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.
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.