Toledo Bend Elite Series

Brent Chapman – Competition Wrapup
Saturday, May 14, 2016

> Day 1: 5, 10-06
> Day 2: 5, 12-02
> Total = 10, 22-08 (85th place)

I'm totally disappointed, that's for sure. The fish were obviously scattered from 2 to 30 feet and probably everywhere in between, and I spread myself too thin and tried to practice way too much, of the lake. When it's tough like that and you spread yourself out, it comes back to bite you, and that's what it did. I should've committed myself to an area, deep or shallow, and made the most of it.

I caught the majority of my fish shallow, flipping a Tightlines UV-Beaver. I got a few on a buzzbait and a few out deep on a UV-Worm. I never got a quality bite – I never saw a 4-pounder all week.

It is what it is – this can be the most rewarding sport, but it can be the most humbling, too. Fortunately I had two great tournaments to start the year and keep myself in decent position in the points. Now it's time to shift gears for the second half of the season and get things turned around and back on the right track.

Brent Chapman – Practice Recap
Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Finally at about 1 o'clock today the wind died down a little bit. I'd like to say I found the winning spot during that last hour, but I didn't. The wind made it very difficult to practice, that's for sure.

I've got one little area that I feel pretty good about, but it's not what I thought I was going to be doing here. You kind of have to take what you've been given, though, so I'll go and do that and see if I can catch a decent bag. If it looks like there's potential for a really big bag, I'll stay there. Or if I can catch a good bag and then practice some more, I'll do that, too.

It's so hard to say what it's going to take to do well and I'm done guessing. I've heard all the griping and every time I think it's going to be kind of tough, usually it's taken way more than I thought.

The people I share information with are saying the same things. I just need to go out and fish as hard as I can and catch the best bag of fish that I can and let the cards fall where they may.

It's definitely a lot different that in years past, I'll say that much. I think we're just in that transition time when there's a lot of fish doing a lot of different things and they're scattered out.

Brent Chapman – Day 1 Practice
Monday, May 9, 2016

The wind blew really hard today. We all love Toledo Bend, but we all know that when the wind blows it's a tough deal and it makes it hard to practice. It's hard to get around and it's hard to fish, especially anything offshore.

I caught a few, but definitely not what I feel like I need to be catching. I thought the fishing would be a lot better than it was, but the lake's so high and they must be already done spawning and headed out. A cloudy, windy day like we had isn't the optimal conditions for finding fish in this kind of situation.

I stayed in the mid-lake today. I wanted to look at more, but it got so windy that I decided to stay somewhat close. Hopefully it'll die down tomorrow and be more conducive to looking around some more.