Practice Blog
Thursday and Friday's practice for the Berkley Powerbait Trophy Chase
Bassmaster.com will host a live feed of Hooked Up! today at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Click here to watch Hooked Up!
6:15 p.m. ET
Regardless of what the current is doing, the largemouth bite at Jordan can be pretty bulletproof; the only problem is that the lake "fishes small." There's only so much bank cover such as shallow grass, emergent weeds and moss pads in the backends of coves. There's a zillion docks, but not so many that have the requisite depth and wood cover under them. The bank cover gets hammered by the locals over and over, though probably most of the locals can't present a lure as precisely as these guys can. If largemouths do make the BIG difference, then look for the guys such as jig master Tommy Biffle, a surface specialist such as Gary Klein or any number of guys who are good with frogs to do well.
4:45 p.m. ET
All our crew is off the water, as are some of the anglers. Skeet Reese and Biffle have their boats on trailers, but I just saw KVD fly by, so he's still fishing.
Overstreet's heading back to the hotel to process his photos, so be watching for those.
And be sure to catch Hooked Up! at 6:30 ET here in a couple hours.
We're also finally getting some videos through on BASSCam, but you've seen less than half at the time of this blog so refresh, refresh, refresh for the next couple hours.
Also to come this evening is a wrap up from Russow, who was on the water all day, and a story about electronics from Colin Moore, who bounced around different anglers' boats all day.
When KVD pulled up in front of the marina, he was staring at his screen, stopped and went in reverse about three feet, so electronics are playing a big part in the deep bite in Lake Jordan.
More to come.
4:15 p.m. ET
We make a BIG move, heading to the middle area of Lake Jordan. Cliff Pace is still looking for an offshore sweet spot, the place to catch some good keepers in a hurry to fill out a stringer.
Otherwise, he"l have to beat the banks and hope he gets lucky on a toad largemouth or two. One thing about Cliff, when he fishes a spot, it's been fished. He doesn't leave without taking a likely-looking spot apart with a variety of lures and he fishes it pretty much top to bottom.
It's about time to go to the house.
4:01 p.m. ET
Cliff just caught another chunk, a spotted bass of about 2 pounds. That's the third keeper of the afternoon, not counting the fish this morning that he intentionally didn't stick.
We're in an area of strong current where the water is sort of bottlenecked. You'd think we'd be seeing shad flipping on the points of the bottleneck, but they're nowhere to be found here.
The doldrums have set in now. The wind has quietened to a breeze and the sun is cooking: late summer in south central Alabama.
3:29 p.m. ET
VanDam just stopped and started fishing right by the marina. He's about 30 yards offshore, but he's throwing toward the middle of the lake.
I can't see what he's doing, but he's cranking the reel like only KVD does. Nobody covers more water or makes more casts than KVD. That's why he is "KVD" and not "Kevin VanDam" or "that guy."
There's a guy at the marina with a 3-foot crankbait. Everyone is laughing and talking about VanDam. It makes me wonder if KVD didn't stop near the marina to tempt his followers to take a break — they did, and now they're telling stories, using words like "unbelievable" and "legend."
3:28 p.m. ET
Cliff puts another 12-incher in the boat that latched on and wouldn't let go.
Randy Howell pulls up on a spot we left a while ago.
Cliff moves again to a sunken point in the mouth of a cove.
Ten minutes after he got there, Randy leaves the spot he was fishing and moves about 200 yards. Meanwhile, Skeet Reese goes by, balling the jack like he just remembered somewhere he had to be.
3:17 p.m. ET
Call off the search, we have found Todd Faircloth up the river and he likes what he's been doing.
Russow says Faircloth's junk fishing, catching them both shallow and deep. Faircloth said he caught one close to four pounds and has been shaking them off since.
He's only a mile or two from the north dam, and lot of what he's doing is current dependent. He says they've been running the current since 9 a.m. (10 ET), and that's helped a lot.
He wasn't hidden when they found him. He says he's probably been running all over the place, so we just must have been a wrong place, wrong time situation for us.
2:50 p.m. ET
Cliff Pace throws out a buoy on the side of a submerged point, just where the bottom contour changes on the upstream side.
"It gives me a reference point; that's all," says Cliff.
