Team TFB's 2013 Season

 Well here we are at the end of another great year. Every year seems to get better and better. It didn't start off that way though. A bad showing at the Everstart on Okeechobee then a zero at Guntersville, it was not looking good. I knew I had to make some changes after Gunters. I was sick all the time and gaining weight and it was seriously effecting my game. So I decided to start off by looking after my health and getting into some kind of shape besides round. The next thing on my agenda was my tournament strategies. In the last 4 years I had gotten better but I kept feeling like I was doing something wrong or I was missing a piece of the puzzle. And as you all know that missing piece is different for all of us. So I decided that I was going to switch things around. Instead of getting a limit then going to look for a kicker I was going hog hunting all day long. No more dinks, if I got disparate  I could always find dinks. I would rather weigh in 2 fish for 10 lbs. than 5 for 12 lbs. That way at least I knew I was on a pattern and I had a shot at big fish. The second thing was the bait size. I have gone crazy big on everything, yes you catch less fish but what you do catch is great. This can be frustrating at times because you can go hours without a bite, but once you come to grips with the facts you settle down. What are the facts?, well fact 1 is you are only looking for 5 bites that's it just 5 fish. The second is yes my bait works, I believe in my baits so much that if I didn't get bite then there's no fish here. No questions, just move, that simple. This has been my strategy this year and it will be for now on. Go big or go home and brutally slow.

 This has gotten us numerous top tens, including second place and a The CSFL Regional Cup win. We have also won big fish several times this year. I say we because TFB is a team which includes anglers and our sponsors. Each member held their own and produced this year. Marc Mauricio and I had a 9th place finish on Gloucester Pool, Nelson Oliveira and I had a 2nd place on Scugog and Casey Ruttan and I won the Regional Cup just to name a few.

 Our sponsors have really pulled their weight as well. My St. Croix rods have been phenomenal. I never would have been able to pull my fish out of the slop with any other rod. My Evinrude has run like a bullet all season long without missing a beat. When I was flipping slop on those windy days my PowerPole kept me pinned in place and allowed me to work those big largemouth. Freedom Tackle has completely changed my game. There are so many possible ways to rig your bait with their products. And their new spinnerbaits are incredible. JB's Fishing Depot has kept me in stock with everything I have needed to stay on the water and keep fishing. You will not find a bigger and better selection of St. Croix Rods or Gary Yamamoto anywhere. I have also started using VIGOR Eyewear this year and I have to tell you I love them. So lite and they cut the glare right down so that you get great penetration. Via Rail and Sirius Satellite Radio have been fantastic and very supportive. CPI Pictures and Management has work hard all year long keeping me on track and working for my future  and the future of Team TFB. I can not say enough about Russell Peters. He has been so supportive and has followed us very closely to be as informed as possible to make constructive suggestions and input.

 I would like to thank all of my sponsors and my team mates for their help this year. You guys have been superb. I would also like to thank other people in my life that have helped me reach this point. People like Bob Izumi, Danny Dunn, Dave Mercer, Jack Summers and Steve Crowley, I would also like to thank the CSFL for all their hard work. They sacrifice their summer so I can play and for that I thank you.

 I have some big plans for 2014 and its all starting with the FLW on Okeechobee in 2 weeks so I better sign off for now.

 Take Care and Tight Lines everyone.

At the Ramp

 Sitting here at the boat ramp behind the Best Western in Guntersville waiting for the fog to lift it dawns on me that I haven’t been home in weeks and I’m starting to feel like the Littlest Hobo! Life on the road and tour can be fun and exciting but is often hard and lonely. Moving from lake to lake and state to state giving myself a week to learn the lake and hammer out a pattern before the tournament. And I don’t always do it but I love the challenge! I love it all actually, the lakes, the people, and the weather. That’s right even the weather. I have fished in snow storms, freezing rain, small craft warnings, and tornados. It has all been fun, sort of.  I have met so many people and some of them have even become lifelong best friends. We have shared information and spots and some have even invited me into their homes to meet their families knowing I’m so far away from mine. Moments I will never forget.

 By now I have fished a lot of different tourneys, everything from shot gun starts, and yes they fired off a shot gun, to the FLW Tour to BASS and I love them all but I love fishing at home in Ontario the most.  Seeing all the familiar faces and that feeling of comfort that you have knowing the body of water you’re on. I don’t know what the summer would be without the Pollotta’s, Danny Dunn, or the Izumi’s just to mention a few. But I do this because I love fishing new water! Learning a new lake and figuring out the pattern is so rewarding and it is the best way to grow and become a better angler. But then again there is something to be said about trying out a new technic on water that you know holds fish.

