View from the Water: Forrest Wood Cup

2013 Forrest Wood Cup champion Randall Tharp on morning
No. 1, before a single cast had been made.

By far my favorite place to watch tournament action is from the water. Although the computer or a media room provide more big-picture news, reading reports simply isn't the same as seeing how anglers are working cover, what their body language says, how the water looks and the air feels and such.

Normally, I can't really do that. Not for more than a day, anyway. Stories need to be written, and if I'm physically at en event it usually makes more sense to spend maybe a day on the water and invest other daytime hours either working on the computer or doing other things that are associated with the event.

Last year, during the Forrest Wood Cup, I got to spend a bit of time on the water, and it was cool learning a bit about how the Red River fishes during the summer and seeing the contrasting strategies of working backwaters and the main river.  I even watched Randall Tharp fish for a while. At time I had no idea that he was working on what would turn out to be the winning strategy.

This year it's my job. A this year's Cup, which begins on Thursday on South Carolina's Lake Murray, I'm contributing to FLW's live coverage, so I'll be on the water reporting back what I see, probably all four days.

Be sure to keep the Forrest Wood Cup page bookmarked and watch the FLW Twitter feed for a fabulous flow of images, stories, notes and video clips, including iON footage from the pros' boats.

Today is Walmart Pro Day (12-2) and Chevy Pro Day (5-7) in Columbia, so most pros are in town and things officially get started in a couple of hours. Practice begins tomorrow morning!