Forrest L. Wood Championship - Lake Hamilton

I was paired with Team BF Goodrich pro Chad Grigsby from Michigan today. Once I talked to him at the pre-finals meeting, I knew my chances to win the tournament were probably gone.

Grigsby was fishing a buzzbait ultra-shallow today, mostly paralleling seawalls and steep banks, fishing the bait right up on the bank. Sometimes his buzzbait blade would actually clack against the seawall on the entire retrieve. The trolling motor was on high all day. Combine that with being pinned on the bank, and it was over before it started for me.

I still fished hard all day. Although I knew my chances to win were pretty small, I knew that just one small keeper would probably be worth a lot of money. I just couldn't do it. Never had a keeper bite all day. In fact, I also lost my hat, broke a rod and stuck a hook in my arm. It just wasn't going to be my day.

No fault to Grigsby whatsoever - he's a really nice guy, very personably and fun to fish with. I know he didn't enjoy having to do that to me, but it's what he absolutely had to do - I would have done the exact same thing he did.

He had a good little pattern going, and could have won the whole thing doing what he was doing. As it turned out, he finished second. If George Cochran hadn't busted his biggest bag of the tournament, Grigsby would have won the whole thing. I wish he would have. I was very happy to be fishing in my second Championship, as well as making the final-day cut again as well.

I can't complain. As a co-angler, you just can't control as many variables as the pros can. For that reason, the key to success is to repeatedly put yourself in the position to do well, and sooner or later everything will come together. I've been doing that a lot, and I'm getting better all the time.

I couldn't possibly be more pumped up for next year. I hope everyone has enjoyed following our progress here in BassFan Big Sticks this year, and I hope to catch up with you all next January when we get to Okeechobee. All the BassFan Big Sticks appreciate your support and interest all year long. See you next season.

I was paired with Lendell Martin, Jr. from Texas today. He struggled for two small fish yesterday, and his co-angler zeroed, so I wasn't exactly pumped about today. But after the anemic weights of the first day I knew I would only need 1 or 2 bites to make the cut, so I was ready to bear down and fish hard.

My first fish was pretty lucky. Martin was throwing a topwater popper back in some pockets, in-between docks. There really wasn't anything left near the bank by the time he was done with it. Since the fish are largely suspended and roaming around bait here at Lake Hamilton this time of year, and there are random brushpiles everywhere, I figured the unfished middle of these pockets were as good a bet as anything.

I spent a long time throwing a Rico popper out where Martin wasn't fishing. I managed to get one bite doing this, and it was a keeper. This was a good start to the day. Later in the day we moved back into a pocket and noted there were hundreds of bluegills suspended in the clear water, just off the bank. Anytime you see that, you know there are bass around to eat them. They can be tough to catch that way with no wind blowing in there, but you know they're around.

I started throwing a watermelon 4" Kinami Flash, twitching it out into the deeper water where you would expect the bass to cruise looking for a likely victim. This move was rewarded with a nice keeper near 2 pounds. At this point I was pretty encouraged - I thought I'd have enough to make the cut.

I tried hard the rest of the day for an insurance fish, but couldn't make it happen. I did catch probably 10 short fish dropshotting a mad melon 5" Kinami worm, but never had a keeper bite on that rig. I made the final day cut in 15th place. It was pretty fun to qualify for the final day with my whole family in the crowd watching.

I fished primarily shallow. I threw Ricos and frogs – mostly on shoreline vegetation. I caught two of my fish on a dock in about 6 inches of water in back-to-back casts on a frog, and the rest on a topwater. I did catch a couple of shorts on a (Zoom) Brush Hog.

My deep fish totally left. The first day it was great, but I haven't been bit deep since. Actually, that's not exactly true: I caught a 7-pound striper the other day, a big walleye – a lot of fish were deep, just not bass. I caught a big catfish after I caught my last bass. I thought it was a big bass, but it got in a brushpile and when I got up to it, it had whiskers.

I caught two fish today for 1-11. So they were two small ones. I caught those two early, and figured I was pretty close to making it, but thought I needed a couple more. I ended up fishing everything I thought I could catch a fish on. I didn't catch them.

It doesn't worry me, because I lost a solid bag on topwater today. So they're there. It's just a matter of executing ─ figuring out which baits will catch them. I got off my deep fishing. The clouds killed it.

I caught my big fish deep yesterday, and tried them today, but it changes every day here, and I didn't. I tried to force the deep fish, and it didn't work.

