just wish we were on a lake that treats me a little better. Beaver Lake has been a thorn in my side over the years. I’m just hoping to survive and get the heck out of here…if I don’t win that is. I’ll obviously try to do that first, lol.
Our trip down was long but good. Gramps came with us this time, so that’s always exciting and fun to have him around. We drove from home straight to Flippin, AR to the Ranger Boats factory. We spent three days there before heading the 2 ½ winding and hilly back roads to Rogers, which is a little scary when towing the 5th wheel. I got the new boat, a Z-521 like I always get. It is all rigged and ready for action finally. It’s a lot of work getting everything just right and in place. I spent 3 full days rigging it, trying to duplicate exactly what I’m used to. I’ve added a pair of Power-Poles this season and like I said before I am really pumped to put them into action, though most likely that won’t happen this week.
I got another shipment of Dobyns Rods just before practice started and Gary, if you’re reading this…thanks! Been too busy to even call my own Mom this week. These sticks are crazy good; it will be an asset to be using them this season no doubt. If you have never touched a Champion Extreme, find one somewhere, you will be amazed at the perfection and craftsmanship alone, I promise. And when you fish with one you will never be satisfied with anything else. I’m very close to narrowing down the rod models I will use and for what, when I do I will surely let you know. It’s a tough task when there are so many good ones to choose from.
Well, it’s like way passed my bed time, gotta get up at 5:30! You can keep up with me on Face Book throughout the Beaver Lake event this week.
www.davelefebre.com
2/22/2011
Dave Lefebre - Crappie and Rogers, Ark.
On the Way to Tour Major Number One
It’s been a pretty busy week. I just got home from a Sports Show in Pittsburgh yesterday. Before that, I got back out the ice for a couple days. I busted a bunch of big crappies on Friday. It was cool because it was 60 degrees and they were chewing. There was so much water on the ice it looked like we were walking on the water. The ice melted a lot during those couple warm days, but it was about 20 inches thick, so now that it’s cold again I might get lucky and get to go some more when I get back from Beaver Lake.
We are leaving for Arkansas in the morning, if we can get through the snow here and onto the Interstate, we got hammered yet again last night with another foot. Gramps is coming with us. He couldn’t come to Florida because of doctor appointments so I hope the weather is half way decent in Rodgers.
This is our first Tour Major of the season, so I am all freakin’ fired up, even though it’s on Beaver Lake. I really could care less if I never had to fish there again, but I guess that will never happen. I love the area and the fans there, but you can have the lake. Hopefully, since the event is a lot earlier in the season this year the largemouth and smallmouth bite will be a little better than normal. Those little clear water spots make me talk to myself.
We are taking the camper and both trucks because we have to tow my new boat home. My boat is finished and sitting at the Ranger factory. I plan to pick it up on Thursday or Friday and hopefully put a few hours on the SHO on Saturday.
I’ve got an appearance at Wal-Mart #100 in Rodgers on Saturday from 2-4 pm and Chevy Pro Night from 4:30-6:00pm and then official practice starts on Sunday. FLW dropped our practice period from 4 down to 3 days, which I like and I think will benefit me this season. I still think 3 days is way too much time, but at least it is better than it was.
My new Official “Dave Lefebre” Frosted Flakes Caps are now for sale, sporting my sponsors for 2011. They are giving away a free product with each sale so please check them out and buy them all up here.
Thanks everybody. Don’t forget to play Fantasy Fishing and follow my practice on FaceBook during the week.
2/17/2011
Dave Lefebre - New Hats and Shades
New Look for the Year
We have been home from Florida for a week now and although the weather and fishing was awesome, it feels so good to be home and back out the ice. It’s actually getting too warm the last couple days and I’m just hoping the ice can handle it. I went out all day yesterday and for a couple hours early this morning and whacked a bunch a nice crappies, tomorrow could be the last “safe” day out there…we’ll see?
I just got my new official caps in this week. They will soon be up for sale, hopefully by the end of the week. They look pretty good and include most of my 2011 sponsor team, featuring Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes on the front of course. I will let you know on my Face Book page when they become available to the public.
