Practice blog II
2009 Toyota Trucks Championship Week live BASS blog
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6:52 p.m. ET
Not everybody launched from the same ramps this morning, so I can only assume that everyone got back OK and is getting ready for the main event by now.
Tomorrow morning everybody leaves from Power Keg Landing here in Montgomery. There hasn't been a tournament this big in these parts since the Bassmaster Classics of 1982 and 1983. Hopefully this event will generate the same sort of excitement.
Skeet Reese and Kevin VanDam are in an AOY nail-biter, and Mike Iaconelli is waiting in the wings if those two falter. Of course, anyone could win the tournament and will be trying their best to do just that.
These 12 guys didn't get to this point because they were trying to be Angler of the Year when the season began. They got here because they're competitive and can't stand not winning any tournament that they're involved in.
So whether any of them have a reasonable chance of catching Skeet Reese or Kevin Van Dam is immaterial; they're out to catch the biggest stringer of bass.
Let's see who moves the needle tomorrow.
5:10 p.m. ET
If you're ever passing through Montgomery, Alabama by boat or car, you might want to stop by Miss Debbie's Marina Bar and Grill. I don't know about the bar part, but Debbie makes some of the finest chili you'll ever eat.
We return to the covered boatyard where we find KVD, Skeet Reese, Gerald Swindle and Mark Menendez getting their gear ready for the day of battle. The rest of the crew of eight anglers are scattered up and down 80 miles of river, either fishing or headed home in the rain. The competitors at the boatyard have their game plans together, and the stage is set for the first weigh-in Thursday afternoon in the Montgomery Civic Center. Weather-wise the forecast is for more of the same on Thursday, but it probably will change the fishing for the better.
4:15 p.m. ET
I had a chance to talk to Skeet as he was rigging up his tackle and he looked pretty wet. He said the biggest reason he got off the water early was because lightning was in the immediate area.
I asked him if he found any good spots up north and his reply was, "None."
He sounded like he would be one of the anglers choosing to stick with what he found on the first day of practice down south.
Mark Menendez just rolled in a few minutes ago, but it seems the other anglers are braving the storm. It looks like it might be clearing up, but I've been saying that for a few hours.
3:50 p.m. ET
Steve Bowman and I are going to be hanging out at the boat yard, talking to anglers as they come off the water. I'm trying to dry myself out and the ESPN Outdoors boat.
Swindle and Skeet are the first two anglers back and they are sitting in the boatyard hanging with the service crew. As I type this KVD pulls up. It has been pouring non-stop for the last three hours. I don't blame them.
3:20 p.m. ET
The rain is unmerciful. I bailed on Mike and got in with Keith Alan and his stalwart crew and we hightailed it back to Montgomery. We wound up at a bar and grill at riverside. Without a doubt it was the wettest boat ride of my life. We're going to stay here until it quits raining or they call the law on us. As I was leaving Ike, he said "I don't blame you; if I wasn't practicing, I'd leave too." I expect that there are 12 wet fishermen sitting under the widest bridges they can find between here and Jones Bluff.
3:00 p.m. ET
Just talked to Swindle who was coming off the water for the day. He was soaked.
We've been looking at the radar and it looks like this rain isn't leaving anytime soon.
Swindle had come from the Bouldin Dam canal where everybody bunched up earlier and said the bite wasn't good enough there to justify the trip.
There were a lot of guys trying to decide if that bite would be worth going north for because most of them have a pattern established going south. If Swindle's right, south looks to be the direction of choice.
The launch is right in the middle of things and anglers are probably going to have to choose a direction and commit to it.
2:40 p.m. ET
We stop at a pipeline crossing and Mike Iaconelli pops a few baits along the part where it goes into deeper water. Oops, he hangs up; this spot isn't going to get fished much. Lots of lightning and thunder now. I don't have an umbrella big enough for the storm that's coming up the river now.
2:25 p.m. ET
Every part of me is wet. It has been raining so hard at the amphitheater that I could barely see across the river. There are drain pipes everywhere just pouring out water. When it rains, there are many places on a river draining water and bass will often use those areas to feed for a short time.
