KBF Open and 100 Challenge Championship on Toledo Bend (November 3-4)

The KBF Open and 100 Challenge Championship on Toledo Bend brought my 2017 tournament season to a close. It has been a long year chasing down AOY points, and the Open was the last event available to get the remaining 104.5 points I needed to max out in the Open category. Yes, there was also $20,000 on the line, but the chance to make it back the Ten event at Bienville and be the 2017 AOY champion were the two goals I set out to achieve before this season started. To me, there is no higher honor than being AOY, and my eyes have been fixated on it the whole year. With that, I had a lot of stress on my mind. What if I fell short of 104.5 points? That long ride back to Florida would be hellacious and I could not shake that thought until the end of Day 1…. My pre-fishing mission was to find areas where I could easily get a limit each day. I didn’t care if they were just 10” fish, I just wanted a limit. I found a few areas pre-fishing a couple major creeks in the western portion of the lake that had what I was looking for- ferocious spotted bass up to 12” in schools that would attack just about anything. In addition to those little guys, I shook off a handful of 15-16” largemouth fishing near areas where large schools of shad were roaming. Finding those two types of fish, I knew I could rely on the three key baits which got me through the whole season- small squarebills, a white chatterbait, and a Texas-rigged soft plastic worm. Throughout both tournament days, I rotated between those three baits, throwing the worm near standing timber and structure, and the chatterbait and squarebill near schools of shad present on either the water’s surface or showing up thick on the fish finder. Those lures got nine of my ten bass weighed in over the two days. The tenth fish was caught on a deep diving crankbait thrown off a steep-dropping point with many large shad schools near the bottom. She was my first fish on the morning of Day 2 and biggest (22.5”) throughout my trip. I fished clean on Day 1 and did not lose a single fish. Day 2 on the other hand had many ups and downs, but most notable was having a solid 19-20” fish spit a crankbait at 2:00. That image is still haunting me now, but that’s just the way it goes. Even after losing that fish I kept my head down and continued grinding, picking up my last 15.5” fish at 2:40 which I knew would put me near the top. I ended up with 166.75” and finished 2nd in the Open and 1st in the 100 Challenge Championship. I got the points and some money to throw at school loans. Now, the prep for the Ten begins…..