I ended the 2011 season with a 32nd place finish and a 2nd in the FLW Tour Opens AOY race. Not bad as this was one of my main goals for the year, to finish in the top5 in the Opens. The top 5 all qualify to fish the 2012 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier, GA next summer, so that’s a big deal and eliminates some pressure going into next season. This early qualification will make my 11th consecutive Cup appearance, a stat I’m very proud of.

Guntersville was tougher than I’ve ever seen it by far, it looked awesome with all the grass everywhere, but the fishing was brutal in practice, what little I was able to do, lol. I spent the majority of my 3 day practice period driving in the truck because I blew my engine and had to drive all over creation to get it fixed by the start of the event. Chattanooga Fish N Fun ended up getting me back on the water and I want to thank Lee Hass and his staff for all their help and kindness. What a great group of people he has there, no wonder they’ve been ranked a top 100 Ranger dealer so many times.

It was a trying week to say the least. I once again roomed with Tom Rizzo and his lovely cook, lol (wife), Gwen…that’s not the trying part, haha, but our luck was terrible all week. First, we had to uproot from our initial rental house due to a few cock roaches, ug! But as it turned out, we ended up in a much better place right on the water, so that was cool. Then the motor blew up on the first morning of practice..awesome! Tom wanted to back out of this event about a week prior to leaving home, so for all this stuff to go wrong made me feel a little bad. Why? Because I talked him into fishing the tournament, lol. He’s never been to the famous G-ville before, so he had to come finish out the fishing season on one of the best lakes on the planet…right? Well, it usually is one of the best, but this time really sucked.

When we finally hit the water (in a borrowed boat) on the last day of practice, we hardly caught anything at all. I was feeling pretty guilty for a while, but then Tom decided to “turn it on” in the event and go on to finish 11th (I think). So that made it all worth it in the end…thank God. I was able to find a little group of fish during the first day of the tournament which enabled me to squeak out a good enough finish to end the year in 2nd, so it’s all good. I need to thank Dan Ferguson, a co-angler in the event, for loaning me his boat to practice out of on that last day. He went out of his way to empty out his boat to make room for our gear and I can’t thank him enough for that. Dan, if you’re reading this, I owe you a trip on Lake Erie whenever you want to come.

I broke the record of time away from my family on this trip, that is never a good thing. I had to leave straight from Guntersville, AL to get to Conroe, TX the very next day for my final tournament of 2011. I finished 41st in that unfortunately, it would have been nice to close out the year with a bang in Texas, but no dice this time around.

I put some serious mileage on the Dually this trip and again everything went flawlessly. You don’t even know the boat is back there on all those hills and curves. We usually tow the 38 foot fifth wheel trailer with it, so it was nice to give it a little rest I guess on this trip. It is a smooth riding vehicle for such a beast of truck I must say, feels like driving a sports car…love it! Anne kept the Suburban at home this time because she needed the extra seating for family things while I was away, so it worked out good. I dropped my boat off in Arkansas for the annual refurb, it was totally amazing how much crap I had in the cap of my truck after unloading my boat, plus all the tackle and clothing I already had in there. I was a drummer for years, so I know how to pack things tightly, lol.

Well this is my final “On Tour” Blog for the season, it has been a lot of fun keeping you up to date on our travels. Mitchell got a real thrill out of reading your comments on his blog especially. Thanks for following our family throughout the FLW Tour events, we hope to keep this blog rolling through next year as well. Have a great off-season and Happy Holidays everyone!

God Bless,

Dave 

I had to go to Champlain this time around without the family, so since I’d already reserved a cabin at Marine Village (in Plattsburgh) I invited Tom and Gwen Rizzo to stay with me. Tom has practiced with me all season during the FLW Tour Opens and Bass Opens, so it was convenient staying together at this event. It was also a great bonus to have his wife along for the trip, Chef Gwen kept us extremely well fed throughout the week.

I took the Suburban and left Anne with the Dually for the week, she complained a little but she can’t fool me…she loves driving the big HD around home, lol. I packed more stuff into the Suburban than I thought was possible, I took out the back seats and filled it to the top with tackle. I can never go light to Champlain because its so big and there are so many ways to fish there. It seems I never do the same thing twice there, but once I get dialed into something I could actually take a single zip-lock bag in the boat and be happy. But I still need everything I own just in case, lol.

I finished 19th in the end, a good finish, but you know me, I was disappointed. I was on some very large smallmouth up north, but a severe cold front killed it. I caught the fire out of them the first day, but that was it. I caught enought to make the top 20 cut on day three, but needed another big bag to make the top 10 cut on Sunday. I now sit in 5th place in the FLW Tour Open AOY Standings with only one event remaining. The top 5 in the standings qualify for next years Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Lanier, GA, so I’ll need a top 30 or so at Guntersville, AL in a couple weeks to secure that 2012 Cup birth.

Hopefully I’ll have a good report after Guntersville!

Anne Writes… 


We are so sad not to on the road with Dave at Lake Champlain. We had to stay home this time around because my Mom broke her leg. The kids are missing him alot. He has another tournament right after Champlain, so this will be the longest he has been away from Mitchell and Macy since they were born.

We are riding around in the big Dually while Daddy has the Suburban. It is fun driving the diesel, I really like it, and the kids love it because it’s so high. It has a sunroof and the DVD player just like the Suburban and the cab area is so big.

We’ve been really busy with the sale of our house and traveling back and forth to Meadville, where my Mom is in rehab. Not really that much exciting going on. Can’t wait to see Daddy and hopefully we’ll be able to go with him to the last tournament of the year on Guntersville next month.

