Hahhaha, hey, aloha bud! I don't know you either, but consider us friends! I'm super stoked on the articles. Huge thanks and praises to both Terry Battisti and Pete Robbins for working with me. What can I say, I'm having a fun year.

Fishing on the FLW Series and the Stren SouthEasterns is really just been fun and a tremendous learning experience. I'm still keeping faith that I'll someday find a solid swimbait bite on these lakes during the tournaments. That would be my ultimate goal, to win an Eastern/Southern major event on the bigbaits. I know it can be done if tide and time come together. However, I'm refining my approach with things like crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, jigs, pitchin, etc...just good ole roots back to basics conventional fishing. Its making me itch to trophy fish, but I know that when I trophy fish, I'm going to be more productive and really catch them. I just feel like I'm better at locating fish and understanding the intricacies of getting them to bite with the the tournament fishing.

I really am just proud as hell to be dealing with some of the finest companies in swimbait fishing. They fully support what I'm trying to do and I enjoy working with them and I cannot thank them enough: Ken Huddleston/Huddleston Deluxe, Scott Whitmer/22nd Century Bait Co, Mike Shaw/MS Slammer, Mike Bucca/Bull Shad, and Pete/Brian/Big Hammer. Tacklewarehouse.com never ceases to impress me and I'm lucky to be on their team. I enjoy rocking Bassaholics, especially when trophy fishing. I'm from OC (San Clemente/Dana Point) and heck, thats just my style. Just got with Kaenon Sunglasses. Love them. Gauge/G12/Abalone to be exact. P-Line continues to catch my fish. Halo is really good florocarbon. CXX is really good mono. I love my Ranger Z520 and Yamaha 250 Series 2. I love FLW Outdoors and I love BassMaster/ESPN. I am waiting to see the 2010 FLW Series schedule ( I heard a rumor: Falcon/Eufaula/Champlain/Okeechobee FINE BY ME!) and also the Bassmaster Souther Opens. The Bassmasters Opens are fairly reasonable entry fees, and only 3 events...and you could qualify for the Elite!

One day, Falcon I hope, I will have that box of Hudds in that picture in my Z520, swimming ROF 12 Hudds over tree tops in 15-2- feet of water...in a tournament situation.

I appreciate you taking the time to post about the articles I've been featured in! Its feels great to be recognized. I'm not alone, I appreciate input and help from guys on my the southernswimbait.com team: Jeremy Pratt/Rob McComas/Mike Bucca/Chris Koon/Brad Rutherford/Bob Wood/Rodger Ray (newest member!)


I'm having a lot of fun with the blog and just exploring technology. Facebook, photography, making video, etc. I'd like to do a lot more than we're doing now with the site. In time. I am just working to make sure I can sustain life on the road for more than just a year or two. We shall see...

Matt