8th Place: Dave Wolak (19-5)

“I caught some keeper spots, smallmouth, and largemouth today, but I weighed-in all largemouth. What scares me is that the water is getting pulled down and the fish want to come to the bank at the same time.   What the fish are doing is suspending right below the surface.  The bass are hanging around the bank, but the dropping water leaves them a little leery.

“I don’t want to use the ‘I just got fortunate’ cliché, but when you get a 6-pound bite and catch a random 4-pounder off of a bed, it really bumps up your weight.  I think that my overall strategy of just going fishing instead of running bedding fish worked out.

“Tomorrow, I really need to think my way through the day instead of just settling on one strategy.”

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While Table Rock was on the initial FLW Tour schedule in 2011, the tournament never materialized, as torrential rainfall resulted in a sudden 20-foot rise in water levels and forced tournament officials to cancel the tournament.

In 2010, Table Rock served as the Tour opener after high water and unsafe conditions forced the cancellation of the first scheduled Tour stop on the Red River. Brent Ehrler dominated the early March tournament on the Ozark fishery, claiming his third Tour level victory at the time by more than 13-pounds over 2nd place finisher, Ron Shuffield.  With water temperatures in the 2010 event in the mid to upper 40’s, grubs, jerkbaits, and finesse jigs proved to be the most prevalent offerings among the top finishers.

In 2009, Anthony Gagliardi took the Table Rock trophy with over 33-pounds of bass over the first two days of competition and 28-14 on the weekend.  For the duration of the event, Gagliardi fished a variety of Lucky Craft jerkbaits.

While this weather is expected to allow this week’s Tour Major to go off without a hitch, major storm damage in the vicinity of Table Rock forced the FLW EverStart Central Division tournament, which was scheduled for March 1-3, to be moved to Bull Shoals Lake in Early April.

From all indications, it’s a wide open slugfest this week on Table Rock, as pre-spawn, spawning, and post-spawn patterns are all viable options.  “Right now, there are five different patterns going on that have the potential to win, and there are three different species of bass as well,” explained Dave Wolak. “You’re likely to make a cast out deep and catch a 5-pound smallmouth and then go down the bank and see a 4-pound largemouth.”

The x-factor this week will be the deep bite.  While literally thousands of Table Rock bass are taking advantage of the warm spell, which bumped the water from the mid 50’s at the start of practice into the mid 60’s by the conclusion of practice, and moving up to spawn, several of the anglers that The BASS ZONE spoke with said that there is still a viable deep bite.

Here’s what some of the competitors had to say after practice on Table Rock Lake:

Marty Stone
“You’re going to be able to catch them this week, and you’re going to be able to catch them in a multitude of ways.  There’s no doubt that more fish are moving to the bank.  The lake is changing by the hour, and I think that it’s getting better by the hour.

“This is going to be a tournament where you’ll be able to fish your strengths.  The sight fishing guys, Alabama Rig guys, flippin’ and pitchin’ guys – whatever your strength is, once you get dialed in and make some adjustments, you’ll catch them.

“I think that this lake is going to fish really big this week.  It’s already a big lake, and once you add another 5-feet of water, if you’re fishing in a crowd it’s because you want to, not because you have to.

“My solid finish on Hartwell really showed me that I can still do this and compete on a high level.  I believe in momentum in this sport, and when you’re fishing confidently, it allows you to make quick decisions and not second guess yourself.

“This is a tremendous lake that has the capability to produce 20-pound limits each day.  That being said, there are so many fish moving right now and the conditions are changing so rapidly.  When you combine that with the fact that there are so many good anglers in this tournament, I think that each pattern will have guys fishing for some of the same fish.

“The sight fishing guys will probably split up some of their fish, the bush fishermen will most likely find some of the best areas, and it’s the same thing with the Alabama Rig guys.  I’m really thinking it will take 17-pounds a day to win.  Is 20-pounds a day doable?  Absolutely.  The other deciding factor will be the weather, because it can get tough with high, bluebird skies.”

Cody Meyer
“Practice for me was actually pretty tough.  The lake is in a weird stage where it shot up about 5-feet, the water temperatures climbed, and now the lake level is starting to drop a little.

“I typically like to finesse fish out deep, but right now it looks like it’s going to be a sight fishing tournament.  I didn’t do a lot of that in practice, so hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to get a couple nice fish and then go sight fishing.