"I didn't mark any fish there, but there might be some on out where it goes deeper."
Nothing doing; we're gone.
2:45 p.m. ET
I'm riding with KVD and the water is ripping. In the last hour he's fished offshore humps and points, now working docks and grass. Still no bites.
— Keith Alan
Keith Alan
2:33 p.m. ET
Cliff Pace's plan is to find a group of big spotted bass, but it's not going well.
"You want to have vat least a couple of places where you can count on pulling up and getting a good fish or two. If there are places like that on this lake, I haven't found them yet."
Time is running out. He spends several minutes thoroughly working a spot, without success.
"This lake has the potential to produce some huge stringers of bass, but they've got to cooperate some," he says.
Cliff bases his observation on what he's heard about Jordan, because he never fished it before Thursday.
2:11 p.m. ET
Gary Klein spent almost all day yesterday up by the northern dam, but today he's closer to the middle of the lake. He's still fishing deep, and still trying the same technique, but in a new area. He's targeting points within pockets in major creeks.
Yesterday at about this point, there was a major exodus up the lake because that's when they're supposed to start pulling water. We haven't see that today, but Iaconelli did fly by Rob and Overstreet while we were on the phone.
We've reported on just about everyone except Todd Faircloth. In two days, Overstreet and Russow have yet to see him.
"We've been from dam to dam and no sign," Russow said. "So, he's either sleeping at the hotel or he has a special spot to himself."
Russow and Overstreet are running up the river now toward the northern dam to see who's there hoping for current.
2:10 p.m. ET
A few docks get sampled by Kelly Jordon. Now I've become a bad luck charm for him, so he unloads me on Cliff Pace, who is also trying to find the magic offshore bite.
I'm not in the boat for five casts before Cliff srts the hook on a 1 1/2-pound spot. He tells me he could have caught a limit, but he's shaken most of them off.
"One here, one there. It's frustrating when you can't get more than a bie or two in the same place," says the Mississippi pro.
The sun is beating down again, and it's windy. Very weird weather, but not enough to make the bass hungry.
1:38 p.m. ET
There are a lot of bars and humps in Lake Jordan, and Kelly Jordon is checking as many of them as he can before Friday's main event begins. A local comes be and asks KJ how his practice is going.
"So-so," he answers. It's getting hot. '; takes off his light jacket, then back to business.
1:37 p.m. ET
Everything we're getting says the second day of practice has been quite a bit better than the first. Whether that's because the storm and wind have arrived or because they eliminated bad water yesterday, we're not sure.
Keith Alan said Alton Jones has been fishing docks pretty much all day from what he's seen, which can be a hit or miss type of bite.
Skeet Reese, as we reported earlier, is one of the few guys that wasn't lured to the bank by the weather. He's seems convinced that this tournament will be won deep, or at least that the deep bite will be the more consistent bite. He's known for his power fishing but he's not power fishing here. He told Alan the bite's been "good, not great."
Reese did catch a three pounder while Alan was there and shook a couple off. He wasn't too far from Michael Iaconelli, but he was nowhere near a bank. Or as Alan described it, he was "right smack dab in the middle of the lake."
Reese prides himself on not being married to one technique or one style of fishing, and it seems to be working for him here.
It's also interesting that while Kevin VanDam has been experimenting with a shallow bite, he and Reese spent a lot of time within sight of each other in multiple locations. Reese told Alan he "couldn't shake him."
As Colin reported about an hour ago, Jordon told Alan he was having a decent day. The wind is definitely helping. Alan said whether they're pulling water or it's just the wind, the water does seem to be moving and it's helped the bite.
Alan actually found a place on Jordan with decent cell service and is currently uploading some new video to BASSCam, so hopefully that will be up soon.
12:58 p.m. ET
Kelly Jordon has moved twice in the last 20 minutes. The fish are nowhere to be found now, current or no current. Weather-wise, it missed a good chance to rain.
A couple of hours ago, it looked like the bottom was going to fall out. It still could.
There are plenty of dark clouds. Here comes Keith Alan, cracking wise as usual. He stops and does a short video loop with KJ.
"Are you dialed in on anything?" he asks.
"I'm doing better than I did yesterday," says KJ, playing it close to the vest.
