John Murray – To Toledo Bend an Beyond

Well, we are in Illinois and I have had a couple of weeks off and I am getting ready for three different tournaments.

The first one will be next week; I am leaving today to head down to Toledo Bend.
So, that should be a good one; should be good deep water fishing; should be good shallow water – I mean the lake is full – and the lake is huge – you can pretty much pick your poison there for what you want to do.

I have stocked up on a bunch of River2Sea Touchdown Jigs, and some WAVE Worms.  My plan is to go structure fishing – and try to find some big schools, hopefully.

The next one after Toledo Bend is going to be up the Mississippi River – we have got a different little break between the two – that one should be interesting; it should be a really good swim jig bite and that is one of my weaknesses; so I spent the last couple of weeks playing with swim jigs.  I had Powell Rods send me out the 732 Endurance Swim Jig rod; and I mean, it is perfect for that and I went down to the pond yesterday and the first four fish that bit, I caught! I have never done that with a swim jig.  So, it really is key to have the right rod for swim jigs – I think I am dialing that in.

Then the last one of this stretch, we are going to be at Green Bay, which is the Great Lakes territory.  So it is a matter of getting the big stuff in the boat; I am ready for the big water and I don’t really know what to expect there – I have never really been there; smallmouth fishing is smallmouth fishing though; I guess when you find them, you’ll be able to catch them and they will bite just about anything.  So, these should be three great tournaments.

TJ and Amy are not going to Toledo Bend just because of the long distance; but then we’ll be ready for the back to backs up at the Great Lakes up in Wisconsin.
So, anyways, it has been a fun couple of weeks; been working on my health, and working on tackle; and I am looking forward to the second half of the BASS season to see if I can maybe get back into contention and make that 2013 Bassmaster Classic.

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