“From the start of practice, the conditions have changed every single day.  On the first day of practice, I was throwing The Alabama Rig in 56-degrees of water.  Now, the water temperatures are 64- or 65-degrees in the morning.  The fish that were in pre-spawn and staging went to the bank.  It’s just going to come down to who can find them in the tournament.

“Weight wise, I think that it will take about 15-pounds a day.  I know that there’s going to be some pretty big weights. I’m pretty convinced that this is going to turn into a spawning tournament.  I wish it wasn’t, but that’s the way that it’s looking.  There are fish pulling up everywhere.”

Dave Wolak
“One critical decision that you have to make in an event like this, is whether or not you’re going to fish for bedding bass.  You have to weigh the caliber of fish that you’re capable of catching by just fishing, and you have to weigh the amount of fish in the lake.

“I try to take a very statistical approach to this decision, and this lake has a lot of fish.  One big thing about sight fishing in this tournament is that we have an off day between the last day of practice and the first day of the tournament.  You just don’t have the chance to have that heroic moment where you find three giant bed fish in the last hour of practice and then get off the water and rush to the meeting.

“With the off day, what you find on Monday and Tuesday on the beds, basically become irrelevant.   Sight fishing is definitely going to play a part in this tournament, but I’m not sure how big a role it will play as far as returning to fish that you marked in practice and catching them.

“For me, if I come across a fish that’s decent size and in a decent mood, then I’ll consider it a bonus.  Other than that, I’m not counting on the sight fishing.  There’s a ton of decision to make this week out there.  You can catch fish by just fishing in a multiple ways.

“Most likely, the winner will have several fish in their bag that they caught sight fishing.  My take is that it won’t be won sight fishing exclusively.  Right now, there are five different patterns going on that have the potential to win, and there are three different species of bass as well.  You’re likely to make a cast out deep and catch a 5-pound smallmouth and then go down the bank and see a 4-pound largemouth.”

Scott Canterbury
“I consider this one of my favorite lakes in the country even though I’ve only been here a few times.  The lake hasn’t been that good to me to be honest, but I’m really looking forward to it.  My pan tomorrow is to hit a bunch of places that I never even looked at in practice.  The one thing about Table Rock is that you can really run around fish a pattern.

“This tournament is going to come down to who gets blessed with a few big ones each day.  I’m going to fish shallow mainly.  You can come up here for 100 years and you’ll never see seven or eight straight days with 80-degree weather like we’ve had.

“The local guys were planning on catching these fish in 30- or 40-feet of water, and there’ll be a few guys who catch them that way, but the fish are just flocking to the banks.  There’s hundreds of fish cruising the banks and there are hundreds of fish that are already bedding.  It’s unbelievable how the lake is setting up for a bed fishing tournament.

“I’m going to be burning the batteries up on my trolling motor tomorrow, and I love fishing that way.  The biggest decision will be which fish to stop on.  You need to find the fish that are ready to bite and not waste your time fishing for one that’s not ready to go.

“I think if it takes 20-pounds a day to win, they’ll come out deep.  I’ve never actually been on this lake during this time of the year, but from what I’ve seen in the last few days, the females are really tricky to catch.  Most of the bed fish that are weighed-in will be the males.  These females act really funny for some reason. I’m thinking that they’ll be a bunch more females up on the beds tomorrow, though.”

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Sunline was the natural choice to highlight in this series because they are known for quality. I never realized how fanatical Sunline was about quality until I began talking to FLW pro Dave Wolak and veteran tackle rep Mike Valster.  Sunline is downright obsessed with perfection.

You gotta admit… that’s one sick spool of line!

Here are some highlights from my conversation with Dave and Mike.

FS: Mike, can you tell us why Sunline is the “Cadillac” of fishing lines?

Mike: “Sunline puts a tremendous amount of effort into research and quality control. Their big thing is quality control. They go through massive lengths to get the highest quality raw materials.  They usually have to pay a higher price to get the best, but the people who use Sunline really appreciate these things.”

FS: I notice a huge difference between Sunline and other lines when it comes to the consistency of feel… the way it feels in your hand and between your finger tips.  The Sunline stuff feels so smooth.

Mike: “When you look at some lines with a micron microscope, they will vary in diameter and the crystals won’t look right.  This makes a big difference in performance. Sunline really prides themselves on consistency and quality control.”

Sunline meticulously tests their line for aspect of consistency and quality.

FS: Can you expand on “quality control”?  What do you mean by this?  Is this just one of those industry buzzwords or does it really mean something?