I’ll talk to you later,

Anne

My 30th place finish in The Forrest Wood Cup was not exactly what I had in mind. I had a great practice and had the bites in the tournament to challenge the leaders, but sometimes it’s just not meant to be, and it’s just as simple as that.

The family and I stayed in Hot springs for the week off before the Cup and had a blast. We went to an amusement park and road the bumper boats, played putt putt, and raced in the bumper cars. We also went fishing for bluegills a couple times and had some awesome fish fries. On our last night there we invited our friends, the Fukaes and Tharps to eat fresh fish, it was a great time for sure.

As usual, our Suburban and dually HD preformed flawlessly. Anne drives the Suburban and tows the boat and I drive the diesel towing the camper. Ouachita was our furthest trip of 2011 and the hilliest by far, but we really enjoy traveling in our Chevy Trucks.

Since we are in the process of selling our house and since Anne’s Mom broke her leg…again, I will be going to the next event solo. It’s on Lake Champlain, NY in a couple weeks, which is about 7 1/2 hours from home. Anne and the kids love going to Champlain because we always rent a cabin on the water and we get to travel together in one vehicle, but unfortunately that won’t be the case this year…bummer.
 
I’ll talk to you all after that event!

Anne Writes…

Hi everybody! I hope you are all doing well. This was one of our longest trips yet. We stayed down south after the Pickwick tournament and hung around Hot Springs for our week off. Dave and the kids and I stayed at a campground in the extreme heat with a broken air conditioner. It would have been unbearable if I hadn’t gone to Lowes and bought a window unit. We had to squeeze it in one of the camper windows until we could get a new RV unit installed. Talk about a good time! Always an adventure!!

Well, if you have read Dave’s blog, you know my mom broke her leg AGAIN! Crazy! That poor woman has had her share off misfortune this year. He will be leaving for Champlain in a couple of weeks and we will be sad to sit this one out. Lake Champlain is one of our favorite places to visit. We love to stay at Marine Village cottages. If you ever get a chance to travel to northeastern New York in the Plattsburg area, I highly recommend you stay with Priscella and her crew there. You will not be disappointed.

I guess it’s just me, the kids, Isabella the dog, and the Silverado HD Diesel Dually in a couple of weeks. Dave is taking the Suburban to New York. I really don’t mind. I LOVE my Diesel truck. I feel like a big girl in it!

I’ll be talking to ya in a couple of weeks.
Take care,
Anne Lefebre

We returned home from Calvert City, KY this morning at about 1:00 after driving all day. The end of the FLW Tour Major season is in site, with only one event remaining on Pickwick Lake in July. I now sit in 14th place in the AOY standings and I can’t afford to drop any lower. The reason being?…the top 15 in the 2011 BASS, FLW, and PAA point standings qualify for the Texas Bass Classic on Lake Conroe, and I like that event and that lake a bunch. So basically I need a solid finish at Pickwick next month to make it happen, probably a top 40 or so. I like Pickwick and have had a lot success there over the years, so I’m looking forward to fishing there again.

Kentucky was a huge disappointment for me, but the damage turned out to be minimal thank goodness. My 70th place finish only dropped me from 10th to 14th in the points race, so that’s a blessing. My chances for AOY are history, but a top 5 is not out of the question. I wish I’d done better on Kentucky, but I have no excuses. I had a great practice with the Lack-Attack, but I just couldn’t get those bigger bites during the tournament for some unexplainable reason. I like going to Kentucky, it’s a lot of fun, but there is so much luck involved in that one that it drives you crazy. We just found out that we will be going back there next June on the FLW Tour, so I’ll look forward to that.

We had both trucks on this trip again and just got our very first oil change on the diesel, Still no issues or problems what so ever. They washed and shined it up too, it looks good and drives even better. It’s a hard working machine but you feel like you’re inside a luxury car when driving across the country.

My next FLW tournament is on Pickwick, so I’ve got a little over a week to relax, hang out with the family, and get caught up on some things. It’s good to be home and sleep in for a change, it has sure been a while.

Hey check out this sandwich my lovely wife made me during the tournament, I knew she was sleep walking that morning, lol.

I’ll see you in Alabama!

Anne writes…

Anne writes…

Well, the kids and I didn’t make it to the Potomac River. We were really bummed we couldn’t go but we had to finish out the school year. We really missed Dave this week but he was in good hands staying with friends. I can’t wait to go back to the Potomac so we can visit our Nation’s Capital. Hope everyone is doing well. I’m sure I’ll have much more to talk about after the Kentucky Lake Tournament since we are definitely going to that one!

Take care!

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Anne will be towing the 5^th wheel down with the dually and we’ll be camping for that event as well as the next tournament at the Red River, LA. Like I said before, I’m nervous about her driving that far with the big rig, but if anyone can handle it, it’s got to be Anne. Our new diesel Silverado HD is the best towing vehicle I’ve ever had and this will be the first time towing the camper with it. It has a New Exhaust Brake System which creates back pressure to slow the vehicle down on steep grades. That will really help with the wear and tear on our brakes during the long tournament season. Also, during the trip here, I found a USB port inside the center console that I had no idea was there. I have a converter box that I’ve always used in the truck to plug my computer in and charge my I Pod, well I plugged the I Pod into it and all my song lists and albums showed up on the GPS screen of the truck. You can operate it with out ever touching your I Pod at all, I think that is awesome.