December has been quite a whirlwind for me, and it’s not even Christmas as I write this. It started with my quest for a giant sturgeon on Idaho’s Snake River, which I mentioned in my previous column.
I hooked two of the prehistoric beasts. The first one wrenched my arms for 45 minutes before it jumped and threw the hook. In Idaho, only barbless hooks are allowed for sturgeon fishing.
On my next outing, I got a bite right off. I was so excited I set the hook too soon and missed. I hooked another two hours later. Even with my drag almost locked down on 130-pound braid, the sturgeon stripped line off the reel. Their power is amazing.
That fish came off soon after I had set the hook. I’m bummed about not catching one, but it will mean that much more when I do.
I had to put down my sturgeon rods and get after the business of preparing for next year’s Elite Series season. I drove 30 hours from my Idaho home to Knoxville, Tenn., the site of the 2026 Bassmaster Classic.
I had fished Fort Loudon and Tellico lakes about 15 years ago but didn’t remember much about them. I wanted to spend the better part of a week checking them out, but a severe cold front limited me to only 2 1/2 days.
I idled around the whole time and never made a cast. It’s weird to scout a place in wintertime when you’re trying to visualize where and how you’ll be fishing spring patterns there four months later.
From Knoxville I drove to Pensacola, Fla., to pick up my new Blazer bass boat. When most guys purchase a bass boat from a dealer, they simply check boxes for what they want for an outboard, trolling motor, graphs and other things.
Every part of my boat represents a sponsor. Blazer mounts my Atlas jackplate and Suzuki outboard and installs the Monster Marine lithium batteries. Sea Clear Power in Cherokee, Ala., installs my Power-Poles, Garmin trolling motor and Garmin electronics. Sea Clear’s heavy gauge wiring harness ensures everything on the boat gets all the power it needs.
I also have to design a boat wrap and jersey and get them approved by B.A.S.S. and my sponsors. That requires a lot of texting, emailing and phone calls to pull it all together before the Elite tournaments begin.
As an Elite Series rookie, I didn’t anticipate I would need a boater safety certification to fish these events. That mandated going online and taking a five-hour course to certify I could do something I’ve been doing since I was 15 years old.
From Sea Clear, I’ll be driving back home for the holidays to play Santa Claus for my kids and to assemble my fishing gear for the tournament season. Since I live in Idaho, I fly home between tournaments and leave my truck and rig wherever I happen to be.
That means my boat and truck must be packed with the tackle I’ll need to contend with the all of the diverse fisheries on the Elite schedule. When I get that finished, I’ll be ready to rock ‘n’ roll.