Mike: “Sunline has a complete R&D department.  You know… all the people in the white coats. They are pulling samples every single hour, every day, not just once a day or once a week. They constantly pull line to do all these different tests.  If for whatever reason something doesn’t pass the test, it’s scrapped.”

No, this isn’t a NASA lab. This is an actual photo of a Sunline lab.

“They actually slice the line into the thinnest little strips — so thin you can’t see them with the naked eye.  Then they examine it under the microscope.  They do abrasion resistance tests.  They have a barometric chamber that can replicate natural elements all at once.”

The temperature and humidity chamber

FS: Is that like the thing Michael Jackson was said to sleep in?… Just kidding, go on.

“They put the line in a chamber to simulate different weather conditions — moisture, heat, humidity, dry air…”

“They’ve got people whose only job is testing abrasion resistance and measuring how many abrasions it takes to break the line. I’ve been in the business 16 years and have been to a number of factories and worked with many companies, but Sunline rivals anything in the world that I’ve seen.”

FS: Let’s bring Dave in on this… Dave, what makes Sunline different in your eyes?

Dave: “They have a tremendous sense of diligence in everything they do.  They want to have the absolute best products and surpass everything else by a landslide.  I feel that every time they come out with something it is top notch… all the way across the board.”

“There were days I worked at ICAST for them.  We would all meet after and discuss the product feedback we were getting.  They’re really interested in getting things right. They pride themselves on relationships and high quality products.  Of course, it’s a Japanese company, so that’s a customary way of how they do with things to begin, but it’s even higher than that.”

“A lot of people don’t realize, but bass fishing is actually sort of a luxury sport in Japan. So, you don’t get a lot of cutting corners.  People pay to have the best. They aren’t catering to the bargain hunters who will buy cheap quality.  Even Sunline’s lowest priced fluorocarbon is good.”

Just a few products from Sunline’s lineup

FS: Which Sunline product do you use the most often?

Dave: “I probably use FC Sniper more than anything. It’s limp, yet extremely strong.  I can use it on spinning or casting.  But I use everything… from Machine Gun cast, to Shooter Defier, to the Shooter fluorocarbon, and the FX2 braid.”

FS: I notice two things about FX2. The first is how unbelievably round it is. The second thing is that it’s straight up raw braid.  Sunline didn’t slather it with coating.

Lots of attention to detail… right down to the way it’s packaged. Buy a spool of this 8-strand braid and you’ll see what I mean.

Dave: “The fact that it doesn’t have a coating makes it an extremely versatile braid. I think there’s a fine line, between having a little bit of texture and having no texture.  If you have that waxy, coated smoothness, and you cast through a baitcaster, it can shoot off too fast, over-spinning the spool, and you get backlashes.”

FS: Backlashes with braid are the worst!  That’s a big time waster.

Dave: “Yep.  You want just a little bit of friction.  You’d think a smoother braid would handle better. That may be the case with spinning, but it doesn’t work the same with baitcasters.”

FS: Any thoughts, Mike?

Mike: “Not having the coating means there is nothing to wear off.  Also, our color holds up about 30% better.”

FS: When I first spooled my reels with FX2, I was amazed at how little residue and color had rubbed off onto my thumb and finger.

Mike: “Another thing we found out is FX2 doesn’t pick up a lot of water.  That’s a big deal to guys fishing in really cold conditions and guys up North.”

FS: Here’s another thing I’ve got to say… FX2 actually looks beautiful spooled up on my reels.  I’ve never had a braid look so smooth on a spool.  I took a picture of it after fishing with it for a while and it still looks good!!

Mike: “Think of it like a pile of stacked firewood… when it’s uneven and different diameters, it doesn’t stack well. Sunline is really big on consistency of diameter. If your braid is not round, and is more oval, it won’t lay on the reel as well. It tends to want to dig in and bind up on itself.”

FS: That’s a huge inefficiency factor too.  People forget to quantify those kinds of interruptions.  I can’t tell you how many presentations I’ve blown because of braid cutting into itself and interrupting the line’s flow off the spool.  Say goodbye to those bites.

Dave: “Just to add to Mike’s point about consistency, I’ve gotta say… Out of all the hundreds of spools I’ve used, I’ve never seen an imperfection in Sunline.  Their quality control really is unbelievable.”

Sunline’s UV radiation chamber

FS: Dave, do you think the price is worth it?   Let’s take fluorocarbon line for example… You can buy a spool of Stren fluorocarbon for like $9.  I mean, times are tight.