I’ve also got my new Solar Bat sunglasses for 2011, which I really like. They are a pair in a brand new line of officially licensed Chevrolet sunglasses. Since Chevy isn’t my title sponsor this season, this a great way for me to promote them in some way. Chevy gives, and has given a tremendous amount to support the sport we love over the years and we should all keep that in mind when its time to purchase that next truck.
The new Solar Bat line is made in the USA and includes both polarized, non-polarized, vintage, and prescription sunglasses, which I wear. Pricing on Chevrolet sunglasses start at $29.99 and increase to $79.99 with prescription sunglasses ranging from $199.99 to $379.99. Solar Bat sunglasses can be seen on line at www.solarbat.com or you can call Solar Bat at 800-761-8228.
I recently finalized another very cool and exciting deal that I can’t say anything about quite yet, but hopefully in my next blog I can let ‘er loose. Why did I even bother to mention that?...not sure??
Not much more really happening lately. I’ve just been working on TABU Tackle stuff mostly and catching up with emails when I’m not on the ice. Oh, and listening to a few of my BASS buddies complain about their Classic practice, ha ha. Sounds like it might be a little bit tough, but you never know, they always sandbag. I wish I could be down there but I have a commitment this weekend. I’m pulling for fellow TABU Boys, Randall Tharp, and Kelly Jordon! Randall will be using the first samples of the TABU Heavy Cover Series Jigs this week, so hopefully there’s a little bit of a jig bite down there this week!
2/8/2011
Dave Lefebre - Super Bowl Let Down
Family and Okeechobee Wrap Up
Steeler mania is officially over, now I can start growing my fingernails back and focus on fishing a little more, lol. Three turnovers, tough penalties, a couple of bad coaching calls, and we still almost pulled it out in the end. And a 52 yard field goal attempt with a kicker that just shanked an extra point….What? That alone could have been the difference had they punted, but it is what it is and I’m done dwelling on it. Sickening, I could have puked again!
We are on the road in Georgia somewhere, about 15 hours from Erie, PA. We would have liked to stay in Florida considering the weather, but we have to get home. Anne’s Mom broke here leg a while back and can’t walk and her Step Dad, who she’s really close with, just started chemo and radiation treatments last week for throat cancer. We need to help out.
They actually live next door to us and Hank is the one who keeps our driveway and sidewalks clear in the winter, and take care of our yard in the summer. Cancer has invaded our lives lately and it’s just not a good deal. It seems so unfair when you consider the type of people like my Grandma, who passed away a few months ago, and Anne’s step dad, Hank are. They are the nicest, most caring kind of good people imaginable; it just doesn’t make complete sense to me.
I recently donated an autographed jersey to benefit the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and plan to do as much as I can to help in this area in the future. I am so thankful the way the jersey auction turned out. A thoughtful guy named Lealand bid $1130 for my 2010 Chevy jersey, all of which will go directly to St. Jude’s…Awesome!
I plan on signing another jersey for the cause later this week and being more involved moving forward. If you’re interested in bidding, or even donating, please don’t pass on the opportunity. There are several more angler jerseys and other items up for bid. http://shop.ebay.com/bassfan2/m.html
As far as the first FLW Tour event, It was nuts as I’m sure most of you know by now. It was a record-breaking slugfest and quite honestly, I’m happy to get out of there with a good finish and solid start to the year. A top 10 would have been great, and I had the bites to do it, but like I said, I’m just so glad to get out of there alive.
I finished 36th with 41-06 over two days and caught most of my fish on my new Kinami “D” Bug. On the first day of practice, and my very first day in a boat in 2011, I caught a 32-34 pound limit and didn’t even set the hook on everything. It was the best day of my life, and I bet at least 20 other guys who fished Okeechobee last week can say they had their best day (or days) ever. It was an amazing deal and a trip I’ll never forget.
To read my recap of the Okeechobee event go to flwoutdoors.com, and for more about our trip and travel experiences, check out… “On Tour with Dave and Anne” Presented by Chevy. http://ontourwithdaveandanne.blogspot.com
Talk to next week when I’ll be back on the ice.
