Florida Update

Well, tomorrow I hop on the big bird and head back toward Georgia after a great week of fishing and photo work. Blogs are behind, but it's not because I haven't had stuff to share. I've been without internet and have had no means of sharing.

First, a past-due final word about the PAA Tour Team Challenge. Bobby Lane and Gerald Brown, the Day 2 leaders, held on and won the event. Bobby's brother, Chris, won the previous week's B.A.S.S. Southern Open on the Harris Chain, just up the road from Kissimmee.

After the Toho weigh-in, Lawrence Taylor and I headed north to Salt Springs, Florida, which was our base camp for three days of fishing. We fished a day on Lake George with Tim Mann and then got together with Terry "Big Show" Scroggins and Cliff Prince for a day on the Harris Chain and a day on the St. Johns River. Each day was completely different, but all three were highly productive and lots of fun. I even managed to catch a pretty nice bass (pictured above) on an XCalibur Xt3 Twitch Bait, and added a hybrid to my 2012 species list. I'll follow with more about the fishing in upcoming blogs.

Double-Digit Repeat

Photo courtesy of PAA

Gerald Brown and Bobby Lane brought a 10-pound-plus largemouth to the scales for the second day in a row today and overtook the lead in the PAA Tour Team Challenge on Lake Toho. The team's two-day total of 49.65 pounds puts them a little more than a pound ahead of first-day leaders Glenn Browne and Chad Morgenthaler with one day of fishing remaining.

Today was rainy and windy. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and calm. Will Brown and Lane bring double-digit fish No. 3 to tomorrow's weigh-in and enough pounds of total weight to take the crown?

While the teams are fishing, I'll be traveling, and my plan is to be at Bass Pro Shops with my camera in hand by 4:30, when they begin weighing fish.

Toho Delivers Big on Day 1

Photo courtesy of PAA

Plenty of pigs were held high for pictures as PAA pro teams brought their catches to the scales yesterday. It was Day 1 of the PAA Tour Team Challenge, and the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes did not disappoint. Glenn Browne and Chad Morgenthaler took the early lead, with a five fish limit that weighed 31.89 pounds. Gerald Brown and Bobby Lane brought in the day's biggest single bass, which weighed 10.59 pounds.

The pros came to the scales as teams and talked about their day on the water -- not only about the fishing but about the unique dynamic of fishing together. For some it was natural, like buddies just fishing together; for others, who are used to always running the boat and making every decision, fishing together was a challenge and required some adjustments.

Today is supposed to be windy and rainy. That could make navigation rough, and it certainly won't favor sight-fishing; however it could turn on a different bite and create some pretty exciting fishing.

For updates throughout the day today and tomorrow, visit the PAA's facebook page. Yesterday, they were able to post shots of some hawgs right after they were caught -- stuff that made it pretty clear that the weigh-in would be exciting for fans. To see great photo galleries and more detailed reports, visit fishpaa.com.

Sights Set on Florida Bass

"You should be hitting it about perfect," Tim Mann told me yesterday. Considering current conditions, the calendar and the 5-day outlook, Mann believes things are setting up nicely for a big wave St. Johns River spawners to move up between now and our Sunday outing. Things can change, I know, but I like Mann's confidence, and I'm looking forward to peering at some big ones on Lake George flat and hopefully getting to lock horns with a true heavyweight.

I'll also get to spend time fishing the St. Johns with Cliff Prince, a bass pro who will begin his rookie campaign as a B.A.S.S. Elite Series angler in month and a half on the same waters, which also happen to be his home waters. Terry "Big Show" Scroggins has said that Prince knows the river as well as he does -- and that says a lot.

Should be a great week of learning and gathering story material and a good chance to catch some nice Florida largemouths. Lawrence Taylor of BOOYAH Bait Company also assured me that he has some cool stuff to show me and for us to show to the fish. That means innovative tackle and tactics that I'll be able to share in stories.

First stop, though, is Orlando, where we'll attend the final-day weigh-in of the PAA Tour Team Challenge at Bass Pro Shops. The teams will actually blasting off at Lake Toho for their first day of fishing some time very soon. It sounds like the pros were down-talking what they'd seen in practice or not say much at all, so no one knows quite what will come to the scales. The lake is ultra clear now, and seemingly not many fish have moved up, so it could fish tough. But any teams find an early wave of spawners or the right pre-spawn spot, their bags could be enormous.

