Check out the new articles on the Strike King Journal featuring Luke. When you click here, scroll down to Strike King Journal at the bottom of the page. There are some great articles featuring the football jig, rage toad, iguana, sexy crankbaits and more.

Bassmaster Central Open #1

For Live Leaderboard & Realtime Weigh-in click here and then look for the Red River Live Weigh In. Weigh-in starts at 2:30 CT.

Camoclad

Just wanted to post a couple of pictures of the awesome job Camoclad, Inc out of Mounds, Illinois did on my truck/boat. We are very pleased with it and highly recommend them! Chris Brown of Chris Brown Creative took these pictures while Luke was in Texas last week for the Toyota Texas Bass Classic. Thanks Chris!!

2008 17th Street Bass Tournament Application

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2008 Bassmaster Classic

I would have to say that attending the Bassmaster Classic has got to be the second best thing for a die hard fisherman to experience. Obviously the first would have to be fishing the Classic, and for most of us it will always be a dream. This year marks the third Bassmaster Classic that I have attended. The difference this year is that I had to work for one of my sponsors, Strike King Lure Company. I was more than happy to go and work for the one company that has stood behind me for the past three years. Mark Menendez and I braved an ice storm and headed toward Greenville, South Carolina. We arrived late that night and got a much needed good night sleep. I was defiantly unprepared for what was about to happen that morning when the fans arrived at the sport show. At 10:00a.m., the doors were opened and the people piled in. I worked the Strike King Booth only for about fifteen minutes when I was directed to go and help out at the Tackle Warehouse booth. Tackle Warehouse was selling our product along with several other vendors. Our pegboards that were full of baits were emptied in a matter of hours. I and another Strike King regional pro, Todd Witt, helped customers with questions along with restocking the booth. It was an absolute mad house. Todd and I could not get the baits back out as people swarmed like vultures. The hot item, the Series Five Sexy Shad crankbait. We sold out of almost all of our Sexy Shad crankbaits by 2:00p.m. on Friday. We continued to sell just about everything that we put up and were the number one seller of product in the Tackle Warehouse booth. Todd and I felt like Wal-Mart stock boys but it was a good problem to have. We did utilize our reinforcements though. Strike King Elite pros Mark Menendez and James Niggemeyer helped out tremendously. It was a fun yet exhausting weekend. It was a great experience and I was glad to have been invited. I met a lot of really nice people and had a good time with some great friends. I am hoping that next year I will be at the classic only this time fishing instead of working. If not, I am sure I will retain my job of head stock boy.

Best baits for early spring

One of the best baits to throw in early spring is a lipless crankbait. These rattling, fish like lures simply catch fish. Most fishermen rely on a much slower presentation to catch bass in the month of March due to the cold water temperature. What they fail to realize is that a fast moving bait will create a reaction strike. Lakes like Guntersville in Alabama or Kentucky Lake are known to produce huge stringers of bass in late February and March by anglers using a lipless crankbait. Strike King has got two baits that are perfect for this type of fishing situation.

The first is the Diamond Shad. This rattling bait works well around any type of cover. In the early spring bass will move from their deep winter holes and move into the mouths of pockets. They will stage on points and secondary points and feed heavily on shad and crawfish. The Diamond Shad is a perfect choice when fishing around gravel points. Once a fish is caught an immediate cast to the same general area can produce another strike. When fishing the Diamond Shad do not be scared to reel it fast. The loud rattling chambers and the speed of the retrieve will produce vicious strikes. When the bass stop hitting the bait on a straight retrieve, simply change it up by sweeping the rod as the bait is cranked in. Sometimes this quick change in movement will trigger the bass to strike.

The new Strike King Red Eye Shad is one of the best lipless crankbaits on the market today. It can be worked around just about any cover but shines best when using this bait around grass such as hydrilla or other aquatic vegetation. The Red Eye Shad can be easily ripped through the grass to entice bass. In those lakes with an abundance of grass the bass will bury themselves in it. To coax them out of it simply cast the Red Eye out and reel it over the top of the grass letting it fall momentarily and then ripping the bait back out of the grass. Bass cannot stand this and will come out of the cove and strike the bait with a vengeance.

