The season is finally winding down with only two events left, the PAA Championship on Lake Conroe, TX and then the Stren Championship on Pickwick Lake, AL. I am ranked 6^th in the PAA point rankings so I did not have to go to Toledo Bend to qualify for the championship thankfully. In the Strens I ended up 5^th in the AOY standings thanks to a 106^th place finish at Champlain, NY. All I needed was a top 50 there to win it, a measly 8 1/2 pounds on day two if you can believe that. I think I was in 2^nd after day 1 and had a shot to win it for sure, but day 2 just went very badly. It was by far the worst day on the water I’ve ever had. I could go into it, but I won’t. All I can say is that it was out of my control.

After throwing that AOY away, I proceeded to throw the FLW Series AOY away shortly thereafter. I went into the final event at Clarks Hill, GA with a 32 point lead, but ended up giving it to Tom Mann Jr. by one single point. That was one of the most costly points of my career thus far, right up there with my second place finish in the 08 FLW Tour Championship and my All-American 2^nd place a few years ago. I needed to finish 54^th and Tom had to win the event to beat me, and that’s exactly what happened…unreal! There were two things that happened that cost me the title, because I actually had the weight to win it. First, I caught a good fish that was hooked badly and I knew it was going die if I kept it, but it was well over a 1/2lb bigger than my smallest fish.

After some quick and intense calculation, I decided to check in 45 minutes early to save the dead fish penalty of 8ozs, as I didn’t think I could cull that fish out. I was at the scales 15 minutes after throwing that fish in the live well and they called it dead. I was pretty upset because it was not dead yet and I knew it was going to be a costly penalty, but I can’t blame the official who made the call because the fish did not move at all while he was looking at it. Once I got off the stage and fresh water was dumped into my bag the fish went crazy, but that’s a big “Oh well, sorry about my luck.” It is what it is, right?

Things like this make me think that our dead fish penalty is way too steep. That’s a 40 year old rule that should go away completely in my opinion. Are we not the most conservation minded people in the universe? Do we need to be penalized for something that we have no control over? I think it’s stupid, especially when you look at some of the places we fish. In Pittsburgh an 8oz. dead fish penalty could cost an entire fish, not to mention a million bucks…that’s not cool. I think the dead fish penalty still exists mostly to show the animal rights activists that we, as an organization, are serious about keeping our fish alive and that’s about it. Maybe it’s worth it for that reason, because I know they are fighting relentlessly to make fishing tournaments to go away, but it should be a lot less than a ½ pound.

The second thing that happened was a fisherman that finished slightly above me in that tournament admitted to the tournament director to accidentally cheating during all three days of the event but was not DQed. He apparently was fishing inside the “no boat” buoys at the swim areas all around the lake. His weight from day 2 (his worst day) was taken away, but because there were no formal protests against him they kept his weights from days 1 and 3. I will never understand that totally, but that’s what happened. There was no formal protest against him on day 2 either, so that really doesn’t make sense. We need for everyone fishing these events to take rule violations a lot more seriously and report them right away. His co-angler from day one knew his pro was in the wrong, but chose not to say anything, why? Maybe because he figured his weight would also be DQed? I don’t know, but all of this cost me big time. If I wouldn’t have been hit with the dead fish penalty, I probably would have fought harder for some justice, but I decided to accept it for what it was, even though I disagree. With the way everything went down in that event, especially on the final day, I just figured it was simply Mr. Mann’s time and I have to accept that for what it is. I’ll get it next year.

What an end to the year….crazy. After Pittsburgh, I finished 4^th at Dardanelle, and then 2^nd at the last Stren event on Lake Gaston, VA. You can click here to watch the Dardanelle event on FLW On Demand. On Gaston I lost one around 5 pounds at 9:00am on the last day that would have won it for me. I got that bite on a tree that I fished 2 or 3 times on days one and two and never got a bite. The last day I was flying by it and decided to hit it one more time real quickly. My jig didn’t sink a foot when it bit. I set the hook but its mouth got hung on the branches and I couldn’t get my boat over there to grab it fast enough, it was terrible. That was the only good fish I lost in 3 days. Joel Richardson won that one and I was glad he did. He’s a good dude and he really needed it. He was really surprised because we all had him going behind the stage, it was funny.

We’ve got a longer winter break than normal, from November 8^th through New Years, so that will be nice. We are actually on the road to Montgomery Texas right now. Anne’s driving. We are going to try to make it to Memphis tonight to stay with our good friends, Alton and Janice Lackie. Alton, AKA the Lack Attack, is my practice partner at the Tour events in case you didn’t know.

Thanks to everyone who is buying Tabu baits and sending in emails. The OW Series jigs are working great for many and winning some tournaments. I used a green pumpkin green 7/16 oz at Gaston for skipping docks with only 12 lb Berkley fluoro and never lost a single dock fish all week. They really make the difference for me and apparently for many of you too. The Whip Tail is a little drop shot hand poured minnow/worm that is getting a lot of great reviews. When it’s tough it’s hard to beat it, and the colors are awesome. We’ve finally settled on the new Kinami bug design and it will be out soon. I used up all the prototypes as my jig trailer at Clarks Hill and Gaston, so look for that. And Storm is coming out with a couple new swim baits, a hard and soft that totally rock. If you’re into swimbaits, I’d be ordering these things right now. There’s really no other sponsor news at this time, other than I’m obviously hoping that Kellogg’s and FLW stick together for 2010. It’s a crazy and uncertain time right now and I just pray everything works out for everyone involved with FLW. I’m sure it will.

Well, we’re pulling over for the kiddies and the dog. I’ll talk to you all after the season ends. Hopefully I’ll have something better to say. I know I’m getting tired of second place.