Elite Series Marshal at the Rez..

[dwoodfin]

All three of my guys were nice and pretty talkative. Jamie Hartman was the first day and he really didn't have many areas he was counting on. Had been on a spinnerbait bite but it failed him. Brandon Coulter was day two and had a really good first day on a shad spawn bite and then on a shakey head bite on rocks. It failed him on day two and he struggled to get a limit. He lost a 4 or 5 pounder in the last couple minutes of fishing and was devastated. The only big bite he had all day. He was a super nice guy to spend time with. Yesterday was with Randy Howell and of course he was a first class guy. He was the only one that actually had a compartment to offer me to put my bag. He struggled with getting a bite all day and only managed 4 fish with two 3+ that came on a frog. I've always heard of his driving skills and the fact that his boat was known as one of the fastest on the tour. It's very true. The guy can drive and his boat will haul! Never really stretched it out but I did glance over one time while we were making a run up river and we were at 78.3 if I saw right....and he had a good bit more. Really surprised me last night when I got a call asking if I would marshal in the finals. Had not sent in the first picture or blog in all three days of fishing and that is what they said would determine the final days marshals. Looking forward to tomorrow and seeing which of the bottom six I'll be with.

[swallen75]

I got the draw to be a marshal at the Forrest Wood Cup. Totally excited.

[Rider99XX]

I had Chris Lane for day 1. Pretty cool guy, flipped a creature bait ALL DAY. Day 2 I had Casey Ashley and he is absolutely the most accurate caster, flipper, pitcher, I have ever seen. He could hit a tea cup at 50 feet any way he threw the bait. Day 3 I had Stephen Browning and he is SUPER NICE. Down to earth and talked like we were old friends.

Had a GREAT time with all three and all three treated me like a gentleman.

I was one of 7 Marshals picked for today, but could not go due to work

[MD 20i]

I didn't really know that Mark Daniels guy going in, but we ran across him a few times on the water and he seems like a really likable guy......I also saw a few that seemed like really unlikable guys. And I was shocked to find out that one of the guys(not naming names) that I always thought was a well liked guy is actually one of the least liked guys when the cameras aren't around. I also heard he was a tool from his day 2 marshal.

EE

[Bass Master]

I drew out with Stephen Browning on Day 1. He had about 16 lbs. that day and like Rider99XX said, he was a super cool guy. We talked all day long about lots of stuff and even when we ran into each other the next two days after that. Day 1 was definitely the highlight of my experience. Day 2 I was with Paul Elias. He was not on any fish and I was disappointed with that. I figured a guy from Mississippi with the experience that he had would be on more than what he was. We ran up above the 43 bridge and he bounced around to different places all day, but didn't do anything. He wound up with 3 small keepers. The biggest thing about day 2 was the trip back down the lake before weigh in. I have been on the lake one other time when I saw it close to what it was Friday. It was MEAN!! It took us 20-30 minutes to get back down the lake. He tried to follow the east side of the lake and then come back across but I think that made it even worse. Needless to say, I was soaked by the time we got back. I went out with Brandon Lester on Saturday. He is a young pro from Tennessee. He had a good day 1 but it was downhill after that. He fished Pelahatchie Bay most of the day and only wound up with two fish. He was not very talkative, but he was a nice guy.

I also had an enjoyable time being a marshal. This is the third time I have done this and have enjoyed it every time. This time was really interesting since I have fished the reservoir a good bit over the years and am familiar with it. I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going to go out Sunday even if I had been selected. I didn't want to be in the weather, but it got cancelled anyway.

[Kittycat2012]

Great write ups

[dwoodfin]

Rode with Dave Lefebre yesterday. His reputation as being sort of arrogant and such really was put to rest. He was a very good guy and talked quite a bit throughout the day....even when he hadn't managed to catch a fish in the first six hours. He had never left Pelahatchie Bay and wasn't going to yesterday either. He had caught them really good in practice and had managed some good bags to get him to the finals. The change in wind direction yesterday really got his areas. They went from stained to full out muddy. One thing that really surprised me about these guys was the fact that none of them seemed to have a plan B. They were committed to what they were doing and if it didn't work then they were just screwed. Dave was going to catch them on the chatterbait yesterday or he just wasn't going to catch them. He flipped just a little but didn't stick with it long at all. Right back to slinging that chatterbait and boy could he sling it. Made every cast left handed and we always seemed to be be fishing off the left side of the boat. Can't count the times that chatterbait went zinging by my head and I was standing right in front of the motor. Finally caught his first fish at 12:10, a solid 3 pounder that had a wound on it that looked like it had been split open with a knife. In the next five minutes he caught another 3.5 pounder and then had a very good one on and half way to the boat when it came unbuttoned. He stopped reeling and was devastated that he had lost what he thought may have been a 6 pounder. When he started back reeling his bait in a 2 pounder smoked it and he had keeper #3. He managed to get #4 a short while later and we ran out of time...he thought. He said "we got to go" and I looked at my phone and we still had 17 minutes but of course I didn't say anything. I was thinking it's not gonna take us more that 5 minutes to get back to check in. We took off and sure enough we were back across by the ramp at 10 till 2. He pulled over by the Cock of the Walk and started casting the chatterbait. At 2:59 he hooked a keeper off of the dock but it jumped and threw the bait. He made another cast back down the dock and hooked up again with keeper #5 with one minute to spare. He raised his trolling motor and told the check in guy standing right there on the dock "I'm done". Overall, it was a good experience, although I must admit at times mighty boring. It was so hard to keep my mouth shut at times all four days. I wanted to scream "throw something besides that damn chatterbait"! Of course, what do I know, the guy has only earned over $2 million on the FLW tour.