When using these lipless crankbaits it is important to match these with the proper rod and reel. A Team All Star seven foot medium rod matched with a fast reel like a Pflueger President 6.3:1 gear ratio reel is the perfect combination. The line depends on the cover that is being fished. For grass filled lakes a braided line is preferred. This line cuts the grass as the bait is being ripped out. For all other practical purposes seventeen pound test seems to work the best.

The Strike King Diamond Shad and the new Red Eye Shad both come in a variety of colors that will suit all a fisherman’s needs. Pick a couple up this year and be prepared for that vicious strike.

Lessons learned...

If a fisherman can learn something each time he goes out on the water, then it is a productive day.
Although I did not qualify for the Toyota Texas Bass Classic at the qualifier down on Choke Canyon in Texas this year in February, I was able to learn several valuable things during practice and in the tournament that will help me in my career. The top of the list of things that I learned was sight fishing. I will be the first to admit that I am not an expert when it comes to this technique. Here at home we are very limited in the time we have to practice this and it has cost me in a few events. At Choke Canyon the fish were moving up faster than I was expecting and by tournament time they were on the bank. I had to either learn quickly or sink right then and there if I were to have any chance at all in weighing in a fish. I tied on three different lures to entice the fish. The first was a Strike King seven inch finesse worm. The second was a Strike King white tube and the third was a shad looking swim bait. I ended up catching fifty percent of my fish looking at them, forty nine percent of them blind casting to bedding fish, and only one fish on the bait that I had caught all of my fish on in practice which was a Kevin VanDam three quarter ounce spinner bait. The other important lesson was to prepare for any changing weather conditions and what the fish will do in the event that the weather does change. On the first day of practice the temperature was around 40 degrees. The water temp was 57. I focused on trees at the mouths of big pockets in about ten feet of water. I caught eight keepers out of the trees and my best five would easily top over twenty pounds. The next day the weather warmed and I looked in only a couple of pockets for bedding fish. The water temp was also warming. I had no idea that fish would move up that fast and I was basically caught with my pants down. I had to scramble. I managed to salvage both days of the event with around twenty eight pounds but I ran out of fish. Lesson learned. I need to learn to bed fish more and anticipate fish movement the best I can. This is just another hurdle that I had to jump over. That is why they call it fishing, not catching.

Day 1 - Practice

Here is a picture that Tony took of Luke's catch today.

Headed to Choke Canyon...

Luke is on his way to compete in the PAA Toyota Texas Bass Classic Qualifier at Choke Canyon Lake, Texas. The tournament is this Friday and Saturday. There are 64 boats that are competing. The top 25 will advance to the 2008 Toyota Texas Bass Classic on Lake Fork in Texas.

Luke was fortunate enough to participate in this event last year and it was amazing. I will keep you up to date on the final standings each day. I assume they will post it on the PAA website as well.

A much needed break...

A much needed break from fishing during the holidays was needed. I have spent some good quality time with my two girls. Basketball games and the girls having sleep overs have consumed our life during the break. Trying to juggle being a dad, basketball coach, husband, "wanna be" fishing pro, oh, and work is a never ending job. But a life in this family is anything but dull! It is drama city living with three women.

Anyway, the PAA Toyota Texas Bass Classic Qualifier is approaching and I am looking forward to it. It will be held on Choke Canyon Reservoir in Texas. It is ONLY a sixteen hour drive. The fishing should be great that time of year. God willing I will go down there and wreck shop. I am sure my wife will keep this site updated for the complete standings. Maybe my name will be close to the top. Here are some random pictures from the 2007 season.

My Biggest Fan!