 Last night both my wife and my mom wished me luck for this morning. They always do, I try to explain to them that it’s not about luck. It’s about working the problem and finding the pattern. But I don’t think they understand, they picture me in some back bay, water like glass, sitting back in a chair, cigar hanging out of my mouth, totally at peace like some scene from on golden pond or something. But it’s not like that at all. From blast off to weight in its non-stop high stress and high anxiety. A million things to do and think about in seconds.  They call my boat number and I stand on the gas! You get pinned to your seat and your blind till the bow comes down. Trim up, jack-plate up, watch the rpm and look for holes in the traffic for you to move into and pass. You shoot out of the river, creek, or bay and head for big open water, and then your worse fears have come to pass. The weather man was wrong and the wind came early. You think are those 3 or 5 footers and by then you hit the first one and nope their 6’s and the boat slams down like a crystal vase hitting a ceramic floor. Water comes over the bow, you hit the pump switch, look behind to make sure when you lay off the throttle you don’t get run over. Trim down, plate down, and throttle back. Now do I run? Are my fish going to be there? Am I good enough to get them? Am I good enough to make this run? This has to be one of the most honest moments in your life. The answer has to come from your gut, not your head, you can’t trust your head it’s full of ego and emotion, it has to be your gut. Most of the time I settle down for the long slow drive to my water, but every now and then my gut tells me to fish the river, lol. So I do. I know I won’t have the winning bag but I have 70 tournaments to fish this year and don’t want to lose the boat this early in the season. Weight in a limit, get on stage, thank the sponsors, pay the bills, and live to fish another day. That’s a lot to think about before stuff the next wave. I’m addicted to it, a tournament junkie you might say, so I say thanks and promise to be safe and tell them that I’ll see them soon. What else can I say?

Well the fog is lifting and the boats are starting to move up for blast off so I’ll say see you all soon and tight lines. Mike.                 

Homework

 It's almost done, the year I mean. I get asked a lot why I don't fish more in November and December and the answer is simple. I don't like too and I don't have too. My tournament season starts in January actually next year it starts this December 31st and it ends around the first week of November. I'm beat and the crazy thing is I can't rest. There's so much to do around the house after 10 months of doing nothing. I owe it to my wife and kids to spend the time I have getting the house and the yards back in order for the next year. This year was a basement reno. We finished the basement so the kids would have a play room and I could finally move the office of TFB off my dinning table and into an area in the basement. It's important to me to have my "homework" as I call it done. That way when I'm on the water my head is clear and there are no calls from home with lists of stuff that's broken or needs replacing. A clear head so important out there, especially when you can't find them.

 So get your homework done and you won't have an issue when you tell her your going fishing.

 Take Care and Tight Lines.

CSFL Chippawa

Ok, ok I said that I was staying away from big water for the rest of the year cause of what happened at the Everstart 1000 Island event, but the thought of my year already being done and its only September just depressed me. I got a call from my good friend Andy Pallotta of the CSFL asking me if I was fishing the southwestern tour of the CSFL, I said I was honestly thinking about it. Then talking to Casey Ruttan he expressed great interested in doing it. I think it was a "hell yeah!" And with a call from one of my best friends Danny Dunn saying he was going that sealed it. I figured we would be fishing deep dropshoting smallies in big waves. So that's what we did for the 2 days of practise and caught very little. Come Saturday morning I was figuring we would weight in a small limit every day and hope we would get enough points for next years Classic. Talking to Casey in the morning before blast off we came up with the idea that we would try something completely different because everything we were doing wasn't working. So shallow we will go! Where I don't know. lol! We will leave the Chippawa river and hit lake Erie and as soon as I see something I like we'll stop and fish. We were 1 mile out in the lake when I pull hard right on the north shore stopped and started fishing. We moved up to 4" and I started whipping my watermelon red and black senko around. I figured if nothing else this thing always catches fish. We weren't there 5 minutes when I caught the first smallie and started seeing all kinds of smallies swim around the boat, from 2 to 6 pounders. But the wouldn't bite, the close ones never do too spooked I guess but it was hard not to chase them so we did, lol. As we moved to a little deeper water, like 6 to 8" we started dropshoting them using Xzone slammers. We spent the whole day moving along this break on the gps going deeper then shallow throwing senko's and dropshoting picking up fish as we went along. Day one which was a wildcard event we ended up with 5 smallies for 14.25 lbs, which I was happy with cause of such a bad practise. I figured if we could do this again tomorrow we could get some good points and then work on Lake St. Clair in 2 weeks.

