Pickwick, AL

I have to start getting myself mentally ready for the second stop of the Bassmaster Central Open on Table Rock. I watched Davy Hite win the Elite Series on Pickwick in Florence, AL. I feel like I could have done very well in that tournament. I just got through fishing the same water as Hite and Terry Scroggins in the first Southern Open on Lake Toho. I've competed against Aaron Martens, Shaw Grisby, Paul Elias and the Lane boys in the Opens and the PAA event on Toledo Bend. Just the experience of sharing water with these guys has been a big thrill. I fished with Alton Jones on Falcon in my first event as a co-angler in the Elites, it was right after he won the Classic. I thought it was cool when I had the very same Yum Dinger, green pumpkin purple tied on. He did great on Pickwick flipping it in the sawgrass....I probably would have been doing the same thing. Aaron Martens was fishing one of the spots I fished in the community area up by the dam. There is a great drop off there with big boulders with the current running it's a great place to fish. I feel like I know that lake extremely well. Out there in the middle by the dam the bottom is rippled like waves on the surface and the bass sit between the humps and wait for bait to swim overhead, so swimming a jig, swimbait, or crankbait work great....slow rolling a big spinnerbait is also great. I didn't see anyone fishing the bluff walls but I'm sure they were. The bass love to pin the shad there, they have nowhere to go but up. Hite and Keith Poche fished up against the dam walls in slack water, fish where pinning the shad there and they were catching them big time. Hite won on a Berkley hollow body swimbait. I really like their thin body hollow body swimbait I use it alot and will be using it on Tenkiller next week and on Table Rock. I feel like I'm one of the boys now and know some of these guys pretty well after fishing 10 events with alot of those Elite pros. I've been becoming very versatile after competing on so many different lakes at a high level around the country, I'm sure this experience will pay off soon. Mentally, I've been through it all and that's mostly what I've been learning as well as how to catch fish these past four years. When I see these guys fishing lakes I know it's like I'm there. I can picture Pickwick in my mind and wouldn't even have to practice and be confident. Confidence is the number one thing a tournament angler must have to do good. I love it when I know where the big bass are and am catching them...then, there is the opposite of the spectrum. Frustration, and things breaking. This is a very expensive sport. I've been paying my dues and really can't wait to get back out on the water now that it has warmed up and the bass have moved shallow. I'm hungry and now it's time to win.