Following a practice period during which he marked a lot of fish on beds, FLW Tour rookie Richie Eaves thought sight-fishing was his best option for day 1 of last week's event at Lake Hartwell. The results weren't good.
"Based on what I'd seen, I thought I'd be able to catch 15 or 16 pounds," the 51-year old corrections officer from Nauvoo, Ill. said. "But when I got down there, everything had changed. Those fish were gone. They weren't up around the docks like they'd been in practice. I don't know if it was the (fishing) pressure or the slight change in the weather or what.
"I scrounged around down there and came up with what I had (a 9-01 stringer). I didn't have to be in until 5 o'clock that day and I kept thinking the fish would show up sooner or later, but they never did."
His measly haul left him in a tie for 131st place in the 167-angler field. His chances of logging a second straight Top-50 finish and pocketing another $10,000 check looked grim.
"When I got back to the room that night, I started thinking I could go back down there and catch another 9, 10, 11 pounds, but that wasn't going to do much for me. I decided to swing for the fences.
"I'm a river fisherman – I live right here on the Mississippi – and I like stained water. I just ran as far up the (Seneca River) as I could go and started fishing. I kept jumping around and ended up getting on a spot where me and my co-angler probably caught over 50 keepers."
He enticed his best specimens, including a 6-10 bruiser, on a homemade swimjig with a Yamamoto Swimming Senko trailer. His 17-12 bag moved him up 99 places to 32nd and garnered him his second straight five-figure paycheck to begin his career.
"I traveled the Tour the last 3 years as a co-angler with Tom Monsoor, and I've learned a lot from him," he said. "We've got custom swimjig molds that only we have."
He greatly looks forward to the day when he can leave his job at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison (he's worked there for 27 years) and fish full-time.
"I just recently took a stress class and they asked for three things we use to relieve stress. My answers were time off, fishing and more time off to go fishing.
"I'm real happy with the way the season's started and I'm just trying to take it one tournament at a time and not looking at the next two or three down the road. If I can keep staying inside that Top 50, that'll keep me going."
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