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Some of you may already now, but for those that don't, I volunteer with Heroes On the Water as often as possible. HOW is an organization that offers service members the opportunity to experience kayak fishing at no cost to them. For many of them, this is the only means of escaping the confines of the VA Hospital or some other form of rehab. It is very fulfilling to say the least. Last weekend, I took my son along as I had done on several past HOW outings, only this time it was a smaller event where we were paired with a lone service member. Along with another volunteer, we managed to put the veteran on several bass on the day. During the event, the volunteers are also fishing as well. My son and I ventured back into a protective cove and both hooked into fish. I landed my first bowfin, while my son landed his new personal best largemouth bass measuring out at 17 3/4". It was an awesome day!

1st fatty fell prey to a PTL Sick Stick 2nd fatty fell prey to a PTL Gator Guess you could say she really like the Gator!

Had a rare opportunity to fish three days in a row this past weekend when the wife took the kids and went to visit her parents. I loaded up my gear and the Hobie Pro Angler and made my way to three different locations. The first day was a late start, so I opted to hit a local pond I hadn't fished in over two years. Ended up with 5 bass on the day with the largest at 17". Hot bait for the day was the wacky rigged Sick Stick and the 4.8" JP Hammershad on a texas rig. The next day was a casual day at a larger impoundment with a friend and his wife who was just learning to kayak fish. She was the hot stick on the day landing ten fish all in the 14-18" range. I managed a few as well on the Sick Stick again and on the 7" Finicky Tickler but nothing worthy of a photo. The final day found me fishing with a couple of good PowerTeam friends - the owners themselves . Needless to say, I was stoked. I landed my best fish of the weekend and lost a citation in the process. The start of the day was not so great. As Bob paddled up to me asking how's it going, I see my jig n craw swimming away from me. I set the hook and immediately my flipping rod doubles over and drag starts peeling. I fight the fish for about 30 seconds and bring it alongside to lip her and that is when I see what I have in front of me. The mouth on this girl was the biggest I had seen in my entire fishing career. I can see the jig is barely pinned in the corner of her mouth. As I reach for her, she jumps and throws the jig right back in my face - heartbreak!! And Bob just looked at me and said wow that was a monster. Well the next hour saw me miss three more hooksets. By now I'm getting more that a little frustrated, so I switch tactics and start working the 7" Finicky Tickler on a texas rig and start getting some nice fish. A few more casts, and a couple more nice ones decide to join the party...... As the day is winding down to a close, I was working the same area where I lost the big girl earlier and decided to try a different approach - a dead sticked Finicky Tickler. After about 30 seconds of no movement, I felt a solid thump and my line starts swimming opposite of my hull. I asn't missing the hookset this time - I reel down and give a sharp snap of the rod away from the fish and the hook buries true! The fight is on now and she is not happy to have the hook buried in her. I fought her for what seemed like an eternity with several drag peeling runs and turns of the Pro Angler hull for an adrenaline pumping sleigh ride. She has her mouth snapped close and refuses to open wide for me, so I just cradle her and lift her into the footwell. After a few moments to get the hook out and a quick refresh in the water to keep her active and respirated - a quick weight registers 4lbs even on the scale. A great way to end the three days on the water if you ask me.

Managed to get on the water for a change last week for a bit. I loaded up with Medium gear rigged for smallmouth and spent the day on the James River. While the big brown footballs escaped me, I managed four species on the day: 2 little smallmouth, 1 largemouth, 2 gar (lost one over 40" right at the side of the kayak but boated a 22" - first one ever), and landed my personal best channel cat at 29 1/4".....3/4" shy of a VA freshwater release citation. All in all, a great day on the water. Here's the beastly cat.