Dave: “Let me put it this way… I have a rod that I use right now that I’ve been catching 6-7lb fish on.  It has the same line I used from last year when I won at Champlain. Personally, I’m the type who would rather pay a little more and get a better product and know that it’s also going to last a lot longer too.”

Rememer these fish from last year? At the time of publishing, Dave is still using the SAME spool of line!

“When you buy Sunline, it’s going to hold up a lot longer.  It’s more UV resistant.  If you have a slugfest tournament, you sometimes don’t re-tie as much, but I feel confident that where my line should have normally broke, Sunline won’t.”

“There are times I land a fish, and I don’t even realize that I had nicks in my line until after.  I’ll check it and I can’t believe I was still able to land that fish.  Somehow the line still has enough integrity to not break.”

FS: Reaction FC is awesome. I like it for jerkbaits, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, finesse swim jigs.

Mike: “Reaction FC is a 100% fluorocarbon, but it has a little more built in stretch… about 10% more stretch than our FC Sniper.  They [Sunline] were looking to make something a little more technique specific.  You get all the benefits of fluorocarbon, low visibility, maximum diving depth, sensitivity… but it comes with a little stretch.  This is really good for deflection too, because that stretch can load up a little bit before the lure pulls off.  It gives it better action than a really stiff line.”

“Let’s say you catch that fish and it makes a surge, you’ve got that little bit of give.  We also wanted a fluorocarbon that has superior casting performance. It’s not stiff at all.”

FS: No, this stuff is more limp than most monofilaments.  Very soft and supple.

That’s all we have time for.  Thanks for the info guys.  We appreciate your time.

Full Story

But in contrast some sugarcoating or mild overdosing on caring and sharing may be necessary at times too because all negative material is no good either, just as seen in the movie “Star Wars”, there is an equal balance of the goodness of “the force” as the maliciousness of “the dark side”. All I mean is this: For every person who writes a story about the last minute heroics of a champion, there is an equal and opposite story about the guy or girl who came up short, and the latter story has a lesson too. Basszone.com is doing some writing lately titled, “What Happened”….and I often also see Bassfan.com provide some information in the strategy sessions about the guy buried in approximately 138th place. All this is great and necessary info. It’s not a good feeling doing that interview from either side, but it highlights the very fine line between doing very well and completely stinking the joint out. Hence, neither all sharing and caring via sugar, nor all the equal and opposite “dark side”. But there is also a difference in writing about the lesson of a bad day, and/or simply writing bad or negative material.

Therefore, in a ficticious world where bass fishing is the focal point of everyone’s life, there needs to be highs and lows and good and bad written about to show balance, really the correct balance of conservative stagnancy and liberal change. It is in essence a set of checks and balances for individual anglers, confidence, streaks, future development and historical references. There also is a need for balance between traditional methods and new techniques that raise the bar. We saw one great example of that lately..(without mentioning the name of the mechanism). When the bar is raised within the rules of the game, it can either be embraced like new talent or blasted negatively because that is what unfortunately and usually grabs the attention of the masses and captures interest. Throw in a little caring and sharing about the environment Al Gore style, and your agenda is complete. Or the mechanism it blasted because it spikes the dreaded responsibility that comes with liberty. Or is it because the mighty dollar is really the force behind “the good force” and the “dark side” combined. With all that jabber in mind, let me tell you this true life story I experienced in a different sport:

Somewhere around 10 years ago, I was working as a ski instuctor at a ski mountain in PA. It is a smaller family mountain that had mostly intermediate terrain, but some occasional steep stuff. Overall, it’s just a nice intimate family environment that people from all over came to, but it’s proximity to NYC gave it the boost it needed to survive. As I referenced in a blog prior to this I taught lessons of all levels but I feel I was one of the better instructors at teaching advanced lessons because I had a little competition background and was kind of a ski bum growing up, I was still younger and more athletic at the time, and because I also had several years experience teaching at the time. That gave me more opportunities to ski with cool people at times! Even further in the past, up to 20 years ago when I started teaching, I was an instructor of all levels of skiing at another different mountain that had more difficult terrain. But back then, I was one of the “rat pack” kids that was looking to jump off of anything and find any challenge around. I enjoyed teaching, but I was more about the “free-skiing”, or “freestyle” or even in the most radical case….”EXTREME Skiing”. Note the word, “free-skiing”! It was hardly a coined word at the time, it was just what we said…..like “junk-fishing” of the current day. Nobody pumping an agenda, no propaganda, no selective subsidizing, just free market growth that occurred because that is what we wanted and liked to do. Free-skiing is what makes a little ski mountain fun, and junk-fishing (and doing what you have to do to catch fish) is what makes a small pond, small lake or just a day out fishing with friends fun. I’ll get back to that…. But, in the present day, “free-skiing” is a catch phrase that is headlining ski articles everywhere….and junk-fishing is winning major bass tournaments and headlining everywhere also. I remember getting all kinds of questions like, “How I did it?”…when I won the rookie of the year in 2005. All I remember saying was, “I don’t know, I just went junk-fishing….did a little of this and a little of that….next thing you know I put together a pretty good set of derbies!” It spawned a million questions and articles for me, and now seems to be a catch phrase. I’m not saying I coined the phrase, but I definitely brought more awareness to it. It’s just utilizing all the tools at hand and finding a good balance. I started to see the skiing and fishing parallel back then.

