Skeet’s Beat – Two Tournaments Down

Our first two Elite Series events are over and the best thing I guess I can say about them is that I survived them. I don’t really like saying that, but the truth is, one event was really tough and the other started ugly, and I really survived it.

The first event of the year was at the Sabine River in Orange, Tex. and it has to be one of the toughest fisheries I’ve ever been to. The people there were awesome, the crowds were huge, but the fishing was tough. I scraped and scrapped for three days hoping to catch as much as I could each day and managed to come away with a 47th place finish.

When you start out every season with the Angler of the Year trophy as your goal, you can’t be happy with a 47th place finish, but as tough as the Sabine River system was, I’ll take my check and head down the road with a deep sigh and say thank you.

Then to Falcon.

I found some good fish shallow, but John Murray told me about the fish at the dam, so I went down there to try it and really struggled on the first day. I had like 11 pounds and was wwwaayyy down in the standings.

Then, the next day, I went back to the dam and though maybe I’d get a limit real quick and then head to my shallow fish to try and get a big one. I started out throwing a big Lucky Craft LC3.5DD crankbait, and every time I’d get anxious and think about leaving, I’d catch a big one. I caught two sixes, a seven, and they all seemed to come at just about the time I wanted to leave to go run to my shallow fish.

That went on for most of the day, and before I knew it, I had over 32 pounds in the boat. That moved me up into the 20’s in the standings, so I got to fish another day. I started at the dam again, then decided to go to my shallow fish and found Brandon Card there on my sweet spot. I fished there in the area for awhile and saw him catch some good ones, but I couldn’t get any big ones to eat.

I guess I should have gone to those fish sooner, Brandon had an Elite 12 finish.

I did lose one fish that would have helped me on the crankbait, but that was my fault. Cranking those baits over those rocks ground the piss out of my trebles and I should have changed them out and put new TroKar hooks on sooner.

I might have caught that fish anywhere other than Falcon though, those fish are frickin’ mean down there; they’ll eat you alive, and you can’t slip up with them at all.
I finished 27th in the event, and that’s where I am in the points. It could have been a lot worse from the way both events could have gone. I’ll start there and try to build on it.

It was nice to room with Murray again. His family couldn’t come for the first two events, so it was like old times, and I really enjoyed it.
After the event, we did a media deal with Lucky Craft, and I went shallow with my new SKT Magnum crankbaits on water that no competitors were fishing and stroked ’em. On the second day there, my first two fish were an eight and a 10 on the shallow version; those things are awesome.

I just got back from Randy VanDam’s D&R Sports springtime show up there in Kalamazoo, Mich. for Mercury. The show was great.

I’m glad to be back home with Kim and the Girls, it was a long one.

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