2/1/2011
Dave Lefebre - Okeechobee Practice Notes
New Rods, Power Poles and Sand Castles
Just finished the last day of practice for first FLW Tour Open on Lake Okeechobee. On the first day I caught the snot out of them, the best day I’ve ever had, at least the biggest 5 fish limit anyway. I think it would have weighed around 33 lbs, hard to tell for sure, but I had two that I think were at least 10 pounds, lol. My best 5 before that was at Santee Cooper in a BASS Tour event during my rookie year, they weighed a little over 28 pounds. This place is incredible and the weather is shaping up to really show its true colors. I’m not saying I’m going to whack them, but there will be some gigantic bags for sure. I need some good luck.
I’ve been having a lot of fun breaking in the new Dobyns Rods. I really love them, but I still need to narrow down the exact ones I need. I’ve caught over 100 bass on the 735 and I know that rod will be one of my favorites. I’ve also jacked a few on his 8 foot, heavy flip rod and it is definitely the right deal. I really like 8 foot rods and this one suits me perfectly, not too stiff.
This is also the first few days I’ve had Power Poles on my boat. I’m borrowing Scott Martin’s boat for this event and he has them on there…awesome, I was really missing the boat the last few years without them. Can’t wait to get my boat, it’s supposed to be done next week. Scott’s boat is working OK but it doesn’t have a hot foot pedal and his GPS at the dash is like a 40 inch flat screen TV, stupidly huge, lol. He also strategically placed baits and stuff around to mess with my head, but not falling for none of it. I really appreciate him letting me abuse his rig for the week, it certainly has some history on this lake, I just hope it works for me too.
Tomorrow is our official day off. I have a photo shoot in the morning at 7:00am, then a bunch of other press stuff to do. I hope I can find the time to get everything rigged and condensed, I need like 4 hours at least. The boat is a mess and my tackle is scattered all over the place. I also have to make time to play some shuffle board with Mitchell, he loves that game. We have a court about 100 feet from our camper here at Okeechobee Landings RV Resort.
Speaking of Mitchell, the family came out in the boat with me this morning. Macy and Mitchell love going out on the water when we are down here to look for alligators. We saw quite a few, and there are some huge ones laying on the banks, bigger than I’ve ever seen here. For some reason a lot of them are swimming around out in the middle of the lake, way off shore. I don’t know what they are doing way out there, but it seems strange to me???
Florida is so awesome. We went to the beach two days in a row before practice started and had a blast. The weather has been perfect, 72-82 degrees everyday so far, it was exactly 1 degree when we left Erie…amazing. Anne and the kids spent hours making a huge sand castle, I told Anne I would show the world how beautiful it was so here it is. Isn’t it so beautiful?
Well, I’m off, lots to do. Have a great week everybody, I’ll talk to you after this tournament, hopefully I’m happy. And hopefully Pittsburgh’s happy too. Go Steelers!
For more about Dave Lefebre, go to his website: www.davelefebre.com
1/25/2011
Dave Lefebre - Steelers and the Road
Super Bowl Berths and on the way to Okeechobee
Super Bowl Baby! What an awesome game, especially since I didn’t spend half of it in the bathroom again, lol. We’ll be in Florida during the Super Bowl this year and made sure to bring all our jerseys and Terrible Towels with us. I think (hope) that Pittsburgh is going to smash Green Bay on turf in Dallas. Wallace should have a big game for sure. 37-17 Steelers!
We are actually on the road right now. Anne’s just started to drive, we are about 12 hours from Clewiston and plan on stopping around 7 or 8 tonight somewhere around the border. We are all together for a change on this trip, all in the Diesel just towing the camper. Since I ordered my Ranger so late, it will not be ready for the first event so I have to borrow a boat. In a way that stinks but on the other hand, anytime we get the chance to be in one truck we take advantage of it.
I’m looking forward to the tournament; I packed very little tackle since we plan on heading home for a week right after the tournament. You don’t really need that much stuff at Okeechobee really this time of year anyway. One of my main objectives is to get a feel for the new Dobyns sticks in practice and find out exactly what I will need for the season and different techniques. I can’t wait to catch some real fish on them.
We are camping at Okeechobee Landings, which is a great place with lots of fun stuff to do for the kiddies. We are hoping to head to the beach on Thursday or Friday before practice begins too. We are excited to be taking a break from the cold and snow, it’s been a wicked winter so far, I do plan on doing some more ice-fishing when we get home too, the fishing usually gets better later in the season.
