The anticipation of this day had been building for the entire KSU team throughout the winter months.  After a long night of preparation and little sleep, I was up at 3:30am to send a little message to my club..."Today is the day you will find out what this is all about, good luck to everyone."  Little did I know, some of them were already up before me!  After arriving a little early to Rory's house, I think he was surprised I was ready to go.  He was even more surprised when we pulled into the parking lot at Mogadore to see Kyle and Derek waiting for us and listening to  "I'm Gonna Miss Her" by Brad Paisley.

Even though it was a cold start to the day, the weather could not of been more perfect for the first tournament of the year.  It was so nice to finally be outside and able to enjoy the weather doing what we all love to do.  Within the first half hour I caught a 3 pounder on a Venom Hollow Hog and thought to myself what a great day this was going to be.  I had heard all of Rory's wonderful stories about how Mogadore was the best bass fishing lake in the state of Ohio.  I thought we started the day out right, but little did I know someone already had their limit of about 16 pounds in the boat!!!

As we headed under the bridge to the other side of the lake, Rory and Derek were sitting on the other side messing around and playing with the livewell.  I immediately knew they had done something amazing and of course Derek tried to play it off like nothing happened.  As they sat and watched us flip a laydown, Rory yelled over and claimed he had already taken care of those fish.  Of course, I broke off my Venom Hollow Hog and immediately heard laughter coming from the boat loaded with bass. 

Throughout the rest of the day I ran into most of my KSU Team.  I was amazed at how much fun they were having even though it seemed most people were struggling with the fishing aspect of the game.  My whole goal was to given these kids an opportunity to do what I have been privelaged to do almost all of my life and to hopefully hook them into getting into some more tournaments.  I saw nothing but smiles and heard nothing but laughter all day.

Back at the weigh in, I snuck a peek into the livewell of Franks and Crooks and thought to myself, wow one of the KSU members is going to win their first tournament.  This could not have worked out more perfect.  Thank you to the entire Fish Crew for fishing with us and especially Rory Franks for helping me to make this entire club grow into what it is today.  See you next week at Mosquito!
CompleteTournament Blog Results and Pictures of KSU bass fishing participants
EEI Mogadore Open - 4/5/2009
        Results of club members who participated:

1st Place!!!     Derek Crooks and Rory Franks       5 fish18.15 pounds

7th Place  Jaron Barnes and Bayas   5 fish13.94 pounds

19th PlaceRay Fierst and Joe Engler        2 fish  5.43 pounds

20th PlaceScott Schrock and Ken Begue1 fish   3.08 pounds

22nd Place      Kyle Roth and Todd Johnson   1 fish   0.97 pounds
NOAA Mosquito - 4/11/2009
Saturday morning, my day to sleep in...alarm clock goes off at 2:00am.  KSU Team Member and winner from last week's Mogadore Open Derek Crooks is in my living room, watching an episode of the Bassmaster's.  People must think we are crazy, but we love it.  At 3:45am we were in Sheetz, getting our morning coffee and mountain dew.  Some of our friends were also at Sheetz, still up from a long night of partying at Kent.  "Wouldn't you rather be out partying?" they asked.  "Absolutely not, we are going fishing" we replied.  Some people don't understand the excitement that is involved with tournament fishing.  Being in the outdoors, seeing 60 boats getting ready to take off into 4-5 foot waves, and best of all talking to so many nice guys who love fishing as much as you.

We met Rory at his house to follow him over to the lake.  Little did we know this would not be a normal morning of setting up tents, tables, computers, and other equipment.  As I am following him into the parking lot at Mosquito, he goes into the grassy area with his truck and boat, thinking that he could leave it there for the time being as we set up the equipment.  I slowly watched his boat and truck sink down into the mud, he was stuck!!!  Tons of pushing and rocking back and forth, we finally were able to get the boat out of the mud.  I was wore out before we even started fishing.

Throughout the day I was blasted with 45 degree water, hit by 30 mph winds, and did not catch a keeper fish until 5 minutes left before weigh in.  This might have been the most physically demanding tournament I have ever been through in my short 5 year tournament experience.  At one point my face felt exactly like it did right after my wisdom teeth were pulled out.  I was numb all over, especially my hands, which did not get back to normal until about 9:00 that night.

Thank you so much to Bill Cusano for allowing me to fish my first NOAA event with him.  Look for us throughout the year as we will be fishing all of the NOAA events together (with the exception of Berlin because I am in a wedding).  See you next week for two more tournaments!!!  Kyle and I will be fishing together in my boat at Pleasant Hill and competing against each other in the BASS Weekend Series at Indian Lake.
BASS Weekend Series:  Indian Lake - 4/18/2009
        Results of club members who participated:

14th Place.  Scott Schrock and Bill Cusano       1 fish2.83 pounds

DNP     Derek Crooks and Uber

DNP     Jaron Barnes and Hoogenboom

Friday April 17th, 2009...a day that I have been waiting for for some time now.  Most people might think I am crazy for being excited about the Weekend Series, especially as a co-angler.  About a week ago, I received a call from Jerry Smith.  I met Jerry two years ago when I was paired with him in a BFL event on Lake Erie.  We both made the cut for the second day and quickly became good friends.  I traveled with him last year for all 5 events in the BFL and he was generous enough to let me pre-fish and stay in the hotels with him for no cost.  He has helped me tremendously.  Anyways, he called and wanted to sign up together for the Indian Lake tournament, but of course I was already registered.  This is how Kyle came to get signed for this.  Jerry told Kyle that he would pay for all his memberships and allow him to stay in the hotel for free...Kyle jumped on that opportunity.  I was now even more excited!  Two KSU members would be representing the team at Indian Lake.