KVD pulled up fishing one of those drains right in front of the weigh-in site. If he catches them here, he better hope that it continues to rain. I for one, hope it doesn't. We might get rained out this afternoon if this deluge keeps up.
2:20 p.m. ET
After quite a run we settle down and Mike starts zinging casts to the bank. It's running and gunning, but Mike feels the same way as Kevin VanDam and others; nobody is going to win here by just fishing one spot or even one area.
"A lot of it is from my days growing up fishing rivers, but I feel good about this tournament," says Mike. "Realistically, there's no way I'm going to finish ahead of Skeet or Kevin, so that pressure isn't there. I'm fishing wide-open and don't have any preconceived notions about what's supposed to work here. I don't have much history with this place and sometimes that helps you more than it hurts you. I'm ready to try anything."
Mike has caught eight keepers so far today; not too shabby and the current is just starting to roll, so the fishing should get better. We're moving.
1:20 p.m. ET
Mike Iaconelli is staying with the Bouldin Dam tailwaters for awhile.
"This is the fastest water I've fished so far."
Mike fished far downriver on Tuesday and feels good about his prospects there, "but I just want a backup."
The current is really ripping now and Mike can only hold his boat in places that divert the flow slightly.
"This is wild; they must have opened another gate," he notes.
Mike grew up in fishing rivers such as the Delaware and Schuykill in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. Though he's a super lake fisherman, he first began to hone his bass-fishing skills on running water. So he's just as dangerous here.
1:05 p.m. ET
"I thought sure the fish would bite when they turned the water on," says Mike Iaconelli.
No bites yet. We move about a half-mile down the so-called diversion canal and start drifting again. Mike just now nails a 13-incher that hit his soft-plastic when he speeded it up to make another cast. Mike isn't overly impressed with the canal.
"It's just a big scooped-out ditch, 40 feet deep in the middle," he says.
"I have no doubt that the winning stringer is in here, but those bass might be anywhere, suspended and active only when it suits them."
Mike is casting to small current breaks such as rock outcroppings. He's staying well off the bank and making fairly long casts, just as he did when he fished the docks at Lake Jordan.
"Water's too clear to get right on top of the fish," he notes.
12:31 p.m. ET
The anglers are lined up down one side of the canal. First Ike, then Skeet and KJ is closest to the dam. KVD and Swindle are trying to stay away from the crowd. You can't get too far when the canal is only 50 yards wide.
Before the gates opened up, Skeet was telling Overstreet that his main goal this afternoon was to decide if it is worth fishing up this far during the tournament. Without knowing the generation schedule, making this run would eat away enough of the day that he couldn't fish both his spots from yesterday down south and make it up here for the current.
We are running out of the canal now and passed Menendez also heading to the dam.
This reminds me of Lake Jordan when we saw all the anglers up at the upper dam on the first day of practice but none were there during the tournement. I wonder if this will be different.
12:30 p.m. ET
Mike swaps sides to fish a color change where the clear water pouring out of Bouldin Dam is meeting some cloudy water coming off the bank.
"There's something different going on with the current there," says Mike.
"I like places where two different elements converge. Sometimes there are bass in such places."
Not here; we move on. Here comes another rain. Time out.
12:11 p.m. ET
The siren for the dam went off and all these guys dropped their trolling motors, pushed to the bank and picked up their rods.
It was weird, almost like everyone was picking up to prepare for battle.
VanDam took off just before things released, I guess to find a spot down river.
Swindle caught a fish almost immediately.
Now we're watching a wall of rain creep up river and everybody is scrambling for their rain gear.
This place went from dead calm to crazy right at siren time.
12:10 p.m. ET
After travelling at Mach 1 for 20 miles, KVD and I reach Bouldin Dam. All is quiet and the only other anglers there are Mike Iaconelli and Kelly Jordon.
Good enough for KVD, who is ready to get rid of me. Kelly hauled me around on Jordan one day, so he declines a return engagement. "Mike, you have to take him," KVD says to Iaconelli.
Done deal.
Mike's morning went well. He found a good pattern on Tuesday and is looking for a backup pattern. He caught a 3-pounder on a topwater lure when a school blew up beside the boat.
"Come on, turn loose some water," Mike yells at Bouldin Dam.
