Table Rock FLW Tour

> Day 1: 4, 11-07
> Day 2: 5, 14-02
> Total = 9, 25-09 (50th)

I feel like I didn't have a very good tournament. As I look back, I know so much about this lake – I've been here so many times – that I just covered too much water in practice. I fished all over the lake – all the places where I had Top-10 finishes before. I was checking lots of different patterns and bites to see what was going on.

I settled on fishing the James River – a place where I've never fished before in a tournament. At least four of the Top 10 came out of the James, but I only spent part of 1 day up there in practice. I just didn't get dialed in enough to be on those big fish the first day.

I think 4 days of practice is plenty of time, but when you cover too much water, sometimes it comes back to haunt you.

I caught my fish on jigs, spinnerbaits, cranks – a variety of different stuff. I was fishing mostly bluffs and then around some bushes. With the cold weather, those shallow fish didn't go on the first day and I spent too much time on those shallow fish around the bushes, when I really only needed to go down the bank with a crankbait to catch 15 pounds.

I've fished here several times before over the years and every time I come here I end up fishing a different part of the lake. It's a great lake and there are fish all over the place. It's just a matter of finding the ones that are biting that are the kind you want to catch.

I had a couple of decent practice days and others not so good. But I think I've got a pretty good chance to catch some fish. I think it'll take probably around 32 pounds to make the Top 10 – 16 a day should do it. I had only one day that I caught that much, and the other days were not quite as good as that.

But I know so much about the lake from past tournaments that hopefully, if I can make the cut, my prior experience will kick in and I'll be able to change areas and stuff and be able to keep catching them. I know that at Table Rock you can't fish the same spots for 4 days like you can at some places.

I'm fishing with a spinnerbait and a crankbait and a jig. I'm fishing mostly for largemouths, but there are some good spots to be had. I haven't gotten any smallmouths. I've had Top 10's in the past here with mostly smallmouths, but I couldn't get them going this week.

Overall I like my chances. We'll see what happens going into this thing. It's going to be super cold and I'm not looking forward to that, though.