Some of you know I am student teaching at Ravenna High School.  My cooperating teacher learned a little something over the last 12 weeks of my fishing habits and allowed me to take a half day off teaching to head to Indian Lake early.  I left school at 10:50am and picked up Kyle and headed out for the 3 hour drive.  We met Jerry at the launch ramp around 3:00pm to get a couple hours of pre-fishing in.  I have only been to the lake once and Kyle has never been there.  It was nice just to get out and see the lake, water color, and to catch a few fish to build our confidence.

After registration, which always takes forever, Jerry took us out to Tumbleweed for steaks, ribs, and a few drinks haha.  I had not been to Tumbleweed in years, but let me tell you they have some awesome ribs.  I usually try to lay down the night before a tournament early, but who can pass up a full rack of ribs???  We headed back to the hotel to start rigging up some tackle for the next day.  Kyle couldn't sleep because he was so excited.  Me however, I passed out as soon as I hit the bed.

I was up early around 3:30am, excited to get things going.  Usually Jerry is up earlier than that, but today he was struggling.  Kyle and I got ready, packed everything up, and even went and got Jerry's boat ready for him.  We were heading to the lake before he even got out of the shower.  I was looking forward to fishing with my partner, Ed Allen, who lives right on the lake and has plenty of experience fishing it.

It was a chilly start to the morning as we flew across the lake at 60mph.  Our first spot did not work out like we planned we took off again to the shallow areas filled with lilly pads.  Almost immediately I caught my first keeper (what I thought was a keeper at the time) that barely made 12 inches.  It always feels good to get the first fish in the boat, especially early in the morning.  About 15 minutes later, I flip my Venom Tube out to an isolated patch of lily pads.  I had been fishing these pads since about the time I caught my first keeper.  It took 10 casts to the same general area when I got the perfect bite.  I popped my tube off the bottom and before it got back down my line was taking off to the right.  I set the hook and at the time did not think I had a good hook set.  The fish charged right at me, behind the engine, and around the boat.  It was all I could do to control the fish and having my new St. Croix Mojo rod helped the cause.  Those rods are awesome and I will be buying some more soon.  Ed got the net and we landed the fish.  He was almost as excited as I was and then asked me a question that I will never forget..."Have you ever won a tournament?"  Of course I said no and he replied with "today is your day, get another one and you are going to win."  Not a half hour later, I landed my 3rd keeper for my limit but was not able to upgrade the rest of the day.

When arriving at the weigh in, Ed's wife took some picture of Kyle and I holding up our fish.  I wanted to take my time before weighing in and enjoy the moment of knowing I would at least be taking over the lead for big bass.  As I went to the scales, I heard the leader had 5.54 pounds.  At the courtesy board, I measure my small fish and could only get it to make 12 inches maybe 1 out of 5 times.  I knew with my other two fish I would be close to the lead, so I threw the small one back, not taking the chance of a one pounds penalty.  That decision paid off as I took the lead with 5.65 pounds.

Now I was nervous!  I had never won a tournament before and I knew since I was the last flight that not many more people were going to be coming to the scales.  I decided to go pack up the car and do some other things instead of watching.  When I came back, it was official.  I had just won my first tournament!

Like always, I have a couple of thank you's to send out.  First, Jerry Smith.  He again allowed Kyle and I to stay with him for free, bought us dinner, and provided us some baits that traditionally work well on Indian Lake.  Without his help, us poor college kids would be so much further in debt than we already are.  Next, my partner Ed Allen.  Although we both struggled throughout the day to catch fish (but saw many fish being caught in our areas), he really made the day enjoyable.  It was a great pleasure to fish with him.  I also had the chance to meet his wife and 12 year old son Austin.  Austin was on FLW Outdoors the previous week for a 5 pound 13 ounce smallmouth that he caught on the Detroit River.  There is more to that story and it is very touching.  Check out the show if you haven't already.  Finally, thanks to everyone who came up to Kyle and I at the weigh in just to introduce themselves and talk about our fishing club.  I love meeting new people and talking about the club.  See you tomorrow for the Open on Pleasant Hill.  Kyle and I will be teaming up on my dad's boat for our first tournament together.  This will be a great experience leading up to Kentucky Lake!
Results of club members who participated:

1st Place!!!  Scott Schrock   2 fish     5.65 pounds

34th Place    Kyle Roth    1 fish     1.02 pounds
Pleasant Hill Open - 4/19/2009
After little sleep the night before, an exhausting Saturday at Indian Lake and a long drive home, we arrived at my parents house in Orrville around 8pm.  By this time, I was so sun burnt and wore out from the day that I had my doubts about even going to Pleasant Hill the next day.  We unpacked our tackle, got the boat ready, grabbed a bite to eat, and finally got to bed around 10pm that night.

I had set my alarm for 4am the next morning.  I woke up realizing that my alarm had been going off for 5 minutes.  I was in a deep sleep, but somehow I made myself get up and stumble into the kitchen for some much needed coffee.  Of course, I needed to wake up Kyle.  He was so excited on Friday night that he did not sleep and now he was feeling the effects from that.  I went into our spare bedroom and woke him up.  He jumped about a mile in the air, was out of bed, and excited to get the day started!  I have to admit, I asked Kyle if he really wanted to go.  I just was not feeling it that day.  I still had tons of papers to grade for school and lesson plans to do.  I am so glad he changed my mind, becuase little did I know we were about to have a perfect day of fishing.

We just got our boat out of storage and it had not even been on the lake yet this year.  We were on the road early so we could get to the lake and make sure everything worked properly before we paid our entry fee.  I was not too worried however, our boat is an old 1988 Procraft and has run perfectly EVERY year.  Its in amazing condition.  Sunday was no different, it fired up on the first turn of the key!  We were ready to go...

