As promised in a prior blog my newest article "Lessons Learned and Finally Applied" was published today on Gary Yamamoto's magazine Inside Line.  The article discusses my practice and actual tournament days at the FLW Costa series tournament a few weeks ago, I hope you enjoy the read.

Fun times by all on Toledo for the past few weekends. Starting with Bass Champs we had water in the high 50's and low 60's, fished staged up over the grass. I found multiple groups of fish that I could catch a lot of ways, but the most effective was with an A-rig using Yamamoto Zako's. I fished Bass Champs by myself as Dicky was fishing the BFL on Rayburn and caught a respectable 16 lbs, but a couple pounds shy of getting paid. I will tell you that had this been a MLF tournament I could have easily broken the 100 pound mark, by 11:00 I had most of my weight, I easily had 30 fish in the high 2 1/2 - 3 pound class and another 20 keepers, was a spectacular day of fun fishing.

Next weekend we went back for the Texas Team trail and tried to start on the same groups of fish. Twenty minutes into the morning I counted 61 boats that I could see within a half mile of us, including 10 that were within a 3 iron of us. Lots and lots of folks found those fish as they were community hole fish in the 6 mile and Housen areas. We slid around between the boats and caught a couple of small limits, but it became obvious we needed to get away from the boats, which meant getting away from the grass. We moved north up Toledo a few miles and started fishing main lake ridges leading into spawning bays or flats. The BITE of the day was the 7 1/2 in my right hand, caught on a 1 oz black/blue football jig, 15 # Seaguar on a 7'6" Lew's MH rod. The actual rod is called a Carolina Rig rod, but I love it for big football jigs, good can throw them a mile and it's got just the right amount of backbone to get a hook in fish, even when like this one they are 50-60 yards out when you pull on them. Total weight of just under 20 lbs, good enough for a $2,250 paycheck.

A Texas Christmas Eve

‘Twas the night before Christmas, at my cabin on the lake

Not a creature was stirring, not a hen, not a drake

The waders were hung in the garage on a nail

Still muddy from duck hunting, and smelling that smell

The kids they were nestled all snug in their bunks

All fishing gear locked up, in the shed, in a trunk

The dogs on their beds and I in my cap

Had just settled in for a long winter’s nap

When out in the yard there arose such a racket

I jumped from the couch and quick grabbed my jacket

As I gazed out the window across the lawn to the dock

A chubby man there stood in a red cashmere smock

And then to my wondering eyes did appear

Eight dogs – wait not dogs, but tiny reindeer

To my surprise I then saw the man known as St Nick

Sneakin’ round on my dock with a seven-foot stick

He moved with such grace while whispering to his pack

“Prancer keep you line tight son, give it no slack”

Now I realized at this moment they all had these things

All seven feet long and trailing long strings

The whole bunch they were taking a mid evening pause

For their favorite evening pastime, fishing with boss Claus

I could stand it no more, I just had to see

So out the back door I slipped grinning with glee

“Are the fish bitin?” I called through the night

And he spun around smiling a great smile of delight

Before he could reply I took him all in

A jolly man in red, with white whiskers on his chin

The little deer scattered, glad Joel weren’t awake

He’d have shot one for sure, we’d be eatin’ tiny steaks

With a wink of his eye he raised up his stringer

Old St Nick he can fish, heck he could be a ringer

He hopped on his sleigh with the stringer behind

Off to spread Christmas joy to all of mankind

Then to the pack he gave a quick shrill whistle

Off skyward they went at the speed of a missle

And I heard him call out as they flew out of sight

“The fish they’re a bitin’, Merry Christmas, goodnight”

 Ken Smith....Elf

If you have been paying attention to the Bassmaster broadcasts this year you have seen a number of pros trailing Chatterbaits and other vibrating jigs, as well as swim jigs, with the new Yamamoto Zako swimbait. This is a bait that Brett Hite was involved in developing (maybe the best vibrating jig fisherman out there these days) that was rolled out at the 2016 ICAST show, but has yet to be available to the public. I have it straight from Yamamoto central that we should start seeing the Zako available at major outlets, Tackle Warehouse, Bass Pro and Yamamoto's own online store this week. I suspect these are going to sell really, really quickly so they may become hard to come by soon so I wanted my friends and followers to know these are about to be available to grab some. As soon as they are available at the Gary Yamamoto Custom Bait online store I will let everyone know, so keep on the lookout!