Table Rock Bassmaster

(Editor's note: Jarrett Edwards underwent surgery today. He called BassFan from the hospital bed with this update.)

They're pretty sure it's Hodgkin's Disease. I'll have to have chemo and radiation for the next 4 to 6 months. They say the success rate's around 85%. So we have some real good options and real good opportunities.

We've had this family doctor named Rick Finley in Mississippi. Rick is a professor at the University of Mississippi – he teaches other doctors, and his specialty is infectious disease. It's only taken less than 2 weeks to get into surgery because of him. He has me meeting with a cancer doctor Thursday.

I'm really optimistic for it, but we have to wait and make sure that's the exact diagnosis. They're about 70% sure that's what it was. They feel pretty positive that, whatever it is, they caught it pretty early and that it was smart for me to miss Table Rock because it can go into other organs and stuff like that.

I'm really excited about the news. If it was any cancer that I had I'd have it be Hodgkin's, which is treatable. Thank God. I'm really looking forward to getting on the road with getting this stuff knocked out and getting ready for next year's tour season. We'll pull through it.

I've had an amazing response from BassFans. It helps so much knowing there's so many fans and people who really care. I've probably had over 600 emails the last week and a half. The phone just rings every day. Cards, flowers, fruit baskets – it's been unreal. The website has just an amazing amount of readership. It's just been incredible.

Every day I come home and get a tear in my eye when I see the messages. It helps you so much to know people care and support you. And my sponsors have been absolutely wonderful.

And it's killing me to miss Table Rock. I'm usually around 120 to 125 in the points, and I was climbing back up to the 80 mark. I thought that was a pretty good season with all the promotional work I do.

Again, thank you for the opportunity to provide this update.

BassFans who wish to contact Edwards with a message of support can click here to email him.

I had two fish today. I was lucky to get the two I got – they were barely hooked. I had four or five others pull off. I have to look at the positives, I guess.

I was throwing the a Tim Hughes jerkbait – the same thing I threw last year. They were just nipping it and flashing at it. They really didn't commit on it. They're Rogue jerkbaits that Tim Hughes handpaints here – they're a famous jerkbait here in this part of the country.

If I want to make the E50s, I have to catch a limit tomorrow. Even if I do, I still may not make it. I'll fish hard, but I've pretty much resigned myself to not making it. Anything I catch will be a bonus as far as moving up.

I'm just going to fish hard and go to the areas where I caught them last year. I only caught dinks there in practice, but maybe with the weather coming in the bites will be better.

On this lake, if you're not on them, you're not on them. You're either on them or you're not. You can't just go and scrape down a bank.

I had a battery charger go bad – well, not as much the charger but the dock. I had some power issues at the dock. Last year, on the same dock, I also burned my battery charger up. Back then, I thought it was the rain, but it did it again.

I'm not sure what the deal is. I had no power yesterday morning, but got it fixed at Ranger. So I just sat there watching the wind blow. The wind was howling yesterday. Fishing wise, that's what you want. I don't think it's supposed to blow today though.

I'm having a tough time. I caught two keepers each day, and quite a few shorts on Tuesday. I've been cranking the usual stuff – Wiggle Warts – and jerking Lucky Craft Pointers and Rogues. I haven't had a worm or jig bite at all.

I didn't fish deep much – I don't like fishing deep here – and I haven't caught any (deep). And I have not had a bite on any plastics.

My plan today is to throw a crankbait and jerkbait all day. Some fish are suspended, and come up out of deep water to hit the jerkbait, but I can't catch them going down after them too much.

It seems like they're between winter and pre-spawn patterns. The pre-spawn is not happening yet. You see a lot of dying shad still, so it's almost like winter, even though the weather's beautiful.

I expect it to break loose any day. It should happen sooner or later.

If I don't get at least a Top 60 here, I'm not in the E50s. Basically, I've done everything I can to not make it.