No prefishing, no experience on the lake this year, no knowledge of water color or temperature, but I had all the confidence in the world.  I have pictures of me fishing at Pleasant Hill when I was in diapers so I do know a little something about the lake.  Every year we fish the spring open and we always do good, just not good enough.  This year my whole plan was to head towards the river to the shallows and flip for some bigger fish.  I think I have been listening to Rory way too much haha.  However, I saw one of my good friends Pat McConkey that morning at the launch ramp.  I asked him about that area and he told me "There is nothing up there for you, go fish your strengths and what you have confidence in."  That is was we did...I knew exactly where I wanted to go and it turned out to be the perfect area.

I am a big jerkbait guy as many people know, especially at this lake.  Pleasant Hill is normally a clear lake so I had two tied on.  However, the water was slightly muddy from the rain so I decided against that idea.  At our first spot in the morning, I caught a small 12 incher about an hour into things.  Right after that, another nice smallmouth (see pictures).  I am starting to learn to work areas more, so I turned around and worked this small 100 yard stretch of rocks over and over again.  Another keeper and several short fish...I had found them.  Kyle then stepped up with a nice keeper, only one more to go and it was only 9am!  As I am tying on another Venom Big Shot tube, Kyle lands another nice fish.  We had our limit.  Only 15 minutes later Kyle sends his tube up into the rocks and get hung up.  As I get up to the shore to get it, I flip my tube and land our biggest fish of the day and cull out that 12 inch fish.  Five fish, 8.74 pounds, and its only 9:30am.

I had forgot my camera that day so we had no way of taking pictures for the website.  I called my mom right then at 9:30 and asked her to drive the 45 minutes to the lake so we could get some pictures.  We were so pumped up about our fish we needed to sit down for awhile to calm ourselves.  The adreniline was definately flowing.  I knew we had a legitimate chance of finishing in the top 3, so I wanted to make sure I had some pictures for the website.  Of course she came and was totally excited for us.  Around 2:30 that day, a half hour before the weigh in, I hit a rock on the lake.  Our trolling motor supports were bent plus we were stuck on the rock.  I was freaking out and thinking that we may be late for weigh in plus what my dad would think, but luckily we made it in on time.

I have a couple of people I need to thank.  First, my dad.  He allowed me to use his boat to fish this tournament that him and I usually do every year.  He got called into work and would have given anything to be out there with me that day or to just see the weigh in.  Sorry I bent the trolling motor by hitting that rock, I will get it fixed!!!  Next, I need to thank my partner Kyle.  Without him, we would not have won the tournament.  He came through big time.  This win was a total team effort and means more to me than the weekend series win.  I would not trade this win for anything.  Thanks to Fin, Feather, and Fur for donating $25 gift cards for this tournament win.  We will use them plus some!  And of course, thank you to my mom who drove all the way to the lake just to snap some pictures of us and to see us win the tournament (plus she got my laundry done for me haha)!!! 

See you at Mosquito Madness and make sure to check and see how we do at Kentucky Lake for the first College Series event on May 9th!!!  Hopefully we can keep the momentum going!
        Results of club members who participated:

1st Place!!!  Scott Schrock and Kyle Roth       5 fish8.74 pounds
Special Challenge:  Portage Lakes - 5/6/2009
Results of club members who participated:

Scott Schrock1 Fish

Derek Crooks0 Fish
FLW College Fishing:  Kentucky Lake - 5/9/2009
Results of college clubs in Ohio who participated:

4th Place!!Ohio State UniversityKevin Moeller and Casey Hammonn 5 fish10-08 Pounds

7th Place   Ohio University  Justin Winer and Brent Willey      4 fish  8-03 Pounds

9th Place   Kent State UniversityScott Schrock and Kyle Roth      2 fish   6-09 Pounds
Here is what Derek is challenging me to:
- Six hours of official fishing from 12pm - 6pm
- 12 inch minimum length
- Most number of keepers wins the challenge
Derek and I both got off work Wednesday morning around 5:00am and did not get to bed until around 5:30am.  But yet again, I was up at 8:30 getting my tackle ready and waiting for Derek.  He was actually on time and arrived at my house in Ravenna at 10.  We took off for Orrville to get my dad's boat and head to Portage Lakes.  Of course, we were both exhausted but wanted to get some fishing time in. 

The day started off nicely with the weather being perfect.  We were just happy to be on the lake and enjoying the day instead of being at class or work.  I tried to tell Derek not to skip class because of fishing, but he insisted ( I like that! ).  Traditionally, I have not been successful on Portage, especially in the spring.  During the summer, the fish position on the weed lines and are fairly easy to catch.  I do not have enough experience on the lake and again we struggled.  I did catch my first keeper, a nice fish which was around 2 pounds.  I know there are huge fish in the lake, so I was not too thrilled with that. 

Derek had never been on the lake, so I decided to take a long ride over to the bridge that crosses East and show him the lakes.  It took us about 35 minutes to get there, and of course it started to pour down rain.  I caught several other short fish but no keepers.  We made the best of a cold and rainy day.  With us being so tired, we decided to head home early and get dinner.  My mom made us home-made macaroni and cheese.  It was delicious!!!!

I am getting ready to head down to Kentucky Lake.  I am worried though, the weather is calling for heavy rains and temperatire drops.  Hopefully things work out well for Kyle and I.  I like to fish shallow, but the high water is going to spread the fish out.  I will let you know how everything works out when I get back!!!

Finally, my alarm went off at 3am Friday morning.  It was time to head to Kentucky Lake.  I have been waiting for this day from the time we decided to start this fishing club.  I absolutely love this area and you can't ask for better bass fishing.  I met Kyle at his apartment around 4am and we took off for Kentucky Lake.  We left early to make sure we could watch the Stren Series weigh in and talk to some guys about what the lake conditions were.