Tomorrow, I'll stay in the same areas, but I'll change my bait selection. I had 12-pound limits boiling around the boat. If I can figure out how to catch them, I'll do okay.

Wow. What a miserable day. Today was like fishing in your average hotel sauna. Except a real sauna might have more fish.

Seriously, today was easily the toughest tournament day I have ever experienced - mentally, and especially physically. By mid-afternoon I was actually genuinely concerned about developing heat stroke. I'll admit that when glancing at the clock during the day, I felt equal parts of the usual "how much time do I have left to catch fish?" as well as "how much longer do we have to endure this purgatory?" Not a good place to be.

To say the fishing was a struggle is a major understatement. I fished with Dwayne Horton, and our strategy for the day relied heavily on schooling/feeding fish that never appeared. We were relegated to scrambling through just about every spot where either of us had a bite in practice.

Late in the day we managed to luck onto one spot with a few active fish. Horton caught two small keepers there and I managed a decent keeper and a fish that was just a hair short. I ended the day with that one fish weighing 1-15. As pathetic as it sounds, that's a real quality fish for this tournament, and I'm sitting right on the bubble for the Top 24 cut, in 25th place.

I fish with Lendell Martin, Jr. tomorrow. He only managed 2 squeakers today and his co-angler zeroed. Doesn't sound too good. I need to score a few early topwater fish, or I'll be in for another wicked grind all day. I feel like 2 pounds will give me a chance, and 3 pounds will get me in.

I could care less where I finish on Day 2, as long as I make the cut to fish the final day. My parents, sister, wife and kids all came to Hot Springs for the Championship, and I want them to have something to be excited about on Friday.

This will be one of my shortest entries ever. Took way too much time getting my gear ready - I'll get less than 1 hour of sleep tonight.

I practiced out of my own boat for 5 days for this event. For 4 days I was alone, but one day Japanese co-angler, Kenta Kimura, went out with me.

I tried to fish a variety of everything - shallow bank stuff, deeper structure, docks and brushpiles at all depths. Good-sized fish were very hard to find, and even the small keepers were very scattered and inconsistent. I didn't catch a fish much over 2 pounds the entire week.

This morning I went out for a few hours and did pick up several fish on topwater. I also had some very good bites in a brushpile ─ my first hint of big fish since I've been here. I gained a little confidence today. But just a little.

Overall this will be a very tough tournament. Co-anglers will need to score on topwater fish early, because after about 10 a.m. it'll turn into a real grind.

I figure 4 pounds per day will make the co-angler cut. I could care less how much weight I bring in, as long as it's good enough for the Top 24 cut. The whole deal is just to get to day 3 when weights are zeroed, and then swing for the fences and don't make any mistakes. I just want to give myself that chance.

It's fishing like every other time I've been here. I fished an All American here before, and a Bassmaster Top 150. Both times I did poorly. I've never had a check in Arkansas. I get a check this time, only because everybody gets one.

I got here last Thursday afternoon. I went out and caught a limit pretty quick, and had a nice one break me off. I've caught fish, but every day it's been totally different than the day before. Size has gotten a little better recently, but a 2-pounder's huge for me. I caught one about 4 pounds Monday.

I can fish deep, but the problem is the deep bite here is 15 feet. This time of year, I won't fish shallower than 25 feet out West. Once you get to about 20 feet here, it seems devoid of life.

How I caught my best fish the last 2 days was exactly how I didn't want to catch them. It's a double-edge sword, because I got on a few fish, but not how I thought I'd need to to have a chance of doing well.

I don't know. Four days on this lake is going to be tough. Anyone who gets on something that solid to last 4 days deserves to win. But I see a couple good days, then a couple hold-on days for the guy who wins.

I'm fishing against Ken Wick in the first round, and he's been here since the Potomac. For me, I'll just fish each day like it's the only day I'll be in the tournament. I won't save anything, I won't have a strategy. I'll just catch the biggest five I can catch.

I'd love to have 8 pounds. That was the biggest stringer I've caught in practice. I think you'll see a lot of people with 5 to 7 pounds, then the guys who get over 8 will be the ones who advance. There's definitely some nice fish here, but the good areas are pretty well known.

All my better fish have been largemouths. I caught a few nice spots, but they've been pretty inconsistent. I could catch schooling fish up until 3 days ago. I don't know if it's the weather or not. I went through a place with hundreds of fish. Then the next day they never boiled, so it's definitely changing every day.

I'll have everything rigged. I'll have 20 rods out and be ready for anything. I just can't duplicate anything here.