I had a great time this past weekend. It's a GREAT event with GREAT people and GREAT sponsors!

I had a pretty simple plan for this tournament. I figured most people would be fishing the Keys and I never have done well there. So I knew I was going to fish outside and I wanted to target clear areas with structure that i could sight fish.

Day1: I blasted off making my way towards Rattlesnake, but decided to go straight across towards the tullies. The sun wasn't up enough where I could see what was below me. So I pitched a jig into the tullies. After about 5 casts my line started moving away from the tullies. I set the hook and missed it. I continued to make a few more casts but no luck. I decided to make my way around the bend and work another tullie line. I threw a drop shot texas rigged and got hit after a few cast. Fish jumped and spit the hook. I finally got to the area I wanted to fish. The sun was up and it was clear enough to see the bottom (8-10ft). As I was looking around I saw few cruisers and managed to hook up only to loose them as well. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point. I decided to have the hook exposed to see if that would change things. I saw a fish sitting on top of a big rock. After a few casts I'm hooked up and got it in the net! I fished with an exposed hook the rest of the day. A lot of the fish I caught bit multiple times before getting a hook set. On some occasions the fish seemed to lose interest. I would then switch to a jig and that seemed to work. I was able to cull 2 fish that day.

Day 2: I did the same thing as day 1 but the visibility wasn't as good and the wind picked up earlier. Made me a little nervous since sight fishing was what I was confident in doing. I managed to get a limit by about 10am. Not a great limit. I had 2 barely keepers that I needed to upgrade. After the wind picked up to the point where I could see bottom, I decided to work my way back to an area that didn't have as much wind. I threw a senko under a tree and Bamm! My biggest fish for the day! I finally made back to where I started on day 1 and I managed to see a fish hanging out on a tullie edge. With the wind blowing pretty good, I tossed a jig at it. It bit 2 times before I was able to set the hook successfully. Another good one. After that one, I knew I had a pretty good limit.

Colors didn't seem to matter for me. It just took time and patience.

This was also a personal best for me as I have never brought in a 20 pound limit in a tournament before and I was able to do that on both days.

Looking forward to the next one!

Robert

Great job Robert, and great report. Congrats!


MT

Great Report Robert! Congrats on the win!

To fish is to live!

Super job, Robert. Great weekend!

"If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles"

congrats robert sure wish i could have hung around to see it

FIT

Great Job Rob!

Awesome Day 2 sack. That is the way you get it done!

Matt Nyiri

Great job Homey! It was great to see you get the 1st place trophy.. Awesome :-)

Great win Robert, thanks for the report.

Great finish Robert, congrats again! enjoyed reading your report.

DM