 Laying in bed that night I thought about the fish we saw and what we did wrong. Tomorrow I will not chase the fish I see no matter how big they are and just concentrate on those fish cruising around  far out in front of the boat. I'll long bomb my senko out as far as I could get it. It worked and we culled the whole day. At the end of the day I was hoping for 17 lbs and Casey was think closer to 18. Well we were both shocked with 5 smallies for 19.65 lbs and 3rd place.

 My Evinrude ran fantastic all week long and the Ranger handled perfectly. The bite was so soft that there is no way I would have felt those fish without my St. Croix Legend Tournament Drop Shot/ Finesse rod. We weighted in 3 fish and caught so many on Xzone Slammers it was incredible. I would like to thank JB's Fishing Depot for keeping me supplied with Slammers and Senko's, they always have a good stock of both. My partner for this event was Casey Ruttan, a great stick and a solid angler. He was able to adapt to whatever was happening and act without me having to ask. I would have not been able to pull these fish without him. And of course none of this would be possible with out the funny man Russell Peters. I would also like to thank Bay Marine for keeping me on the water, Sirius Satellite Radio, Evinrude, JB's Fishing Depot, Xzone Baits, everyone at CPI Pictures & Management for all you do, and St. Croix Rods.

 Well I'm off to prepare for Lake St. Clair, I've never been there before so I have a lot of homework to do. Take care and tight lines everyone.

Mike.  

FLW Everstart 1000 Islands

 Wow what an event! First I had to fight my way to this tournament. My Ranger has had steering issues for the last month. I haven't been able to locate the problem so it has put a damper on where and how I run to my water. I was at my mechanic's till 4 pm on Wednesday, I called Ron and told him I was on my way but was going to be late. Made it just as the meeting started. So the next morning I hit the water with no pre-fish and not knowing if my steering was fixed. My only choice was to run to my Canadian Open water near Kingston. It isn't far just 14 miles away on the north side of Wolf island in the Bateau Channel. But when I hit the gas at blast off and my Etec ripped to the right I knew my motor wasn't fixed and had gotten worst. So what to do? Do I run anyway or play it safe and hang around Clayton fishing the boat slips and docks? Well I know there's fish at my spot and the Lord hates a coward so we ran. Fighting the boat to my water I was beat! And I was right my fish were there but they wouldn't bite, what a long day and then the trip back to Clayton wasn't very fun.

 Day 2 was building to be a day from hell. High winds and thunderstorms, everyone at the hotel was talking about it. Where to go? Run out to Lake Ontario or stay in the river. I didn't know what to do, and now with the weather adding to my boat control issue the smart thing to do is to call it and keep the boat on the trailer. I'm not that smart, lol! I quickly changed my 3 blade prop to my 4 blade hoping to get some traction and headed for the ramp. Now where to go? I only have a few spots besides the Bateau channel and they will not protect me from the weather coming which was there by blast off. So off we go back across the river to Canada with the thought of slowing it down and a colour change might get a bite or five. At 2pm I had 4 fish that were not very promising but was better that a scratch. Our trip back to Clayton was going to be tough so I gave us 45 mins to do that 10 min run. When I made then turn out to the gap at Quebec Head to make my run I thought the world was coming to an end, LOL! 4 to 6 foot waves coming off the lake with rouges coming from every direction cause of the wind gusts. I tacked my way back with out incident till just outside Clayton when I stuffed the first of several waves. Wasn't too bad I thought and I could see flat water less than a mile away in Clayton Bay. Then we stuffed another, and another and then a big one! I got that sliding backwards sinking feeling that turns your stomach. I looked back and saw my Evinrude disappearing, water was running off the back deck, the pumps were on and my Etec was pinned and not giving up. My non-boater ran up to the front deck to try and bring it down to pull the stern out of the water. Slowly she climbed out of the water and we pulled out of it. By then my timing was off and we stuffed another one. Keeping the bow up and my Evinrude pinned we pulled out and was able to make it to the calm water of Clayton. I have been in bigger water with bigger waves and I have never had to fight so hard to make it back. Between the weather and my boat not steering right I happy to be back and safe. I have to say I love my Ranger and my Evinrude, once again the saved my life. I will never have anything else!

