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It’s good to be back. After a hiatus from blogging, I’m really excited to again share a glimpse into my life. I’ll be discussing issues that are important to me as a Bassmaster Elite Series pro — not only on the professional level, but also personal interests and activities.
My hope is that this blog will help us all become better anglers and better stewards of our natural resources both here in the U.S. and globally. Remember, feedback is important, and I welcome any comments or questions you may have.
Now, let me tell you about an exciting program that I’ll soon begin promoting. This year, I’ll have a brand new title sponsor – Miracle Ear Hearing Aids.
I actually use their product for my mild hearing loss, so I’m a firm believer in what I’ll be promoting. However, it’s very important for me to clarify that I’m not accepting any financial support from Miracle Ear.
Rather, my goal is to help promote the Miracle Ear Foundation, which raises funds to provide hearing aids to folks who can’t afford them. Each year, the Miracle Ear Foundation gives away thousands of hearing aids and that makes me very proud to work with them.
One of the fun things that I’ll get to do as a part of my sponsorship is host a free fishing trip to Lake Falcon for one lucky sweepstakes winner. We’ll be announcing full program details soon – probably next month at the GEICO Bassmaster Classic. For now, I can tell you that anyone who makes a donation to the Miracle Ear Foundation will be entered into the sweepstakes.
I can’t imagine going through life deaf, so to help provide hearing aids for people who have either lost their hearing, or they’ve lived with hearing impairment, is something I’m really proud to do.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been standing on the bow of my boat, facing one direction, and then I heard a sound behind me that completely changed my day. It could be the sound of a fish breaking water, or the sound of schooling fish erupting in the distance. Maybe it’s the sound of feeding birds, or even industrial sounds that can spook fish.
If you can’t hear those sounds, you wouldn’t know to fish where you are, move somewhere else or leave the area completely. Hearing can impact our game as anglers, but it all comes down to a person’s quality of life. As a customer and a marketing partner, I’m very pleased to be working with Miracle Ear because I can see how they’re making a difference in people’s lives.
That’s one of the great honors of being a professional bass fisherman and having experience in my field; it gives me the ear of many people and I take that very seriously.
I want to make sure I have positive messages out there, and not just about fishing, but also messages with the potential to benefit all of society.
I’m sure that whoever wins the Miracle Ear Foundation sweepstakes will enjoy the trip of a lifetime. And on that note, I can tell you from my personal experience of winning the 2008 Classic that the upcoming event on Grand Lake is going to reward the winning angler with the most amazing achievement our sport has to offer.
This time of year, it’s all about getting ready for the Classic. We’ve been off-limits on Grand Lake for almost two full months, but what’s not off-limits is my time and preparation.
That involves a lot of things and most recently I’ve been busy putting a new boat together. I like to do my own rigging for a couple of reasons. First, I enjoy manual activities like installing my electronics and other elements of boat rigging.
Also, if I ever have a problem or issue on the water, I have a pretty good idea of what’s happening. If it’s a fairly simple repair that can be made on the water, I’ll know how to handle it myself.
Tackle is another big area of organization and preparation, and a third and equally important area is spending a lot of time on the water. In the latter part of fall, I took some time off work to focus on family, home and church activities. But as I’ve put this new boat together, I’ve been spending more time on the water.
It’s been important to get myself back into what I’d call a fishing frame of mind. It’s about remembering what it’s like to think like a fish; to be on a lake where you’re not on any fish and having to go out and find them.
Even though Grand Lake will be a different lake than the ones I’ve been fishing (Falcon and Whitney), a lot of the processes that your brain goes through to find fish will be exactly the same.
Actually, Lake Whitney has some of the same features we’ll find on Grand, and the seasonal progression has given me some valuable preparation scenarios. The fish here are approximately a month ahead of the fish we’ll find on Grand Lake.
I haven’t concerned myself so much with figuring out baits for the Classic, but I have been getting myself into that prespawn phase and thinking about what the bass will be looking for. What areas are they leading to and what areas are they coming from? Where are those transitions?
I think it’s important for me to go into the Classic with an open mind, but I want to approach Grand Lake with a prepared mind.
In closing, I’d like to touch on something that’s important to me. Fishing professionally comes with a lot of stress, but the thing that gets me through the challenges and strengthens me for each season is my faith in Jesus Christ.
I try to share my faith whenever I can, and one of the ways I’ll be doing that is by posting a scripture verse for each Elite Series event on the side of my boat. I’ll start with the Classic.
So, if you see me at the dock or on the water, you’ll see the verse that I’ve chosen for the inspiration and serenity I’ll need to look through the stress and see the path to victory.