What a year. Goals accomplished and many lessons learned. I’d like to say I’m completely satisfied with our season, but that wouldn’t be the truth. I truly think we could’ve pulled something special off had we fished clean this year, but that’s fishing and you can’t always control what happens. That being said for as dirty as we fished, we done a solid job and got it done where we needed too. I’m just going to recap the year tournament by tournament, so if you are into reading what happened to us throughout the season below is our roller coaster of a season. This is a lengthy story but it explains our whole season in detail. Feel free to read, if not there is quicker recap at the end! Enjoy the scroll!
Stonewall April 2nd
Finish: 39th Place
The season opener was a tournament both Dylan and I knew was going to be a survival tournament for us. We knew if we could just get a couple keepers and get through there that the next two tournaments kind of setup in our wheelhouse.
Practice:
I feel like it kind of messed us up in this one looking back on it. We didn’t actually start fishing that Friday until 1 or 2, but we decided to go out in the blistering cold and sleet that day and see if we could just get a bite or two. Water temps in the upper 40’s I assumed they would be off deeper on some main lake channel swings and channel swings at the mouths of the creeks. Sure enough Dylan ended up catching a big one that evening on a channel swing and I was just about positive if we just kept our head down we could duplicate that bite the next day. 
Tournament Day:
Tournament morning rolls around and it’s 27 degrees at blast off and we felt pretty confident our bite wasn’t going to go anywhere. After milking through our channel swings we were left empty handed. Scrounged around shallow for a bit with the air temps rising and still nothing for us. We finally went back to our swing and Dylan hooked up on a keeper that saved our day and ended up being the only fish we weighed that day. It was a long day for us, but just going to keep this one short because it wasn’t really productive.
Reflection:
Looking back on it, I wish we would’ve approached that tournament a little different. I got stuck in a little bit of dock talk and went away from the way I typically fish in those conditions and I think it might’ve cost us. I wish in practice we would’ve looked strictly shallow and just fished shallow whether we had a bite or not. I do believe the tournament was dominated shallower and I just wish we would’ve capitalized on that.
Summersville May 7th
Finish: 1st Place
Second stop of the season Dylan and I both knew this where we could make up ground after a pretty pitiful 39th place finish. We all know this, but confidence is everything in fishing and I truly feel like confidence lead us on the right path in this derby.
Practice:
This practice was a little different for Dylan and I. We actually didn’t even practice out of the same boat, we took two separate boats on Friday because Dylan was coming off Covid and we decided to be safe we would take two boats just in case he started feeling bad he could just go on home. Although we both still practiced, we just split up the lake and started looking. Dylan did most of the looking up the river and I stayed down towards the main lake and the creeks.
With major rain and flooding we almost thought they would cancel the tournament. That Friday it had rained hard enough that I sat in the truck for over 2 hours until it passed. I’d like to say we had found the fish to win with but that would be a lie, Dylan felt like he had found enough fish to at least get us a solid finish and keep the ball rolling. For myself I had much tougher day and didn’t really find anything worse pursuing that Friday. Either way we were on Summersville where Dylan has a ton of confidence and I felt that if he had the confidence to catch them then so did I!
Tournament Day:
This is going to be a long one, so be prepared. From Friday around 11 or noon until that morning it had rained non stop. The water rising and I can’t remember the exact numbers, but to Dylan and my knowledge it was the highest we had ever seen the inflow at Summersville. Unreal conditions, nothing like nobody has ever seen. We were kind of afraid that our stuff was going to be blown out up the river that morning but we sent it up there anyways. Kind of bounced around that morning until around 7:45 or 8 and had maybe one or two. Finally came across a stretch up river with a little better fish that we felt like were spawning and filled our limit by 8:45. We maybe had around 6 or 6 1/2 pounds and knew we still had quite a bit of work left to do.
Honestly, we really just bounced around all morning just culling by ounces at time. Just seemed like everywhere we pulled up we caught a fish, but nothing significant enough to get us to the win. By noon we maybe had upgraded another half of a pound and was maybe at 7 pounds. Finally at noon, Dylan and I had agreed it was time to make a big move and try to upgrade by pounds instead of ounces. Looking back on our move that afternoon we didn’t know it at the time, but it was honestly the best move we made all season just by luck.
Around noon the lake had came up so much they had started pulling the water to keep it from going over summer pool. Just by luck we had made a move to a deeper point that I believe now had fish that were shallow that morning but then had moved out deep. Within a few casts Dylan hooked our biggest fish of the day and made a huge cull. We had decided then we weren’t going to move from that point and just burnt it down and see how it turned out. Sure enough we both ended up basically catching them almost every cast for what seemed like an hour and culled everything we had minus 1 fish. We spent the rest of the afternoon there standing on the deck of Dylan’s boat, cold, wet and pretty much miserable, but at the same time the most fun we had all season together.
I honestly felt like two little kids just out there having fun and not a care in the world as to what was going on around us. It was something special. Every time we put on in the boat we were up hugging it out or fist bumping or whatever it was to express our excitement. Going back to the weigh-in we had culled to what we thought was around 8 to 8 1/2 pounds and didn’t think we would get the win, but just squeeze a check. Turns out we had 9.13 and got the win over a stacked field and we were proud of that one. A big confidence booster for us and we pretty much rode that confidence into the next few tournaments.