 A special thanks to St. Croix Rods, I caught all my fish on a Rage dropshot rod using a Xzone Slammer Road Kill Perch, which was purchased at JB's Fishing Depot. And of course none of this would be possible with out the funniest man alive Russell Peters.       

  Well I'm off to air out the boat and dry my equipment. Tight lines and take care everyone.

2012 Kingston Canadian Open

 Wow what a tournament! I always have so much fun in Kingston. Let me first tell you how my pre-fish went. The weather wasn’t always cooperating so I had to launch the boat from a different place every day close to where ever I was planning to fish that day. My fish where exactly where I left them last year and I notice that some bigger fish had moved in including some smallmouth! My problem was that there’s so many fish there that I was going to be culling all day. But what was bothering me the most was all the giant pike that I was seeing. On average I was catching about 6 to 8 pike a day and 2 or 3 of them were over 40”.

 Come day 1 I was feeling great, I knew my fish were there and all I had to do was get through enough of them every day to bring in 20 lbs a day which I thought would cut me a check. But first I had one stop to make, and that was to some secluded cane I found in a foot of water that was holding a few big largies. Well with a cold front that moved in overnight we were only able to pull two keepers and a 3.55 out flipping. So off to my deep grass drop shotting for largies. That’s right I dropshot largemouth in 18 to 25 feet of water over grass beds. I did this all three days and slammed them. Besides catching the odd toothy critter it was none stop action! Oh yeah there’s a pike out there with $500.00 of equipment in its mouth! It grabbed my bait from the side of the boat and took off with my rod! Lol! Yes I can laugh now but not yesterday morning, I knew that if I couldn’t move past it I might as well put my boat on the trailer.

 Well at the end of it all I was pretty consistent weighting in 15 to 16 pounds every day and having a blast doing it. I look forward to this tournament every year; I love Kingston and its people. I have so much fun hanging out with all the other anglers and meeting so many new people and making friends. The CSFL works so hard and does such a great job of everything it run so smooth. I would also like to thank Shimano for all they do to make this event possible and run so smoothly. Their live release boats are a great asset to the tournament industry here in Canada. So I ended up in 34^th fishing against the biggest names and the best sticks in Canada and I’m more than happy with that.  

 I would like to thank Russell Peters for his endless support, CPI Pictures and Management for everything they do with my career and the show. JB’s Fishing Depot, VIA Rail, Bay Marine, Xzone Baits, Sirius Satellite Radio. My St. Croix dropshot was great all the way till the pike stole it, and my BRP Evinrude never gave up in those giant swells bring me home safely every day.

 Tight lines everyone.

CSFL Georgian Bay & Gloucester Pool

 What a weekend! Prefished Thursday and Friday on both lakes found a ton of fish and shook off a ton more. Saturday was Georgian Bay, we had a 2 hour delay due to a tornado warning which never showed thank god but we did get a ton of rain. My fish were largemouth on a flat first thing in the morning. They come out there to feed for first light, They stay out there till about 10 am in 2 feet of water chasing bait fish, I have also caught the odd smallmouth there doing the same thing. It's a great place for me to do what I love to do the most which is throwing a swimbait. But with the rain and a big drop in temperature they weren't there so a flip'in we go. My partner for these events was Casey Ruttan, a great angler and a real funny guy. We flipped the rest of the day pulling fish out of clumps of weeds and managed to weight in 8.3 pounds for our 3 fish. I don't know why the bay has a 3 fish limit cause the lake is so health. Well the wind picked up in the afternoon so we gave enough time to make our way back safely. You always have to be careful when your dealing with weather on the Great Lakes. My Evinrude didn't miss a beat while I was working my way across the bay. I love my ETEC. We finished in 40th not great but it happens.