Georgia Pond Report

Ice lures and vertical presentations once again paid dividends on a pond near home this morning. Our friend Calvin caught a couple of bass on Rattl'n Flyer Spoons, and we pounded quite a few nice bluegills with Lindy Toads and Ice Jigs, tipped with worm pieces and fished straight below us, right on the bottom.

This Southern-fried spin-off of ice-fishing has worked so well for us that I'm eager to try in on other waters. Of course, if it keeps getting as warm as it has for the past couple of days, it won't be long before the fish start moving out of the deep water!

We'll Miss You, Dave

Lots of people will ask you how you've been when they haven't seen you in a while. The difference between Dave Meredith and most other people is that he truly cared about the answer. And it didn't much matter who you were. If you were acquainted with Dave, you were a friend, and he genuinely valued what you had to say.

My time spent with Dave Meredith was all at meetings of the Southeastern Outdoor Press Association and the Georgia Outdoor Writers Association, and he epitomized what I would like to be to everyone else at such a gathering. When most of us walk into a big room for a conference meal, we scan the room for friends to join. Dave looked for the people he didn't know -- who almost had to be newcomers to the organization for him to not know them -- and by the end of the meal they'd have a new friend and feel a little more welcome.

Our industry lost a good friend today. I'm going to miss his big smile at future conferences -- and I'm going to try to seek those newcomers Dave won't get welcome and to do my best make them feel at home.

Callaway for Free?

Right now is a wonderful time to explore Callaway Gardens because admission fees are being waved through the end of February. The gardens are spectacular, even without spring blooms, and several attractions, such as the Cecil B. Day Butterfly Center and the John A. Sibley Horticultural Center, stay in "full bloom" all winter. And the truth is that if you look around, you'll find more than a few early bloomers in the outside gardens -- flowers that will be long gone for another year by the time the azaleas start their show.

February is also a great month for targeting jumbo largemouth bass from Mountain Creek Lake, which is the big lake (175 acres) in the center of Callaway Gardens. You do have to rent a boat as bank-fishing or fishing from private boats is not permitted; however, the fees are very reasonable, and the lake has produced many double-digit weight largemouths over the years. It's also loaded with jumbo bream. The bream fishing gets easier a little farther into spring, but if you don't mind searching a little deeper, you can find them now.
Of course, winter brings another outstanding and unique fishing opportunity to Callaway Gardens. Several of the property's smaller lakes, which are open only for guided fishing trips, get stocked with brown, rainbow and brook trout every winter. The total experience of the garden setting and kicking around a small private lake with a guide in float tubes is cool any time of the year, but when you add in big trout in the central part Georgia, it almost seems to cool to be true.

Toho Practice Begins Today

The current Kissimmee outlook warns of heavy fog, so the going might begin a little slow as PAA teams launch into first official practice day for the unique team event that begins on Thursday. The good news in the same forecast from a fishing fan's perspective is that the 5-day is full of sun and 80s. That means the Kissimmee Chain's fabulous bass fishing should show itself well and that some of the big girls in the system should be moving up onto their beds.

The PAA Tour Team Challenge promises big fun for fishing fans and for the fishermen themselves, who rarely get to fish together. Most pros have fished countless team tournaments over the years, but not at this level and with so many top names in the field. Add prime time for big fish on the legendary waters of Lake Toho and the rest of the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes...

Terry Scroggins and Gerald Swindle, good friends who travel together and share information during the Elite Series season, ended last year having to compete head-to-head in a B.A.S.S. play-off format tournament. This week they not only get to practice together, they get to compile their shared findings into a single strategy and fish side-by-side as a team come tournament time. Scroggins and Swindle have both won B.A.S.S. events on Toho, by the way.

Pairings also include Shaw Grigsby & Paul Elias; Russ Lane & Derek Remitz; Mike McClelland & Jared Lintner... And then there are the top pros that you can bet have matched themselves with the best local angler whose name I don't know but whose faces are very well known by anyone who ever fishes tournaments on the Kissimmee Chain. Should be exciting.

I'll have to learn all I can and report from home through most of the week, but on Saturday I'm Florida bound to watch the final-day stories unfold live!

Florida Tournaments Don't Disappoint

James Overstreet photo; courtesy of B.A.S.S.

No big surprise at the Harris Chain. Chris Lane notched his third B.A.S.S. win at the first B.A.S.S. Southern Open of the season yesterday. All three wins have come in Florida, where Lane grew up fishing. The only angler to bring 20-plus pounds to the scales all three days, Lane saved his best for last, weighing 28 pounds, 5 ounces on day three. Lane used a Lucky Strike RC2, which is a square-billed crankbait, to find groups of fish and then slowed down and worked those areas with various soft-plastic baits.

