Cup Day 1: 3rd-Place Report

I said yesterday in my blog that I thought this tournament was going to come down to consistency, and that 14 to 15 pounds a day would walk away with it. Hopefully that's true, because I caught 14 1/2 pounds yesterday and almost 15 pounds today, so hopefully I can keep catching them.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. I have two hard days of fishing ahead of me and I just need to keep running the same gameplan.

There are some opportunities out there, and I had the potential today to catch a 17- or 18-pound bag, but I lost a really big fish. That happens. I'll just keep chipping away at it.

Overall, today was similar to day 1, except I had one bigger fish that gave me a little higher weight. Also, I got my limit quicker today than I did yesterday, so it seems like I'm able to dial things in a little better each day on certain spots that are producing better fish. I still hit 30 or 40 places and caught about the same number of keepers. I weighed all spotted bass and I'm having a lot of fun out there.
I caught fish in all depths today – from the surface all the way down to pretty deep. But like I said yesterday, the biggest thing with this tournament is timing, and your appreciation for what the weather's doing and what the fish are doing. I think I'm fine-tuning that.

I can't get too specific with my baits yet, but I've caught some on a River2Sea Rover topwater, which helped me last year when I won the Cup. I'm also fishing a bruiser worm, but it's a special color I had them make me right before I came out here. I'm the only one who has the color and I think that's helping, because my co-angler couldn't catch them very good around me today.