Well, the 2nd Annual KBF Open wrapped up this past weekend at Santee Cooper. It was held the same time frame as the FLW event that also took place. FWIW, we had scheduled ours over a year ago before FLW made their schedule. Apparently, some of the FLW guys were not too pleased with our presence. I had prepared for this event for close to a year now researching every possible spot that would be fishable given the instability of the weather this time of year. I had narrowed it down to five spots and felt good about my plan for the tournament. Tournament week came and so did the cold front - three nights in a row of falling temps reaching below freezing. The bite window was literally an hour in the morning and an hour right after lunch. Having a full moon was not the best either. I fished hard and qualified with a two fish limit on day one ending up in 14th place. I fished hard the second day going for broke and chasing some deeper fish on some structure but came up empty. By the time I headed back to my spot from the previous day to catch the second window, someone had just pulled out of it with a three fish limit. I needed three fish to improve my standing, but I ended up only catching one more qualifying fish and ended up in the top 30 out of 120 kayak anglers. The largest fish overall for the event measured was 24.5" and was caught by a new kayak angler on the first day of the tournament. I'm already making plans to purchase a Navionics card (thanks WayneP btw) to help with next year's event planning. We are hitting Kentucky Lake for the 3rd Annual bass Open. Should be a challenge, but I am up for it. All fish were caught using a PowerTeam Lures Sick Stick in Kitchen Sink color holding tight to wood - a deadly bait for picky bass in tight cover. Apparently, the chain pickerel like it as well. I landed a 21" and a 22" in a dormant lily pad field on the flats as well during the event. Fished day three in a private big bass event and ended up landing three fish, including a nice 3lb fish. If I had landed those three the previous day, I would have ended up in the top 12. Alas, it paled in comparison to the 7lb 9 oz slob someone else caught. Still good times though. I planned my fish and fished my plan. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I did learn later that I was the only person from VA that qualified for day two of the event. All the other VA guys didn't even catch a single fish. Apparently, they pre-fished and shut the area down by doing too much catching. My approach off not fishing my target area apparently was the right way to go. Tight lines!

Received an invitation to a kayak only private tournament for PowerTeam Lures a short while back. Tough conditions: 22 acre lake Average depth 4-5' with deepest part of 8-9' Kayaks only No electronics allowed (I had mine installed but not plugged in) Provided lures 2 rods (1 casting, 1 spinning) 3 fish limit Catch Photo Release Post cold front Full moon cycle I knew the bite would be tough, of the anglers invited only three caught a limit. First place was a total of 48", Second place was 38", Third place was 36". I came in fourth with a length of 30" but that was with only 2 fish with the one below being the best at 17 3/4". Got him on a PTL Hammershad slow rolled. The other came on a 7" PTL Finicky Tickler on a shakey head. I knew the day would be tough, but I know if could have dialed the bite in sooner I could have won it easily. Oh well. Still a great day on the water.

The goal of the night was to get some time on the water after a long overdue hiatus. Between Mother Nature, family obligations, travel baseball and work I have barely had time to sleep. Well, I sacrificed sleep for a change recently and vowed to get out on the water regardless of weather conditions. As luck would have it, it was raining, but I went anyway dang it! So glad I did. I met up with my fellow TKAA buddy Wayne, and we agreed to fish the Hampton side of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. We launched shortly before 6pm into steady 15mph winds out of the NNW. I located a whole mess of baitfish on my Elite-4x DSI but couldn't locate any big fish. We moved about all over and finally setup shop in a couple of drop offs and started working our PTL Curly Tailed Grubs dipped in Hog Tonic. Neither of us had any luck, so I decided to try a different tactic of slow drifting the grub with a raising and lowering motion followed by a subtle twitch. It was on the second set of movements and the final twitch that I had my first fish of the evening - a spunky 13.25" Grey Trout that was measured, photographed and released. It hammered the Blue Hue PTL grub dipped in Hog Tonic. This fish was significant, because it was also the first fish landed on my new custom casting rod. I quickly setup for another drift but found no more takers. When that drop dried up with no signs of activity, I decided to hit the bridge and work the light line instead. The key to this area is current and eddy lines near structure. I ended up fishing from piling to piling looking for any signs of activity. After a few minutes of searching, I stumbled across something I had never seen before - a trout blitz on juvenile ribbonfish. It was very cool to watch, but I was there to catch some fish. I left that activity and honed in on some aggressive action a few pilings down and hooked up almost immediately with another fish. As I was reeling it in, it spit the grub only to have it inhaled by a zealous follower - a smallish 11" grey that lived to fight another day. I saw many more fish, but few of quality size that invoked any action on my part. That is until I saw a larger grey shadow hanging a bit lower than the others, so I made a short precision cast and dropped the grub practically right on its nose. It slammed the grub and bent the rod over immediately. While fighting this fish, I was getting slammed hard into the pilings from the NNW winds that had picked up to about 20mph and started white capping the waves. I was positioned incorrectly on the windward side of the piling in order to target this fish as stealthy as possible, but it also placed me in a very unfavorable position for actually fighting and landing the fish. It ended up costing me as the beastly speckled trout came unbuttoned as I was reaching for it. Easily 20"+ and would have been my largest trout this year. I quickly forgot about it and moved on. For the next 30 minutes, I couldn't find any fish - not even any baitfish. I kept looking and found some activity a little further down. When I saw the surface strikes, I knew it was a striper. I fired off a cast with a pearl PTL grub this time and was rewarded immediately with a strong surge in the rod as the grub was inhaled. I leveraged the Bull Bay Rod and the striper just had no chance. I easily maneuvered him away from the structure and guided him right to the side of my Pro Angler. A quick lip grip and a nice 21" striper was on the board. After a quick picture and measurement, I released the striper to live and fight another day. I saw some more activity in the same spot, so I fired off another cast and was rewarded with another hard strike followed by a short fight and I landed my fourth fish of the evening - a nice 19" striper. After that, I checked the time and knew I had to head in if I was going to get any semblance of sleep before our family's gathering to pick apples the next morning. I made it home, unloaded all my gear, drove to the in laws house and shared some time with family. I had to head home later in the day to take care of our dogs, but I managed to make it through the rest of the day and promptly fell asleep on the couch after I got home. It was a long and grueling 48 hours, but it was well worth it. Get out and satisfy that urge! Tight lines and be safe!