 Sunday was Gloucester Pool, I love this lake. I have had a spot on the pool for 3 years now and the fish have been there during practise but were never there tournament day leaving me high and dry to run and gun. Well they were there this time and we crushed them! Smallies in 25' to 50' of water. When we practised we were catch them dropshotting Xzone slammers but tournament morning they were all high just a foot down so we threw to the fish. Topwater smallies in 50' and it was crazy, we were culling by 9:30. As the day progressed the fish moved deeper and we moved with them. We went from topwater to jerkbait to dropshotting Xzone slammers. I tell you my St. Croix baitcasting dropshot rod it perfect in everyway. I was able to pull those big smallies up from the deep and never worrying about the rod giving to much slack or not giving enough for my 8 lbs fluro to hold. In the end we weighted in 15.15 lbs and came in 9th place. I had a great time, Casey fished hard and was a real pleasure to fish with. The CSFL did a great job as always keeping us safe on Saturday and making everything run smoothly.

 Well I have to go clean the boat and prep for a Renegade on the Ottawa river. Take care everyone and tight lines. 

2012 Renegade on Mississippi Lake

 Well last week was the first Renegade of 2012 on Mississippi Lake, I had never fished this body of water before and it took a bit to get my head around it. It's a shallow lake that seems to be a smallie lake, and the largies I was finding were deeper than the smallies! I spent 2 day practising and I thought I was gonna be alright but no I wasn't. Tournament day the fishing was slow and the bites were few and far between. I don't think there are a lot of big fish there but there are a lot of 2 to 4 pounders. So I didn't do so well but I did get on the board and got some points and my co-angler Nelson Oliveira did get us a good largie. The highlight of my day was sharing the stage as co-emcee with Big Jim. I had a blast, he was a very giving and we worked really well together to get every ones bag weighted and have the fish looked after properly. The whole Renegade crew worked hard and professionally in that crazy heat to make sure everything ran smoothly.

 I will be with Big Jim for the rest of the season call the weights and cracking jokes on the Renegade trail. So come out and check us out or tune in on the Renegade website at

http://www.renegadebass.com/  where have a live feed to all our weight-ins.

 Its time to sign off for now I'm sitting in my hotel room in Midland getting ready to pre-fish for a tournament on Georgian Bay in the morning.

Take care & tight lines.

Mike. 

 

2012 CSFL Casey Cup

 Wow what a day! As you all know I hate lake Simcoe and it hates me, lol. So why do I fish this event?, I'll tell you why. Because its great! Its for a good cause and that lake is so wild anything could happen, plus the smallies that are caught have to be seen to believe. Now saying all that I didn't leave Couchiching lol. My co-angler Nelson Oliveira and I spent the whole day in 3 spots about a mile from the boat ramp. We weighted in 17.50 lbs and spent less than $10 in gas. As good as that sounds it took 20 lbs plus just to break the top 20! So 17.50 put us in 43rd. I was hoping to finish better but Simcoe really gave it up. But I had fun and caught fish all day long, we were culling by 9:30 and having a blast. The day was not so smooth as it sounds though as I had to replace a live well pump, the trolling motor release rope and the batteries were dead in both my weight scales so we were kicking it old school with the balance beam.

 Xzone Slammers ruled the day as dropshotting was the way to go to get those smallies up from the deep. There is no better bait to use if your dropshotting! And for my largemouth the Xzone Swammer was the ticket. The sensitivity and strength of my St. Croix Legend Tournament dropshot rod can not be match, it preformed perfectly allowing me to set the hook and fight those smallies using light line.

 I would to thank the whole gang at the CSFL for doing a great job as always running this event. Well I'm off to make repairs and prep for my next tournament. Tight lines and take care everyone.

 

Everstart on Kerr Lake

 Wow what a tough lake! I'm so happy that its done. When I got there and found out that a local tournament was won with 12 lbs the week before I was worried. Then when I got on the water it was even tougher than I thought. I went 2 days without catching a keeper at one point. But slowly it started coming together, very slowly lol. It would take months for me to learn that lake and I'm not willing to put that kind of time in on a body of water that I might not have to fish for a few more years.
 Well onward and up ward, This weekend is my first Canadian tournament of the year. The Casey Cup is a main stay for a lot us and it's always a fun time.
 Good luck everyone and tight lines.

