What's up guys, I just finished up with the first FLW tour event on Beaver Lake in Arkansas and finished at 67th Place with a total of 12 lbs. 15 oz. for two days. This is what you would call a ultra-tough tournament and I'm glad it is behind me. I'll be driving back to Florida with a check in my pocket, I always want to win every tournament I fish but to leave Beaver Lake with a check and some points is a good feeling. Beaver Lake is a highland reservoir and has given me some grief over the years. A few years ago I did really well and almost won this tournament with the football jig fishing the ledge rock going into the spawning pockets, but this tournament was a few weeks earlier and the set up quite a bit different. Beaver lake right now is about 10 foot low and the water temperatures are hovering around 45° in the main Lake and the back of the pockets were getting up to the low 50s.

What's going on guys wanted to fill you in on some cool new Garmin products. I've been running Garmin units for over 10 years and been fortunate enough to win over $1.2 million in bass tournaments mostly because of Garmin. Garmin electronics play a huge role not only in my everyday fishing but in my guiding and most importantly in my tournament fishing.  Everybody knows Garmin makes the best GPS’s  on the planet and now they can say they make some of the best depth finders. I spent the last few days testing some of the new Garmin Echo 550 C and I have to say I'm truly impressed. I spent a lot of time at Garmin's headquarters a few months back  with the engineering team discussing what we need this unit to do. The number one feature that I wanted the new Echo series to do is to show up a drop shot extremely well in mid-depth and deep water. Well, Garmin accomplish that and more… Let me tell you these units will show a drop shot better than any unit I have ever used. I did some pretty extensive testing in depths ranging down to about 40 feet, the echo line is showing up the drop shot with good hard returns in all depths.

Well sorry guys I didn't keep up throughout the actual tournament days, crazy stuff around here …big bass flying out of the water all over the place…. Check this out, over 50 bags the first day of tournament over 20 pounds and the second day was virtually the same. I was fortunate enough to make the top 20 round or semi finals with a total weight of 44 lbs. 6 oz. for two days, that's over 22 pounds of bass a day and I was in only in 19th place. On the third day I knew I needed to catch a 25 pound bag of bass just to make the top 10 or final-round. I started the third day eager and excited about my opportunity, but was quickly let down after spending the first few hours not catching any good fish as I watched other anglers in the top 20 catching 6,7 and 8 pounds around me. Terry Scroggins and Glenn Brown were both catching them great, but I was getting the “Bobo” end of the deal as I call it. That's just how it goes sometimes… not as planned.

Well I just finished up three hard days of practice on Lake Okeechobee. I have been saying now for over six months that Lake Okeechobee is the best Lake in the country and this week proves it once again. The fishing here is seriously off the chart, every day in practice I could've had close to 30 pounds.  But the problem is most of the other anglers are catching close to the same type weight every day as well. It's funny to see how whenever you go to a great Lake and good fishing how every body is enthusiastic and eager to get on the water, Lots of smiles around here. This tournament will end up boiling down to the guys that can make adjustments on the water based on pressure and wind direction, as this is the case every year on Lake Okeechobee. I feel good about this event but I feel like I'm a little too one dimensional going into this….. (sight fish sight fish sight fish), that's all I can put together. I feel like to really walk away to with this event I needed to develop another strong pattern like flipping the matted vegetation in the spawning areas. I have gotten a few bites doing this, but not a lot, so my confidence right now is mainly in sight fishing….. Scary!

The wait is almost over..... I have been  chomping at the bit and can't wait to go fishing. The FLW tour event will start next week and practice will start on Sunday. The weather this week has been a little on the cool side, but it's looking like a warming trend is hitting Florida during the tournament. The extended forecast is showing that most of the days we should have a high chance of rain and cloud mix, which should make the top water bite on the Lake fantastic. During the Everstart event a few weeks ago the weather was nice on the first day and there was 20 bags over 20 pounds and and the leader had a five fish stringer that weighed over 35 pounds. But during the second and third day of the Everstart event the water temperatures cooled off a bit and slowed the bite down dramatically. The water levels on Lake Okeechobee are a little on the low side this year and when a cold front hits it really cools off the water much quicker. Lake Okeechobee is one of the best lakes in the country, it just gets a little tough when the water temperatures drop down in the 40s and 50s like any Lake.

OKEECHOBEE, Fla. – If there is one thing Scott Martin of Clewiston, Fla., has wanted in his fishing career more than anything else, it’s been to win a major event on his home lake at Lake Okeechobee.

He’s been close. There was a second-place finish, fourth place, seventh place, eighth place and ninth place – all in FLW or BASS competition – but never a first.