In preparation for an upcoming tournament, I needed to get some much needed time on the water but couldn't venture too far from home due to a sick little one and needing to be close to home in case the wife needed me. So I headed out to a local neighborhood pond to fish like it was a tourney day albeit not on the same type of water. Sometimes, practicing the skills nets you some fish even if that was not your intention or goal for the day. My goal was to limit myself to three presentations and work them. Let me set the scene of this lake for you...... Size - maybe 35 acres total in the shape of a "Y" with the "Y" at the spillway - no boats with motors, electric and paddle only. Depths - deepest spot is only 8' and that is at the spillway, rest of lake averages 4' Surface temps - 83-84 degrees by mid-afternoon Wind - always affects you regardless of which end you fish Composition - man made neighborhood pond with sheer drop offs 12-18" from the bank that fall to 4' pretty quickly. Areas where it is shallow have a mucky bottom from detritis of old leaves, algae snot, old timber, etc. Cover - loads of pads in every nook and cranny, a few laydowns and lots of overhanging brush at the water's edge. Generalities - not the best lake to use open hooks on during the summer and fall (cranks, soft bodied swimjigs, etc). Loads of free floating algae and leaves that snag your hooks on every cast, but you can still use top waters and spinnerbaits or skirted jigs. The banks are loaded with algae snot and the pads are so thick, that casting deep into them is not the best approach either. The best approach is a topwater frog along the pad edges or open casting lanes in the pads and weedless presentations. On this day, I opted for a spinnerbait, a skirted swim jig and a wacky rig. While the wind was blowing, I started with the spinnerbait and swim jig but got no love. Switched over to the wacky rig and it was game on. The best technique on this lake is commonly referred to as skipping. I ended up landing 15 bass in total and really dialed in my skipping technique from distances up to 40' from shore. Now if you have never done this, let me recommend a couple of things.....start with a spinning rod. It will make your time on the water a lot less frustrating. Second, a spinning rod with an extra fast tip really is helpful, because your casting motion is simplified to a simple clockwise (or counter clockwise if you are left handed) wrist turn and release of the line at the right moment to send your soft plastic skipping along the surface. After a few casts into open water, you can quickly learn and feel the right motion and timing of your line release. Need more help than that? Then check out this video montage sample of some of the casts I made this past Friday at this very lake...... ......oh wait, I almost got a warning flag. I can't post it here. It has two non-BR sponsor images at the end. In that case, if you are interested in the video, just send me a PM and I will send the url to you.

Well, finally got a chance to hit the water for some fishing today. Spent the better part of 8 hours on two different bodies of water. First, fished a body of water loaded with millfoil and submerged standing grass. Ended up only catching two smallish bass in the 12-14" range. One on a SPRO Fat John in the Cell Mate color and the other on a PowerTeam Lures 5" Sic Stik in green pumpkin with purple flake. When I couldn't find another bite, I loaded up the Pro Angler and made my way to Bear Creek Lake and hit some familiar spots. Ended up landing a total of 10 more fish, including a 15" channel cat, a fat 8.5" pumpkinseed and a nice 18.75" LMB all on one lure - the Sic Stik. Here's a photo of the bass and pumkinseed.

Here's the video from my trip this past Friday where I landed that fat 21.25" largemouth. You can see in the video and last frame how beat up her tail was from the spawn. Enjoy!

Launched right at dawn this morning and fought gusting winds to 20-25mph all morning. Tried stalking the shallows for bedding bass in multiple spots, but the wave chop made boat position challenging and alerted the fish more times than not. Finally found a nice spot that I could cast to without spooking the fish and was rewarded with a fat 21 1/4" LMB. I ended up landing 5 on the day and a fat bluegill. Great day on the water albeit cut short by the severe storm rolling through.