We made it down to Kentucky Lake with no problems and in plenty of time to watch the Stren weigh in.  As we were crossing the Kentucky Dam, lightning bolts were almost hitting the water and the rain was so heavy cars were stopping on the side of the road.  Those anglers must of had a great time out in that stuff all day.  In the parking lot at Moors Resort, trucks and trailers that parked on land earlier in the morning were now under water.  I could not believe it.  How would this effect our game plan for the next day?  We were going shallow, really shallow.  I have not had much experience fishing ledges and with no practice, that seemed to be impossible.  The water temperature was 67, so I thought some fish would still be shallow.  Hopefully I would be right.

After the Stren weigh in, we went to the restaurant at Moors and had dinner.  Let me tell you, I was impreseed!!!  This is the only place within 10 miles to get food so I immediately thought the prices would be high.  Not at this place.  Everyone working there was extremely nice and really made us feel at home.  After dinner, Kyle and I got everything rigged up for the next day, talked to some of the Stren guys, and tried to get to bed at a decent time.  Like always, we could not sleep because of the excitement of the upcoming day.  I was confident everything would work out the way we wanted. 

My alarm went off at 3am, not that I was sleeping anyways.  I started to get ready and was impressed that the coffee in the lobby was all ready to go.  I got everything ready, woke up Kyle around 4, and walked down the launch ramp to check out the FLW guy's setting up for the upcoming day.  The technology that was involved was impressive!!!  It was fun to watch everyone set up and compare that with what Rory and his guys go through.  Check in was at 5:00 and we got paired with our pro, Tommy Robinson.  He had a Ranger Z-21, red white and black (my favorite and I will have one someday) with a 250 Yamaha on the back.  It was finally time for the take-off.  We did our homework, we were prepared, and now it was all about execution. 

We took off out of the bay and headed south towards Jonathon Creek.  I knew of one particular spot that was filled with fish up shallow in the bushes.  As we got into Jonathon Bay, I quickly became worried when I saw the water was the color of chocolate milk.  Within that creek are smaller cuts that are filled with bushes.  We went back into the one I had planned for and I saw the water became more clear.  It was still murky, but good enough to fish.  I started off flipping a Venom Sweet Dream while Kyle flipped his jig.  I am not a jig fan and this is something that Kyle has confidence in, so this plan worked well for us.  We started flipping around the bushes because the wind was blowing the boat around.  Once it settled down, we flipped right in the middle of the bushes.  I had been hearing all week that people were catching 50-75 short fish a day.  After the first hour, we had nothing...no small fish, and no keepers.

I decided to change things up.  Now most people know I am not a spinnerbait fan either, but I did go out and buy my first chatterbait.  On my first cast with that thing I landed a 13 inch fish.  Up here in Ohio I would love to have a 13 inch keeper and two weeks ago at Pleasant Hill we were jumping up and down after catching a fish like that.  Not here, I simply threw it back and continued to catch about 10 more small fish.  In the mean time, Kyle had started to catch some fish on a spinnerbait and a couple on his jig.  We now knew the fish were here, we just needed to settle down and have some fun.  I decided to switch over to a Zoom Brush Hog and started flipping again.  After about 15 minutes I felt a different kind of bite from those I had been having, set the hook, and landed a solid 3 pounder fish.  I felt nice to get that one out of the way.  We worked this area another hour or so with several smaller fish.  I had another spot I wanted to try so we took off...this proved to be a costly mistake.

My next spot was further back in the creek.  We got there and noticed 5 other boats were also in this area.  I knew as soon as we got there that we should not of ran back here.  The water was again muddy just like chocolate milk.  We fished for about 20 minutes when Kyle and I looked at each other.  We both knew it was time to go.  On our way back towards where we were earlier, we stopped and fished the 68 bridge.  A couple of nice rock points were there plus the bridge pilings.  With no luck at the bridge, we headed back to where we started.  Why leave when you know the fish are there????  We definatly learned from that mistake.

Everyone that is reading this needs to go to www.collegefishing.com and watch the videos of us fishing once we got back to this spot.  Using a brand new boat and the fact that it wasn't mine, I never would of thought of taking it back through that mess of flooded trees and bushes.  However, with my boater's permission, we went where I have never taken a bass boat.  We were cutting down branches, plowing through bushes with the trolling motor on high, and completely making a mess out of the boat.  We pinned the boat in between two trees, cut the branches down around us, and started catching fish.  One after another, it was amazing.  Our boater obviously knew this was going to happen because he had the camera ready to go.  Here is where I caught another solid 3 pounder.  Kyle landed several fish that were 14.75 inches....so close!!!  He was frustrated but still was having fun catching fish.

I had one more spot in Smith Bay that I wanted to try before the weigh in.  As we headed out of Jonathon Creek, we were immediately pounded by 3 and 4 foot waves.  It took us longer than expected to make it across the lake to Smith.  I had planned for about a half hour of fishing over there, but it ended up being only about 15 minutes.  In this small amount of time, we caught several short fish.  I wish I would have left more for this spot, especially since it was a rocky point in deeper water (other schools caught big fish out deep).  We did not have enough time to settle down and work that area.  We headed back to Moors with only 2 fish...

At the weigh in, we weighed our fish and started out in 5th place.  Ohio State was up next and quickly knocked us out of the top 5.  Our ultimate goal was to make the top 5 and qualify for the regional tournament this fall.  Even though this did not work out, we still had fun and enjoyed being on one of the best lakes in the country.  A special thanks goes out to Rocky Banfield and Kyle Reckart.  They took all of the pictures throughout the morning and during the weigh in.  It was nice to have some people drive that distance to support us.  Thank you to Tommy Robinson for letting us use his boat throughout the day and for video taping us fishing.  It was so much fun spending the day with you.  Thank you to FLW for giving us the opportunity to fish for free and for paying the gas money it took us to get down there.  Finally, thank you to everyone at Moors Resort.  They had great facilities for a reasonable price, great food, and treated all of us like family. 