[Kittycat2012]

My first impression of LeFebre was bad. But I've watched him a lot on live this year and like him. Dudes a friggin hammer!

[Rider99XX]

On Thursday Chris Lane threw one bait 99.99% of the day. It was almost as if he was trying to "will" the fish to hit it. He did get a limit but it took all day. Casey Ashley and Stephen Browning both threw a variety of baits, but both had their "go to" bait they liked the best.

[jdlong49]

EE

Nope....but I bet he fits that mold.

Ill break down down and give you guys some help. I was talking about DR. Always seems likable on tv, but I got the vibe from a couple of pros that they weren't his fans and Skeet flat out had some unflattering words for him when he saw him poaching one of his spots.

[jdlong49]

And as for guys without a plan B....Cliff Prince was the exact opposite. That dude threw at least 20 different things on day 1 to get his 10.5 lbs.

[dwoodfin]

I was with Hartman on thursday and saw Chris run into clear water woods just above the bridge. Jamie asked me, "can you run across there", I said well he just did but I'm not! Actually, at one point Jamie had just caught 3 keepers out of one reed patch when Chris idled by the patch and Jamie said "he better not stop there!"

On Thursday Chris Lane threw one bait 99.99% of the day. It was almost as if he was trying to "will" the fish to hit it. He did get a limit but it took all day. Casey Ashley and Stephen Browning both threw a variety of baits, but both had their "go to" bait they liked the best.

[bass_prodigy75]

I also noticed most of the guys I had stuck to their confidence bait. Bill lowen on day one, although he had 10 rods on the deck 5 were rigged for flipping with different weights, 3 with swim jigs, and 1 spinnerbait and one frog. Pretty much stuck with the swim jig and flipping baits all day. He started with the spinnerbait just to capitalize on the shad spawn and picked up the frog for about 20 minutes and even caught a keeper but then went back to his swim jig. He was a nice guy talked a fair amount. I had Rook on day 2 and I could definitely tell he was old school only had 5 rods, Jig, buzzbait, spinnerbait, crankbait, and frog. He set his goal that morning to get a limit and it took till 2:15 but he finally got his 5th one. He flipped his jig up there set the hook and the fish came unbuttoned in air hit the front deck and was about to go over the right gunnel and he belly flopped on top of him and said "that right there is a $10,000 fish" I was glad to see both my day 1 and 2 guys made the cut. On day three I had John Crews he was a good dude we talked a fair amount that morning mostly about football since his step son is a highschool qb that has a scholarship for college. He ended up catching his limit around 12:30 and then went looking for a big fish, the talking kinda slowed around 1 I could tell he was kinda in the zone trying to capitalize on a big bite but it never happened. He had about 10 different rods with various baits and he seemed to fish more to my style. Overall it was a good experience and interesting to see how they approached the rez. The hardest part was not saying anything.. especially when they were fishing very close to a spot that Ive caught good fish off of or when a fish blows up and they dont see it ya just gotta sit there and watch.

[Kittycat2012]

Nope....but I bet he fits that mold.

Ill break down down and give you guys some help. I was talking about DR. Always seems likable on tv, but I got the vibe from a couple of pros that they weren't his fans and Skeet flat out had some unflattering words for him when he saw him poaching one of his spots.

Figured it out Yeah he's a DH

[dwoodfin]

"The hardest part was not saying anything.. especially when they were fishing very close to a spot that Ive caught good fish off of or when a fish blows up and they dont see it ya just gotta sit there and watch."

I agree! Monday Lefebre was 25 yds from a grass bed next to a creek that my partner had caught an 8 on 2 weeks before and he never looked back that way. I was wanting to say so bad, "hey, throw that chatterbait over this way!"

[Rider99XX]

I was with Hartman on thursday and saw Chris run into clear water woods just above the bridge. Jamie asked me, "can you run across there", I said well he just did but I'm not! Actually, at one point Jamie had just caught 3 keepers out of one reed patch when Chris idled by the patch and Jamie said "he better not stop there!"

We came out of the campgrounds and went straight across the river. I just knew any second that we were going to hit a stump but somehow we missed all of them. Chris was wanting to fish that patch of reeds really bad because he caught fish there in practice. He kept looking over to see if yall were still around there

[jdlong49]

I just knew any second that we were going to hit a stump but somehow we missed all of them.

We didn't miss them all on day 1!! I was with Cliff Prince and he went through the channel behind the islands toward Brown's landing and then he just went straight from Browns running toward the dam! Visible stumps everywhere!! Suddenly, WHOMP, and the boat went a little sideways and corrected and we kept on going full speed. We got back and he looked at me and said "You feel us hit that tree?? I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty puckered up the whole run. I had a clean line graphed but I looked down for a second and got off my line and I couldn't find a way back to it!!". It wasn't like weigh in was in 5 mins, he could have easily come off plane and idled back to his line. These guys are gamblers!!!!!

[4dbass]

Hi all.
I also had a great time as a Marshall. It was my first time.
I had Alton Jones Jr. the first day.




Day 2 - I was with Terry Scroggins. He had 9 rods on deck and never fished more than 5 min. with any one of them before switching to another one.




Day 3 - I was with Fletcher Shryock. This is the only picture he let me get of him. Fletcher fished 2 baits. He had 2 rods rigged with each bait, a black frog and a craw for flipping.


Day 4 - I was with Ish Monroe. Ish fished the same, Frog and flipping.




Had a good time with all the Pros I rode with. Looking forward to doing it again.

[Cpcat]

Great run down from you marshals

[jdlong49]

Day 3 - I was with Fletcher Shryock. This is the only picture he let me get of him.

Why??