Hello everyone,

 Well for me the 2011 season is about to get underway and I couldn’t be more excited.  I will be traveling this week for the first BASS Elite tournament at the Harris Chain of lakes in central Florida.  This is the first time I have competed in the Elite series, I qualified for them last year by finishing fifth in the points in the Northern division of the BASS opens.  I fished the BASS top 150 trail from 2000 till 2006 but since then the format for BASS has changed, and because of this I will be considered a Rookie.

It seems strange that I will be starting over after having been fishing as a full time Pro for 12 years now, but change is good.  The main reason I am excited about the change for me, is the BassMaster Classic.  I have competed in 6 BassMaster Classics, and had my chance to win in New Orleans in 2001.  That was the year Kevin VanDam won his first, I remember it too well.  I was  the last man to weigh in and came up ounces short of having a Classic victory. 

Being that close can either make you or break you and I am determined to be back on that stage again and finish what I started.  The BassMaster Classic is often compared to the super bowl of tournaments, and it really is  If you like to fish for Bass you owe it to yourself to go to one and experience first hand how exciting it really is being there.  I remember my first one, it was 1997 when Dion Hibdon won in Birmingham Alabama.  I was a club tournament fisherman who went down there from Kentucky to help out  a boat dealer friend of mine.  I was running my first Ranger boat at the time and to see all of those BASS Master Classic editions going around that arena and the crowds that were there cheering on their favorites, I was totally hooked.  It took me three years, but I was running my very own BassMaster Classic Ranger at the 2000 Classic in Chicago.  I have been with Ranger and Evinrude for 15 years now and I have ran the latest models, starting with my first boat a 481vs with a 150 Evinrude fast strike till now. 

 Next week I will be pulling my Ranger Z520 with the Evinrude E-Tec 250 down to the first Bassmaster event trying to qualify for the next Classic being considered a Rookie, again. This season is a change for me but chasing the dream is still there and I hope that never changes.

Good Fishing,

David Walker

Hello everybody, I am having a bad case of cabin fever, so to pass the time before leaving on my first trip of the New Year, I have been working on tackle.

“Working on tackle” is a phrase that covers a lot of bases, but it is a job that I enjoy doing, and for me it’s a necessary function of a bass fisherman. This is the time of the year when I get ready to hit the tournament trail, and I have to be sure that when I get to the first event, I have everything I need.

My first step is to inventory everything that I have. Second, I determine what items need to be repaired or disposed of. Third, I figure out what new items should be purchased.

This week, I have been organizing tackle boxes. Tackle boxes have changed significantly for me over the years, but I still have one of the first boxes that I ever owned. It was like large tool box with a handle on top and with trays that opened up as you lifted the top. It had room for a couple dozen lures as well as a large area in the bottom for everything else.

Now, my entire boat is really the tackle box – I use several boxes that are clear and have adjustable dividers that allow you to customize the storage spaces in each. Each one, packed neatly in my boat, is about 9 by 14 inches and about two inches deep. Many companies make them and most are the same size, so they fit neatly into the storage areas on the boats or into soft-sided tackle bags for travel. These boxes – unlike boxes from the good old days – are also not affected by the salt or plastics used in my soft and hard baits.

This is the best system for organizing because you can lay out the box dividers to fit your own needs. I will put lures into different boxes, usually dividing them by style such as lipless crankbait, deep crankbaits or topwater boxes. 

 I do have a few boxes that are setup for specific lakes and labeled, and when I’m ready to fish that lake, I can replace a tackle box on my boat that won’t be needed. This is a great time saver and this is the best time of year to get organized.

A few tips — Be sure to not mix your soft plastics with your hard baits. The salt that is used in the soft plastic baits will rust the hooks and rings of your expensive hard baits. Also, don’t allow water to be left in the boxes for a long period of time – damp tackle boxes will damage both soft plastics and hard baits. Many times during the year, I will leave my tackle boxes open in the sun to dry out everything inside them.

I’m counting down the days until the new 2011 tournament season begins, but look for more blog posts this winter!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas, and I wish you all a great New Year!

Good luck and good fishing,
David Walker   

Hey everyone, thanks for checking out this week’s blog.

I was in Oklahoma last week doing a little deer hunting. I was happy to get the chance to harvest this nice 8-point buck, and we also had some time for a little quail hunting as well.

The week before, the family and I headed down to Florida where we did saltwater fishing for Red fish, and I went over to Lake Okeechobee for one day to try my luck with the bass. I managed to catch an 8 pound, 14 ounce bass right away that morning, and it was by far the largest of the day. The weather was great while we were there, and now that we’re dealing with frigid temperatures farther north, I would sure like to see a little of that warmth here in Tenn.

Winter can be a great time to catch fish, but because of the cold, it is important to choose your days carefully. My favorite days in the cold are ones with little or no wind. Wind can make a sunny day seem much colder than a cloudy day without wind.

Probably my favorite lure is a jig when the water temp is below 50 degrees. I use it like you would a Texas rig worm – simply cast it out let it sink to the bottom and use very short hops for your retrieve. You must pay very close attention to your line because most bites will be very subtle.

Another great bait for late fall or early winter is a crankbait. I usually use a smaller profile bait of less than 2 inches in length. I also use crawfish colors instead of shad patterns. The Koppers live craw in natural crawfish pattern is one of my favorites. The detail of that lure in cold, clear water gives it a great look.