I don't think anybody heard him, but then a siren goes off and here comes new water. Talk about stroke.
12:02 p.m. ET
The mass exodus we predicted is under way.
Iaconelli just flew by, followed by VanDam. Reese has been idling near the dam for almost a half hour waiting.
So, we now have the top three contenders within 200 yards of each other, staring at the dam.
And, here comes Swindle. Kelly Jordon was here when we showed up. That's six of 12.
11:58 a.m. ET
Forget the birdshot rain in the face; we just went through some buckshot. KVD is heading upriver to Bouldin Dam, and stopping in between. We've been running through patches of rain and just heard a peal of thunder. I might get in the livewell.
11:20 a.m. ET
All we've talked about since we showed up in Alabama is current. And that's all we're going to talk about until we leave. Current is the new weather.
Everybody we've seen today has been fishing current and points where the current is breaking.
I'm afraid to stick my finger in the water for fear it will get hit by a bait.
There's been some bank banging but only because the current is dead. Reese is currently (pun intended) waiting for them to release water from the dam.
We have a feeling that come noon Eastern there is going to be a mass exodus toward the Bouldin Dam.
It has to be something everyone has on their list of places and patterns to be checked.
11:05 a.m. ET
Mike Iaconelli was fishing across the way, but then went downriver and out of sight. KVD is still eliminating water and picking up a small fish here and there.
KVD probably would love to hunt in this part of the country; there are so many deer in central Alabama. KVD's two boys, Jackson and Nicholas, can get their Michigan gun licenses to hunt whitetails this year and KVD is looking forward to them being able to get their first deer. The twins, 12 years old, hunt squirrels and rabbits and such and have even killed a gobbler apiece.
"I don't know if they'll grow up to be pro fishermen, but I KNOW they'll be hunters," Kevin said.
The boys' first crack at deer comes in late September during Michigan's special youth hunt.
11:05 a.m. ET
We round the first bend after leaving the canal and run into Skeet Reese fishing in the mud. The current is strong here, likely runoff from all the rain the area has been getting. Reese hasn't seen too many other competitors and neither have we.
"This whole drawdown thing isn't what I expected, Reese said. "I thought they would be pulling water from Bouldin Dam all day."
Apparently that won't start until noon ET. Looks like Skeet is killing an hour around here waiting and so will we.
10:30 a.m. ET
This was an interesting journey. We just ran up the dredged canal leading up to the Bouldin Dam. No current, no anglers.
On our way up the Alabama River, the water started to get really muddy with floating debris. As soon as we turned into the canal though, the water turned crystal clear. Even so, with no current yet, anglers aren't wasting time there.
We were told it was a popular place, so they could flock there when Lake Jordan begins the drawdown. I thought that was happening today, but evidently not this early.
We're going to head up to where the Alabama turns into the Coosa and Tallapoosa in hopes of finding anglers who were "heading north today." Right now they have proven elusive, but at least we are getting a look at the playing field. It's huge.
10:15 a.m. ET
KVD wipes off his Oakley sunglasses. Kevin loves 'em, mainly because they fit his face so well and don't let a lot of light in from the bottoms.
"I think Oakley has the best lens color options for seeing in the water. The two I wear a lot are called Tungsten Iridium and Shallow Blue," says Kevin.
"Tungsten Iridium is amber and cuts down glare while still allowing you to see in the water. I like it in low light. The Shallow Blue is great for sunny days."
It goes without saying, but KVD is wearing the Tungsten Iridium lenses now.
10:09 a.m. ET
We waited out the storm under a bridge, but we got lucky and the worst of it seemed to split us. As we were sitting there, Menendez flew past us, stopped a short ways away and began throwing a topwater.
"You should have been with me earlier," Menendez said. "I caught five fish pretty quick when I pulled up on my first spot. At least I'll have somewhere to start in the morning."
It's still overcast, but it is starting to feel humid. The sky behind us is ominous and I hope our boat can out-race it to the dam. I don't think the current is as strong as it is going to be, but at least this morning more than yesterday, the anglers have an idea of what it will be like come tournament time.
10:05 a.m. ET
Running wide-open in the rain is like running into a faceful of bird shot. The rain has let up for the moment and other boats are showing up.