Well that about says it all. We are all feeling better finally. Everyone in the family got whatever I had last week so it’s nice to all be healthy again and heading south!
Talk to you before the first tournament starts next week, hopefully I’m on something strong!
www.davelefebre.com
1/17/2011
Dave Lefebre - Get it Over With
Memories, Steelers and... Well, Just Read It
I just got home from Mitchell’s Gymnastics class. He and Macy are both getting really good. That’s one of the downsides of traveling sometimes in that they miss quite a few classes and have to work extra hard to catch up, but I’m so proud of them both. Tonight Mitchell learned a new twisting dismount from the high bar, looks scary to me, but thankfully he’s not afraid of heights like his Dad. I’m scared of a lot of things actually, which you’ll find out later.
I’ve got my complete Dobyns arsenal figured out, can’t wait to rip some lips with them. I got my new Reel Grips for my new Revo Premiers all paired up. New color this year, and I will say I could go out in the woods with them and no one would mistake me for a deer. I’m in the process of getting all my line spooled up too, mostly Berkley 100% FC, a little Spider Wire too. I’m praying that my boat is wrapped and ready to go for Okeechobee in a couple weeks, it will be close. I’m running a Z-521 again for the 4th season in a row, love everything about that boat. It makes driving in 10 footers almost fun; I said almost.
Speaking of that, some may remember back in the old Northern Everstart days I broke my old Skeeter in half on Lake Erie out of Detroit, MI. My partner and I thought it was the end, kinda like how I felt this past Saturday night (I’ll explain later). Well in that long 25 miles of chaos, I also lost my wedding ring somehow. So it took me a few years, but I finally replaced mine and Anne’s wedding rings last week. I think she likes them.
Super Bowl here we come…I hope. Pittsburgh beat Baltimore on Saturday and the Jets are coming to town next week thanks to a Pats meltdown. The whole family got together to watch the game, didn’t look too good at half time, but Pittsburgh came alive in the second half and pulled it out. It was nerve-racking as usual. The Jets will be tough, but their trash talking will not work against the Steelers like it did Brady and Belichick. I say 29-17 Pittsburgh wins. I’d like to see the Bears win too in the NFC, but I think Green Bay will probably take it.
The Steelers - Ravens game was tough, not only for the players but for me too. I spent most of the second half in the bathroom or on the floor next to the bathroom door trying not to throw up, LOL! I don’t really know what happened. I hate that. I haven’t been sick to my stomach in about 15 years, can you believe that? It’s true, I can remember every time like it was yesterday and I hope it’s another 15 before I have to go through it again. I made it that entire night after the game, I was up all night fighting it, but at 9:00 Sunday morning it got me. And wouldn’t you know it…it really wasn’t all that bad like I remembered it to be. And when it was all finally over, I never felt so good in my life!
I can say I learned a very valuable lesson through it all and I feel like a new man. I feel like I’m going to win every single tournament this year now, lol. Anne called me a drama queen and said from the very beginning I should get it over with, well she was right about the second part. Next time I will know better.
I’m a wimp when it comes to puke, baby poop, blood (from humans), ants, rotten fish and a few other things I’d rather not mention here. It’s a weekly blog…just keeping it real.
I’ll tell you my rotten fish story next week…
1/11/2011
Dave Lefebre - New Toys
New Dobyns Rods and Getting Ready for Playoffs
Well, my summer vacation is quickly coming to an end. I’m now finally starting to feel better after being sick for a week. I spent several hours over the last couple of days putting line on new Revo Premiers and stringing up the first shipment of Dobyns Rods.
My Son Mitchell’s been running around acting like a fish so I can get a feel for the actions of the rods. I’ve been getting a ton of feedback from die-hard Dobyns fans over the last couple weeks and now I can say I finally see what all the fuss is about. My only problem is going to be trying to narrow my selection down because there are too many “keepers”.
My wife and I are closing on some property we purchased on the shore of Lake Erie. It’s been a 3 month, very complicated ordeal and we are so glad it is finally over with. I can actually see the spot from my future front yard where I’ve caught several fish over 7 pounds, can’t wait to move up there, hopefully late this summer or fall. We will begin building our house in March if the weather cooperates, that’s iffy in this neck of the woods though.