North For The Summer

 I'm starting my northern tournaments this month and you can't believe the difference. I have to change out some rods and a lot of tackle. The northern strain of largemouth is so different than the Florida strain that I can get away with lighter tackle up north cause the cover is lighter and the structure is more open.
 This year I'm fishing the Northern FLW Everstarts as well as Bass Renegade and some CSFL's and believe it or not I'm fishing less lol. There never seems to be enough time to get everything done during the summer months, so I decided to slow things down this year and concentrated on bodies of water that I know I can produce on. In the last few years I have been fishing everything on one circuit's schedule and I have found that there were lakes that just weren't suited to my style of fishing and so produced poor results. Now I know what your thinking I'm just gonna fish lakes that I like to fish or that I know I can cash a check on. That's not it, there are some waters that are still tough for me but I'm fishing them cause they match my style. There is also the Renegades, I have not fished a lot of that water so that will be new to me this year. But with all of this I should still have time to get things done and work on a special project that I have had to keep on the back burner.
 So far this year has been great and I finished higher in the FLW Everstart southeast division than I have ever. And I never would have been able to do that with out sponsors like Evinrude, St. Croix Rods, Xzone Baits, JB's Fishing Depot, Sirius Satellite Radio, VIA Rail, Bay Marine, and the whole gang at CPI Pictures and Management. And of course none of this would be possible without the funniest man alive Russell Peters. 
 I'll keep you posted on my pre-fish on Kerr next week. Take care everyone and tight lines!

FLW Southeast Everstarts

Well the southeast division of the FLW Everstarts is done. I ended up 55th overall which is 15 spots out of the championship. But I guess 55th out of 250 isn't too bad and it’s a big move up from last year where I finished in 122nd. I guess I'll just have to make it through the northerns.

 I would like to thank Evinrude for that great motor which just kept going no matter what slop I was driving through. St. Croix rods for such a solid product. I was finesse on Guntersville and pulling 5 and 7lbs bass with the Tournament Legend finesse rod. JB's Fishing Depot for keeping me stocked up with what I need. Bay Marine for keeping the Russell Peters . com Ranger in tiptop shape. Xzone baits for the Swammers, I threw those swimbaits everywhere and it catches fish. My buddy Steve Crowley for traveling with me and helping me to understand the Florida strain of bass. Maria de Castro-Brown my wife for understanding what I'm trying to do and supporting me and of course none of this would be possible without the support of Russell Peters. Thanks everyone else and I’ll see you at Okeechobee in January, take care and tight lines.

The A-Rig

So I have been using the the a-rig for about 6 months now and I can tell you it catches fish. But it doesn't work everywhere and all the time. Its time and place is very limited. In a lot of ways it's like a buzz bait that way. It's horrible in the weeds or shallow and it will not work if the fish are not willing to chase like in a cold front. The fish have to be turned on and have the feed bag on. It works really well with Florida strain bass that are willing to chase and will stay out in the open water chasing shad. A lot of northern large mouth anglers are going to be disappointed but you will find that the small mouth love it. Lol, but so do the pike and musky! You take a $20 a-rig and $8 in swimbaits and a 36" pike will open it up like a wire coat hanger. You might as well have been throwing a Lucky Craft lol.

 What it also does is when the bite is on during a tournament it completely levels the playing field. It doesn't matter if you have spent thousands of dollars on working out a pattern and finding spots or if you have been a tournament pro for 30 years you just got brought down to the level of a rookie with blind luck. Now that is frustrating but what are you going to do? The FLW isn't going to ban it and it's too early up here in Canada to see what the Ministry of Natural Resources are going to do. So I hate the thing but you better be sure that next week on Guntersville I will have one tied on.

Tight lines everyone!

FLW Everstart Lake Seminole

 What a crazy couple of weeks I've had. Spent the last 2 weeks in Bainsbridge Georgia, Bainsbridge is a small town on the Flint river just north of Lake Seminole. It's an 50 minute run to the main lake from the boat basin but I only had to do it once. What I like to do when ever I go to a lake for the first time is take the first day a drive the lake that way I have a good idea of where I am at all times and I get to see what kind of lake it is and the kind of structure it has. Day 2 I look at all the back water, day 3 and so on I fish the back waters. What can I tell ya I'm a back water kinda guy, lol. From there I search for my pattern. Finding fish and figuring out why those fish are there and why they are hitting my lure. Once I have that figured out I test that pattern in several spots to confirm that it is a true pattern or is it just those are hot spots.