So, back around 20 years ago, one of skiing’s greatest icons was a guy named Glen Plake (I’ve referenced him before in another blog). A radical florescent pink-and-chartreuse-cloths-wearing dude with a massive blonde spiked hair deal going on. He had a super fun aura about him and was known as a cliff jumping maniac that would take on every challenge.

Just about every Ski Magazine and endorsement had him front and center. He was so popular because he raised the bar in his “free-skiing” and even was “EXTREME” in his style. I even remember K2 skis coming out with “K2 Extreme” model skis that were really no different than anything else but they sold the heck out of them because they were SO EXTREME! Then one day when I was teaching at the 2nd ski mountain, I was told that I was going to be skiing with a guy for couple days who was on a promotional tour for K2 skis….I asked, “Who is it?”…..then I was told it was Glen. I was floored and humbled to be skiing with a guy I grew up watching.

So…..we went skiing, he definitely taught me some stuff….two specific and unique tricks I still remember to this day. We had a lot of fun, even on a small mountain. I surely wasn’t as significant to him as he was to me. What really stuck with me was his willingness to continue to learn and how he was inspired by the balance of all aspects of skiing, and he embraced them. In more of an indirect way through his actions, he saw it the way I saw it. Let the free market mold the future and be a part of the change positively….don’t continually subsidize certain styles of skiing repeatedly to capitalize on business self interests and a predetermined agenda.

Skiing…more specifically EXTREME skiing back in the 80′s and early 90′s’s during his heyday was traditional style aerial tricks on the same plane, some moguls and maybe bomb off a cliff here and there. He was one of the experts of all experts back then, but people criticized his free spirit at times because the sport was more regimented back then, just beginning to loosen up. Now EXTREME….in a nutshell…it’s skiing switch (backwards) off a 20 ft kicker ramp into a 270 degree off-axis spin and landing on a 50 ft. kink rail followed by bombing off a 50 ft gap jump doing a 980 mute grab double back flip . It changed and grew right before his eyes during his career, yet he embraced it. And, it’s continuing to change to this day. I remember him telling me he recently celebrated his 40th birthday back then, and there he was….with me in my mid 20s… learning the intricacies of doing dangerous rails and all the modern day freestyle or free-skiing, failing at times, but succeeding with a smile and quirky laugh more often. I had a hard time with it too in my mid 20s, but I knew that the sport needed it because that was what made the small mountains fun again for the next generation, that is what sold lift tickets, lessons and equipment. The world was only flat again for a period of time, then came the injection of rails, off-axis aerials, and not as much florescent colors. The smaller mountains were brought back to life.

So what gives? How does this all mesh together? How does it pertain to modern day fishing or life?I know this: Whether skiing, fishing, baseball, snowboarding or snowmobile jumping……raising the bar is a necessity and it doesn’t always mean caring and sharing. The balanced liberty of growth of the game always lives beyond one accomplishment or one era. That is why this year there was a double back flip on a snowmobile attempted, and right after that a front flip completed and landed for the win in the Winter X-Games. It is the same in the Winter X-Games and it is in fishing and other sports. It is as imperative to embrace the importance of history as it is to accept the necessity of growth and change. For example, when Mariano Rivera comes out of the bullpen (in the game of baseball which has been relatively the same and balanced in many ways for over 100 years), Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” is still cool and his cutter remains very difficult to hit even though you know its coming, but it HAS been hit and it will continue to be hit because other pitchers start throwing it and different hitters study its action. Therefore, he continues to learn and study hitters and his own mechanics and master his game. He himself and everyone else knows he is not infallible. He would equalize all of baseball if nobody hit him, and baseball as a game would shrivel and dissipate. Baseball is not frozen in time, neither is skiing, fishing or any evolving sport. Baseball will live on beyond the Mariano era. Yes, margins of error have to be scrutinized from every angle and the road less travelled is sometimes the tangent that receives the most resistance, but big picture perspective has to be taken into account without being blindfolded by relentless caring and sharing.