We also look forward to moving my Grandpa in with us. Since my Grandma passed away this past summer it’s been a little tough, they were joined at the hip for 65 years, lately he’s been doing fairly well though considering. We are trying our hardest to keep him busy and plan to bring him to Florida with us later this month for the FLW Tour season opener. He came along to Texas at the end of last season and we had a great time. He also does a good job taking care of our dog, Isabella.
Man I can’t wait to fish on liquid water. Everyone’s getting their boats lately and preparing them for the tournaments, but because I was so late getting things rolling, I probably won’t get mine until days before the first event. I’m going crazy. The first EverStart Series tournament was this past weekend on Okeechobee and watching the live weigh-in has got me so fired up I can’t take it anymore. Mitchell and I will have to get back out on the ice soon to take the edge off a little.
Ya know, this would be a great time for sponsors to visit instead of trying to squeeze trips in here and there during the season, but they are all scared of the cold and ice…babies!!!!! Most people think it would be boring, but it’s fast paced, run and gun style with me and when you get on em, it’s on! Everyone who tries it becomes an addict and wants to moves up north, so maybe it’s better if they don’t come, ha ha. Yeah, on second thought…Stay home where it’s warm!
Steeler mania is in full effect this weekend at the Lefebre house. After a first round bye week, Pittsburgh plays at home at Heinz Field this weekend. We live Steeler football around here; it’s been that way since I was a baby, Terrible Towels will soon be flying. Isabella even has her own official dog jersey that says “IzzaMalu” on the back, it’s pretty funny. It will be a rough game this Saturday against Baltimore.
Stop by my Facebook page and say hi when you get a chance. As you will see I am very active on there, keeping up to date with photos, posts, videos, and announcements daily. It’s a perfect way for us to stay connected and learn from each other.
Macy just got out the Wii, gotta go! Hope I can talk her into playing Rapala Pro Bass Fishing!
Visti Dave on the web at: www.davelefebre.com
1/4/2011
Dave Lefebre - Lots Going On
New Sponsors and World Record Crappie
I just finished a five-day ice-fishing-fest, what’s new? I actually did catch a giant though, a 16 ¾, 2 pounds 14 ounce slab, not as big as the ice fishing world record I caught several years ago at 3.8 lbs, but not too bad.
Everything’s been shut down for the holidays and this week has been crazy finalizing things, at least I hope. Both Mitchell and Macy got sick with colds, then Anne got it, and now I’m dealing with it this morning of course. So I probably won’t be out on the ice anytime soon, but that’s probably good because I have a lot of catching up to do.
Lots going on…
I’m not used to announcing new sponsors since I’ve had basically the same ones since I started fishing, but I do have a couple that I can let you in on right now.
First, I teamed up with Gary Dobyns and his fairly new rod company. He’s obviously been in the rod designing and rod building business for a long time, but he finally decided to put his name on some high quality sticks. He’s been building his own business for a couple years now and I couldn’t be more excited to be associated with him and his exceptionally “fanatical” approach about rod building.
He’s like a little kid on the phone, talking about graphite and components and things I’ve never heard of, but his enthusiastic attitude is contagious for sure. We need to get these bad boys moving out here in the East, and believe me when anglers get their hands around these rods they will be sold without a doubt.
I will also be running a pair of Power-Poles on my Z-521 for the first time. It was obvious that I was at a disadvantage at times without them the last couple years, so I am anxious to put them to use at Okeechobee, our first event of the season. I will also be putting a small four-footer on my little flats boat so that will be quite cool.
My title sponsor is not yet ready to be announced, but it has been fun helping design my own wraps and jersey for 2011. Everything except the Suburban wrap was submitted today and the truck will be finished tomorrow hopefully. I really like the way it all turned out so far and I can’t wait to show everyone soon.
I also made a decision to stick with the Yamaha SHO for 2011. That may come as a shock to some, but to make a super long and complicated story short, I simply couldn’t see throwing away 10 years on such short notice, loyalty is big with me. Who knows what will happen next season, but for now I’m sticking with them as long as I can.
I don’t agree with how they handled everything with FLW, but then again I don’t know the entire story. It’s a great motor and I like most of the people who I’ve known for many years who work there. I’m sacrificing now obviously, but hopefully it will pay off later, who knows?