 This is what I did on Seminole and it seemed to work. By the end of my practise I had 4 spots and 2 patterns. My furthest spot was 15 minutes from the boat basin and I worked my way back from there. My first spot was the largest and I spent haft of day 1 there. I pulled 3 fish there fishing a space between the weed edge on shore and a bed of hydilla that ran for about a mile which included a 5 pound red eye. I was throwing a black with blue flake wacky senko in there but not letting it sit. As soon as my line went slack I reeled up and fired it back out between the edges. My second spot was a small grass bed that was mixed with clover but was on the edge of some deeper water. Here I was throwing a 4" watermelon red flake Xzone Swammer on the grass and swam it back. I did have a couple of blow ups in the deeper water during practise but I didn't remember that little fact till my non-boater scream for the net and pulled a 7.9 out of there lol. Well that was his limit for the day but I was still looking for 2 fish. So off to my next spot and which was about 1 minute away and had the same kind of cover but only a little thicker. And after several blow up I pulled another fish. That would be my last fish for the day, I was still getting blow ups but nothing would commit. I made it back to the weight-in on the exact minute that I was suppose to check in, I fished till the last second and left everything out on the water. At the end of the day I had 13.9 for 4 fish and in 31 place.
Day 2 I decided to fish only the 2 spots that produced for me. My first spot did not refill during the night like I had hoped. I was only able to catch 1 fish there at about 11 am. That's right I stayed and worked my spot with my pattern because tournament day is no time to try something new. Ok I was scared, lol. I went to my second spot hoping that those fish that blow up the day before would be on. They were there and hungry. I was able to limit out, but before leaving I had a fish on that will haunt me for a while. It hit in that clover that that grows on a 1/4" thick vine. I set the hook and I saw it come out of the water but when it landed I was unable to turn it and lost her in the slop. It would have gone 8 plus and put me in the top 10. But that's fishing or at least that's what my therapist tells me. So I brought in 5 fish for 13 lbs and it put me 20th spot. I'm currently in 48th spot overall and with a good finish at Santee Cooper and Guntersville I will be able to go to the championship.

 I would like to thank all my sponsors especially Russell Peters, Evinrude and Bay Marine for a motor that would not quit and Xzone baits for that Swammer and JB's Fishing Depot for making sure I have plenty of Gary Yamamoto Senko's.

Take care and tight lines everyone.

The Show

Now I know what your thinking. I'm finally going talk about TFB The Show. Well I'm not. That will be coming soon enough but not yet. I'm talking about the first show of the year, The Spring Fishing and Boat Show. I love this show! I get to pay back to my sponsors by selling product for them and helping out two good friends of mine Brian and Steve from JB's Fishing Depot. This is also where all of us on the tour get to meet and catch up, the winters for us can be very long lol. Some of the guy's we don't see from September to June. So you the show makes for a good catch up. You also get to meet all your internet friends, you know the people that you become friends with on facebook or twitter and have long talks with but never have actually met. And then there's all that new product to look at and that one new item that everyone has to have. This year it was that stupid Alabama rig. I saw everyone from 10 to 70 years old buying that thing, and no one thought about whats going to happen when a pike or a musky gets a hold of it. lol. It's going to look like an opened up wire coat hanger. The product that caught my eye and shocked me is the St. Croix line of RAGE rods. I can't believe the quality of the rods at that price point! I don't know how they were able to produce a rod like that so inexpensively. I'm going to pick a few up myself.

 To a large degree the show is where and how I measure my success. I keep count of all the people that recognise me, all the vendors that talk to me, and the requests that I receive. I'm very happy with this years results even though my knee's and feet are not, lol. I would have to say the highlight of the show for me is when I was asked to be on stage with a panel of experts talking and answering question from an audience with Big Jim as the host. That was a first for me and an honour.

 As always Andy, Vita and the whole gang did a great job! From the outside of the storm everything looked smooth and perfect. Congrats guy's and thanks for a great job.

 Well I have to start getting ready for my next stop. I'm heading down to Georgia for an FLW Everstart on Lake Seminole.

Tight lines everyone! 
 

