Can I get a “Woo, Woo!”??!! For a third place finish at West Point!!

Things are starting to come together! Starting to feel good about my fishing, but most importantly I am having fun.

Out there sporting my Team Bass ADX hat, enjoying the day, we are at Lake Murray and I’m listening to Sirius XM Radio on my Lowrance Sonic Hub, bumpin’ - just having fun. You know, this is what it’s all about.

Pretty much looking forward to Murray, lots of big fish, just got to put them in the boat. Things are going really, really good.

I Feel good about my fishing, so hopefully everything comes together and then we’re off to the Red River which is flooding a little bit, but things are great right now.

Feeling good, fishing good, and gotta have a sandwich from the lunch lady and we’ll be working things out ‘til next week.

So, I'll talk to you guys then. Until then, visit me on the web at: www.ishmonroe.com

Blog provided by: www.AdvanceAngler.com

Well, we are still fishin’!

Fished Mark’s Outdoor Tournament last week and that’s insane! Five hundred fifty boats and I finished 20th which was decent, okay? You know, I wanted to win, but that’s the way things go. So, I’ll take top twenties for the rest of my life in my career and you know throw a win in there every once in a while, I would really be good with that.

Off to West Point Lake!

Fish are in a lot of different modes, it’s kinda weird, there are not a lot of bed fish, there are a few here and there, post spawn fish, seems like there might even be some pre spawn fish and they are not really acting different so fishing is obviously evolving and you have to do something and you have to change with it!

I’m really looking forward to the tournament, hopefully I can keep the momentum going from catching that giant, 10.15 almost call it 11, one ounce, what’s one ounce? Well once ounce could be a million dollars for somebody. That could be the difference in winning a tournament or not winning a tournament. Look at Dean Rojas; he could have tied with one ounce!

But, looking forward to it.

Murray, swim bait bite; really looking forward to that especially with the new Rago Baits.

Team Bass ADX is goin’ really good, starting to get some stores out in the South and the East Coast which is great, but, you know, go out and get you a shirt or a hat or a sweatshirt or something like that and enjoy it!

Team Bass ADX Gear

And as we say; on to the next one; I will talk to you guys next week.

Blog provided by: www.AdvanceAngler.com

Elite 12 at Toledo Bend

Finally, a fourth day cut thanks to a 10-pound-15-ounce largemouth that I caught with five minutes left on day two, and I made it back to check-in with 1.1 seconds to spare before I would have been late. Let me say that again; not one minute and one second, but 1.1 seconds left when I checked in.

You know, I was a little frustrated after the first day because I didn’t have such a good day; I lost a good one on a swimbait, but that can happen when you’re throwing swimbaits. I tried to put it together for day two, but the wind made it kind of frustrating with gust up to 35 miles an hour, and by the end of the day, I only had three fish in the boat.

I decided to go try and finish the day out on this one little area that I found on my Navionics chip that showed a roadbed clearly on my Lowrance HDS unit. The great thing about the combination of Lowrance and Navionics is that any place I go to I can almost feel like a local because a lot of those special, locals only, hidden hot spots are right there on my HDS screen

I was fishing along the road bed, and I came across these old pilings there, like an old dock used to be there. I pitched a Berkley Power Lizard in there with my 7’1” heavy action Daiwa Steez Compile X rod and 20-pound-test Maxima Fluorocarbon. I got a bite, and set the hook into what was a heavy fish. The fish was obviously in some sort of cover and was sawing me back and forth.
We were playing tug –o-war for a little while when I decided I was going to have to break her off in the cover. I pointed my Steez rod right at her and pulled hard, trying to break the line; but, the Maxima Fluorocarbon held strong and I pulled her out of the cover instead. She came right to the surface and laid there; exhausted.

I figured she was about eight pounds and I thought I still needed one more fish to make the top 50 cut; so I fished for a couple more minutes. I finally put everything down and took off for the check-in. The waves got really big because of the wind, but my RangerZ521 and Yamaha VMAX SHO 250 really put on a show getting me back.

When I pulled into the check in, I looked at the clock on my Lowrance and it said 4:30, then as I looked at it again, it said 4:31. I looked at the check in guy and gave him a thumbs up to see if I’d made it; when he gave me the thumbs up back; I knew I had made it.

When I was bagging my fish, I looked at the big one again and realized she might be a little bigger than eight pounds, and that I might have 16 pounds or so for my four fish. It turned out that she weighed almost 11 pounds and I had 19 pounds which moved me up into position to make the third day cut.

I went out the next day and fished hard and caught 16-pounds to make the day four cut; which was really good because my confidence level had started to become really low. But, this finish helped put me in a position to be able to fish well over the next four events and make the Classic. The lakes we’re going to make me feel like I’ve got a good shot, especially Lake Murray because the last time we went there, I finished in the top 10.

So, I’m stopping at the Arkansas River to pre practice, then I’m on to Table Rock for the Bassmaster Central Open. See ya.

Blog provided by: www.AdvanceAngler.com

Week number five on the seven week stretch was at Lake Lanier for the PAA. Should have been an excellent tournament but you know how it goes; we always bring the worst weather possible.

I went from sight fishing and 80 degrees in to freezing cold and raining so it pulled all the fish off bed and has them in a real funky mood. You know I was really looking forward to the frog bite and swimbait bites on some big old spotty bass.

Lanier was almost like a West Coast reunion; Papa Mur Dog John Murray, Spin to Win Aaron Martens Justin Kerr, Rusty Salewske; B. Hite is here; Big dog Brett Hite.

Lanier turned out to be a light line event, but I’m looking forward to get back the frogs, flipping sticks and swimbaits next week at Pickwick and then Toledo Bend.

Let’s talk about April; April is a great month, and when the fish start biting, start spawning, they get up shallow and then you get cold fronts like we did on Lake Lanier last week. But, then now we hit April where the weather starts out being real nice down here on Pickwick Lake and I’m pretty excited about that.

I wanted to say I’m really excited about the cover of Bassmaster this month, that’s pretty exciting here for me, I even got my Team Bass Adx hat on there; which everyone should be sporting one.

I’m just getting off the water; yeah a little early I know, but the one thing is this new Lowrance Sirius weather I have on my HDS unit is awesome. It told me about the thunderstorm and the possible tornados that are coming in here at Pickwick Lake and it allowed me to get off the water early to avoid the dangerous weather.

But, fish were biting, I’m getting really excited because I get to fish shallow. Of course I was catching some of them with my frogs, some of them flipping and on a spinnerbait and a Chatterbait. Things look really good and I hope to go out this week and really whack ’em.

I got a little bluegill here from Jerry Rago that I’m really looking forward to throw on Toledo Bend, especially because they are going be on the spawn and post spawn so I’ll defiantly be reeling that blue gill through some of those beds and that should jack me up a couple of giants. So if you haven’t got your Jerry Rago bluegill them you better go out get your Jerry Rago bluegills because you’re going to need them.

Other than that got my truck looking all pretty fired up and things are good. Hope to catch them this week, wish me luck and see you guys next week.

Blog provided by: www.AdvanceAngler.com