I picked up our 5th wheel camper today from the dealership. It has been there ever since the big snow over a month ago, but the snow was too deep to pick it up. We will begin packing to leave soon, and are beginning to get excited about hitting the road and heading south.
Until then, I will be in search of the next World Record Crappie on the ice and watching the Steelers in the playoffs. Happy New Year everybody!
www.davelefebre.com
12/30/2010
Dave Lefebre - Relaxing Christmas
Christmas with the Kids on the Ice
I’ve got to admit that it’s been a pretty boring week. Not in a bad way, but just kind of run of the mill.
Outside of Christmas celebrations I spent most of it sitting in my ice fishing hut.
Christmas Eve was a lot of fun, I took the kids out on the ice with me, and it was my daughter Macy’s first time. The kids seem to need activity the whole time, not that they are so impatient that they have to be catching fish all of the time, but they really get a kick out of watching my Vexilar flasher on the ice.
Vexilar makes a portable unit that they’ll watch to see if the fish are nearby. If they see them on the meter, they’ll get excited about fishing, because they can actually watch them swim over and strike the jig on it. They like fishing with the video game.
I finally figured out the best place to catch the big crappie, they’re about an hour and half away from my house so it mean extra effort, but it’s worth it. The big crappie are what I want to catch under the ice, they make for great fish fry later.
I really worked hard following the last tournament of my season to get as much of my business stuff completed before the holidays. Because of that, I’m pretty much in prep for fishing mode, which also gives me a little more time to play on the ice. 
One of the more recent business things I’ve handled was getting my prescription over to Dr. Gary Nesty at Solar Bat so that my glasses can be put together. He did a pretty cool thing with Chevy this year, he’s making a pair of glasses that will feature the Chevy emblem. Now I get to represent two of my sponsors with my face; that will be pretty cool.
I’m waiting for a little more business stuff to finalize, but I should be able to share some news with you soon.
For more about Dave, visit his website at: www.davelefebre.com
12/23/2010
Dave Lefebre's Bass Fever
Cold as Ice
I never got into hunting like a lot of the tour guys do; I ice fish.
Getting out on the ice and locating where the fish are, then drilling the holes and catching them is a lot of fun. I drilled at least 70 holes in the ice yesterday looking for fish, which, as it turns out, was great exercise along with the challenge of finding and catching them.
I usually get out on the lakes a little before they freeze over and locate the likely areas that I’ll be able to catch fish. But, things have been so unusual this offseason that I didn’t get a chance to get out and look. Ice fishing is a lot like tournament fishing, I have to locate holes and pockets in the grass that they are holding in.
If I drill through the ice and find grass, I won’t get bit, but if I find an area that has some holes in the grass, I can drop a jig down there and catch ‘em pretty quick. We fish mainly for perch, bluegill and crappie; which are my favorite. Crappie can be a little harder to find and catch under the ice, which makes it more challenging.
The efforts are never wasted either, our family eats a lot of fish. We’ll have Gramps and my sister over, and we’ll have a big ol’ fish fry anytime we can.
This offseason has been a lot different than in years past because there have been a lot of changes. I’m still working on closing up all of my deals, and ordering jerseys and wraps for the Z521 and my Chevy Truck.
I have to admit that there’s a little bit of a weird feeling this year, because when Yamaha left FLW, it meant I was without a motor. I’d been with Yamaha for 10 years, and I believe in the product, but I’m still a little confused as to what I’m going to do for a motor, but I’ll figure it out.
I take a lot of pride in representing my sponsors, they really become like family to us, they are a part of our success, so wherever I land is someplace I hope will be a long term partner of mine.
I’m really excited to say that I’ll still be doing a tournament blog for Chevy this year; it’s called On Tour with Dave and Anne (www.ontourwithdaveandanne.blogspot.com). Both of us will be doing a recap after each tournament of the event and life on the road, so keep up with me both places; here and there. This one will be the weekly stories, and our Chevy blog will be more tournament oriented, so I’ll be able to share a lot about the year with you.
One of the cool features on the Chevy Blog is that there will be a mini blog by my son Mitchell, he loves to fish, and the column will be a lot of fun.
Anyway, its Christmas time, and I hope all of you enjoy the time with your families.
For more about Dave, visit his website at: www.davelefebre.com.
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