Burnsville May 21st
Finish: 13th
Practice:
This tournament I had a lot of confidence going into it even though I had only seen the lake once. I almost could predict where the fish were going to be I just had to find them in about a mile or two area in practice. Sure enough I had found some fish that I thought we could have a shot at possibly winning or getting a check from had everything went the right way. These were fish I was just about positive no one else had really found either so I kind of thought we would have them to ourself or just a few boats. Burnsville you have to expect to have boats on your stuff regardless, it was just more or less about finding enough fish that even if there was a couple boats you’re still in good shape.
Tournament Day:
That morning we had got off to a pretty good start when Dylan landed us our biggest bite of the day early. Had the confidence rolling early, even got cut off by another competitor on our juice hole but to us it didn’t even really bother us and kept that attitude all day. We ended up fishing for a while without a bite until Dylan yet again landed us another quality bite around 9. This is where it started to get good. We had made it to a stretch that I thought we could have a chance at another 2 1/2 to 3 pounder. I look across the creek and notice a fellow competitor (I won’t mention names) that sat down on a bedding fish. He sat there for what seemed like 20 to 30 minutes and never saw much action. At the time we had two fish in the box and I knew if we could get another fish or two I would be willing to go over to that fish and fish for it if he didn’t catch it.
We go a little further for about an hour and we find another one spawning on the side of a stump and after about 30 minutes of working it I finally land the fish and it gives us 3. That morning we also had broke off or lost 2 fish that would’ve filled our limit and I’m pretty sure the one I broke off was well over 3 pounds.
Anyways, we slide back over to the fish that we seen a fellow competitor fishing for and here is where the wheels came off the wagon. The fish was a very active fish and I knew if we spent enough time there we could catch him. He was biting almost every cast and spitting it but just wasn’t committing to the bait. 30 minutes go by and I finally get him to commit to the bait and sure enough he throws the hook right by the boat. At the moment I thought that was it, but Dylan calmed me down and told me it was going to be alright. We would then swing back around to the fish for a second chance and hope he was there. 30 minutes go by and we swing back up there to the fish and there he is. First few casts in the nest and he’s already active. We thought okay we got this, let’s just work him and get our 4th and then dip out of the area and get our 5th. We work him for not even 10 minutes and Dylan gets him to eat and sets the hook and breaks it off on the hook set. Both of us just in disbelief, we stood there and just watched him as the hook was in the roof of his mouth and the bait there as well. I felt like we were just watching money swim away. Sure enough the little sucker throws the bait of his mouth and jumps back on the nest. We started making casts back up to the nest and he had nothing to do with us at that point. This is where it got personal.
We left him for another 30 minutes and we both agreed we were going to give him one more shot. We come back and there he is, still active but a little tougher to get to bite. 20 minutes go by and finally I get him to eat again, set the hook, fought him what seemed like an hour at this point and got him in the boat. We take a look where the hook is and he’s hooked just right outside the mouth and had to throw him back. Both of us now just totally bummed out about what just happened, we decided it was time to go and just go fishing. We left the area and just went fishing for the last few hours and caught a 4th fish and weighed in.
Looking back on it, we had the opportunity not to win but definitely get a top 5 finish with what we had bite, had we fished clean. A little bummed we missed a check just by ounces, but it kind of fueled the fire for us going into the river tournaments.
Ohio River (Ravenswood) June 4th
Finish: 13th Place
Practice:
We actually didn’t practice much for this one, I drove up Thursday evening after work to check one spot. Found some non keeper largemouth in a place where there should’ve been smallmouth and had decided that we were just going to send it there regardless. Nothing too fancy in this practice, just enough to give us a little bit of confidence.
Tournament Day:
That morning we sent it down river to the next pool. We locked through with a few competitors, but I still felt like the stretch had I caught just those non-keepers probably wouldn’t have anyone on them. With the current ripping through the area we knew there would be some fish up shallow on current breaks and anywhere they could setup to ambush bait. We get started pretty early with 2 keepers basically off the bat. Had the momentum rolling and the current was still moving. I ended up catching a smallmouth that was little over 2 pounds. If you fish the Ohio River you know how key bites like that are. With 3 fish in the box at 8:00 or 8:30 we thought okay we have all day just two get a couple more keepers. We started noticing around 9 that the water was dropping rapidly and the bite had fell off.
We kind of just buzzed and bounced around in the lower pool and I ended up catching a keeper spotted bass behind an old barge container that gave us 4. Around noon we looked at the water level and it had dropped a foot and half from that morning.
We decided it was time to lock back through and try the ravenswood pool and just hope to get one last keeper. We for sure had the opportunity to another keeper that afternoon and just how our year was going Dylan lost him basically after the hook set and few cranks on the reel on a fish we knew was a keeper. We never had another keeper bite that afternoon and only weighed 4 fish yet again. Just missing a check by ounces again we were a little bit gutted.
