Apparently a little anxious, once again looking at the clock, 2:30 AM.
After waking up every 15 minutes for the last 3 hrs. I throw in the towel & jump in the shower to begin the SWBA season. Considering the fact Capt. Larry Heron was using my boat (his massive craft doesn't have a troller) I wanted to make sure everything was dialed in & I wouldn't have any issues getting down to Newport on time esp. with all the weather.

Karl & I usually aren't to big on pre-fishing as it has hurt us as much if not more than helping us in the past come tournament day. Last year, our best season overall we only pre-fished each event once. Karl & I only got on Newport twice in the last month (once with the kids) but it was enough to tell us the fish weren't where we had found them consistently the last 3 years?

We opted to start on a little stretch where we caught 3 decent ones pre-fishing even though we had never fished that area before. After wasting the 1st hour the light slowly revealed the mud we were fishing in, worst water we saw all day. We bounced a few areas that had been good to us in the past or had slightly less disgusting water, all morning basically junk fishing whatever we came across. I was just not fishing well, bad casts, tangles & always seemed to have the wrong weight for the depth we happened to be fishing as we bounced around. That's where I think pre-fishing really comes into play, just being sharp & well practiced - the mechanics of fishing. Especially when it comes to that tiny crap you have to use in the bay.

Karl picked up 2 small keepers & mid-day I put on a squeeker, as close as they come. Our day was looking very dismal as we just kept trying different things/areas, fishing hard but clueless. In our last hour of fishing a bite revealed how they wanted the bait resulting in a 7 fish 20 minute flurry that helped us round out a very small limit that felt good for a minute considering our day but the reality was obvious.

I'm not overly superstitious but about mid-day when pulling out our lunch I discovered the banana I had throw in the bag which I intended to eat on the drive down. Shortly after that curse hit the water my casts started landing where they were supposed to. Did I just finally get warmed up or?

As always there were a bunch of teams who really put it together, Congratulations Guys & Gals!
Again a huge THANKS to the boys & girls who put so much into these events, It Shows!!

It's a long season but not the way we wanted to start it at all.