12:45 p.m. ET
Keith Alan reports that the wind is picking up, blowing straight up the gut of the lake and adding water movement.
He's seen Skeet Reese have "some" success out deep in the last few minutes.
Meanwhile, Alton Jones is targeting docks.
12:38 p.m. ET
Russow and Overstreet spent a little time with Cliff Pace, while he fished a bar on the main lake. He's looking for deep fish, like many of the others, but isn't having a lot of luck yet.
He spent the morning looking shallow and again, didn't have a great day. Everything seems to be scattered for him.
We're asking the anglers who big a factor largemouth or spotted bass will have in this event.
Pace thinks spotted bass outnumber largemouth 50 to 1 on Lake Jordan and the event will be won on spotted bass.
He knows some largemouth will be brought in. He could have weighed a limit of them on the first day of practice, but he also expects to see some 5-pound spots hit the scales as well.
Currently, he's spending a lot of time looking at the whole lake. He said he likes to look at the whole thing before settling in. But at the moment, most everything hešs been catching has been scattered. He's had no luck on finding concentrations of fish and feels he may have to just stay moving and work on getting a limit.
Spectator boats have picked up noticeably.
Skeet now has about six boats following every move and every pro on the water has some spectators watching them. Add that to local anglers and boat traffic could be an issue this week, especially considering that the lake fishes so small.
12:25 p.m. ET
Kelly Jordon is working over a grassy point pretty thoroughly with the standard baits, but no takers.
A lot of locals are running back and forth now. Funny, there weren't many around until the current started running strongly. It's as if they knew when to start fishing.
"What do they want," KJ asks, rhetorically. "Beats me," I answer to myself.
Time to go.
12:15 p.m. ET
Tommy Biffle is fishing in the mid-lake area, doing what he does best and basically what you expect him to do — tie on a jig and hit shallow cover.
"He's just doing his thing," Russow said.
But at the moment, his thing has been tough. Biffle said he hadn't got a lot of bites and the ones he's had, he's not set the hook on.
He feels like he spent too much time on Day One of practice trying to catch those deeper bites, when he should have been looking around and finding those shallow places that could produce big largemouth.
Biffle backed up what we saw, that few of the pros have been able to put anything together in the deeper water. But he did say that he saw several locals hauling them in.
He thinks that the difference was in the baits and how they were being used. He's made some adjustments to his baits and hopes that might make the difference.
He expects to head back to the deeper water and give it a try once the current gets the way he wants it.
Current is something he's really looking forward to, not as much on Lake Jordan, but on the Alabama River. He expects the fishing will be much better for him in that fishery than on the lake.
Expectations are that current will be present for that whole event.
12:05 p.m. ET
The current is rolling, and KJ's Skeeter has just settled down in a new spot. KVD's boat is visible in the distance.
Mark Menendez stops to chat, and then moves on.
Kelly gets another strike, but here again, we're talking about some spread-out bass. KJ has been alternating between two baits for the last several minutes, and has about given up on the topwater bite.
"It would be nice if they start schooling," he says.
"They," meaning these big, mean Coosa River spotted bass, which apparently aren't listening.
12:04 p.m. ET
Retro Note
There was a dinner for the anglers and their significant other's Wednesday night where they chatted with each other and some from the local political scene.
The only angler not there at the beginning of the festivities was Kevin VanDam, who got stuck in traffic somewhere between Kalamazoo, Mich., and Wetumpka, Ala.
Before they sat down to eat, Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis addressed the anglers.
"Someone in this room will be Angler of the Year in a week," he said, then remembered VanDam wasn't there and started to correct himself.
Randy Howell quickly jumped in.
"Hey man, you said it."
11:45 a.m. ET
Our eyes and ears on the water chased down Skeet Reese, who in the last couple of hours has started trying to figure out the deeper fish.
"He's fishing some deep water humps out in the middle of no where," reporter Rob Russow said.
While they were with Skeet across the lake, they noticed that Kevin VanDam was also out in the middle of nowhere, bombing a crankbait and looking for a deeper bite.
Everyone seems to be trying to figure out the suspended fish bite.
At least almost everyone.
Our intrepid pair finally found Mike Iaconelli, who was noticeably invisible on Day One, at least from us. We do know he was on the water and had a contingent of spectators already following.
