Senko lover

Watch us have the same team ? Yeah I'm not paying a whole lot of attention to percentages this time. I didn't go KVD in bucket A, though.

The red drum were running late one night off the coast of Cape Hatteras and about 15 people, including the 5 in my group, had nonstop action on trophy fish for about an hour and a half. It was the most incredible night of my life, even though we didn't have enough big rods to go around. 4 of us 5 caught trophy drum; the only reason we didn't go 5 for 5 was that my sister wasn't strong enough to land/keep up with the ones that bit her. She did get a puppy drum though. Mine went 32 pounds and 46 1/2 inches. I would imagine everybody on the beach combined probably landed 10-15 fish around that size, although it was hard to tell because it was pitch black. Several puppy drum were landed as well. It was about as close to nonstop action as I've ever witnessed; when you factor in the 5-10 minutes just to fight the fish in and get it weighed and measured and then get rerigged and pass the rod along to the next person who hadn't caught one, it was basically as fast as we could get a line in the water. There was a bite on almost every cast. It's big enough to get a citation from the state of NC for a trophy fish. The pictures are crap but the memories will last a lifetime. Fighting that sucker on a 13 foot rod and still having it overpower me was the craziest feeling I've ever had.

Have you guys ever had a team in mind, and then you went and found out they were all in A and B? And then you were like what the heck will I do with C, D, and E? Well, I went on fantasy last night and literally picked the team I had in mind in about 5 seconds. The northern guys are spread around like crazy right now and I'm digging it. I've got the closest thing to a dream team I've ever found. "dream teams" are usually the ones that fail miserably; but we shall see.

Out of all my guys, I thought for sure that Hackney and Ish would get a top 12 in this one. Hackney came really close but Ish surprisingly dropped on day two. Iaconelli ended up being my only angler fishing tomorrow, but my other three did great today as well. Very happy with my finish and hoping Ike can continue to do big things tomorrow.

Thanks man.

Another great day for me, with four guys making the cut. I'm at the beach and only have my phone, so I can't check what percentile I'm at but I know I'm doing really good.

decent day one for me. I can't talk big on day one but looks like the number crunching paid off for me. Hackney: 36th Monroe: 24th Iaconelli: 41st Reese: 7th (above Tommy Biffle just barely) Clunn: 19th

I did a lot of research for this event, and I'm interested in seeing if it'll pay off for me. A. Greg Hackney: Most people know he's from Louisiana, but he actually grew up on the Arkansas River and knows Dardanelle like the back of his hand. Can you say stained, rising, river water? Greg is going to throw a squarebill or a jig and crush the competition. He has a fantastic history on not only Lake Dardanelle but on the whole river system. B. Ish Monroe: I picked Ish mainly because of his fantastic momentum coming into this, but also because he's in the "river rat" category, should be familiar with current and tides, likes muddy and shallow water, etc. C. Michael Iaconelli: This surprised myself. I rarely pick Ike because he's so up-and-down, but I really liked his history on Dardanelle and in Arkansas. He's consistently done well here. I think it sets up for him like the Delaware river that's so near and dear to his heart. D. Skeet Reese: Skeet has been on my team for the last three events, not because I'm a huge fan but I believe he's too talented for the buckets he's in right now. He's done okay for me, but I didn't want to pick him for this event until I looked at his history here and on the Arkansas River. I think I crunched some numbers and found his average finish in AR was around 22nd place. He does great here. Regret: Not picking Tommy Biffle E. Clunn: I decided to go with someone I've never picked before and give Mr. Clunn a chance this time. He did well last time we visited here and I feel like he could have a good finish.

Dang dude, I hope you get it back.

Glad to see you guys getting some different picks than me....I'll reveal mine on Saturday . Nothing that special, though.

@00 mod @SoFlaBassAddict You guys do the Murph this year? I did it tonight, wasn't a great finish at 56 minutes but at least I got it done. Plus it was the end of a long work day and I hadn't been running much lately.

It's the 1 oz. slow sink. Picked it up from Dick's Sporting Goods for 10 bucks. I played around with twitching it but I didn't really like the gliding action and I'm not very patient for extremely slow swimming. So, I opted to fish it like a wakebait, just bulging the surface and reeling about the speed I would move a lipless. It has some really cool subsurface action. The big girl came up and crushed it like a normal topwater strike.

I figured the ultimate test would be to take it to my old favorite pond. I hadn't caught anything big out of it for a while, like I thought all the big fish were gone. I think I have a new favorite bait....solid 4 1/2-5 pounder.

I just picked up the 1 oz. savage bluegill and I'm beyond stoked with it. Going to try it out tomorrow night.

Yes, I do. I stopped using EWG's except for thicker baits like flukes.

I use a 3/0 straight shank worm hook. I fish trick worms A LOT. And I haven't found anything that works better than that.

I'm so excited for the Lake Dardanelle event - this is why I play fantasy fishing right here. Tons of history on this lake, tons of old results to look up up, lots of anglers that are going to get overlooked. I've never had such a long list of guys to narrow down. This one is going to be really fun.

One bass for twelve pounds would have been a Tundra

If I remember right, no one is fishing today due to the BASSFest format. I debated on picking Alton Jones Jr. because he has a strong history on this lake with the Texas Team trail, which is arguably one of the best tournament groups in the country right now. Ultimately I chose to steer clear due to his horrible recent finishes. My loss.

I've got Faircloth, Kelly Jordan, and Roumbanis in the top 50. Could be worse, could be better.

The first time I looked at the buckets for this tournament, I went straight to A and saw Faircloth, and I was like yeah I know who Justin's going to have for this one haha!

Hey Justin @buzzed bait Kriet just caught an 8 pounder!

I wasn't trying to bash you, Seth. He's definitely still in the hunt for sure! I was saying that several of the popular picks in bucket A didn't necessarily knock the lights out on day one.

You've gotten some great advice. I'm nowhere near the level of some of these guys, but here's what I do. I usually look at two things: water clarity and cover. If the water is clear, I'm more prone to go with some lighter colors and something more like a swim jig or a swimming plastic. If the water is dirty, I pick up something with flash and vibration, like a chatterbait, spinnerbait, or lipless. I often throw those in clear water, too, for what it's worth haha. And then if there's a ton of grass or cover to get hung up on, I usually try for something more weedless. It just gives me more confidence to get in the cover where the fish are.

Something that I didn't really think about with the live release format....that could REALLY, really help some guys come Sunday. Like, it could be a difference maker. I have no doubt some of the fish released this week will be caught again by the weekend.