Just an extra little info...on the way home we stopped at Hooter's in Florence, KY.  Our waitress was good looking (duh) and we found out that she likes bass fishing, has a Ranger boat, and also has a cabin on Kentucky Lake!!!  Kyle got all excited and asked the girl to marry him.  She turned us down and we continued on our way back to Kent.  I don't think I could ever meet a girl like that around here in NE Ohio.  I need to move down south!!!

See you all in three weeks.  Kyle and I are traveling down to Rocky Fork for the next BASS Weekend Series event.  If you are wondering why we are not fishing Alum Creek this week (since I am leading the points), it is because I am graduating from Kent State.  My mom will not let me skip graduation!!!  I tried.  Jaron Barnes and Derek Crooks will be fishing the O'Charley's United Way Bass Classic at Evans and Pine Lake.  I am happy they are going to be fishing and contributing to the United Way.  That is awesome!!!
BASS Weekend Series:  Rocky Fork Lake - 5/30/2009
Results of club members who participated:

5th Place!!!Scott Schrock   2 fish     5.03 pounds

27th Place  Kyle Roth    1 fish     2.63 pounds
O'Charley's United Way Bass Classic - 5/30/2009
Results of club members who participated:

  Derek Crooks    5 fish     10.03 pounds

  Jaron Barnes      4 fish       9.41 pounds
Throughout this past week, I was not as excited about heading down to Rocky Fork as I usually am before a tournament.  I am not sure what was wrong with me, but the excitment and anticipation was not there before Friday.  I met Kyle around noon on Friday to pack everything up and head to Hillsboro.  I had never been there before and never fished Rocky Fork.  In my past experience fishing the Wal Mart Bass Fishing League, I have never finished well on lakes I had not fished.  Maybe this is why my excitement level was not there.  This was about to change.

Kyle and I have done a lot of traveling together this year and we have always made it to our destination with no problems.  For the first time in my life, I wanted to kiss the ground we walked on once we made it to our hotel in Hillsboro.  As we approached Columbus on I-71, I was two cars behind a semi truck and the traffic was heavy.  I have learned to deal with heavy traffic and usually it does not bother me.  All of the sudden, the cars in front of me slammed the brakes and started moving left and right into the next lanes and on the shoulder of the road.  The semi truck had blown a tire and everyone was trying to avoid the tire as it shreaded and went flying around the highway.  Not 10 minutes after that, traffic really got heavy in downtown Columbus.  We were at a dead stop when Kyle and I both looked into the mirrors behind us and saw a red F-150 coming at us at a high rate of speed.  He must not have been paying attention, because he was not slowing down.  I quickly tried to move into the shoulder of the road to get out of the way and he barely missed us as he switched lanes and slammed his breaks.  My stomach flipped and I think I stopped breathing for almost 10 seconds.  I looked over at Kyle and he was tensed up as well.  We thought we were dead, but luckily we made it the rest of the way with no problems! 

I could not sleep that night and got out of bed around 2:30am to get ready.  We packed everything up, made some final changes to our tackle, and got in the car to start towards the launch ramp.  When I turned the car on, something happened that made Kyle and I think this was going to be a great day for us.  Going back to our Pleasant Hill victory, the first song on the radio that morning was "People are crazy" by Billy Currington.  Rory has also been on me to come up with a montra.  Lately, when fishing has been tough, I have been singing this song and it seems to change the way things are going.  I was singing this when I caught my fish at Kentucky Lake and when I caught the 4 pounder at Indian Lake.  So when I started the car Saturday morning and my song was playing, I had a feeling that things may turn out good that day.  Kyle then said, "now only if a deer runs out in front of us on the way there."  Again, this happened to us at Pleasant Hill and we ended up winning.  This is not something I would wish for, but it happened again!!!  We were 5 minutes from the lake when a deer took off across the road in front of us...scary but maybe it was a sign haha.  Finally, after all of this it was time to go fishing.

Kyle started the day off right.  I told him if he was fishing rocks to throw out that Venom Big Shot tube.  He took my advice and on his third cast of the day, his tube barely hit the bottom when a 3 pounder picked it up and took off with it.  That fish ate his tube and ended up dying about 15 minutes later.  Still, not a bad way to start the day!  I also caught a 3 pounder early in the morning.  I have one specific worm that is my "confidence bait."  I tied it on the night before in the hotel.  This worm always seems to get me at least one keeper fish no matter what lake I am fishing and today was no different.  It is always nice to get the first fish out of the way early in the day.

I struggled throughout the day for another keeper.  I was catching several small fish, but nothing that helped.  My boater had found a ton of fish in practice out deep using a Carolina Rigged Senko.  We spent the majority of the morning fishing the ledges and trying to make that pattern work.  It wasn't working and around noon we scrapped that idea and started to change things up. 

The water was crystal clear and I started to see some fish feeding on baitfish.  My boater was using a spinnerbait and jerkbait, so I started throwing a Pop-R around.  Shortly after I had my second keeper fish and several smaller fish.  I only needed one more fish to fill out my limit, but it didn't happen.  I don't blame my boater for tying on a Pop-R, but it kind of hurt my chances.  He caught two keepers after that and we both ended up with two fish.  It happens, but I was disappointed.  One more fish would have put me close to another win.

I want to say thanks to my boater Scott Cremeans.  He was an extremely nice guy who taught me a lot about fishing ledges and other aspects of the fishing business.  I had a great time and good luck to him in the BASS Opens.  He finished 43rd in the first one at Chesapeake Bay and will try to continue towards the top 10 in points by the end of the year.  Also, thanks to Kyle Roth for traveling with me and fishing the event.  I know we are both struggling with money (this is not easy for us poor college kids) but we will find a way to make it happen the rest of the year.  We are both fishing the next event at Mosquito where we will try and move up in the points.   Our goal is to both make the regional championship on the Potomic River.  Currently I am in 27th place and he is in 37th place.  Not bad for skipping one of the tournaments!!

