Skeet’s Beat – Green Bay Challenge

The Green Bay Challenge tournament went a lot better for me than I thought it would.

I spent most of the first practice day frustrated because the smallmouth were all bunched up in a few little areas that it seemed everyone in the field found.  I knew that it was going to be like a parking lot in those areas and I would be playing bumper boats with everyone else.

The second day didn’t start out much better, but I went shallow later in the day and had a nice largemouth chase my bait out.  I started wondering if there were more largemouth shallow, and I was able to find more locked on beds and cruising shallow, so I decided to focus on that bite as my first option.

I knew I could go catch some smallmouth out there in the crowds if I needed to, so the largemouth were the key for me.

I started out the first day looking for largemouth and was able to weigh-in four of them and one smallmouth that went 16 pounds and put me in the top 20 on the first day.  I chased largemouth again on day two and the fish weren’t as big.  I only managed 12-6 and I slipped to 24th place; so, I knew I needed to be ready to make a change on day three if I wanted the chance to fish Sunday.

Saturday was my birthday, and I set out to give myself a 16-pound birthday gift.  I caught my first fish; a largemouth on a frog, and then the bite slowed down.  I left the largemouth water and went to the smallmouth to fill my limit.  I caught them on a dropshot rig, and thought I had 12 or 13 pounds when I came to the scales.  But, I guess those smallmouth can be a little deceiving when you haven’t been fishing them for a few days, and I surprised myself with 16-1 to move into 8th place – happy birthday to me!

That night, a few of us went out to dinner for my birthday, and I had to keep it mellow because I was fishing the next day.  It was a good time hanging out with old friends over dinner and drinks, but I had to call it a night early so I could get up the next morning.

I mixed it up again on Sunday and weighed 14-14 which moved me up to seventh place for the tournament.  More importantly, it moved me up to 16th place in the AOY standings.  So, that gave me a little bit of a cushion for the Classic headed into Oneida.

I got home in time for the Fourth of July with Kim and the girls.  It was really nice to be home after being gone for almost a month of tournaments and travel to tournaments.  We really didn’t do much for the Fourth.  I was tired still, so we had a few friends over and swam and barbequed.  It was a nice, relaxing night.

So, this week it’s time to head to Orlando for ICAST, and I’ll be working for Wright & McGill Co. TroKar, Berkley, Lowrance, Lucky and Wiley X while I’m there.  It’s a busy week, but it’s exciting to see all of the response to the new stuff we release, and a lot of media work gets done, so I’m looking forward to it.

Talk to you after the show.  I’ll be posting updates on my Twitter Account, so stop over there and check it out if you get a chance.