Meanwhile, farther south, at Lake Okeechobee, Florida pro Brandon Medlock won the FLW EverStart Series Southeast event on Okeechobee for the second year in a row. The biggest surprise at the Big O, which has been yielding great catches this year, was the lack of big bags (only one over 20 pounds) on the first day of the tournament. However, Medlock blew that away on Day 2, when he wowed the crowd with a massive catch of 35 pounds, 7 ounces, which was anchored by a 10-8. Medlock, who used a big, specialized jig made by his father in this year's and last year's win, will be fishing the FLW Tour event on the same body of water in a few weeks, so that should be fun to watch.

Next up is the PAA team tournament at Toho. I'll be traveling to Florida to attend the final day weigh-in and then to sample the Florida fishing for a few days. I'll also post news about the event as I learn it so check back often.

Southern-Style Ice Fishing

Asher Samsel, 7, used a Lindy Toad to catch this bluegill. Photo by Nathaniel Samsel.

Nathaniel decided last week that it was time to try something different, and that something has worked really well.

Following an instinct, Nathaniel, his 7-year-old brother Asher and I began using vertical presentations with ice lures and very light line in the deepest part of the pond and catching fish better than we ever have during the winter in this particular pond. Catches have included plenty of bluegills, which have always just sort of disappeared this time of year. The best lures have been Lindy Rattl'n Flyer Spoons for bass and Lindy Toads, tipped with small earthworms, for bluegills.

We still have a lot to learn about the approach, which is a lot like ice fishing without the ice, but the first few days of experimentation have yielded nothing but positive results.

@jeffsamsel on Twitter

Be sure to follow me on Twitter. That's @jeffsamsel. Can I make -- or even break -- a baker's dozen followers before the calendar page turns?!

Let the Games Begin

Excitement abounds about now around a couple of famous Florida waterways. Less than two hours from now, the B.A.S.S. Southern Opens will kick off a new season on the Harris Chain of Lakes while Southeast Division FLW Everstart Series anglers blast off at Lake Okeechobee. Rumor has it that Okeechhobee is red hot and that some big bags should show up at the scales this afternoon.

This weekend's concurrent events begin a month or so of major Florida tournaments and really bring a new season of bass tournament competition into swing.

Next week at Lake Toho, the PAA Tour Team Challenge will bring a brand new look to bass fishing, with two-man teams competing together in a major national-level event. The field will pair some of the biggest names in the sport -- Terry Scroggins & Gerald Swindle; Shaw Grigsby & Paul Elias; Mike McClelland & Jared Lintner -- so it should be fun to watch.

A couple of weeks after the PAA's Toho tournament, FLW will return to the Big O, this time with higher stakes, as the Walmart FLW Tour begins its 2012 campaign on Lake Okeechobee.

Then the focus shifts from Florida to Louisiana's Red River and the 2012 Bassmaster Classic!

Home from the Wintery North

It seems I left North Dakota just in time. It was -2 and snowing sideways when I got on my airplane early this morning. I just looked at the weather, and it's currently 10 below and dropping, with the wind howling at 25 mph and warnings for folks to stay inside.

I spent two fun days fishing mostly for yellow perch with Jason Feldner of Perch-Eyes Guide Service and learned a tremendous amount about prairie lakes and strategies for jumbo perch and walleyes. Devils Lake has an amazing perch fishery with fish that are ridiculously fat.

I also was able to add three species to the 2012 list: yellow perch, walleye and northern pike. It's early in the year, so that doubled the tally. The next set of travels will be radically different in character as I will be Florida bound.

Wear or Tote

The internal debate occurs any time my travel plans point me toward winter wonderlands. Do I spend several days in the same bulky pair of boots, which do their job nicely on the ice but really aren't that comfortable on an airplane or in a restaurant, or do I add a bunch of weight and bulk to a duffel that already includes several heavy layers? This time I'm wearing 'em because the trip isn't terribly long, and I won't spend much time doing anything other than ice fishing. Next time? Well, I'll figure that out next time.

2012 Species List

For no reason other than fun and curiosity, I decided that this year I would keep try to keep track of all the different species of fish I catch. I say try because I could forget for a while (although I will seek to stay updated) and then miss something as I'm thinking back. I might also catch a sunfish or something else that I can't positively identify by species.