Next week is the second NOAA event on Berlin Lake.  I am going to be in my best friend's wedding, but I will make sure to let you know how the other KSU members do that fish the event!
By Derek Crooks:

Since Mosquito Madness I had been waiting to fish O' Charleys Bass Classic and finally the day had come. I had just gotten off work at 2:30am, and was sitting in my apartment for about 20 minutes before Jaron called me. He was already outside my place waiting to go. Not sleeping was not going to bother me, I was to excited. So I met Jaron outside my place, and we packed my car up and headed to Rory's house.

We were there early as usual. But then he came out, and asked us the usual question of how we were feeling. We both answered "ready". Then  we headed off. When we got to Evans Lake I left Jaron, and Rory to head over to Pine Lake. My partner( Dave Williams) met me at a hot dog stand, and then we left for Pine Lake. When we hit the boat launch he was introducing himself and telling me of how we were going to catch the snot out of these fish today. Finally the time had come, the tournament started.

We headed over to some lilly pads first off, where I caught the first fish of many, with a buzz bait. Dave was throwing a frog and was getting bites, but not what he wanted as he said. Then we moved again, over to an area where stumps were under water. I then started using a watermelon seed, footbal headed jig. First cast, and a couple pops later I had another. By this time we had already had a limit, but they were only 2.5 lbs apiece. Dave kept telling me that these size fish would not help us at all. None of this was bothering me because I was just having a blast. Then we moved agian to a different set of lilly pads, where almost every cast we were reeling a fish in. This was awsome, we could not stop them from biting. But then this area settled down, and we went back to where we first started in the morning.

Dave started throwing his secretly rigged tube in the grass, and I was throwing a frog in the lillies. I caught a few small ones, he was just bobbing his tube talking with the other boaters. Just before I was about to cast again I saw Dave set the hook with one hand, while he was drinking a bottle of water. He yelled to me to get the net. He then started reeling in a 4lb fish that he barely had the hook in. I was just about to net it, when it decided to jump. It came off the hook, and was dropping back into the water. I reached out real far and just barely caught it. That was close, but then we headed to weigh ins.

I was excited to see what every one else had. Pine Lake ended up having 17lb something to win. Dave, and I ended up with 10.09lbs. We we happy with that because we had a great time fishing together. I met back up with Jaron, and he was telling me how Joe Thomas of the Cleveland Browns was fishing against him, and that he was huge. I missed that but it was a great day all in all. I want to thank Dave Williams again for talking me out on his Ranger, and as I said to him, " I will defanitely be back next year".
BASS Weekend Series:  Mosquito Reservoir - 6/12/2009
Results of club members who participated:

             DNP       Scott Schrock   0 fish     0.00 pounds

      DNPKyle Roth    0 fish     0.00 pounds
I am not sure exactly where to start with this one.  I am sitting in my living room the evening after the tournament still wondering to myself what went wrong.  This has been my best year of competitive bass fishing I have ever had.  I have not had a bad tournament yet this year, but that all changed and kind of brought me back to reality.

After preparing late the night before to fish frogs and other topwater baits in heavy vegetation, I woke up early around 2:30am to finalize my tackle.  I was already kind of wore out from all of the traveling that I had been doing that week.  I have been driving to western Kentucky doing interviews with schools in hopes to land a job in that part of the state (not just because of Kentucky Lake!!!).  I thought I was wore out, but then I thought about Kyle.  Kyle only slept Thursday night for about an hour, went to the tournament meeting Friday night, straight to work from 8-2:30am, fished the tournament, and then had to work again Saturday night!!!  He is crazy, but loves to fish.  I love it.

On my drive to the lake, a drunk driver slowly pulled out in front of me on route 45 and I nearly slammed into him.  He just slowly pulled out into the road, not speeding up or slowing down and then pulled into a gas station.  He acted like he didn't even see me.  It was a close call, but I made it to the lake.  Instead of a deer running out in front of me this time, it was a car.  This got me thinking about our past experiences this year and I soon thought that maybe it would be a good tournament again this week.  I got to the lake where my partner, Jay Gillfillan, was waiting in his RV with a pot of coffee ready to go for me.  What a great guy!!!

We were the first boat to take off in the morning so we got to our first spot fairly early in the morning.  We were on a shallow flat filled with vegetation.  Jay started with his frog, which I don't think he sat down at all throughout the day.  I opted to use a buzzbait since Kyle had told me he was having success with it in practice the day before.  After about ten minutes with no bites, I switched over to my Zoom Horny Toad.  This was the only rod I had rigged up with braided line, which turned out to be a huge mistake.  I do not have much experience fishing braid and heavy vegetation.  Of course I knew braid has no stretch and it is great for frogs, but as I kept casting the plastic frog, it was tearing up more and more even without catchign fish.  I went to cast it again and the frog flew off the hook.  My reel backlashed so bad that I had no chance to saving it.  Now my only topwater reel was lost for the day.  Not the way I wanted to start...

I tried to make the best of it and kept fishing hard.  All of my other reels had flourocarbon line on it which sinks.  I don't have to tell you that fishing the frog the rest of the day was challenging and frustrating!  My boater caught two nice keepers in the first hour, but then we went without a bite for the next three hours.  Things were tough, but we weren't the only boat struggling.  Jay kept telling me that the frog bite would improve throughout the day and to be patient.  "Live or die with the frog today" he kept telling me.  I kept trying different things throughout the day and was catching small fish.  I caught three fish that were 11.5 inches, just short of the minimum.

