Bassmaster Southern Open #1 01/28/16

I had a great time this week, I learned a lot, had some big bites, caught some decent fish, and got a check. Monday morning I met with one of my favorite pros- Shaw Grigsby. We ate at Denny's in Kissimmee, FL. I had the Build Your Own Grand Slam with Orange Juice and so did my dad. Shaw ordered the Original Grand Slam, a Coffee, and a Sweet Tea with a lemon to put in his Yeti Tumbler. We ate and talked for about 45 minutes and headed out to Cypress Lake. We fished around reeds and lily pads all day while searching for beds; we found about 20. Shaw set the hook and caught a 2lbr and immediately released it. He had some good bites (didn't set the hook) and I had none. The following morning, same place same time, same food, except I ordered a Chicken & Potato Skillet, and Shaw ordered an extra side of Hash Browns. Today, we headed out to Lake Toho. It was a warm, sunny day just as the day before. Shaw caught a big Mudfish flipping and had some big bites on topwater as well as a jerkbait and of course flipping. I caught a 1.5lbr and an 8 incher on a popper painted like a Redear Sunfish that I painted. I had one of, if not the biggest fish of my life hit a Creme Lures ST Beaver with Liquid Mayhem while Flipping, which gave me some confidence in the technique that I once dreaded. We saw beds, a lot of them (100+). We attempted throwing some Strike King Red Eye Shads along the weedlines with no luck. The next day (Wednesday) same time, same place, same food, and same lake, VERY different conditions. It was a very rainy, cold, and overall bad day for fishing. What am I saying, there is no bad day of fishing! We fished until 12:30pm and Shaw offered me his spare Simms rainsuit for tournament day. We had some time to get cleaned up and dry off before registration and our pre-tournament meeting. Here we go. Tournament day #1 on a lake I never fished before Monday or caught a fish of any size on, add rain and cold and you've got a slug fest, (notice the sarcasm) so I'm not feeling too good about my abilities on this lake. I drew Jon Englund, a very nice, polite man as my Day #1 Partner and we went straight to Lake Kissimmee, flipping. Jon caught a good 2-2.5lbr on one of his first flips, and we caught nothing else for about 3 hours. Around 12:00pm he caught another, then another, then another, then he pulled out a big momma bass about 5lbs. Around 30 minutes after, I pulled up my first fish, about 2-2.5lbs and around 10 minutes later, a 1.5lbr, both with my R&S Rods & Jigs Team Thompson Signature Rod/Quantum Speed Freak Reel and a Strike King Rage Craw w/ Liquid Mayhem. These were the only fish I caught that day. At 2:10pm we left Lake Kissimmee for a 1 hour run back to Big Toho Marina for a 3:15pm check-in time.. When I weighed in, I was in 9th place, so I was feeling pretty good, so I went and got my tackle, rods, etc. loaded on my dads Chevy Silverado, and headed back to the weigh-in area. I had dropped to 34th Place. We left about 15 minutes later due to the rain and later that night about 9:00pm I got a notification when I turned my phone back on from one of my Facebook friends saying I had dropped to 73rd place. This was from before weigh-ins ended. I was devastated, so I went and check out the current leaderboard. I had dropped to 104th place. Day #2 I drew a FLW Pro, Brandon Cobb, an awesome guy, would love to fish with him again. He said we will be fishing offshore in Cypress Lake and a very small amount of flipping in Toho when I talked to him on the phone. I immediately start thinking "Oh crap, he's gonna have me drop shotting and throwing deep diving crankbaits" so I am thinking I'm just completely going to bomb this thing. We go up to Bass Pro Shops and pick up some Flipping baits after I tore up all of my Strike King Rage Bugs and Craws that I brought from the house, as well as some Red Eye Shads and KVD Squarebills (Which you can never have enough of). So I met Brandon at about 6:30 that morning being as we were one of the last flights of anglers, and he tells me about the fishing in North Carolina VS Florida, fishing with his dad when he was coming up, past co-anglers, some fishing talk and about his upcoming FLW Tour tournament at Lake Okeechobee next weekend (Wish you the best of luck). We immediately made a run up to the East side of West Lake Toho and began throwing some topwater baits (Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm for Brandon, Strike King Rage Toad for me) Brandon gets a bite on his first cast and misses it, so he casts back out and catches it, a 11" non-keeper. We begin flipping about 20 minutes later and Brandon had a big bite, an at least 5lbr he said, he set the hook, fought the fish for a bit, and she got off on a pile of reeds. About 10 minutes later, on the next reed island, a bass nearly snatches the rod from his hand, a straight toad, that again, got away. He said he hates flipping for that right there, you only wind up catching a fraction of the bites you get. We run down to Cypress Lake and begin fishing the East side of the lake, about 50-100 yards offshore with Red Eye Shads (Bluegill