Driving home that afternoon, I just happened to calculate roughly where we would’ve been at in points had we got to keep the foul hooked fish at Burnsville and landed the keeper on the river. We would’ve been sitting in 3rd place in points with a real shot at the team championship going into the last tournament. But, instead of frowning on where we should be I decided it was best to look at from the standpoint that we were 7th in the points after basically two complete disasters. We were ahead of a lot of talented fisherman and we should proud of how we’ve done regardless of the missed opportunities. There were guys we were ahead of I’ve looked up to since I got into fishing around the state so instead of bumming ourselves out, I thought it was better to give ourselves a confidence booster going into the last derby.
Monongahela River (Fairmont) June 18th and 19th
Finish: 36th Place
Practice:
We didn’t actually think we were going to get to practice for the event. Fortunately, we were able to get a little bit of practice in and actually didn’t find anything we were real confident in on Friday. We had some fish we thought we could just get a few with, but nothing to win. After the day of practice and coming off the water, a few hours later we had talked ourselves into taking a gamble and making a run all the way to Morgantown. We knew if we wanted a shot at winning we would need to find cleaner water. Not because it was necessarily better fishing, but it was a confidence thing for us and again confidence has been everything for us this year. So that night we decided to win we needed to make a run where we knew we could find cleaner water.
Tournament Day:
We ended up locking down 3 times to the Morgantown pool. When we get to the Morgantown pool where we were almost positive it would be cleaner, but it was still muddy. We fished around in the mud that morning for a few hours and never had a bite. At that point we had decided we were already that far that we were willingly to keep going until we found clean water. We sent it all the way down to past Morgantown and finally found the clean water. We pull up on a spot that I’ll leave nameless and there were a couple of boats sitting on it. Not in our tournament of course, but in a local club tournament. We got to talking to them and both of the guys in the boat had a caught a limits worth and one of them had around 11 pounds. I’m all for a club tournament, but it is tough when you make a run that far and someone is sitting on the good stuff and isn’t even in your derby. Upset and frustrated we just stuck our nose down and started fishing the same grass as those guys. Of course we pull way away from them on further up the stretch and started working our way down. No bites and finally around 11 or so we finally catch one and then another about 30 minutes later. We knew we had to start making our way back around 1 and we just ran out of time honestly. I think if we could’ve had another hour or so we were starting to figure out how to trigger the bites in that area. Anyways, we make our way back to weigh-in with just two fish. We knew it was a gamble going that far with no practice down there and just kind of hoped for the best. Our gamble didn’t pay off and day two we decided to stick close and just have fun.
To sum it up without going into further detail, Dylan and I knew this could potentially be our last tournament together for the foreseeable future and that we were going to make the most of day two and just have fun whether we blanked or really caught them. Well, Sunday morning I woke up pretty sick and not feeling myself and had it not been for our last day together I may have not even went. Normally sickness never really holds me back from fishing, but this time I felt miserable. I roughed it out and tried to make the most of it even though I felt terrible all day. We ended up just scrounging two more keepers and finished up our season with an 8th place finish in the points.
Looking Back:
I wouldn’t change anything we did this season minus maybe how we practiced on the Mon River and Stonewall. I learned a ton this season, I learned after a few tournaments how Dylan and myself could be a real threat with how we fish. We both have very different styles of fishing but we’re both well rounded enough that we can adapt to fish one way or the other. We learned where our confidence was and how we could put that to work. We finished 8th in the points but that doesn’t tell the whole story and what could’ve been had it went our way. Had it went our way at Burnsville and the Ohio River and we would’ve done some different things at the Mon River I think potentially we could’ve been looking at a team of the year run. You give us that fish we lost at the river and the one we threw back at Burnsville where would’ve been right there in the mix. That being said you can’t change what has happened and just have to feel good with what did go good for us.
To be honest I’m beyond proud that we done as well as we did with how everything went. 8th place in points among a field of guys I’ve looked up to for years was a solid finish for us and I’m dang proud of it. No complaints, as for next year I have zero idea right now what will be happening in my life. I can’t spill the beans just yet, but life takes us down crazy paths with exciting and new opportunities. So for now, I’ll leave you with this if I don’t get to fish the BNWV Buddy Trail next year or for the foreseeable future just know I’ve had a time of my life. I’ll never forget making memories with some of my best friends. It’s been one helluva ride and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed every step of the process!
Congratulations to Dion Bright and Brian Closson for an amazing season and getting the team of the year win. Well deserved and I was excited to see y’all win it! Also congratulations to all the winners this year, it’s no joke to beat these guys around the state so if you managed a win this year, my hats off to you because you earned it.
Thank you to Bass Nation of West Virginia, Ken Hackworth, Randy Huffman and everyone involved in making one awesome trail for all WV fishermen to enjoy.
Huge shoutout to my better half Kelsey and Lilo for getting to every weigh-in minus 1 or 2 this year, it’s meant the world to me regardless of a good finish or not.
More than anything I got to give a big shoutout to Joey, Wyatt and Dylan for an unforgettable year. We’ve all became so close this year and truly my best friends in the world. They’ve made this year way more fun than it would’ve been with anyone else. I hope one day down the road we get to run it back and do it all over again! Until next time ✌️