It didn't hurt his productivity, though.
Ike found an area yesterday that is holding about 70 percent big spotted bass and 30 percent big largemouth.
Today, he says the fish are still there and they are biting.
According to Ike, he caught two big largemouths there and a couple of spotted bass between 3- and 4-pounds.
Ike says he's confident that he's found one good pattern, but he knows he will need more than one.
He's spending his second practice day looking for that additional pattern that will go with the one he has working.
11:35 a.m. ET
"Whoa, It just got crushed," Kelly Jordon said.
That's the seventh bite of the morning, though about 30 miutes since the last one. KJ is just keeping his lures wet, trying to find a steady bite.
We run about a half-mile and then, Eureka! KJ notices that the keepers at Bouldin Dam are generating water. There's strong current now, and things could get interesting.
11:15 a.m. ET
Did somebody predict a hurricane? The wind is picking up and the storm clouds are rolling in.
As my old Wetumpka, Ala., fishing buddy Rick Redmon used to say before a storm, "something bad is fixin' to happen."
KJ likes the wind and hopes it keeps up. "You can powerifish better," he said. "It gets the fish going a little."
KJ just had another bite.
"I know ther are some little stretches I can catch them on," he said.
Then he sort of shrugs. He's definitely not married to this area, especially if something better turns up this afternoon.
11 a.m. ET
We move about a mile down the lake to check a place that looks a lot like the areaa where Kelly Jordon nailed the big spotted bass earlier.
We come to a stretch of shallow water that apparently has a creek running through it. Nada, but it's probably a great spring spot when bass are moving up to spawn.
We keep going and KJ gets bit, but now he's got his hook covered and is just counting bites.
"That was bite No. 6," he said.
10:55 a.m. ET
As always, weather figures to play a big factor in the outcome of this event.
Today the weather is overcast, according to Rob Russow and James Overstreet (our eyes and ears on the water), "it feels like it could rain any minute."
Those conditions are perfect for these anglers to ply the shallows looking for bites. We've already seen where Kelly Jordon has had some success there.
That same kind of success has been present for other anglers as well.
While we can't, or won't, reveal what these guys are specifically doing, our eyes and ears tell us that Gerald Swindle may have figured out something this morning.
He's doing something a little different than any one else and he's getting bit. We think he's someone to watch.
That shallow bite, brought about by clouds, wind and possible rain, could figure to be a big factor in this event. On Day One of practice, the 12 anglers seemed to get frustrated with the deeper bite, rolling all of their hopes into generation schedules that would produce current on Lake Jordan and put the big spotted bass in a position to be caught.
Russow said that it seemed like all the anglers were much more upbeat on Day Two with the clouds and wind. They've all looked at the weather forecast and know that those conditions will likely be similar to what they will be dealing with when this thing gets started Saturday morning.
But there are still those trying to put together all the pieces of the puzzle. Randy Howell, for example, appears to be spending more time than the rest of the crew trying to learn how to catch those deeper spots.
The shad and bass are still locked into a summer pattern, with big balls of shad moving around and over those deep haunts. Howell knows if he can figure out those spotted bass below them, he could unlock the biggest piece of the puzzle.
While a lot of the field is working shallow, Howell is still working on making a deeper pattern work for him.
10:30 a.m. ET
Kelly Jordon is still hammering away, but hasn't had another bump.
"Smallmouths are the most unpredictable bass as far as figuring out where and when they'll be, but spotted bass are a close second. Just when you think you've got them pegged, they prove you wrong."
Lake Jordan reminds KJ of Lay Lake, a couple of lakes upstream on the Coosa River. He likes Lay better than Jordan — "so far."
10:15 a.m. ET
Things are looking up for Kelly Jordon. He just nailed a 4-pound spotted bass. With the 3-pounder he caught earlier this morning, he would have about 7 pounds by now.
"I have a feeling I'll be spending a lot of time in here tommorow," he says.
No wonder. He's had four good bites today. KJ has caught four bass on four different lures in two days of practice, but what the heck, at least he's catching them.
10:00 a.m. ET
Gerald Swindle is fishing around the corner from Kelly Jordon and is wearing ridiculous pants. As soon as we can get enough cell service to do it, we'll upload the video into BASSCast and Overstreet should have photos in his gallery this afternoon.
