What Truck, Boat and Outboard does Don run?

2020 Nitro Z21, mercury 250, 2022 Toyota tundra

My Sponsors

My Lord and Savior is number one sponsor, my wife is second!

What Don does for a living:

Retired and living on Harris Chain

What you should know about Don:

My eldest child Brandon, won the ABA nationals on Pickwick, my youngest child Dustin is still the best fisherman in the family!  I am blessed to be married to a woman who loves golf!  I have a house on Pickwick lake and just built a retirement home on Guntersville lake!  I am blest with 3 special granddaughters, Laken Finney, Lola Fischer, and Linley Blake!  You can read from their names that their daddy loves fishing.  I guess if they ever have a boy they can name him Evinrude or Triton or Mercury!

How Don started fishing

I bought my first boat at age 18, new 18 foot lazer with 150 mercury on it!

Aspirations or goals with fishing

I love the tournaments, no major goals.  Won a ranger on the Ohio River in 1996, but i do still love to fish tournaments.

Favorite way to fish

Jig and pig, going down the bank!

Most exciting fishing experience

My brother and i caught 38.8 lbs of 7 smallmouth on July 15, 1996 on Pickwick fishing offshore on db3 when no one was fishing offshore in a team trails tournament.  That was Brandon's 15th birthday and culling 5 lb smallies was fun!

How Don preps for a tournament

Brandon has taught me to change line, change hooks, and be organized.  Make up your mind and stick to your guns, it ain't over till its over!

Three favorite search baits

Any topwater in the fall, in the spring i like to throw a small spinnerbait or fluke.  In the summer, has to be the drop shot.

Best tournament finish and what you did that day when you were fishing.

For an ABA, i had 23.8 lbs on pickwick in December of 2014.  My son Dustin came in second with 20 lbs of smallmouth and anytime i beat him, i generally cash a check.

Most challenging part of tournament fishing

Not spinning out when you lose a fish or your co-angler catches a 7lber in front of you!  Most of my co's do better than me, i can find fish pretty good, not always the best at getting them in.

When tournaments don't go my way

Thank the good Lord that i am just able to fish in the land of the free and home of the brave!  My favorite statement is "good day to be alive, wife and the Lord loves me and my kids and grands are healthy!  It is nothing more than a fishing tournament, enjoy the beauty God provides!

Advice to give to an aspiring tournament angler:

Fish your strengths and spend time on the water!  Number 2 is to be flexible and have a little knowledge about every pattern out there. 

Some shared general bass fishing techniques for people just getting into the sport

Buy good tackle(rods and reels) and assortment of 6-8 baits for every scenario.  Forget about dock talk and focus on the job at hand (5X3).