I like to fish these lures around steep banks, especially banks that have a channel swing or short bluff wall to them. The fish I caught in Okeechobee were still on the fall pattern and were feeding on shad and other baitfish. I was using a new Bluegill wake bait over submerged vegetation when that 8 pound big girl bit.

One last quick note. When you’re fishing where the water is cold – sometimes close to freezing – be sure to take a friend with you. If you were to fall in the water, it’s very difficult to get back into your boat by yourself when you’ve got multiple layers of clothing on – and it will only take a few minutes for hypothermia to set in. Cold water can be very dangerous. Please don’t take it lightly, be safe out there.

Besides, after you catch all those big fish, someone has to be there to take the photos!

Good Luck and Good Fishing,
David Walker

Thank you for all of your support and positive comments you have left on my site and facebook page.

Good Fishing,
David

At the Lake Ouachita Tournament this year the water temp reached nearly 90 degrees that week, the first day I made the mistake of letting my co-angler theory of “more is better” and killed several fish in the live wells.  He added so much of the fish chemicals, actually using the entire bottle in one day and pouring dry chemical into the fish’s mouth that he sedated them to the point that they died.  The chemicals are just that – chemicals if you add enough to the water that the water color changes, that is enough a couple cap fulls will last you all day.  The most important factor of keeping fish alive in hot weather is to maintain cooler live well temperatures, cooler then the outside air and lake temperatures.  Think of it as this – think of your live well as an aquarium, you don’t need to change your aquarium water every three hours.  The only time I will exchange my live well water is when I get a lot of blood from a deep hooked fish, I will get rid of that water and start with some new water. If there is no bleeding I am going to leave that water in there all day.

In order to cool the water the obvious thing to use is ice, personally instead of using just bagged ice I will freeze one gallon jugs of water, these will last a lot longer then the bags of ice.  It is best to maintain a temp around 70 degrees, now to see what your temp is – to see if you have enough ice, you need a thermometer even if it is just a floating one you get at a pet store. In my boat, Lowrance has a temperature probe on the trolling motor and another mounted inside the live well, this way right on the screen I can see just what the water temp is – in the lake and in my live well. I try to keep my live well around 70 degrees, this has so far kept my fish healthy and alive to the weigh in. Also in my boat I have installed one of the oxygenator, this keeps the oxygen level high enough without having to continually add hot lake water.

About a mounth ago the guys from Kool Well installed a Kool Well system in my boat.  This makes the job of keeping my fish alive way easier.  Under the video section on my website I have a video describing the entire system, be sure to check it out – also you can go to Koolwell.com for more information.

I am not a fan of dead fish penalties or the rule of not being able to cull dead fish because I don’t think anglers are intentionally killing fish, some fish just get hooked in the gills and you are just not going to be able to keep those fish alive.  Especially when it is legal to go and catch ten or more fish a day and take them home and clean them and eat them, why does the tournament guy get penalized for having one dead fish out of the week.  Just last week a guy lost the “formerly Stren” tournament because of a dead fish penalty and I remember when Terry Bolton lost the KY lake tournament because of a dead fish penalty.   Luke Clausen finished sixth and did not make the top five at Guntersville because of a dead fish - who I now refer to as “Fish Killer”.  I really think it is important to keep the fish alive, so we can catch them another day – as a matter of fact I would like to see more stricter rules about creel limits to try to protect bigger fish from the frying pan.  So Keeping fish alive for the weigh in is a combination of things, you need to add your chemicals, you need to cool the water and you need add air back in to the water so make sure when your recirculating pump is on that it agitates the surface.  Keep this stuff in mind and you hopefully you won’t end up like fish killer Luke!

This is starting to be one of the busiest summers for me I have had in a long time, as far as the amount of tournaments I am fishing.  I fished the first PAA tournament for 2010 a few weeks ago on Cherokee, it was a really tough event the water temp was 90 and the air temp was 90+.  Tommy Biffle from OK won it fishing shallow, but most of what was else was caught were caught 20 feet or deeper.  I finished fifth in the event.

Last week I was on Lake Champlain fishing the first Bass Northern Open.  Dave Wolak won it with a little over 54 lbs.  I finished the tournament in 9th place with 50 lbs 11 ounces.  It was a huge turn out there was over 200 boats fishing.  I was able to get some great pictures of my day one and two on the water action, be sure to check them out under  my photo gallery.

Thanks again for checking out my blog – and keep the comments coming.

Good Fishing,

David

 Last week FLW also announced their schedule for next year, I was very glad to see the series come back and most of all the locations are going to really favor the power fishermen like myself I have always hated fishing places that did not have bass and the few that were there were so hard to catch that only finesse tactics would get you a check or a shot at the finals. I would love to see the championship get back to a smaller field size but all in all the changes so far have been in the right direction.

This weekend is the fourth of July and I am looking forward to being home for it, this is the first time in three years – we always had practice for a tournament on that weekend. I think next to Christmas it is my favorite holiday warm weather, cookouts and best of all FIREWORKS. One thing about living in TN is we got the good fireworks a buddy of mine works at a big fireworks store and he showed me which ones would really rock. I will be setting off a display for the family and friends this year and I am really looking forward to it. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. Thanks for checking out my blog and be sure to check out all the photos that I put up on the photo page from last week. 

Good fishing,