A heartbreaking tournament for HBF at the FLW tour opener…  With only a day and a half to practice at Lake Toho in Florida—due to promo activities at the Classic the week before—HBF still had high expectations for a stellar tournament at Lake Toho. 

HBF had spent four days of practice at Lake Toho following the Bassmaster event on St. Johns River a month prior.  HBF spent the first day of the short practice checking all of the areas found holding fish a month ago.  Although the fish had moved out further and had spread out a little they were still there. 

HBF caught better than two limits but the best five only weighed about 8 lbs.  The last day HBF had to practice we locked down into Cypress Lake and Kissimmee Lake to look for better fish.  We found them on a deep hydrilla line in Cypress and found an easy 13 lb. bag of fish in Kissimmee on one.  The stage was set.  A little payback time! 

Fishing the FLW tour has taken everything I have learned in our Cinderella quest to maintain a ranking in the top 200 anglers in the world.  Lumps have been many; but, after four years of fishing many locations, adapting to various ways and conditions to catch fish, and archiving a wealth of info with the best Lowrance electronics, the tides are certain to change. 

As luck would have it—a seeming jinx that I’m determined to shake in the FLW—the weather did a 180 degree switch.  The water dropped 11 degrees overnight and we launched the first day of competition in 39 degree weather.  This was devastating to the fish behavior in Florida waters. 

With extreme confidence in my pattern and my Reaction Innovation bait—and knowing there would still be some bite left in my areas—I threw my bait until my fingers bled.  I was determined to hit the bass in the face and make them eat it.  As the jinx would have it, I got 16 bites the first day but only landed two of the fish for about 4lbs. 

My amateur partner said, “I can’t believe what happened to you today, I would never have believed you would get 16 bites today despite the weather and an already brutal bite even before the weather made it worse.  I wouldn’t change a thing for tomorrow.  I would go right back and duplicate everything you did and go right back to the same places.” 

The next day I got six bites and landed two fish.  In frontal conditions the fish may still be in the area but they will shut off.  In this case, even if you get them to bite the bass will just smack at the bait or only get the tail.  Shake it off and get ready for the next one.  That’s why they call it fishing and not catching.

Fish on!