My career as an aspiring tournament fisherman has been anything but easy. There have been so many ups and downs but somehow I have always managed to hang in there. A lot of my success can be contributed to my friends and family. I have had the good fortune to meet some really great people along the way that have helped me in one form or another. A little more than two years ago I met a man that lived down the street from me. I had known him all my life but never actually knew him well. He was an older gentleman that had been bound to a wheel chair due to Lou Gehrig’s disease. My father in law helped him on a daily basis and I helped out when he was busy. Not long after I met him it became a daily routine of helping him out of his wheel chair and putting him to bed. Every day and night I was over at his house. I would often walk over to his house to watch basketball or whatever sport was on the television. We would sit and talk sports because he loved them with a passion. He quickly learned that I loved to fish as much as he loved golf which was his favorite sport. He knew that I was trying to make a career out of so he took it upon himself to become my biggest fan. He was the guy that always rooted for the underdog. And that was me. He always had a few words of encouragement for me before I would leave to go to the next tournament. I would always call him and tell him how my practice was going and he would watch the internet to see how I was doing. Surprisingly the 2007 season was a great one. He was so proud of me. He would tell me things like, “Keep your head up and never lose your drive. One day you will get that break you need.” He was the one person that kept me going even when I would get down. I told him that if I make the Bassmaster Classic that I was going to do whatever it took to get him there. He wanted me to make it so bad. After I came back from the Wildcard I went over and told him about it. He had watched it on the internet. He looked at me and said, “You will get them next year. I just know it.” His body was wasting away before my eyes but his mind was as sharp as ever. I knew that our time together was dwindling but I was still not prepared for what happened. On December 18th I got a phone call from my wife that an ambulance had taken him to the hospital. I raced home and headed out to the emergency room. By the time I got to the hospital I had found out that he had had a massive heart attack. I went to his room where his wife stood over him holding his hand. She told me that he could still here me but that it would not be long. I grabbed his hand and leaned over him. I told him thank you for everything he has done for me and that I was going to make it for him. I did not want to let him go but I knew that it was his time. Around 4:30 p.m. Butch Stiegman took his last breath. He will be missed by many. He touched so many people’s lives in so many different ways. The words he spoke to me are beyond any value. I will miss him dearly. Butch was my friend and my biggest fan.

Redemption Day!

WOW!!! After day 2 I started to wonder if I should be pursuing this dream. I had went the first two days catching only three fish per day and they were all little putting me in dead last. At one point during the second day I looked up in the sky and went, “ OK!! You win!!” That night I sat in my boat going through my tackle. Am I going to go out like this. Last Place?! The drive that burns inside me finally took over. Day three. Too little, too late but what a way to end it. I picked up a Strike King Diamond Shad and started smoking them. By 8:45 I had my limit including a 5 and a 4 pounder in the box. I caught 15 plus keepers and weighed in over sixteen pounds. Just when I wanted to give up God stepped in and said,” Not yet!" .

Now it is over and time to think about the St.Johns River for the first B.A.S.S. Southern Open. No time to hold my head down. There is much work to do and I cannot wait

The final day - and a much better one!

Not the final finish he hoped for, but most definitely a better day than past two. Luke finished out the Wildcard by catching a 5 fish limit today weighing 16 lbs 2 oz. It was the 2nd biggest sac of the day. He told me that he was actually done catching his limit by 8:45 a.m. and could then concentrate on getting that big bite he needed. He succeeded. He blamed it on the chicken wings...he said that for two nights when they went out to eat, he ordered chicken wings (his favorite) and didn't catch any fish the following days, but last night he decided that since he couldn't "catch" fish - he would at least eat them - and today he caught a very nice limit of fish! :-) At least this is his theory..ha!

The Wildcard tournament is over and he finished in 28th place. Even though he didn't make the Elites - it was an experience well worth walking through.

Now - back home until January 13th when he will head back to Florida for the first B.A.S.S. Southern Open.

Two days down...

Well.....two down and not so good. Luke only had 3 fish again today. He was much more humorous about the situation when I talked to him today. What are you going to do? He tried....he's just not getting the bites he needs. He is "o.k." with all of it. He might not have made the Elites this year - but he has a full schedule ahead in 2008. He is fishing both the Central and Southern Bassmaster Opens, so that will keep him busy, leaving again January 13th already. There is still one more day tomorrow of the tournament and he jokingly told me his goal now is to come in 2nd to last.

Another day....another life experience!

Not the start he hoped for....

Well - Luke did not have the day he hoped for. He didn't lose them - just didn't catch them. Almost every angler will experience what Luke did today at some point in his/her career. It's defintely not a very good feeling, but it's a three-day tournament, it's not over and tomorrow is a brand new day!