When the frog bite started to pick up, my frustration level quickly increased.  Jay was flipping fish after fish into the boat.  I was not getting the amount of strikes that Jay was, but I did have my chances.  Throughout the afternoon, I watched 4 different bass, all of which two pounds or more, come up and boil around my frog.  I could not get them to eat it and couldn't hook into the fish.  I believe part of this was because I did not have the right type of line, it really made things difficult.  Jay was then nice enough to hand over and extra rod of his that had braid on it.  By this time, I was embarassed at myself for my performance.  He had his limit and was culling fish!  On my first cast with his rod, the reel went crazy and backlashed.  Now my mind went crazy.  I tried to keep calm and try to have fun, but it was hard to do.  Jay really felt bad and asked if their was anything he could do.  I told him to just keep fishing hard because he need to get rid of one other smaller fish.  He soon caught another bass and got rid of the smaller one, completing his winning bag.

This tournament was one of the most frustrating days of fishing I have had in a long time.  It was also a great learning experience.  Things will not work out how you want every single fishing trip or tournament.  Next time I will be more prepared, especially when I know we are fishing topwater all day.  Jay was a great boater to fish with all day and really helped me get through it.  Congratulations to him on winning.  He taught me alot about frog fishing and how to pick out specific areas in the vegetation to cast to since it was something I haven't had much experience with.  I am always telling Kyle that fishing as a co-angler is about meeting great people and learning more about fishing.  I tried to take my own advice today, relax and just enjoy being out on the water.  I am very fortunate to even have the oppotunity to fish these tournaments...its not cheap!

A special thanks goes out to Jay Gillfillan.  I had a great day and learned so much from him.  Also, thank you to Deny Dabbelt for taking Kyle fishing Friday.  Kyle was paired with him at the Rocky Fork tournament and they had a great time!  Deny is one of those people that we will stay in contact with for a long time.  Next Sunday is the KSU Father's Day Open!  I hope to see everyone there.
Kent State University Father's Day Open - 6/21/2009
Results of club members who participated:

6th Place!!Ray Firest and Jon Jonela     5 fish      6.58 pounds

14th PlaceSchrock and Schrock (Father / Son)          4 fish      4.61 pounds

21st PlaceJaron Barnes and Paul Jonela      2 fish     2.52 pounds

25th PlaceKyle Roth and Steve Roth (Father / Son)    1 fish     1.26 pounds

DNP  Derek Crooks and Rory Franks    0 fish     0.00 pounds
When I first had the idea of holding a benefit tournament for the club (back in November), I had no idea how much time and effort it took to run one of these tournaments.  I have always fished tournaments but really did not have the knowledge of what went on behind the scenes.  After preparing for our tournament, I now have a ton of respect for those who do this all summer, whether it be just running a few open tournaments or running an entire circuit. 

Saturday night I stopped and picked up the Dobass trailer and finalized some of the paperwork that I needed ready for registration the next morning.  I was organizing everything and getting packed up until about 10pm that night.  I realized that I better get some sleep, especially since I had been up since 3am that morning and setting up for the EEI Mogadore tournament.

My alarm went off Sunday morning at 1:30am.  I have been worried all week that I would forget something important, so I was up early and double checked the truck.  "Me" Derek showed up at my house around 2:45am after he got off work.  These Kent State kids are crazy with their work schedules.  Most of them work the night shift and then just stay up and fish all day (maybe even work the next night too!!!).  I did it for several years and look back at it and say "what was I thinking?"  We left the house, stopped for some coffee, and got to the lake aroun 3:30am that morning.  Kyle and his dad were already at the lake waiting after making the long drive from Pennsylvania!  I had been told that I did not need to be there until 4:00, but I worry about everything and wanted to be there extra early just to make sure everything was perfect.

Setting up all of the equipment went smoothly.  We had everything up and ready to go before the boats started rolling in.  Once registration was over and we did the morning announcements, I finally settled down and was able to enjoy the day with my dad.  I did not approach this tournament like all of the others that I do.  I simply wanted to sit down, relax, and enjoy the day.  Catching fish is always nice, but was not the most important thing that day.  I was just happy the weather was great and I could enjoy the day with my dad.

Some people may not believe this, but I had NEVER fished Berlin Lake in my life.  My dad had been there several times, but that has been years ago.  We went into this tournament completely blind.  With all of the rain and the water being up several feet, my first thought was to fish shallow and flip willow bushes.  We found a large creek that had several little cuts in it filled with willow bushes and other cover.  We started on a rock point and slowly worked our way into shallower water, just in case we could find some fish deep.  Our only bites came when we got into the shallow water.

My first two fish came on a Zoom Baby Brush Hog in watermelon red color.  Both fish were extremely shallow, back behind willow bushes.  I would throw that brush hog as far back into the bushes as possible to get the bites.  I missed several fish in these same areas as well.  We kept moving areas, hitting other small cuts with shallow water but as the day went on the bite died.  We knew we needed to change things up, so we left to explore new water.  We worked our way back to the highway224 bridge, still without any success.  I threw the idea out about heading up towards the dam.  It was also closer to the launch ramp and since I needed to be in an hour early to set up, I felt it would be nice to stay close to maximize fishing time.

I am a big worm person, it is my confidence and go to bait.  I always have two worms tied on, one being my secret worm that always catches me fish anywhere I go and the other being a Zoom Shakey Head worm in green pumpkin.  I had been throwing both of those throughout the day without any success, so I decided to change slightly to a Zoom Trick Worm in green punpkin/purple.  As I started flipping that around submerged bushes by the dam, I almost immediately caught our biggest bass of the day.  My dad then following with another that was just short of keeping.  With about 20 minutes to go in our day, I caught our 4th and final keeper on that same worm.

Back at the weigh in, I started talking to some of the other KSU kids and knew that it had been a tough day for everyone.  The highlight of the weigh in had to be when I found out the "Me" Derek ripped his pants when he sat down in Rory's boat.  Rory has been on him about gaining weight, and today just proved that he needs to start working out again!!!  I hope he knows I am kidding, but it was very funny to see people on his case about it.