I emphasize, traditional methods remain fun and still have to be embraced! But, free-skiing on a small mountain is really like one of the collegiate fishing kids on a borrowed boat throwing an A-rig on a bridge to catch a 3-pounder just like he saw Elias do….then meticulously dropshotting a solid limit of spots on a ledge to fill his bag like he learned from Brent Ehrler on TV, then going in a shallow bay to flip willows for a kicker like he studied and watched Biffle do for years on TV. That’s what makes a small lake fun, that’s what gets the next generation interested…..at least that’s how I see it and it’s future evolution. It’s embracing history, while riding the waves of the future. It’s mixing the expertise of the one- technique/tool specialists with the versatility necessary to do your best while being bound by a creel limit, an artificial lures rule and what the confined environment gives you. It’s using the force, while accepting the presence of the dark side. It’s accepting the fact that with liberty comes responsibility, and Not dreading it. In terms of fishing and overall balance, I feel FLW Outdoors where I am competing this year is doing a great job at this currently.

A couple of hardly related side-note things I always hear while driving that stick in my head and make me think. Think about these, I may have expanded on them a little:

1. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.
2. Capitalism and a free market leads to prosperity on multiple fronts. Giving and giving and giving in, leads to more wanting and wanting and ultimately corruption.
3. Liberty means responsibility, and that’s why most men dread it!
4. Manufactured fame only lasts so long, unless an outside force keeps making it or buying it for the receiving party, but sooner or later the demand does not meet the continuously manufactured supply and the fame weakens. Then outsiders looking in see the forest through the trees.
5. And my favorite!!! When President Obama took office, gas was $1.83 a gallon. I had to throw that in!
6. And lastly…. Did you ever notice that if you separate the components of a sandwich or a pizza and lay them out elegantly arranged on a silver platter then they somehow become more expensive, more important and more sensational? I still like putting them together and making a pizza or a sandwich.

Here is a video (http://www.planetski.eu/news/809) of Glen Plake a little while back, I feel in many ways what he says about the sport of skiing, “That it has gone backwards in a good way” is very similar to what the sport of bass fishing needs to do and has done in some ways. Sometimes fishing is so technique-oriented, specific and regimented due to an overabundance of how-to information….that people forgot there is NO book out there that states the way bass fishing absolutely has to be at any given time….by law! It can also be very material (What you have or don’t have) driven. Caring and sharing does not blind us of the fact that we just have to get back to going fishing and figuring it out, all kinds of venues all times of the year showing all different fun techniques….and enjoy the balance it provides….-dw

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To be quite honest, there were many Wednesdays when I fished BASS and PAA events that I didn’t even practice. It simply wasn’t logistically feasible to get up at zero-dark-thirty and fish for two hours targeting a random morning bite or another entirely different part of the lake, then turn around and head back in to rush and rig tackle and prepare the boat before rushing to the meeting. Many times it caused more problems then the couple hours was worth, other times I just felt I had enough junk to fish. It really was an advantage for the guys that got a lot of information on fishing locations, and I was not one of them. So, before you even say it, I did get information legally and rarely here and there before the cutoff and I feel everyone does to some extent on all Tours… for general patterns, but in contrast some live off of it… and some use the minimal amount they get to hopefully steer them in the vague right direction, or just detect the path everyone else may take. And also, I don’t feel that the short different practice in BASS or PAA was set up intentionally for people getting information….let’s just say it was advantageous for and also enhanced their data consolidation and management skills while accentuating the differential of the ratio of total practice time over total productive practice time. Nevermind, that probably makes no sense!! What else are my blogs for??? But anyway, it’s all patterns in fishing, so I don’t worry about it too much, the super-spot-on locations just help increase the odds for that guy receiving the goods. So really, having no information is like going up to bat and taking a strike, it may put you in the hole 0-1, but you see what the pitcher’s got in return.

And speaking of fishing patterns, I’ve been working with a cool project called www.myfishpattern.com….check it out online…..it’s a pretty integrated system. A lot of work will be going into it as the season goes on so stay tuned in.