FLW Tour Okeechobee Open

Wow what a tournament! Even though I was a non-boater I had a blast.I met so many new friends and many facebook friends for the first time. Got to see my two hero's Roland Martin and Bob Izumi in action. I had fantastic boaters both days Arnie Lane day 1 and Roger Crafton for day 2, Great anglers and all around great guy's. The excitement in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The time out on the water went by so fast but at night I was so beat. I left everything out on the water did not rest a second because that next cast could be the bass that could change the tournament, your career, your life. I'm happy with what I caught but not satisfied if that makes sense, I'll be back next year maybe as a boater. So with my beautiful wife and children in hand I started my long journey home feeling sad that it was over but blessed for having had the opportunity to do what I do for a living. I would like to thank Xzone baits, I caught so many fish on their Swammers. St. Croix rods cause there's no way I would have got those bass out of the slop and from behind that Florida cane with any other rods. I would also like to thank Bay Marine, Evinrude, CPI Pictures, Sirius, Via Rail, JB's Fishing Depot, and last but not least the funniest man alive Russell Peters. With out your help and support I would not be able to do this. I would also like to thank my wife Maria and my children Isabella and Andrew for coming out and cheering me on.

 Well my next stop is the FLW Southeast Everstart on Lake Seminole but first is the Spring Fishing and Boat Show. So for the best prices and selection on St. Croix Rods and Xzone baits come see me at the JB's Fishing Depot's booth.

Tight lines everyone!

Getting Ready 2012

  So I have started to get ready for the 2012 season which begins in 2 weeks. I start my year off as always with a series of tournaments in Florida on Okeechobee. I love it there cause anything could happen, because of this I always bring too much tackle. I will start my year off slowly prefishing for the FLW Everstart opener on Okeechobee. But before the everstart I will use a BFL on the big O as a practice. There's a lot to do before I can fish a tournament properly. I have to give my new Evinrude 250 H.O. Etec a shakedown. I have to sort out all my tackle to get it ready for the new year and have it all in the right place in the boat so there's no confusion when I'm under the gun tournament day. Not to mention miles of line that has to be replace. With my friend Steve Crowley keeping me company I have spent a lot of time on the big O in the last few years and have acquired a considerable amount of water. So I am very excited about this year. I have three tournaments on the big O this spring including a FLW Tour event which I'm very excited about. All in all I'm having a hard time sleeping at night lol. But I think I have all my tackle sorted and my rods are ready so is the boat, trailer and truck. So stay tuned I will keep you all informed as to my progress and my where abouts. Be safe on the ice and tight lines everyone. Mike.  

St. Croix Rods

For the last 10 years I have been using St. Croix rods. I remember my first one, I bought it JB's Fishing Depot, it was a 7' medium Premiere spinning rod. I use that rod for everything!, bass, pike, walleye, I even caught musky on it. It was and still is a great rod. I still have it! I use it for twitch baits. I have moved on since then but never leaving St. Croix, I use Tournament Legend rods now and I love them. And just recently I acquired St. Croix as a sponsor so they will always be with me and Team TFB.

Bay Marine & Evinrude

 I would like to personally welcome Bay Marine and Evinrude BRP to Team TFB. I'm sure that our partnership will prove to be prosperous for everyone.

http://www.evinrude.com/en-CA/

http://www.bay-marine.com/outboardsevinrude.html

2011 Bass Pro Shops Lake Simcoe Open

Wow what a day it was. I can’t believe it’s been a week already, where does the time go? Fall comes so fast. A week ago I was headed up north to Orillia in the cold fall rain towing my boat and for once hoping I wasn’t going to use it. That’s right I was headed to Simcoe but not to fish. I had been asked by Bass Pro Shops to co emcee the 2011 Simcoe Open, and Andy from the CSFL thought it would be a good idea to bring up the Russell Peters Ranger to use as an emergency boat. I have to admit my stomach was full of butterflies, I have talked to groups before and I’ve taught class and given seminars but never to a group that meant so much to me. These are my peers my equals they have the right to judge me, and it was going out over live radio so I had to watch my language. Well when Andy introduced me I went all in and hit the stage running. Once we got the ball rolling, I got into my groove and was wishing it would never end. There were so many big bags of fish I couldn’t believe it and the anglers that didn’t do so well were in such a good mood that it made my job so easy. Geno my co emcee did such a good job filling in the blanks and picking up the slack that it kept everything moving smoothly. And of course none of this would have been possible without Vita keeping us on a steady pace and not allowing me to turn it into a stand up session. Then suddenly it was all over. I guess I did ok, people seemed to be happy with my performance and as far as I know there were no complaints. Within minutes of it being done the stage and scales were being packed up and everyone was gone. At that point I realized just how hard the CSFL crew works.I would like to thank everyone at Bass Pro Shops, and the whole CSFL troop for all their hard work and I will see you again next year.
Tight lines everyone!