As I’m writing this, I’m sitting here with John Murray. John’s my best friend and Elite Series roommate, and we just got back from the wedding of our good friend Byron Velvick and his fiancée Belinda. I’m really happy for them and wish both of them a long and fruitful marriage.
It was a quick overnighter and then we hit the road back to Orange, Texas, for meetings with B.A.S.S. on Sunday before practice starts for the Sabine River tournament on Monday.
We fished here a couple years ago, and it was a tough tournament. Just being able to find keepers was part of the equation. We caught fish, but a lot of them were undersized, so I’m hoping that a lot of those fish will have grown up a little so we can take them for a ride with us.
It should still be a pretty tough event though. The state of Texas has gotten like 400 inches of rain, snow and ice over the past several weeks, so the system is high and muddy; which can always make for a tough event. The truth is that these tough events are the easiest to do really well in. If you can find something that is strong, then you have a better chance to win or place high.
After this event, things get really interesting. I’ve looked at the schedule, and 2015 is going to be a fun year. While we’re opening up with a tough event, the rest of the schedule looks great. In fact, I think most of the events from here on should be strong.
Guntersville should be awesome, the California Delta out of Sacramento should be a really good bite and Lake Havasu will fish differently than we’ve ever seen it before. Kentucky Lake should be its usual self and Thousand Islands, N.Y., should be a great smallmouth event.
The bottom line is that I’m going to be shooting for a Top 20 in every event. I think that is going to be the only way anyone will have a shot at the Toyota Bassmaster Angler of the Year trophy. That’s my goal every year, so I’ll fish hard and go after it.
Other than that, soccer season is about to get underway for the girls. My youngest daughter Courtney is going to be playing on a Select team this year as well, so we will have her and Lea going different directions each game day, so coordination should be interesting.
It’s kind of the calm before the storm right now, so we’re all enjoying that before the whole thing kicks off.
I’ll check in after the Sabine River event, hopefully we’ll have something good to talk about.
What have you caught lately?
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