For those that live off of info (no matter which Tour or caliber of tournament they fish), here is how their practice goes down if it was solely based on information they receive… I’ve seen it too many times from a bystander perspective: They would show up the first morning of practice and pop in on a few community holes showing their face and maybe even catching a few chips in front of someone to draw more attention to the community behavior, mostly waste that day jerkin’ around making themselves look productive. You see, that’s the day(day 1) of practice that most hyper-enthusiastic idiots(according to them) absolutely HAVE to check their best stuff and sting as many fish as possible…… a good information exploiter only shows up after 10AM on the second day of practice. Then they slither into the prime areas(that they already know from their information sources) around noon on the second day of practice and get at least one bite in each area to…”make sure they are there”…then jerk around the rest of the day getting off the water around dinner time and making time for tippin’ a couple smooth ones at Outback while enjoying the savory Bloomin Onion that catfish pro anglers are promoting there. Day 3 of practice for them is really a gap filler day, maybe look around the ramp for release fish for a couple hours, look where everyone else is fishing or even throw people off by drawing attention to some moronic location by pretending to set the hook repeatedly on nothing,… then go in and rig tackle early confident in their predetermined strategy. To me it’s kind of like the movie “Office Space”……if you were to really summarize the amount of “actual” practice put in during a practice period for a good info exploiter, it’s actually about 20 minutes in 3 days. Sounds crazy but it’s the truth!

Contrary to that, if you do not have a network of information, you are always struggling to make use of your time. Big lakes, bad weather, mechanical issue, illness or whatever can be detrimental to the 2.25 days(because the BASS or PAA meeting on the third day requires you to go in early) of practice periods. One missed span of time due to whatever can cross you up and send you off on an unproductive tangent ultimately leading to your tournament or confidence demise. Therefore, you end up whimsically fishing patterns without enough key spots waiting for the environment to key you into a subtlety that may give you an edge….that usually concludes in a top-fifty check but not a win. To win at any Tour level event…… I take that thought back….Okay, more top tens are made by being dialed in from minute one….BUT, more tournaments are WON by something expanded on during or due to the surrounding circumstances of the event……that is where and when experience, information and opportunity collide.

To sum it all up, the day off before allows me to get better sleep, maximize my practice, do a little promotional work on my day off, get a little workout in, eat properly leading up to the event, have time to analyze my makeshift strategy, organize and shine my equipment and overall feel better prepared. Another big reason I like it that I didn’t even touch on is the “fish security”. If the fish were relentlessly getting pounded right up to the last minute before the event, then the weights will generally be less. This gives them a much needed break and makes them GREEN and BITING, just the way we like them. The day off may also add an element of unpredictability to the angler’s hopes if the weather changes and patterns change in the meantime, all the more reason to show off the more adaptable and versatile angler that comes out on top, not the one with the best information. Mostly, I just feel it is counterproductive to the entirety of the reason you are there if you feel like a spun-out zombie going into the first day of the event…..unless, that is, if you have all that knowledge prior to arrival allowing you to sleep confident and well during the practice period….then you are one up already….-dw

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I have fished for as long as I can remember, and I have also snow skied for as long as I can remember. Skis on my feet feel as natural as a fishing rod does in my hand. I competed in moguls on an amateur level and instructed skiing at all levels for several years before fishing full-time. Fishing through the winter and early spring months then took precedence over the time needed to work at the ski mountain but I still enjoy them equally. In fact, I skied at one time so that I could fish, now I fish so that I could ski…..hmmm? I still ski with my family as often as possible, but have to do it in the gaps in my fishing tournament and promotion schedule.

Skiing and fishing are similar in many ways. Both are mostly international and individual sports. In both the elements and variables of the weather and nature play a big part ,but both can technically be done during all weather. Technology has made them both easier/ better and more accessible, and people generally do both for recreation…. but also enjoy many avenues of both sports’ many competitive entities and arenas. Both sports have experts, both also have posers with all the gear but no game. Skiing has radical ambassador Glenn Plake, and fishing has radical ambassador Ike. Both sports take a lot of practice to master, but in both… mastery is in the eye of the beholder. This is because ever-changing conditions and unpredictable forces of nature create many a humbling experience.  Therefore, confidence is a huge factor in both.

They are also different in many ways. Skiing is more so a yuppy sport in America while fishing is more so a bubba sport. Not in all cases of course… and I see this changing more and more. Ironically, fishing is the more yuppy sport in Europe and Asia. That is part of the reason why the attention to detail on much of the tackle and equipment from overseas is so high, and the prices are generally higher too. It is also ironic because fishing with the best equipment at the best places generally costs more than skiing with the best equipment at the best places. Last but not least, fishing is competing with a live animal, and skiing is competing against the mountain and its terrain.

