2012 CSFL Classic!

Well the 2012 CSFL classic is in the histroy books with my good friends Pete Garnier and Rob Lafleur taking home the title and $30,000 payaday. Congrats again guys. When it was all said and done Jason and I took home 4th place and $1400. Furthermore, we also won the Shimano Platinum Angler title for 2012 which gives us free entry and a $500 gas card for 2013. Our strategy and preparation for this classic started many weeks ago when we made the decision to target smallmouth for 95 percent of our practice given they are usually what is needed to win at this time of year on Rice and given how rice had been fishing so far this year. If there was any doubt left in our mind just before our practice it would dissappear when the long range forecast was calling for a cold front on the first day of the tourny. We spent the majority of our time fishing tubes and drop shot rigs in 4 to 12 feet of water on the many rock/sand and rock/weed transitions that exist on Rice lake. As a result, our humminbird graphs and side imaging units were extremely important in our success in this tournament. We knew our spots held quality fish that were needed to win this classic. In the end we were a little over 2lbs short of our second classic victory however we put ourselves in a position to win going into the last day, which is so important. I will share with you a lesson I have learned time and time again in this sport, that I was lucky enough to learn once again in this classic, and that is to "Never Give Up". I know, Iaconelli can say it better than me, but this phrase and tournament fishing go hand in hand. We had less than an hour of fishing time to go on day 3 and we only had two 13" fish in the well. Given the weather conditions and our situation, we made a decision to go to a hump we found in practice for our last hour of fishing. That was a major turning point for us as we went on to put 16+ lbs in the livewell in less than an hour. If we had given up or become lazy, we easily could have made the wrong call or missed a fish that would have cost us a decent finish and some money in our pockets. Hopefully this lesson, which I have learned many times over the years, pays off for you one day as well. The big smallies are really going to start feeding soon, so we will see you out on the water. Take care, Barry