Gary Klein just went by. KVD is in the bow, casting and winding.
"Hit them and go. This is not a fishery where you can just put the trolling motor down for long," Kevin said.
My wife just called and tells me the Bradford pear in our front yard split in two and half of it fell on the house. Beautiful. I hate Bradford pears. Does anybody need any firewood? It's going to be a cold winter.
Kevin says get rid of the whole tree. My wife asks what does a fisherman know about trees. I say, well, he's from Michigan and they have lots of trees up there. He knows as much about Bradford pears as anybody. I'm cutting the whole tree down when I get back to Birmingham.
KVD and I get in a discussion about prize money. Friday evening the Angler of the Year gets $200,000. It wasn't so long ago that $10,000 was big money. Times sure have changed for the better … in some ways.
9:15 a.m. ET
My brothers, friends and I used to say "nothing ruins the mood like the red thing."
Well we have red coming right at us and we're about to get pounded by rain.
We just made a group decision to wait it out. We're surrounded and heading for cover. Colin's with KVD. I'm anxious to hear how that turns out.
9 a.m. ET
We've stopped and it's raining pretty good. Out come the rainsuits. KVD is spot-fishing. He's hit seven different spots since we left Powder Keg. We just stopped at a place that's going to get about a half-dozen casts. It's raining harder now; time out.
8:52 a.m. ET
Mark Menendez said we won't see the same type of weight we saw on Jordan.
He thinks it will take 30 pounds to win, which is similar to Jordan, but it will fall off from there.
Those 10-pound bags from Jordan will be 8-pound bags.
He also talked about the amount of water they'll be pulling through when they start dropping Jordan tomorrow.
"It's going to be like white water out here," he said.
Depending on the amount of water they pull, it can change everything. Menendez said he's been on a stump pattern here before, came back to his spots and the entire tree was under water.
8:40 a.m. ET
KVD just caught a small keeper fishing a treetop. It was just one of a million such places, but you could throw at all of them and not catch a bass off most of them; fish are where you find them.
KVD is fishing quickly and moving. A huge bank of black clouds are heading our way.
"Do you have a rainsuit?" Kevin asked.
Most definitely, I answer.
Another treetop. "Look at all the bait," Kevin said as his lure sends up a shower of minnows when it lands. "They sure don't have to work hard for their food."
No doubt; the Alabama River is loaded with forage fish. KVD spoke with his wife Sherry a while ago to check on things back in Michigan. Kevin calls Sherry first thing and last thing, and times in between. Kevin's family is the engine that drives his incredible work ethic and will to succeed.
8:15 a.m. ET
The sun is rising on the second day of practice and I'm curious to see what changes are in store for the anglers.
Yesterday the current finally started rolling late in the afternoon and as we ease into the main channel today, I can see that there is current and a little more color to the water. With all 12 anglers venturing south on Day One of practice, it looks like about seven or eight will head north today.
That's where intrepid shutterbug James Overstreet and I are headed with resident wiseguy Kyle Carter. We'll let you know when we sight an angler but I have a feeling it is going to be a long 35-mile run to the Bouldin Dam.
8:10 a.m. ET
My Blackberry is juiced up for a new day of practice in the Evan Williams Bourbon Tropy Triumph phase of Toyota Tundra Championship Week.
I'm on the Alabama River with Kevin VanDam, who's checking mid-river areas that he didn't get to Tuesday. This is it for practice; the main event starts Thursday and it's shapping up to be a nail-biter among AOY leader Skeet Reese, Van Dam, Mike Iaconelli, Tommy Biffle and, heck, just about any of the top 12.
We launched at Powder Keg ramp, which is the official ramp.
"That wind is nice," KVD said. It is now, but it won't last; another hot day is coming to the Heart of Dixie.
Tuesday
3:30 p.m. ET
Colin and his dead Blackberry are all the way down on the south end of the river with Todd Faircloth. Faircloth has caught a couple small ones. He's been getting a lot of bites, but has been shaking most of them off.
He's fishing shallow and just trying to cover as much water as possible. There's so much river to choose from, anglers have been busy marking and eliminating water all day.
