I’ve been spending a lot of time preparing for the start of a new Elite season, and by the first week of February, I had about 90% of the work done. The last step is usually my clothing, so I’ll be getting all my AFTCO pants, shirts, hoodies and rainwear organized and packed.
One thing I’ve noticed is the packing effort has become more intense in recent years. With the minnow game, I’m packing more than I ever have. Typically, I go down to Florida and do a lot of flipping and pitching, but today you have to be prepared to do it all.
This is probably the most packed my boat has been in the last five years. I’m carrying more tackle, but I’m prepared to do whatever I need to do.
Typically, my drive from New Jersey to Florida takes about 13 to 14 hours. I went down there before the cutoff and hit that snowstorm coming back. It took me 23 hours to make it home.
I usually drive straight through, but this time, I’m going to leave on the Feb. 12 because I’ll be filming with one of my sponsors, Nomad. We have a new line of forward-facing sonar baits coming out soon, so we’ll be filming content on Lake Lanier.
I’ll probably come back home right after the Lake Okeechobee Elite tournament, but while I’m in Florida, I’ll work on content creation during practice and in the evenings after weigh-ins.
I have kids at home, and it’s hard to get a lot of that done when I’m not on the road, so I’ll use those two weeks to get as much done as I can.
During my drives to Elite events, I use the road time to talk with sponsors, catch up with friends and refresh my memory on the upcoming venues. I’ll listen to videos of past tournament coverage to help prepare myself for the next tournament — while keeping my eyes on the road, of course.
As for the first two events on this year’s schedule, I prefer back-to-back tournaments. I don’t like a week in between two events. I feel like if you get on a good roll, it’s easier to maintain your momentum. Also, it’s harder logistically to plan a trip with two events separated by a week.
The timing of our first event on the St. Johns River will be interesting. We visited two months later in the year in 2024, but that really doesn’t impact me a lot.
Whether it’s now or April, my starting point is always spawning fish. If I can find spawning fish, I’d rather pull into an area where I know a fish is sitting vs. blind casting to a fish that I don’t know if it’s there or not.
What I’ve come to find on that river is there always seems to be a section that plays. My goal is to find the spawning fish in that section.
It changes every year, but that’s what keeps it interesting.