I need to thank several people.  First, a huge thank you goes out to Rory Franks and the entire Fish Crew for helping us learn the behind the scenes of running a tournament.  Not only did Rory allow us to use ALL of his equipment, he is the main reason the club is where it is today.  From the first time I contacted him, he has been a great person to work with.  Not only has he taught me alot about fishing, but he has also taught me so much about working with people and being a leader.  I hope he is ready for next Sunday...we are fishing Ladue and he is going to owe me $3 very quickly.  Don't worry, I will let everyone know how it goes!!

Also, thank you to Kyle Roth, Derek Crooks, Jaron Barnes, Mike Riley, Ray Fierst, Brian Hellwig and Kyle Reckart.  These guys have been a tremendous help with running the tournament and getting the club started.  I would not have been able to do this without them.  I hope they can keep the club going strong throughout the next year by gaining more members and possibly running another Father's Day tournament.  Good luck to all of them.

Thank you to Paul and Jon Jonela for fishing with our KSU members (Jaron and Ray).  It is so nice to have people like them to help get these guys get on the water and experiencing tournament fishing.  We really appreciate your kindness and help with everything this year.

Mike Riley and I will be fishing the next FLW College Fishing event on the Detroit River.  I am hoping that some of you will come up and support us as we try and get Kent State into the regional championship this year.  Finally, thanks to everyone who came out and fished our tournament and to those who came just to support the club.  It was awesome to see such a great turnout and I hope we can do it again next year!!!
NOAA Mosquito - 7/11/2009
Results of club members who participated:

20th PlaceScott Schrock and Bill Cusano     5 fish      10.57 pounds

FLW College Fishing:  Detroit River - 7/25/2009
Results of college clubs in Ohio who participated:

5th Place!!Ohio University  Wilson Burton and Justin Winer         6 fish13-02 Pounds

14th Place        Ohio State University       Jason Founds and Matt Bores           4 fish  8-03 Pounds

22nd PlaceKent State University       Scott Schrock and Kyle Roth      3 fish   6-04 Pounds


This was it...this tournament would be my last FLW College Fishing tournament.  I had been looking forward to fishing with Mike for the first time during this event.  I was confident that we would be able to catch fish, maybe not the "right" fish to win, but to at least have fun throughout the day catching some.  As always, I was worrying about the tournament about things such as what spots to hit first, how to approach the river, and everything else that goes along with preparing for a tournament.  The week leading up to the tournament, Mike really tried to stress to me that we need to just go out an have fun and to stop worrying about everything.  I appreciated that and that is what I tried to do before and during the tournament.

Friday morning I picked up Mike from his house and we headed north.  We decided that we needed to have a nice, relaxing afternoon before the tournament.  Our original plan was to stay at my parents camper in Sandusky and the drive to Detroit the morning of the tournament to save money.  As we were driving, we decided to change that and continued on to Detroit.  Our first stop that afternoon was the Hooter's restaurant.  Hooter's is an all around great place.  They have great food, atmosphere, and of course waitresses.  That night was a football themed night, so all of the waitresses were in some kind of jersey.  Of course, their were some Steelers fans, I can never get away from them.  I was actually surprised to see some fans of the Lions considering they did not win a single game last year!  After our dinner it was time to head back to the hotel, so I thought...

Our waitress had ssaid something about all of the casino's in Detroit.  I had never been to a casino (because gambling is bad news for me).  Mike couldn't believe it, so we headed downtown to the MGM Grand.  Mike wanted to play some Blackjack, sat down and almost immediately lost $10.  I new this was bad but I decided to play some Roulette with Mike.  We kept it simple, betting on red or black, but yet again we lost fairly quickly.  I was out $20 and that was enough!!!  We walked around some more, played a few more hands of blackjack, and decided to call it quits.  We were finally going back to the hotel.

Fishing the Detroit River was all new to me.  I had never been on it and was really thrown a curveball when I discovered how strong the current was on the main river channel.  Our trolling motor was not strong enough to hold the boat, so we had to quickly change plans and move into some backwaters.  I wanted to find some places with current, but not as much as the main river.  We found some areas and worked them fairly hard.  I caught an early keeper on a Booyah Buzzbait on a sunken ship we found south of the launch ramp.  We worked this area hard and caught several other smaller fish, but nothing that would help us.

Throughout the day, the fishing was tough for us but we continued to catch fish.  I caught another keepers in the lily pads flipping a Venom tube in green pumpkin color.  After working shallow water without any success after that fish, we decided in order to place in the top 5, we needed to find some big smallmouth.  We did find an area around Grosse Ile that was calm enough for us to drift slowly along a ledge.  I drop shotted and Mike dragged a small tube along the edge, but this again was unsuccessful.  We headed back to the sunken ship to try and get a couple more largemouth.

At the ship, the continued with a buzzbait like I had earlier but the weather had changed.  I was no longer raining and windy so therefore the fish we not as active as before.  I tossed a drop shot around the ship using a Berkley Gulp Leech in a black color and caught my 3rd and final keeper fish of the day.  I want to thank Tom Ives for being an outstanding boater and making our day on the river an enjoyable one.  Good luck to him throughout the rest of this year.

As many people know, this was my final College Fishing tournament.  I have graduated and accepted a teaching job in Hopkinsville, Kentucky as a high school math teacher...only 30 minutes from Lake Barkley.  I am very excited to get down there and start learning that lake.  I will have the Kent State team ready next year if the Stren Series and College Fishing circuits go back down to Kentucky/Barkley Lakes.

This is my last story on the website as well.  Kyle Roth, the new President of the KSU Fishing Club, will be taking over.  Thank you to Rory Franks and the entire Dobass team for helping me start this club.  They were a tremendous asset to us from the first day we contacted them.  This year would not of been possible without their help and advice.  Good luck to the rest of the club this year with not only fishing but in school as well.  I hope they are able to continue finding hard working, dedicated students to keep building the club.