3:00 p.m. ET
Sitting here as we run back up the river got me to thinking about making long runs. Unlike Lake Jordan, where you can run around the lake all day without running out of gas, the Alabama River is going to force anglers to make a choice: run north or south.
They launch out of downtown Montgomery at the amphitheater and can run a pretty long way in each direction. As we found out today, even a 30 to 40 mile run will suck up time and gas. Anglers running south might not have time to make an adjustment if the current starts flowing up north and vice versa. Basically, I'm saying that it's one way or the other and they have two days to decide. Today, they seemed to choose south.
We're back up in downtown and no anglers are in sight. Overstreet is prettying up for a tv interview, so I'm not sure how much more work we can get done.
I think I know the river better than I did this morning, but I'm afraid tomorrow's going to bring an entirely new game. Today's lesson: current changes everything.
2:50 p.m. ET
I'm visiting with Todd Faircloth now. His practice session hasn't started off so hot. He's caught a few keepers, but mostly peanuts. He's had about 10 bites in.
I've fished two tournaments here and did decent in one (15th) and not so hot in the other. Todd is a Jasper, Texas, lad and wound up eighth in the Lake Jordan leg of Toyota Championshp week.
He's checked over a dozen spots, but "nothing that will do me any good in a tournament," he said. "Today might be kind of obsolete considering that the current will be running all day when they start drawing down Lake Jordan. It will be completely different."
2:20 p.m. ET
Here comes the gang, or at least some of them. Kelly Jordon just went by, and Todd Faircloth. It is Gerald Swindle on the opposite point.
There's plenty of water for everybody. Tomorrow Mark has to determine whether to fish up toward Montgomery from the midpoint or go above Montgomery and fish the Bouldin Dam tailwaters. The current is starting to boil now; they're pulling water at Jones Bluff.
2:05 p.m. ET
I stopped Jones to do a BASSCam update and asked him how his day has been. Even without any current, he had a good morning. Jones caught a few "magnum" spot in one spot and was confident the bite there would only get better with current.
Jones was one of the few guys who made it out on the water before the off-limits and even if that didn't help him on Jordan, his knowledge of the river has helped him reduce time wasted checking unproductive areas.
He did mention that even if an angler doesn't get a bite in an area today, the current could make a nothing area into a spot worth fishing.
Now, we are headed back up the river toward Montgomery. In short order we passed Skeet and Ike and saw Randy Howell for the first time fishing the entrance to a backwater.
Our cameraboat that went north reported few anglers. We haven't heard from KVD, Gary Klein and Cliff Pace. They might be north, in a backwater or way south. It will be interesting to find out which way the anglers turn out of the gates at the Day One launch.
2:03 p.m. ET
By now, Mark has caught 11 or 12 pounds of bass.
"I'd like to bust me about 18 or 19 pounds on the first day, then follow with a 15-pound stringer the second day. I could do some damage," he said.
Menendez is no stranger to the Alabama River, having placed third and fifth in two tournaments here in recent years. He's got a number of places lined up, and is putting together a milk run.
The big decision for him will involve where to stop first when the main event begins. Another tournament boat just whizzed by and then stopped on a grassy point. It looks like Gerald Swindle from here, but he's a long way off.
1:35 p.m. ET
Mark has been using the plug reteriever quite often. He hasn't lost a lure yet. He boats another small keeper.
Down the river we go again. Mark stops to fish the grassy backside of an island. He catches a small largemouth, his first undersize fish. Mark is talkative and we discuss various topics, including all the charity projects that Donna and he are involved in.
Check out some of Don Barone's articles on ESPN Outdoors.com to see what I mean.
It is hot and muggy, but at least a breeze comes flowing down the river now and then. Mark is still flipping the grass, and turns a 3-pounder.
"These are just resident fish that stay here all year long," the Kentucky pro said. "It's very possible to catch a 4- or 5-pound in a place like this that could really turn things around. I'm either getting this in my system or out of my system. I need a couple of more bites in certain places to decide that this might be a productive pattern."
1 p.m. ET
For a minute there the wind calmed down and the sun popped out and I could really start to see how true the last blog I sent was. Up and down the river as far as I could see there were balls of bait just suspended, cruising around in open water.
