Leaving the first 2025 Elite tournament at the St. Johns River with a top 20 finish felt great. I’m excited to start the year on a positive note, and I look forward to continue building this momentum.
I ended 2024 with good momentum and did really well in some regional competition earlier this year. Starting the new Elite season like this, I’m feeling good and fishing good.
I will say I made a huge mistake and lost two fish on Day 2. I ended up weighing only two that day, so even though the ones I lost weren’t really big, they probably would have gotten me into the Top 10.
I finished 17th with 45-15 and the Top 10 cut was 48-10. It’s frustrating, but that makes me want it even more.
Aside from a bad Day 2, most everything went right that first week. I had multiple options with pads, seawalls, wood and shellbars. I had options north and south, so I tried to utilize everything I had.
On Day 1, I drove an hour south to Lake Astor and killed ‘em. I caught five fish on my first five casts. I started on a shellbed with a Sixth Sense 97X jerkbait and caught 35 to 40 keepers. Most of them were small, but catching a lot of fish made me comfortable.
I made that hour run down there; Lake George was rough and that calmed me down. I fished around down there and caught a 6-pounder in the pads on a ChatterBait. I caught another one on a jerkbait and left Astor at 10 o’clock feeling good.
I went up north and went to catching ‘em. I caught a 7, a 4, multiple 3s and had 22-13 before 1 o’clock. After that, I just went practicing. Everything went right that day.
The second day, nothing went right, but Day 1 saved me. I went out in 32nd place on Day 3 and just scratched the game plan, because my fish in Astor didn’t bite on Day 2. I wasn’t sure if I could relocate them.
I started in a creek I had never practiced in, and I caught 17-9 swimming a Sixth Sense Divine swim jig with a Sixth Sense Bongo trailer and flipping a Sixth Sense Clout stick worm.
Everything was fluid during the week except for Day 2. But that’s how Florida goes. My plan was to catch the biggest bag I could on Day 1 because I knew the cold front would affect these fish. I wanted to catch enough to get me to Day 3 and it all worked out.
Now, it’s time to focus on the next Elite this week at Lake Okeechobee.
I’ve been peaking at the weather, and even though it could change, I think this event will be an absolute slugfest. I think it could be one of our biggest events of the year. Every single guy will smash ’em.
All of January, anglers struggled on Okeechobee because of the cold. A couple of weeks ago, it started getting warm and they started catching them. We got this recent cold front, but now it’s warming up again.
I don’t know exactly how this event will be won, but I know this: If you get to 20 pounds, you’d better keep catching them.