me, Gold/Black Back, Brandon). On my 3rd cast, I throw with the wind straight behind the boat. I feel some weight and thought I only had weeds, then it twitched my rod some so I thought "Well that's weird, there may be a fish on here" so I finally get it close to the boat and its only weeds, so I thought, then the grass mat turned over and revealed the precious (LOL). My first keeper bass of the day. Brandon caught his first keeper right after I did. We went back and forth and had our limit by 11:00am and put a workout on my Quantum Tour KVD Rod/Team KVD Reel. Brandon caught a 4-5lbr and told me to cast right back where he was and I hooked a big one, she came around the Power Poles to the other side of the boat, came up to where I could see her, and got off. A 5 pounder. I caught a 2 a little bit later which culled my smallest fish. About 15 minutes later I casted to the left hand side instead of the right which we had been fishing all day. My 2nd cast to the right, I thought I had got hung up on some grass, so I'm pulling it in kind of fast, so I can cast back out, then it took off and I yell "IT"S A FISH, IT"S A FISH!" she gets about 15ft from the boat, jumps, goes back under, gets some slack in the line, and gets off. A 7 or 8 pounder. I was devastated, I knew that was the fish that would have sealed my fate to fish the next day. It crushed me. That was two key fish that I lost, so I switched the hooks out to some owner hooks. I never got another big bite on it, but I did catch quite a few smaller fish. At about 3:30pm we went back up to the lock and I had gotten a text from my brother that really touched me to the point that I let a couple tears fall out, but I couldn't let Brandon see that, so I wiped my face discreetly. I knew I had to cull one more time, I just had to. So me and Brandon began fishing a little South of where we fished earlier that morning and he caught a dink on a Zoom Senko in GP so I threw a Creme ST Stick in GP on a 1/8oz GP Jighead that I made. My first cast I threw on top of a isolated bushel of lily pads and twitched it off of it. I twitched the worm about 3 times on my Quantum Accurist combo and waited 7 seconds. I hopped it one more time before beginning to reel it in and I feel DOOP DOOP and I set the hook and reel in a 3lbr. I culled a 14oz fish up to a 3lb fish. I began feeling a lot better about being able to get a check, I knew going to the third day was out of the question. We continued fishing the area until 4:40pm and moved closer to Big Toho Marina. We fished a stretch of Kissimmee Grass about 2 miles from the marina for 10 minutes and moved a little bit closer and fished for 5 minutes. We then moved on to the marina and checked in at 4:59pm. We had to check in at 5:00pm. As I'm waiting in line, my heart starts racing, hoping I can get in the top 40 and I'm hearing some pretty small bags being weighed and then a Co-angler pulls out an 8lb 6oz bass and my heart sinks. I weigh in and Chris says I am sitting in like 33rd Place. Since I was one of the last guys to weigh in, I'm feeling pretty good so I go talk with some friends from Facebook; Hillary Hughes, Christian Bellomo, both awesome people and fisherpersons. I also got some pictures with some of the pros who hadn't left weigh ins yet and some friends including Hillary Hughes, Ish Monroe, Christian Bellomo, Chad Morgentaler, Bobby Lane Jr., Terry Scroggins, Brandon Cobb, and Jon Englund. My dad came over to me after taking a picture with Jon and says I fell down to 39th place and there's two more co-anglers to weigh in, so of course, I'm freaking out. The first co-angler weighs in 1lb 2oz and ends up in 90 something-th place, and the second weighs in 4lbs 3oz, but didn't weigh in any fish Thursday so finished in 60 something-th place. I was happy and disappointed at the same time- happy that I made top 40, disappointed in myself that I let those fish get off and cost me the top 12 spot. It is what it is and there's an old saying "Sh*t Happens". All in all, I had a pretty great week that I will remember for the rest of my life and can't wait for my next Bassmaster Open on Smith Lake in Jasper, Alabama. Since I Didn't make it to the 3rd day, we took advantage of our Annual Passes to Walt Disney World and rode a few rides before taking off back to Lake City and my own bed. I want to say thank you to Shaw Grigsby for letting me Pre-Fish with you, for the Tungsten Weights, and for all of the knowledge I gained during our trips, thank you to Jon Englund for putting me on some fish and being courteous to me, thank you to Brandon Cobb for putting me on some big fish, giving me those Owner trebles, being so happy and/or empathetic to me when I lost fish or thought I had a fish but was just grass, the B.A.S.S. staff and volunteers- without yall, we (the fishermen) wouldn't be able to do what we do, and thank you to my Mom, Dad, Brothers, Nana, and Papa for being so supportive of me in all of my endeavors. I also want to thank God for giving me the ability/resources to be able to fish these tournaments to hopefully better myself and my family. See y'all later, tight lines and God bless.