These anglers better hope for current because right now everything seems tough. Either that, or figure out if anything can be caught off these suspending schools of bait.
The wind has picked back up and we are trying to find some anglers, but this far south, the pros are few and far between. Alton Jones has been shadowing us for awhile now as we make our way downriver. He's hopping from backwater to backwater, but it's not likely that we will see a fish catch from him because he doesn't even use hooks in practice. About the only guy we've seen that has left his hooks exposed today is Skeet.
We're about to head deeper into uncharted territory.
12:40 p.m. ET
Most of the anglers must have decided to tackle the longer south part of the river today. We just ran into Alton Jones, which makes seven pros plus we know Menendez is way south.
Jones was doing something that startled me at first. It was something I didn't expect to see on the river. Jones has nothing to lose after a disappointing finish on Jordan. He's in sixth place, mathematically still in contention, but a long shot at 35 points behind Skeet. Of course, if he does slip a few places, he'll also lose some valuable TTBAOY money.
Looking at the river, there is still no current and I've seen some schools of bait just roaming around. That scatters the bass and makes them hard to catch. When the current picks up the bait will flock to those eddies and the bass will follow, making it much easier to pinpoint their location. Today is still important because if they shut the current down during the tournament, a smart angler will have something to fall back on.
12:36 p.m. ET
I had a nice lunch with Ray Scott Monday — well, me and about 50 other people. Ray was one of the speakers at a luncheon welcoming the 12 pros to Montgomery, his hometown. Mr. B.A.S.S. was in fine form, praising the anglers as being not just the best anglers in the land, but good men as well and outstanding representatives of professional bass fishing. Amen to that. Just now, Mark has found another place with a wad of bass, including some that are busting shad. Mark downsizes his lure for the schoolers. "That was a big spot, right there," Mark says of one bass that makes a fuss.
12:21 p.m. ET
Mark throttles back at the mouth of another creek. He doen't get a strike but it doesn' worry him. "It's going to happen. They're scheduled to run water at Jones Bluff Dam around midday," says Mark. He snags his lure on a atump but manages to get it back with the aid of a Davis Lures Plug Retriever. "It has saved me some lures over the years, I guarantee you." Mark says that he has some discontinued lures that he doen't want to part with. "I have a few lures that I never, ever throw except in competition. I have one jerkbait that I know I've won more than $30,000 with. They don't make that color anymore." We pick up and move. On the first cast, Mark catches a small largemouth. It's the first largemouth he's put in the boat. Mark has caught a limit, and then some...in dead water. "Here, when they start pulling water, you can get five good keepers in five casts," he notes. He catches another small spot, a keeper. It's spitting up threadfin shad minnows all the way to the boat; greedy bass.
12:20 p.m. ET
Mark Menendez throttles back at the mouth of another creek. He doen't get a strike but it doesn't worry him. "It's going to happen. They're scheduled to run water at Jones Bluff Dam around midday," says Mark. He snags his lure on a stump but manages to get it back with the aid of a Davis Lures Plug Retriever. "It has saved me some lures over the years, I guarantee you." Mark says that he has some discontinued lures that he doen't want to part with. "I have a few lures that I never, ever throw except in competition. I have one jerkbait that I know I've won more than $30,000 with. They don't make that color anymore."
We pick up and move. On the first cast, Mark catches a small largemouth. It's the first largemouth he's put in the boat. Mark has caught a limit, and then some…in dead water. "Here, when they start pulling water, you can get five good keepers in five casts," he notes. He catches another small spot, a keeper. It's spitting up threadfin shad minnows all the way to the boat; greedy bass.
11:55 a.m. ET
We're in a winding creek now, still checking for a largemouth. This is familiar territory to Mark Menendez. A good bass just explodes on his lure; it's bound to be a 'head, because this is largemouth water. "I'll catch that fish in a day or two," says Mark, moving on. We run awhile and stop above an island. Mark likes the water color, though wishes the water temperature was 6 to 10 degrees cooler. "Bass are more active when it's 70 or 72 degrees; that's their comfort zone. But you can't have everything," Mark says.