It' easy so far: blue catfish, black crappie & largemouth bass. Come Monday, I hope to expand with a few more northerly species as I'll be fishing in North Dakota.

Maybe some day I'll try to compile a life list, sort of like birders do. I'd miss a few, I'm sure, for the same reasons listed above magnified by four decades of fishing. It would be kind of cool to have such a list compiled, though, and to officially add to my life list when I catch some kind of fish for the first time. In February, I might have the chance to catch a splake, which would be a definite first, and I have to think I'll catch something for the first time in Costa Rica in March. If I do ever get such a tally compiled, I'll blog about my findings.

Weather Extremes

It's well before sun-up on a January morning, and the thermometer shows 55 degrees. Meanwhile, just outside our dining room window, our first daffodil of the season opened yesterday. It's strangely spring-like but I'd better not let myself get too used to the warmth. Four days from now I fly to North Dakota for a couple of days of ice fishing, and the forecast temperature range for the entire time I'll be there is -5 to 12. I suppose I'd better prepare myself for weather extremes because as I look at my calendar, the next four major trips I have confirmed take me North Dakota, Florida, South Dakota and Costa Rica.

The Wind Won

The wind blew steadily yesterday, making canoe control tough and limiting the number of decent casts Nathaniel and Asher and I were able to manage during a short pond outing. I was able to land one small bass, which absolutely hammered a Road Runner Marabou Pro 2.0. I also missed one other fish on the same lure. I'm glad that I can now say that I have caught a bass this year, but I do hope to upgrade it a bit.

Santee Cats & Crappie

When I finished 2011 with a little largemouth from a pond near home, I sort of wondered what my first fish 0f 2012 would be. Turns out it was a catfish -- specifically a blue catfish -- and it came from Lake Moultrie, better known as "the Lower Lake" by folks in Santee Cooper Country. Nathaniel and I spent a fun day on the lake yesterday with Kevin Davis, owner of Blacks Camp. We split the day in half, catching catfish in the morning and pulling big crappie off deep brushpiles in the afternoon.

The crappie were using brush along the edge of a hump in nearly 30 feet of water. It is cool fishing because from above the surface it looks like you are in the middle of nowhere, but the boat positioning and depth control must be precise. Davis relies on his electronics, marker buoys and trolling motor to keep the boat where it needs to be. He uses two-foot "pulls" of line off the reels to place minnows and jigs at just the right depth, which normally means barely above the bulk of the brush's branches.

Next stop, North Dakota, for walleyes, perch and pike through the ice. That is unless I find myself back on the pond or waist deep in a trout stream some time in the next week or so!

Maine to Alaska

Last year's fishing trips certainly spanned the miles. Best I can figure by looking back through blogs, I needed fishing licenses from 17 different states (plus Ontario) in 2011. Geographic range was from Alaska to Maine to Texas. Nine fishing days were on the ice in Minnesota or Colorado. Prior to 2011, I had spent a grand total of one day ice fishing.

I enjoyed the opportunity to spend a quite a bit of time casting for smallmouths last years, including inaugural visits to Maine's Penobscot River and Wisconsin's legendary Door County. I didn't spend as many days trout fishing as I normally do, but a friend and I did get the opportunity to introduce Nathaniel to our favorite river -- the West Fork of the Chattooga River.
My fish-catchingest days of 2011 (and among the most fun) were just a couple of weeks ago, with Frank Campbell on the Niagara River. We literally caught hundreds of pounds of steelhead, brown trout and lake trout. Another favored day included minimal fish catching because the river was low and the bite wasn't happening. That was the day I floated Arkansas' beautiful Buffalo River with Nathaniel and few good friends. I also really enjoyed the two days when then-6 Asher took Nathaniel and me to fish-catching school, catching almost all the fish, and the afternoon I spent with Stephen Browning catching Lake Fork largemouth doubles on tiny tandem rigs.

One of my most noteworthy individual fish came from Fork on the following afternoon when Gary Dollahon and I were trying to catch white bass for photos. Instead of a white bass, my spoon got the attention of an 8-pound largemouth. Also high on that list would be the halibut pictured above. It wasn't even sort of big by halibut standards, but it was still my best halibut, and I was standing in a boat close to a Volcano and in Alaska when I caught it, and that made it mighty memorable!

I'm very thankful for the opportunity to make my living collecting and recording fish stories, and I'm excited to see where the new year's fishing adventures take me!