First of all I want to thank everyone who has been following me throughout the Tour season and routing me on. All the encouragement was much appreciated and much needed during this mentally challenging and very tough year. I apologize for not uploading any videos during the Forrest Wood Cup, but to be honest, keeping up with the videos all season put a serious strain on my practice and tournament days, more than I had anticipated at the start of the season. I also didn’t have any Internet service at Lake Murray which had happened at a couple earlier events and makes things so much more time consuming and difficult. I did however have a lot of fun with it and wish I would have been able to keep up with everything that went on during the Cup, especially since I did so well in the event. I think that doing videos throughout the events is a great thing and I’ve had a lot of good feedback, so we will most likely do something next season, but I think it will be scaled way back from the way we did it this year.

Well, quite a bit has happened since my last Dock Post. As you know, Berkley is one of my newest sponsors for 2008 and I switched over to all ABU Garcia reels. I’ve been incorporating spinning reels into my arsenal a bit more recently and I wanted to say that I got some new spinning reels that are about to come out on the market very soon and they are awesome! Not sure what retail will be on them yet, but they are called a Soron and the model I’ve been using is an STX 20. It’s a small profile reel and the best spinning reel I’ve ever used. It’s blue with a gold spool, so you’ll know it when you see it. They should be a huge hit for Garcia.

I just finished second in the Cup on lake Murray. Coming so close to the million and not being able to reel it in kind of stinks, but all in all it was a great experience. The championship was a big success, lots of fishing fans and being part of the top 10 finale was unbelievable to say the least. We even had rehearsals the night before, mainly so that none of us would get scorched by the fireworks and bombs going off all around us. I would miss my eyebrows, so I payed real close attention. It was crazy and quite loud, but what a spectacular week! A full account of my tournament happenings from my first day of practice up til the end of the tournament can be read by Clicking Here.

Equipment: I caught every fish I weighed in all week on a Berkley 6″ Fliptail Worm, a matching 3/16 oz Penetrater Weight, 4/0 Yamamoto Sugio hook, 12lb Gamma Edge FC, 7′ 6″ Setyr Rod ECR 190 MH, Garcia Revo Premier reel with red Reel Grips of course.

That wrapped up the FLW Tour season. Now, all that’s left are the Strens and the FLW Series. As I said before I wasn’t planning on fishing the Strens this season, but when I saw 1000 Islands on the schedule, I felt like I had to fish one more year. I haven’t fished there for like 5 years or so, but I think the fishing there is even better than Champlain, so I couldn’t wait to go back. I went straight there from Lake Murray and ended up getting only a few hours of practice before the meeting, which I mainly spent just trying to reorganize my boat and rods with the right equipment. All I managed to do in that small amount of time on the water was eliminate my furthest away spots from 5 years ago. So I ended up starting from scratch in the tournament.

I knew that I was going to fish exclusively for Largemouth, so at least I had a little less of a scatter brain, but I still didn’t know where to start the first morning, and wouldn’t you know it I got the best draw I’ve ever gotten, boat #5 with nowhere to go!….nice!!!! Anyway, I started in a place I started in an Ever Start tournament a long time ago when I led the event going into the last day. And wouldn’t you know it, I started the morning with a 5 pounder on a black and blue Tabu Super Finesse Jig. But after that I was running around aimlessly trying to figure out what was going on. I strugled all day, but in the last 45 minutes I found the deal and managed to quickly cap a 15 pound limit. I also lost a couple fish in the 5 pound range. I didn’t even get to fish the whole area.

On day two I had a longer day and knew the pattern. I was so excited to get out there and have the whole day to fish the right stuff. There was not a single boat in the whole area either which made it even better. So I decided to start in a new area but on the “right stuff”, and I had a 16 pound limit in less than an hour and decided to leave that spot for the next day. Then on my way to the spot I whacked them on day one I hit a rock pile at 70MPH and my fishing day was over., it was 8:30 AM. To my amazement my lower unit was not completely gone, even though this was the worst hit I’d ever experienced. I started the motor and began idling back toward the take off, roughly 30 miles away. I came across a boat that was in the event just 3 miles from my area, but he was unwilling to help my partner and I, if you can beleive that. If he would’ve agreed to give us a ride back later, we could have idled back to the good area and upgraded our catches big time. We would have had 6 more hours to fish, but oh well.

I then idled at 6 MPH for 17 miles until I found another tournament boat. This guys name was Kurt Tindall and he offered to do what most other anglers would do and give us a ride back. So he agreed to meet us at a specific location at 2:45PM. We had about 2 hours to fish by this point, but really didn’t stand much of chance in the area we happened to be stuck in, so I had to settle for 16 pounds that day. But thanks to Kurt for going out of his way to help, much appreciated.

If you look at the photo of my motor damage, it is totally unreal that I was able to idle that far and get back to weigh-in. You can see all the gears, seals, and even the thrust washer, not to mention there was no lower unit oil either. You could move the whole prop shaft with your hand two inches both ways. That’s why I wear a Yamaha hat!

Obviously on day 3 I had to stay close and work as hard as I could to catch some fish. I managed to get an 18-10 pound limit on a 9/16oz Black and Blue Tabu Open Water Series jig from around docks and sea walls and end the event in 16th place. As my roomate for the week, Pete Gluszek put it, “Nice save!” If I wouldn’t have been so stupid I think I could have had a shot to win that one…oh well. I’m now in 4th place in the Stren standings and will probably fish the last two to try to make the Stren Championship later this Fall.

My next tournament is a Series event on Lake Champlain again. I’m getting my lower unit replaced at Vic’s Sports Center this week and should be ready to start heading up to Champlain with the family next Thursday. We always stay in a cabin on the water at Champlain and leave the 5th wheel at home. The name of the place we stay is Marine Village and it is without a doubt one our favorite places to visit each year. The kids love it.

Tabu Tackle is going well. Our Super Finesse series jig will be joining the Open Water Series in our jig family very soon. The samples are back and they are absolutely perfect. I’ve only got one of each size and caught a 5 pounder on the first day at 1000 islands on the 5/32oz one. They will be available in three sizes, 1/8, 5/32, and 3/16 and I think in 6 colors, maybe 10, not sure yet, but this is the jig that I use most often and has won me more than half of my career earnings. It’s a compact little fish catching machine. Here’s a sneak peek!

Another new product coming soon is Gamma’s new drop shot line. Kotaro Kiriyama and myself have been testing it all season and Alvin Shaw and Kotaro won back to back on Lake St. Claire and Lake Erie using it. It should be available early next season. Basically, the only difference is that there is less stretch in it for fishing in deep water and it’s available in thinner diameters. It is still tweaked however with Gamma’s patented process to give it more abrasion resistance, better knot strength, and way more over-all strength than any other Fluorocarbon, like you’re already accustomed to with all other Gamma lines. The retail price will compare to the regular Gamma edge. So serious drop-shotters need to be on the look out for that soon.

I hope your enjoying the Ultimate Match Fishing shows. I will be up against David Walker next in the Semi-final round. I don’t get the Outdoor Channel so I haven’t seen any of the shows yet, but I did loose my cool in the match up with Harold Allen because of the refs bogus calls against me. Needless to say my Mom was not too happy with me. He just needs to get in the shows somehow I guess at anyone’s expense. Maybe Joe Thomas will be able to find a new referee with eyes for next season. ha ha ha.

That does it for me, I’ll talk to you soon!

Dave