A little history: My family and I recently went on an awesome ski trip to Jackson Hole WY. What a place! I had been there in the summer several times in years past but never skied there. I have skied some of the other more majestic places in this country like Crystal on Mt Ranier in Washington state, Heavenly and Squaw Valley around Lake Tahoe in NV and several of the large mountains/ski resorts in the upper Adirondacks of New York…..but Jackson Hole ranks up there with the best of them. It is on such a grand scale because its on the Grand Tetons of course, and the peak of about 10,400 feet rises out of the relatively flatter surrounding terrain, including a scenic national elk refuge and the Snake River near the base. To add to the overall appeal, the accommodations are exceptionally nice while keeping the rustic/outdoorsy feel of a winter wonderland. Powder like snow everywhere, deep blue western skies and great skiing for all levels.

So what does this mean? Well it means a lot of things to me. I guess I have mostly realized through the years and especially on my recent ski trip that you don’t need to “I-Touch” in order to “I-Feel”! There is not the same tactile feedback from experiencing nature that you would get from material gifts such as many of the electronic games, phones and/or accessories that we so much get caught up in while enjoying the current world’s information age. That stuff is important and beneficial in numerous ways, but it is important not to let it consume you. Sure, things like going fishing and skiing cost money too, but being in the company of those that share the liberating experience of nature on their day off sure outweighs the company of those who are just as satisfied with making it to the third board of Super Mario 472 or Call of Duty 19. I see it in the innocence of my 5 year old, and I see it in those who enighten their children with the outdoors the same. My son looked me right in eye on the ski lift and said, “This is the most awesomest trip ever!” Of course I brushed off his grammar, but I’ve noticed the same enthusiasm in most kids in ski lessons in the past. I have also noticed my own son say similar things when boating or fishing throughout the years right by our own house, or wherever.

This country and the world are smaller to me now than they were when I was younger, and I realize it is for many that do what I do for a living. I chose Jackson Hole as a place to vacation because it is the pinnacle of a winter wonderland Christmas vacation, and I knew of that choice because I have been fortunate to travel to a lot of great places. If or when you don’t know of that “grand” choice and the world you live in is much smaller like it is in the world of a child, then the local ski hill or pond/stream will likely get the same response of, “The Most Awesomest Trip Ever!” Take a kid out and enjoy the outdoors wherever and whenever, the memory will likely stick longer than the “Jelly of the Month Club” or TV on the couch! And furthermore, take yourself outdoors more often and somehow find the liberating experience my skiing and fishing equally give me. I am just as guilty of quickly forgetting that. It just takes a little reminder every so often and maybe a New Year’s resolution.

Happy New Year!….-dw

http://www.insideprobass.com/guest-bloggers/86-seeking-a-liberating-experience

Jackall is evidence of Japan’s legendary craftsmanship for which they have become known. But don’t take my word for it… the point of this article is to give the manufacturers a stripped down, no-bull chance to state their case — the case for why their products are worth your money.

http://fishstrong.com/cadillac-tackle-the-case-for-jackall/

The odd change/evolution continues, I also have become entrenched into the 80′s on 8, and occasionally the early 90′s stations. I have really come to appreciate an early 80′s Jams and Swatch Watch wearin’ masterpiece. I’m not sure when exactly this transformation took place, but “The Lyrical Jesse James”, ” Tow the Line” and “St. Elmo’s Fire” are some examples of enjoyable flashback lyrics for me. It’s always been in me, but now it has come to the forefront. I guess it’s the same as when my parents’ generation was all about listening to the Beatles because that’s what they grew up with.  Maybe because I associate the 80′s with the good times of skiing most days after school in the winter or hooking up the boat to go to the lake in the summer and bringing one spinning rod strapped down to the deck of my 16 ft aluminum shipwreck like a wanna-be bass pro….well…. I’m still a wanna-be patched-up vest wearing chode with a high-hat, but I do have a nicer boat now!

So what does Billy Ocean, Glenn Beck and the band Toto have in common? I have no friggin’ idea, but I can say this: Ivan Drago was a boxer but Ivan Putski was a wrestler, making Ivana Trump a Cold War spy that was at one time married to whom Patriot radio says may be the next president! Chew on that during your traditional 80′s Christmas feast listening to The Boss’s version of “Santa Claus is Comin to Town”!

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