11:15 a.m. ET
Delicious! That's the best word I can use to describe the backwater we just pulled up to. Loaded with cover, bait and current, it is easily the best-looking area we have seen all day. I guess it is was no surprise to find both Kelly Jordon and Todd Faircloth already back there picking the spot apart. KJ said it should be a spot for a big fish to bite, but he only saw little fish all morning. Seems like the bite all over this part of the river is slow this morning.
11:00 a.m. ET
We've seen five of the 12 anglers thus far, two on the river and three in backwaters. We have only covered 10 or 15 miles, so we are optimistic that we can find more anglers as we head south.
There is so much visible cover to fish, especially wood. We just passed a section of river with a bunch of docks and there are a lot of high clay banks in this area. Still, wood cover dominates, but finding the productive stretches out of 90 or 100 miles of river would seem to be the challenge.
The wind has picked up but it hasn't rained yet. Anglers best get used to these conditions because they will see a lot of overcast skies this week.
10:50 a.m. ET
"When the current starts moving and concentrates all the bait in certain places, that makes it a lot easier to catch bass," says Mark Menendez. "I'm hoping to find a big largemouth or two and I believe I'll have a better chance of doing that below Montgomery than upriver." We're doing a lot of running and looking, stopping long enough to check pretty runs of bank. We're in Paul Elias territory now; this is the neighborhood where he invented "kneel-and-reel" with crankbaits to win the Classic. Mark's best finish in a Classic was 12th, at his very first Classic, on Lake Logan Martin in 1997.
"My two goals when I first started out was, first, to be recognized as a credible fisherman and, two, to make the Classic," he says. "I've been very blessed."
Mark is also known as the guy who caught the biggest bass ever weighed in a B.A.S.S. Tournament. It weighed 13-9 and came out of Richland-Chambers near Corsicanna, Texas. That record covered the first 31 years of B.A.S.S. history. Mark caught that bass in 1997 but, two years later, Mark Tyler boated the current record of 14-9.
10:30 a.m. ET
Moving downriver we found Skeet Reese working the main channel. His first comment was how slow the fishing was, but how different the river will be when they start pulling current.
We were down by the river yesterday doing "Hooked Up" and it was amazing how much activity we could see when they were pumping a lot of current through. There were baitfish everywhere and bass busting on them. Today with no current, things are dead.
10:10 a.m. ET
We've moved. Mark has waypointed the first place after having had enough bites to satisfy himself that there is a good concentration of fish there. Mark tells me that this is an area where he and Donna came during a practice for another tournament. She was 5 months' pregnant at the time. We're just running now, stopping here and there to sample. Mark has some spots on the Alabama River where he says he knows he's going to catch bass based on prior experience. "Really, I'm just familiarizing myself with the geography and how the bottom lays and how to position the boat."
Mark is still sore about his first day on Lake Jordan, where he lost a couple of 4-pounders. He figures he should have had a 16-pound stringer Saturday. Oh well, he's caught four good keepers in about an hour and a half and a few more just slap at his primary lure. The current isn't running yet, so Mark is feeling pretty good. The rain has stopped for now and the sun is in and out. "The light changing like this won't affect these river fish so much. They're relating to offshore structure. With bank-runners, it's a different story."
9:55 a.m. ET
Ike seems to be following us down the river. He just pulled up to the entrance of a backwater we are idling into. Overstreet says we have enough pictures of him so we keep heading back. We have no maps or GPS contours so we really have no idea what to expect.
"I don't know where this thing leads," Overstreet said. "I'm not going any farther back — it just keeps getting muddier."
Our plan has changed. We are now going to run the whole main channel and then look at these backwaters. There's just so much water, I'm beginning to understand the challenge the anglers face over just two days of practice.
9:40 a.m. ET
Dewey Kendrick, the former B.A.S.S. Tournament Director, was at the Wetumpka weigh-in and I've never seen him more happy-go-lucky. He and his wife, Charlene, are doing great and enjoying life in retirement. Hey, Mark just gets a small spotted bass, but nothing that would do him any good in competition. "There are a lot of bass in this area," he says. Now he starts trying different lures to see what will produce. The last time I was in this area of the river was at the 1982 Bassmaster Classic. I was riding with Jack Westberry of Tampa. Jack was another wonderfully friendly pro who was as laid-back as he could be. I think Mark already has caught more bass than we did that Classic of long ago. His latest is a chunky spot that he could build a pretty nice stringer around. "I'll take five like that any day," says Mark.
