Skeet’s Beat – All Star Week

Well, the Elite Series is behind us and I’m up here in Illinois for the 2012
Toyota Trucks All Star Week. Let me start by saying thank you to all of the fans
who voted me in to this week. I was really close to making up enough ground in
the points to make it myself, but there is something awe inspiring and humbling
about having fishing fans vote me in.

I can’t thank you guys
enough.

But, I’m here, and I’m excited about getting to work on a new
body of water – other than the Alabama River. I hear these can be tough
fisheries, and I just hope that we can figure them out quickly in the two
practice days we have. All I know is, the guys I’m up against are all really
good anglers, and I want to beat them, it won’t be easy.

Before I left
this week, I got to go salmon fishing with my Father-in-law Tom Coster and Bill
Vaccaro on the Sacramento River. It’s been a while since I saw that many big
fish coming out of this area. I’ve been catching 8 to 10 pounders over the last
few years, but this trip the average fish was in the 20 to 22-pound range. I
caught a 30 pounder, which was the biggest for the trip, and they were all
healthy, clean and fresh.

I tried back bouncing roe on my Wright & McGill Co. Swimbait /
Carolina Rig rod and 15-pound-test Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon with a
12-pound-test 100% Fluorocarbon leader and a size 1 TroKar Octopus hook. I
thought the rod might be a little stiff for the application, but it proved to be
perfect.

I’m looking forward to more salmon fishing when I get back. I’ll
even get the girls from school and take a few afternoon trips with them too.
That was fun last year, and I’m looking forward to it again this
year.

Lea had a soccer game in Manteca, about an hour and half from home
this past weekend. So I loaded four girls from the team into the van and took
them down for the game. They played really well, in fact they actually dominated
the game, even though the score only showed 1 – 1 tie at the end.

Lea’s
team took 21 shots on goal during the game, and they only put one into the net.
But, other than that, they played a great game and we were all really proud of
them.

Anyway, I’m in Illinois, and getting ready for one last week of
hardcore fishing against some of the best anglers in the world. I’ll check in
afterwards.