Lures over live bait , why ? I struggled for four years putting that question to the test . I was not a guide at that time and was not even thinking about making a living fishing but I wanted to win a fishing tournament . Live bait caught fish , lots of small fish and I usually anchored fishing a small area never exploring the rest of the water world around me . Lures and a trolling motor forced me to move over vast stretches of water and with a depth finder I was not just floating over the bottom I knew what was down there. Lures caught big fish and that was the single big drive. There was no limits in lure fishing and if you did not like the way a certain lure was made you could change it or make one yourself . Once I figured out patterns on what fish liked times of year, tide changes , and bait forage . Things became easier and it was only a matter of time before something big was going to happen.

Those learning years between the fall of 95 and 98 required long hours on the water and averaging three to four days off a week working as a truck driver seemed like a perfect time in my life for this to happen. I had fished as many tournaments as I could but the best placing was a 6th place in the Governor’s cup ( redfish, trout ) held in August of 98 at the conch house in St. Augustine.  I remember when everything changed that fall in 98 while fishing a IFT championship . That late afternoon  in the tournament I had lost a big trout and a little later a good redfish.  I was beat but not beat down because I had a chance , I was in the game and later that week me and Chip decided to team up for next years local tour , this time lures only and all the time. There was only one Angler at that time who was really good at this and his name was Rick Thacker of jaw jacker jigs. Most other Anglers backed up their lure trials with live bait and were not fully confident at that time to go the distance in a tournament with lures only and tournaments allowed the use of live-bait.