Beaver FLW (Wal-Mart Open)

I had four fish for 8-05 today. I had a shot at a good day. I caught a 3-pounder pretty early on a bed, then caught another over 3 on a swimbait pretty early, then a small keeper. So I had three pretty early.

The I fished all day, had a few bump my swimbait and jerkbait, but only caught one more – it was on the Yamamoto worm.

It was one of those days again that was close but no cigar. I had a shot at a good bag, but couldn't quite do it. I think I'll throw the swimbait a lot tomorrow – try to get a good bite – then throw a jerkbait, then shake a worm and try to get my five.

Timing's everything on this lake.

Practice was pretty decent. It went pretty good – I caught quite a few fish. We had a little bit of everything happen in the weather during practice, and it seemed like the sunny, calmer days were better for me. I was catching fish throwing just a little jighead and Zoom finesse worm. I was also catching a few on a jerkbait, and seeing some sight-fish too, but not a lot.

I had a decent practice, so I went into the tournament feeling pretty optimistic. But today was windy and cloudy. I caught 6 keepers, but they didn't weigh very much, 6-05 I think it was.

I was able to catch a couple of good largemouths and a good smallmouth each practice day and today that didn't happen. I did have one mean-mouth, but all the rest were just spots.

I'll regroup and try again tomorrow. I'll fish the same type of stuff because there's good fish there. My co-angler caught a couple of good largemouths behind me today.

I arrived in Rogers (Ark.) at midday Friday and was on the water by noon. I spent the day fairly close to the tournament launch and caught a few keepers and several short fish, mostly around docks, and then messed around with some schooling fish until sundown.

When I tried to take my boat out of the water I discovered my power trim was dead. Big thanks to Team Castrol and Evinrude pro Mike Surman for giving me a major hand getting my Evinrude hoisted and locked up so I could trailer the boat.

My motor was down for the count and the Evinrude trailer wasn't due until Monday, so Saturday I went out with Jason Knapp. That's about all I have to say about that, because while Jason and I always have a good time, the fishing was terrible. I learned nothing and did nothing but lose confidence.

I took the day off on Sunday and tooled around town with my dad. We drove around the University of Arkansas campus, and later had lunch on the water at Prairie Creek Marina. I love Beaver Lake and this area of the country so much that we're thinking of relocating here in the next few years, and we're trying to talk my parents into moving down with us. I guess this was a recruiting trip of sorts.

On Monday morning the awesome guys at the Evinrude tournament support trailer got me up and running, and I spent the rest of Monday in the lower lake near the dam. The fish bit much better for me down there and I found several good spots on Monday.

On Tuesday Patrick Wilson from California came out fishing with me. Pat is an exceptionally talented and accomplished co-angler from out West, and will be the subject of a future Complete Co-Angler feature story. It was a privilege to spend the day with him and I learned some pretty cool stuff, too. We ran back down to the lower lake.

First thing in the morning we got into a huge school of white bass and caught about 30 of them in 10 minutes on topwaters and swimbaits. They were all big ones - none of them were less than 2 pounds. They won't help us in the tourney, but they sure were fun while they lasted. After that excitement we got back to the task of chasing the green and brown fish.

As expected, he schooled me. He caught 11 keepers fishing mostly from the back deck, while I caught maybe 5. We caught them on a variety of techniques, but one approach was clearly stronger than the rest.

After Tuesday I feel very confident about this tournament. I know it's dangerous to say things like this, but if I can't catch a limit on Day 1 I deserve to be publicly flogged. Look for Patrick to do some damage as well.

I've been here 8 days, and practiced about 5 or 6 of them. It's been pretty interesting. There's lots of differences each day. I had some good days, some slow days, but overall I'm catching more fish than last year.

I got on an interesting pattern this year which I'll try a little tomorrow. It's a reaction-bait pattern. If it works, I'll tell you more about it.

Other than that I'll do the standard – probably shaking a Yamamoto worm and fishing a jerkbait a little bit and that's about it. Overall the fishing's pretty good, but getting bigger fish – the keepers – will be key.

I think I have a little thing figured out, but we'll see.