9:30 a.m. ET
We stopped on Iaconelli fishing the main channel. He caught a small spotted bass but marked the spot on his GPS. There is plenty of cover to fish on the main channel but right now the water is low. The spot he is fishing could look entirely different tomorrow if the water starts coming down from Lake Jordan. Biffle said he expects the big bass to be a largemouth, but he knows there are good spotted bass out in the river. The current over the next few days could have them chomping and really bring them into play.
9:10 a.m. ET
After I did a quick BASSCam update with Biffle, we ran into Swindle, who had an ESPN cameraman in his boat. We didn't get much out of him because he was playing around with a log, but his screaming earlier was a sign that he probably caught one. Swindle is probably relaxed because there is no pressure on him. After the Berkley Powerbait Trophy Chase he moved up to seventh in the TTBAOY standings, but it wasn't enough — he is now mathematically eliminated from the chase. There is still a lot on the line for the bottom anglers: every place in the standings turns into valuable year-end money.
The weather is much the same as the last few days: cloudy with rain imminent. More important than the rain is the current. They are supposed to open up the gates at Bouldin Dam tomorrow to pull down Lake Jordan. Day Two of practice may look completely different. There is very little current right now. Some, but not much.
9:05 a.m. ET
Mark Menendez has had a lot of distractions this week. Sunday his wife Donna had a TIA, which is sort of a stroke. She was rushed by ambulance to the hospital from the weigh-in in Wetumpka. Mark went with her and his fish were weighed in for him. Donna was released from the hospital Monday night. Mark and Donna have known each other since grade school back in Paducah, Kentucky. While at the hospital, Mark ran into another Paducah Tilghman graduate, who is a doctor in Montgomery now. Small world, and all that. Mark is casting and winding, having had about 10 hours of sleep in the last three days. He'll sleep good tonight, knowing that Donna is on the mend.
8:50 a.m. ET
Kelly Jordon is scouting the same area as Mark. He just got here, too. The river is in gorgeous shape and the fishing is bound to be good because Lake Jordan is being drawn down. We leave Kelly and head downriver. "There are a lot of minnows up this morning," says Mark. He gets about eight outfits out of the rod locker and goes to work. His day at the office has begun.
8:31 a.m. ET
We ran for what seemed like an eternity, but really was about the time it took me to type my first blog entry. Now, back in Cooter's Pond, we are pulling up on Tommy Biffle. Overstreet just told me that the last time he was here, he shot photos of Biffle in the same spot off a golf cart. Looks like Biffle is checking a place that holds some history for him. The water clarity here is a lot more stained than on Jordan. Biffle is up shallow, no surprise there, but the water isn't very high. I can see sand along the bank in some places. Regardless, if there is one man that can find fish in nothing-looking water, it's Tommy Biffle.
There is a ramp back here too and Iaconelli just blew out of here into the main channel completely ignoring any channel markers. Swindle is back here too.
8:25 a.m. ET
On the water with Mark Menendez. We're so far down the river I don't even know if we're still in Alabama. This is the first practice day of the second phase of the Toyota Tundra Championship week, and Mark is trying to narrow down his choices of fishing waters. It's starting to sprinkle. We've been dodging rain for several days, but no more. A lot has been happening since we left Lake Jordan, where Mike Iaconelli had the big stringer.
8:10 a.m. ET
This is my first time on the Alabama River and it's a little overwhelming. From the take-off in Montgomery, anglers can run down to the lower dam, about 55 miles. If they choose to run upriver, they can go up the Coosa to the Bouldin Dam where it comes out of Lake Jordan, or they can go up the Tallapoosa. There you are looking at another 35-plus miles of river. And our job is to find anglers practicing along the whole stretch. Fortunately we are going to have three boats bringing home the coverage. I'm with grizzled vet James Overstreet who will be providing on-the-water photos for your pleasure later. Right now, I know as little as you about the Alabama River, maybe less, and I look forward to sharing what I learn with you. We are heading south now — way south.
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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