My Stren Championship

[Ricky-S]

First off I have to send a HUGE thanks to Rick Grover and Jordan at Angler’s Marine. I would have never made the trip without their support. I had made the decision not to go and Grover talked me out of it and made some things happen for me. Thanks!

I left late Thursday night and arrived in Florence, AL late Friday night. It took about 24 hours to drive from my house to AL. I crashed in the Wal-Mart parking lot in the back of my truck and woke up Saturday morning to pouring rain. I crawled out of the truck around 8am went inside of Wal-Mart to buy my license and some other things. I made it to the launch site around 12 after eating and emailing a paper for school.

While in the parking lot another fisherman notices that I am loading up the boat with rods and tackle, so he comes over to offer up the latest dock talk. I finally break away and launch the boat to near perfect conditions. The rain had stopped and the sun was beaming down on us. I launched the boat around 2:30 and decided I was going to drive the lake to check out the place. I drove 50-60 miles of the river all the way to the MS and the Tom Bigby water way. There was bait all over the place, flows were strong and everything looked good.

Over the next three days of practice I went looking for a punch bite in the thick grass and a deep bite on the humps. The first two days I got one bite off of a hump after spending a total of 24 hours fishing deep structure. This lake had coves on it the size of Clear Lake and there was no way that “withoutâ€

[mac (Doyle McEwen)]

Great recap Ricky..Lots of us pulling for you..A bass may be a bass, but one lake isn't the same as another, most of the time they aren't even close in the way they fish..Tpp bad about the ones you lost..But it shows you were in the game..

mac

[sTony]

Thanks for writing it up for us Ricky, I enjoyed the read!

sTony

[Fast 492]

Great read Ricky. Reminds me of my trip to Wheeler a couple years back. I understand about the investment part. Good luck this year which ever trails you fish....

[Tony Lain]

Way to represent So. Cal and "Team Bling!". I think that was what? four events in 2009 that if you were trouble free (no missed fish, boat issues, stolen stuff, school assignments...) you would of earned about, what?, at least $80-200K. The edge of greatness!! You are a BAD DUDE!! 2010 should be pretty good $$

[Jim V.]

Nice job Ricky!

[ash]

Ricky,

Thanks for taking the time to write this up. I know I enjoy reading what it is like for the touring pro and you paint a very real picture. Congrats on your season.

[N.A.R]

(no missed fish, boat issues, stolen stuff, school assignments...) :

Ricky what got stolen? Where and how can we avoid it?

[Ricky-S]

It Tony's fault

At Havasu I didn't lock my rod locker and some decided that they needed a couple of my rods and things more than I did.

My new boat will have a locker-bar.

It's a sign of the times

[CharleyA]

Looks like they stole the stinger hooks for your blades too!!!

lol. Ya know we luv ya Ricky!!!!