New Boat - 2016 Phoenix 819 Pro w/Mercury 200 Pro XS

With the sale of my Ranger a few months before, I had been boatless and working a deal with my sponsor Germaine Marine. After a few trips and working back and forth I am now running a new 2016 Phoenix 819 Pro with a 200 Mercury Pro XS. I was a little uncertain of going with a smaller boat and smaller motor but I am extremely happy with the decision already. This boat truly is something else! It weighs less, so I get better gas mileage towing, it is a rocket out of the hole, and the handling and maneuverability is unmatched. I loved my Rangers in the past but I love the performance of this boat so much more. It gets a ton of attention on the water and the ride is incredible. The boat is already a beast and once I get it all dialed in, it will be even better. Thank you to the guys at Germaine Marine and Mercury Marine for all the help, I am loving it.

JML Outdoors North Valley Nights - July 9th - Bartlett Lake

The 3rd tournament of the night season was back at Bartlett Lake where the water has risen over 20ft in last few weeks because of water released from the upper dam. Partner and I decided to stick to what we had been doing, Carolina-rigs during the day light mixed in with crankbaits at night.
We struggled early but found an area holding fish near a mountain dropoff. It produced two fish very quickly to start our evening but only a few missed bites after. We made a move to a spot that has held a few fish the last few tournaments for us. The spot produced some quality fish but also keyed us into a new bite. They stopped hitting the Carolina-rigged brush hog and instead were inhaling Texas-rigged worms. We mixed it up with the crankbait as well in that area and our next and filled a limit and culled along with a few other missed bites. We knew we had some quality but needed a few more culls and a kicker or two and a moved produced the culls but never the big big bite we needed. We fished the rest of the night and culled up to a limit for 9.84lbs which put us in 7th place for the tournament. We are still trying to figure out where and what the bigger ones eat but we are figuring out more patterns and areas along the way. With a few more tournaments and trips to Bartlett before the championship we are hoping to lock in and figure it out.

JML Outdoors North Valley Nights - June 18th - Lake Pleasant

The second tournament of the series was at Lake Pleasant, not my favorite lake by any means. The river had just opened and out idea was to capitalize on those fish being fresh and untouched for last few months. The first run was rough and brutal, but we made it to the river before anyone else and it proved to have fish, just the wrong size. Without any prefish for this one we didn't know what to expect. We spent the first few hours of the tournament catching and getting bit but has nothing to show for it as all of them were non-keeper fish. We finally made out way out around 10:30pm and made a stop on main lake point/dropoff near the mouth of the river. It proved to be a great spot once we figured out the bite. We caught our limit by 11:30 and proceeded to cull fish. The fish were staging off the drop where bluegill were up shallow either bedding or feeding. We figured out the bite on Carolina-rigged brush hogs just a little too late and we weighed 5 fish for 8lbs and 10.5oz. We should have done better but just didn't have the time on the lake prior to have the better performance. We will take the 10th place finish, especially when we were going out just to have fun and be in the points for the championship at end of season.

JML Outdoors North Valley Nights - June 4th - Bartlett Lake

Partner and I decided to fish the JML Outdoors North Valley Nights Series this summer. The first tournament was at Bartlett Lake and with our success at the lake we figured should be a good tournament. We ran our same pattern as the last few weeks and the bites were non-stop. We caught over 40 fish by the end of the night but unfortunately out size dropped. We could only manage 7.54lb for 5 fish and finished a disappointing 31st. We are ready to move on and to the next one from here.