My 2010 tournament season is officially over. It has been a good year but a tough year at the same time. Anne and I decided late last winter to not fish the FLW Series or Stren events. Our reasoning was simple, we’ve been running across the country for 8 years fishing everything I could fish, we were only home on average about 6 weeks per year, crazy. We wanted to lay back for one year and try to spend more time with our family and let Mitchell and Macy get to know their Grandparents and Great Grandparents.

It turned out to be a huge blessing, although not exactly what we had in mind. Unfortunately, Grammy was diagnosed with a brain tumor in July and the prognosis was not good news. My grandparents have always been extremely influential in my life and as I’ve said a million times, I would not be who I am, or where I am today without them in my life. Anne and I felt like my kids needed to spend as much time getting to hang out with Grammy and Grampy and that really made this year a special time for all of us.

After about a three month struggle, on August 23rd my Grandma passed away. We thank God that because of our light schedule, we were able to spend her last few weeks by her side. I was the last one to see her alive and our last moments together were a time I will never forget and it changed me forever. She was a strong Christian, as is Gramps and although we miss her so much it hurts, we know where she is right now and that we will all see her again someday. I know a lot of you have strong faith and were praying for our family throughout that time, but if you could still remember my Gramps in prayer when you think of it, I would appreciate it. He is a strong guy and seems to be doing fine, but after 67 years of marraige, you can just imagine how difficult it must be for him at times.

We took Gramps to Lake Tawakoni, the 3rd PAA event. It was great having him along and he really enjoyed going to Texas and just getting away from home for a while. I finished 21st in that one, but lost one over 9 pounds on day 3 that would have changed things dramatically. At the time, that was the biggest fish I”d ever lost in a tournament. Fast forward to Lake Conroe and the Toyota Texas Bass Classic.

http://toyotatexasbassclassic.com/

We took Gramps home and then headed back to Texas the following week. After checking some of the areas I fished in 2009 when I won this event, I realized it would not be won doing the same thing. So I decided to try something drastic and launch my boat in far away, hard to reach places to see if I could find some fish no one else would find. Well the first afternoon I found exactly that. So I spent the rest of my practice trying to figure out how to get out of there, which I did, it took a prop, two lower units, and a trolling motor bracket to do it however.

On the first day of the tournament, I had a good limit, but I lost a fish I think was well over 10 pounds, much bigger than the one at Tawakoni  two weeks before. I had this one right up to the side of the boat on 20 pound line on a big flipping jig and it just jumped into the side of my boat and threw the jig. I have never been so sick. On day 2, I started the day with loosing a 5 or 6 lber, but then I whacked over 18 pounds later in the day which eased the pain a little. Going into the final day I was in 2nd and had a serious shot to win it again.

On day three I started the day by loosing a 4 and 3 on back to back casts, which will probably make the TV Show. Then I had 5 more good bites and missed them all, it was crazy, but the fish were just biting funny that day. I had to leave my little backwater area at around 11 am with no fish. I got lucky though and was able to catch a small limit in less then 2 hours on stuff I found in 2009, which put me in 5th place in the end. Its always bad when you fall on the last day, but it’s even worse when you know you actually found the winning fish, had them on your line, but it just didn’t quite work out.

The last event, just last week, was a PAA on Table Rock Lake, MO. The weather was awesome, cold in the mornings and only getting up in the 70′s during the day. I thought I found the fish and pattern to have a ligitamate shot at winning my last event of the season, but I only brought 4 to scales on day1. On the second day I caught over 15 pounds and should have had around 19, lost a 5 lber on a crankbait, nothing you can do about that. Then on the last day when I needed another big limit, the fishing just got tough. It was sunny with no wind at all and crystal clear water. I just didn’t get any big bites all day and had to settle with only 4 fish again. I couldn’t think of anything I should have done differently, I fished my butt off all day and stayed after the bigger ones until the very last minute. I wound up 9th in the event and moved up in the AOY standings to 5th and eneded the year in 6th in Combined Tour Points rankings.

Overall, not a flashy year by any means, but statistically my first year as a Chevy pro was one of my best. I finished high in the money in every event and my average finish was 20th place, with my worst being 40th. I’m fired up about next year and all of the changes to the FLW Tour and ready to start fresh. I’m not sure what tournaments I will be fishing, but most likely the FLW Majors and Opens, maybe the American Series again too because of the schedule and the Championship.

On the sponsor front, a few things: Kinami finally came out with the new bug the “D Bug”, named after yours truly. Kinami is also coming out with a new soft jerk bait soon that will blow your socks off. It is the best one by far and we are really excited about it, especially when fishing really slow, I’m sure you will agree.

I am currently testing a prototype bait for Rapala/Storm that is also going to be very popular. Not sure when it will actually be ready to hit the market, but I would assume next Spring sometime as it’s close to perfect. Can’t wait for that one. Speaking of Rapala, the new “Rapala Pro Bass Fishing” game is finally out.

http://www.rapalafishinggames.com/

It features the Rapala Pros and I can tell you that my son can’t get enough of it. They made me look like a muscle guy which I’m cool with, makes me feel like I need to start working out though, lol. Rapala is a fun company to work with for sure!

I will be making an outboard motor change for for 2011. I’ve been under-appreciated by Yamaha for way too long and although I am not used to sponsor changes, I am very excited about what the future may hold. I will keep you posted as things develope.

Thanks to all of you for following me this year and for all the support and prayer for me and my family. I’ll resume the Dock Posts at the beginning of next season, but will continually be updating my FaceBook page and website throughout the off season, so keep in touch. It is time to start thinking about Football, Holidays, Walleye fishing, Crappie fishing, and Ice fishing!

Happy Winter,

Dave