Swindle, like most guys this morning, is testing the shallow bite.
— Rob Russow
9:45 a.m. ET
Kelly Jordon had been fishing some beautiful shallow water with surface lures, but no takers. Now he's pitching a big grass bed that comes out into about 9 feet of water. It's quite a depth change, because up to now, the water was very shallow with no deep water close — a veritable desert as far as bass are concerned.
— Colin Moore
9:30 a.m. ET
I got with Kelly Jordon, and he's checking out the topwater bite. It ought to be good, considering how overcast it is. The water is clear where we're fishing, as opposed to the main lake, which is the color of coffee with a dash of cream. KJ got one nice 3-pounder first thing, but just dinks since.
— Colin Moore
9:10 a.m. ET
KVD is checking the pockets on the east side of the lake north of Jordan Dam. No fish yet; he' trying to eliminate baits at this point of practice.
— Colin Moore
8:30 a.m. ET
James Overstreet, Rob Russow, Colin Moore and Keith Alan are all back out onto Lake Jordan this morning to chase the anglers as they fine tune their approach on the final day of practice.
It looks like it could downpour at any second. The forecast calls for roughly a 50 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms all weekend, so this could give the anglers a decent idea of what it's going to look like come tournament time on Saturday.
So far, it seems like they're more interested in current than they are weather, but both will have an effect on the fishing.
We'll be updating this blog and BASSCam all day. Russow and Overstreet will be bouncing around in one boat taking photos and notes, Moore will be getting in boats with anglers to spend a little more quality time, and Alan with have his own boat and a BASSCam camera.
Thursday
5:50 p.m. ET
I worked at B.A.S.S. in Montgomery for 14 years, and we used to have company tournaments on Lake Jordan. It holds some of the biggest spotted bass and largemouths of the entire Coosa River chain, and it wasn't uncommon for somebody in one of our tournaments to weigh in a 6- to 8-pound largemouth and a 4- to 5-pound spotted bass. Usually it was Trip Weldon.
I keep in touch with my old Montgomery buddies and I've been told that, lately, it's taking 16- to 18-pound stringers to win the one-day buddy tournaments on Jordan. So, that's about an 8- to 9-pound average per person. The guys in this tournament will do at least that well, even though most of them have never laid eyes on Jordan.
5:15 p.m. ET
There might be some fish caught immediately below Mitchell Dam, but the fishing in the lower part of Jordan won't turn on until and unless they open the gates at Bouldin Dam, the big hydroelectric dam that's the southernmost dam on the Coosa River chain.
Lake Jordan has two dams, but only one that counts when it comes to bass fishing. Jordan Dam is the original dam that holds back the lake, but all it's used for now is to maintain a "recreational flow" in the Coosa River below the dam. That's to keep the kayakers and canoeists happy, mainly.
Bouldin Dam, accessed through a long canal and "new lake" southwest of the old dam, rules the fishing in Jordan. Unfortunately, it won't be generating much over the weekend. Next week, Bouldin Dam will undergo its biannual inspection, and Jordan will be lowered about 4 feet, which will really cause a current flow.
That won't help the fishermen this week, but it should help them next week when the action switches to the Alabama River downstream from Bouldin.
4:40 p.m. ET
Randy Howell described his day as "hot and slow."
The fish that he's catching are scattered. He's been going between shallow and deep water. He's found a lot of fish suspended off the bottom, but when the water's not running, they get isolated and chase bait. When the water is running, that usually gets them locked onto the ledges or humps or whatever's out there.
What he's trying to get figured out is when the fish feed so he can dial in on that. He's fishing in the mid to low end of the lake. It's wider, and there is some current, but it's not as evident as it is in the narrow, upper part of the lake where the majority of the guys are fishing. To get a better idea of what the north end of the lake looks like, check out James Overstreet's on the water gallery later this afternoon.
4:08 p.m. ET
We're down in the lower end of the lake again and watching the storm clouds gather. It's typical weather for these parts: hot days and afternoon thunderstorms. Rain is hitting the lake pretty good now in places, but it's not raining at all in other areas of the lake. So far James Overstreet and I have managed to dodge the bad weather. I was just thinking about something that Tommy Biffle said as we left the Mitchell Dam area. I asked him if the fishing started picking up when the current got cranking, and he said "not a bit that I can tell." Oh, well.
