The day before my fishing trip it rained pretty hard so I thought about canceling. But then I remembered what my boss had told me before, “The day after it rains, you can catch quite a few fishes~!” And the morning of my fishing trip, it was completely opposite of how it was yesterday, it was an amazingly sunny day! I immediately headed out to go fishing.

I grabbed a casting rod for the FM110 & a Drop Shot rig rod for the bottom surface and finally arrived at Alamitos Bay. The wind was blowing very strongly towards me so it was impossible for me to long cast. So I thought of a plan, I decided to move to the pier!! I was able to fully cast in 6 directions with the FM110 & PT100 and aimed the upper surface area. But when that didn’t work, I also tried aiming the bottom! I cast in a pretty fast pace at about 10 cast per spot while walking along the pier.

I then arrived at the end of the pier and still had absolutely no response so I decided to go back to the beach.

For some reason I didn’t want to give up. I went back to my car to drop off the materials I didn’t need and then grabbed only one casting rod, FM, PT, and PTDD lures with me. I went to the corner of the pier and beach. I started off casting the FM110 (Color: Aurora Black) but got nothing… I tried out the PT100DD right after.

Then… Bam!! I got a hit!! I tried not to panic and slowly retrieved… it was a Flounder (Hirame)!! This was my very first fish caught this year from Okappari (Shore fishing).

The size was about 40cm (15”) long and quite small, but I finally caught one with a Lucky Craft lure!! My goal since the 2011 New Year was to catch a fish from Okappari (Shore fishing)! And finally I met my goal!! Now I can go on the boat.

See you all soon!

P.S. The expensive trigger I bought on my Japan business trip finally paid off!

Sandy
The Daily Flash Minnow

Casey Ashley Blog
Date: 3/23/2011

We just wrapped up the Florida swing of events and I very excited about my results. I ended up in 18th at the Harris Chain and 10th on the St. John’s River. Anytime you can get two top twenty finishes against these anglers you are doing well.

At the St. John’s River I knew it was going to be a sight fishing tournament. So I turned the trolling motor to high and went looking for bed fish. I was 100% committed to sight fishing from the moment I got there. I did cast around a speed worm or Lucky Craft G-Splash or Splash tail just to try to get a bite while I was looking. That didn’t go very well, I just couldn’t get a bite fishing.

On day 1 of the event I fished lake George. In practice I located a couple big fish and knew if I could get on them I could catch them. I just lucked out and got on both of them. I had one about 8 and another one about 7, from then I just kept looking and I found a couple more big ones but couldn’t get them to bite. I was sitting nicely near the top of the standings.

On the second day, I decided not to go to Lake George. I had another area that was closer called Dunns creek. I had some big ones picked out there as well. I went in and some of them were gone and some new ones had moved in. I just couldn’t do anything with them I ended up scratched out 12 pounds.
I returned to Dunns Creek on the third day to try and get some of the fish I didn’t get on day 2, but again I couldn’t get them to go. They wouldn’t lock in or act right.

On the final day, I decided to go somewhere else since Dunns Creek didn’t work out very well. So I went back to Lake George. The fish were everywhere. I had a limit in about 40 minutes. I had a 6-pounder that I tried to catch for about two hours. I nevercould get her to do anything. I found another 7 or 8–pounder and I spent about an hour on her. I did get her to bite, and I stuck her only to have her get off. I blew that one, but that’s part of the game. That’s kind of the way my day went, I never could get a big one.

Overall I finished in 10th and on the heels of a solid finish at the Harris Chain I feel pretty good.

In non-fishing related stuff, I am excited that I finished recording my album. The studio is working on it now and it should be done this week. After that, I’ll be able to check it out and make sure I like how it turned out. After that we’ll be deciding how and where we are going to sell them.

Back to fishing, I start fishing Lake Normantomorrow in the BASS Opens I really like Lake Norman and I expect to do well there. I sure like to win it and qualify for the Classic. We’ll see!

Oh yeah! Sometimes you get the chicken and sometimes you get the feathers! For me it was definitely chicken today. What the heck! After all my whining about my tough practice, the wind blew hard today and I absolutely whacked them.
Joe Thomas Blog

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I slept in ’til 9 A.M. today. I love the FLW off day between practice and competition. It gives me a chance to catch up on emails and phone calls, work out, and prep my tackle.
Joe Thomas Blog

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Today I continued to struggle in my practice round for the Lake Hartwell FLW, but at least I wasn’t bored today! Steve, a co-angler in the tournament, fished with me today and kept me company. I caught seven keepers on various baits, but still fairly small fish and I’ve found no area that I feel comfortable fishing the tournament in.
Joe Thomas Blog

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2011 Toyota Tundra Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings

After St. Johns River, Palatka, Fla. Ending 03-20-2011, Day 4

Place Name St Pts
1 Alton Jones TX 573
2 Terry Scroggins FL 555
3 Kevin VanDam MI 542
4 Edwin Evers OK 536
5 Pat Golden NC 526
6 Steve Kennedy AL 507
7 J Todd Tucker GA 501
8 Casey Ashley SC 499
9 Todd Faircloth TX 496
10 Cliff Crochet LA 487
28 Kelly Jordon TX 411
47 Gerald Swindle AL 358
52 Skeet Reese CA 342
61 Takahiro Omori TX 314

When the most exciting things you have to take pictures of on a practice day are waterfalls and a nice crappie, you know things are slow! I cannot believe fishing is so tough with the water temps near 60 degrees. If I had to guess, I would say the surface temp came up so fast with the near 80 degree days last week that the fish just haven’t moved up like you would expect.
Joe Thomas Blog

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Date: 3/17/11

It is time for the Daily Flash Minnow again. But to start off, I would like to send my deepest condolences to the all the people who was and still are affected by the great earthquake of Kanto, Japan.

Today I went to a local beach, Newport Beach for my fishing trip! Due to the rain from yesterday, the water was quite cloudy and it was also a foggy weather. The temperature was low, so I made a choice on aiming the bottom instead of the surface. This time, I brought 2 rods and used the Bass fishing essential item, the drop shot rig. The rods are made exclusively for casting and I used the PT78XD & FM120DD as my main lures.

The first half of the day, I casted with the reliable FM120DD! But when I didn’t get any kind of reaction, I changed it to a smaller lure size and continued to do a lure rotation between these lures: PT 100DD, PT 78XD, and PT 78DD. Unfortunately, I still didn’t get any response, so I tried out a less motion type lure, the Valid and continued to retrieve. Again, nothing.

It was my last resort, the Drop Shot!! I long casted the Drop Shot and dragged it on the bottom surface. And when I felt a change, I shook it a bit and then just waited! I continued to do that and finally by the jetty I felt a hit!! I immediately reacted to it, but the worm torn apart and failed… It was probably because the hook I was using on the worm was too big, so it didn’t hook on too well…
No fish again! But I did find out that there are fishes on the bottom area, so next time I’ll have that in mind and challenge with a rig next time.

Sandy

The Daily Flash Minnow

When you have eight rods with eight different baits on the deck of your boat, it is a pretty good sign you are struggling to figure things out! Hartwell was tough on me today. I caught only 10 keepers in my 12 hour practice day. Most of them were only about 13 inches. My plan is to keep moving around and changing things up ’til I figure it out. Water temp is 58 degrees. It should not be that hard!
Joe Thomas Blog

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Today was an easy one for me. The drive to Lake Hartwell from my brother Doug’s home in Atlanta only took me about an hour and a half. I had not made a room reservation so I wanted to get there fairly early to scope out the hotels before the bulk of the other competitors came rolling in.
Joe Thomas Blog

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