3:56 p.m. ET
Here's the first fish of the day; a short caught by a local angler; Skeet also got a short. As I look around, I see the boats of the five guys who were originally here, plus Mark Menendez, who showed up just a while ago.
3:55 p.m. ET
We're up by Mitchell Dam and there's no water flow yet, though we hear it's going to start soon.
When we got there the only others were Tommy Biffle and Skeet Reese. Mitchell Dam is the farthest point that the anglers can go to and fish. At first, Skeet was fishing up near the dam and Tommy was fishing kind of out in the middle. Biffle is known for fishing shallow water, but so far on practice day he's not running true to form.
On the last day at Lake Oneida in New York he went out in open water and caught enough smallmouths to have a good finish.
3:30 p.m. ET
Randy Howell is one of those anglers who has to figure to finish strong in the event. The Alabama angler has some fishing experience on Lake Jordan.
I visited with him a few minutes ago to see how his day is going. He quickly made it clear that in just a half day of fishing, he's describing it as tough.
But he adds, that's just the way he likes it.
"I always seem to do better when it's tough," he said. "I'm actually hoping it will be tough. If it is, it makes you really work hard for it. That's the way it should be in the last two events."
Howell missed some prime practice time this morning by appearing on the local television news cast from 6:15 a.m. to 7:15 a.m.
"That took me out of some of the best fishing. And by the time I got out here, the bite seemed to be decent, but it quickly dropped off," he said.
3:22 p.m. ET
The cartography for Lake Jordan leaves a lot to be desired. None of the fishermen can find any good maps that show the lake's contours.
Thankfully, the guys have good graphs with pretty decent charts in them, but it would save a lot of time if you could just look at a map and pick some places to check.
A lot of running and gunning today. Guys are catching a fish here and there, but nothing consistent.
There are a lot of ways to fish this lake, but the docks and the pockets probably are going to produce the fish that make a difference.
I saw Todd Faircloth a while ago, dropshotting on the main river. He said he caught one keeper spot before we got there, but didn't get any while we visited.
On the way back, I'm going to check the boatyard to see if there's anybody who doesn't think the fishing is going to be tough.
3:14 p.m. ET
As we're running back down the lake, we meet Alton Jones, who waves as he heads for Mitchell Dam. A bit farther, we see that Randy Howell is still on the main lake, fishing the pockets, no doubt. He's been focusing on the middle to lower lake area, and seems to have it all to himself. That might change; we'll see.
3:10 p.m. ET
I visited with a bunch of the guys this morning but there wasn't much doing.
First thing, I got with Skeet Reese; he's never been to Jordan before so he was doing a lot of graphing and looking and throwing everything but the kitchen sink. While I was there he was cranking and switching up with a shaky head.
Cliff Pace is checking the backs of the pockets for largemouths. So is Gerald Swindle, and he's fishing not far from Kevin VanDam, who is just across the lake. Gerald is as laid-back and relaxed as I've ever seen him. Why not? He's got momentum going for him and nowhere to go but up in the standings.
I don't know that Kelly Jordan has even wet a line yet, though his casting deck is covered with them. He's graphing and marking as many humps and ledges in the main lake as he can find. The problem is that the damkeepers aren't running any water.
We were told that they would generate today around 1 p.m., but it's a no show. So I have to wonder whether the main-lake guys are going to do any good. Gerald thinks he can cach a few spots and then pick up some bigger largemouths in the pockets. The current has zero effect back there.
2:00 p.m. ET
The dam keepers have opened up the gates at Mitchell Dam and now we're seeing a lot of current stirring up the water. We can also see feeding fish start to hit the surface a bit and the bait activity is picking up. The competitors fishing that area are relying on the current. Five competitors are up here, including Kevin Van Dam, Tommy Biffle, Skeet Reese, Kelly Jordan and Gary Klein.
1:55 p.m. ET
Keith Alan reports in that he's sitting in Gerald Swindle's boat and Swindle says he "feels like a million bucks." He's a man on a mission with nowhere to go but up.
Swindle is practicing in the middle section of the lake and in the last few hours he's started to piece things together.
According to Alan, "He ain't looking to do it with a bag of 3-pounders. He wants some 5s in his mix."
Swindle just "fueled up with a couple of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches" and expects to practice until close to dark.
Several of the other anglers are nearby, including KVD, Alton Jones and Cliff Pace.
12:55 p.m. ET
Just taking a little survey of the surroundings near Mitchell Dam, we see Gary Klein; he's slowly making his way toward the dam along a rocky bank. Wthout giving anything away, it looks like he's going back to his West Coast roots and doing a little finesse fishing. He didn't catch any fish while we were watching but I don't think a lot of guys are trying to stick fish in practice anyway — just sizing things up.
12:10 p.m. ET
Speaking of Kevin VanDam, it was easy to spot the TTBAOY leader by the crowd of boats following him on this first day of practice.
Three boats watched as he worked out deeper, covering a lot of water with a variety of lures. He said that it will be important for the guys to find something that fits their strength.
For VanDam, that's covering water. He didn't catch any fish while we watched him and quickly moved on down the bank. We've got a few BASSCam videos of him talking strategy, to watch them click here.
11:40 a.m. ET
A peek in the back of a pocket near mid-lake found Alton Jones fishing shallow. He was using soft plastics but didn't even have a hook in his bait.
Like Howell, he didn't want to stick a fish in practice, especially with the tournament only two days away. Jones said he'd already found a spot to fish early in the morning and was looking for more productive areas.
He didn't get any bites while we watched, but Jones could be a dangerous choice to surprise everyone and take the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year trophy. With the way the points have been evened out entering the postseason, Jones is essentially tied with Kevin VanDam and Skeet Reese.
11:20 a.m. ET
A short ride down the lake from Howell, Cliff Pace working a grassy point.
Pace entered the event in 10th place, with ground to make up on the leaders. I wouldn't be surprised to see Pace excel on Jordan.
It's a tough fishery right now with a lot of anglers competing for the best spots on the small lake, but Pace seems to do well in tough conditions, especially when spotted bass are in play.
The 2008 Bassmaster Classic on Hartwell is a prime example. If you are playing our postseason fantasy game, pick up this horse and ride him all the way.
10:45 a.m. ET
We followed Randy Howell to a point covered with shoreline grass and he started to fish quickly down the edge. Howell felt fishing that grass was more of a fall pattern and the water temperatures are still too warm, but he wasn't going to leave any stone unturned.
"This water is clear right now, making the shallow bite tougher" Howell said. "That is fine with me though, since, with a shorter practice time, a lot of guys will look shallow and leave the deep water open for me."
Howell pointed out that the maps available for the electronics in his boat don't have contour lines, which makes finding deeper fish harder.
Another interesting note with Howell is that he has covered up his hooks so that he doesn't stick any fish in practice.
10:35 a.m. ET
Put the ESPN Outdoors Triton in the water around 9:30 a.m. ET and immediately saw Randy Howell idling around deeper water near the Lake Jordan Marina.
Once the Toyota Tundra Championship Week locations were announced, Howell came down to scout the lake and locate deep haunts that might produce the winning catch.
He had just got out on the lake after an interview with some local media and hadn't even made a cast yet.
Welcome
Welcome to the Toyota Trucks Championship Week version of the live BASS blog (which will look suspiciously like the live blog we ran during the Classic.)
Our crew is in Montgomery and we're not leaving until the Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the year is crowned next Friday night. Over the next 10 days, you can expect frequent posts on this live blog, especially during tournament hours, as we follow the guys on BASSTrakk.
We'll have end-to-end coverage on Bassmaster.com from the moment these guys pull their boats into the boatyard (which has already happened), to when they drive off at the end of next week. You can expect news, features, photos, and the BASS trifecta: BASSCast, BASSTrakk and the new BASSCam.
We experimented with BASSCam at the final event in Syracuse (we called it Kyte then), but it's going to be an entirely new beast this week. It will launch tomorrow (Thursday) morning, so be sure and check that out (along with our new design).
That's the overview.
Thursday is the first day of practice. We'll be on the water, trying to find all 12 and reporting back with photos, blogs and BASSCam video all day.
Let the madness begin.
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