What Truck, Boat and Outboard does Gene run?

Triton TR21, Mercury 225 Optimax and Ford F-150

My Sponsors

Bass Pro Shops in that I get some good discounts on excellent products.

What Gene does for a living:

Sales for Tracker Boats a subsidiary of Bass Pro Shops

What you should know about Gene:

God first, family and friends. I also enjoy working with my neighbor recognizing, appreciating and feeding wounded warriors at our waterfront homes on Lake Harding.

How Gene started fishing

I started fishing as a kid with my Dad, never forgot those experiences.  I moved to Kentucky and started fishing club tournaments. Graduated to fishing the Walmart BFL (Redman back in the day). Made several regional tournaments. Moved to Georgia and then Alabama, continued with BFl tournaments and club tournaments but eventually moved to fishing ABA tournaments.

Aspirations or goals with fishing

Be in contention in all my ABA Tournaments and championships

Favorite way to fish

I enjoy several things but Pitching soft plastics and frog fishing are my favorites.  I think I enjoy them because of the potential for fast and explosive action.

Most exciting fishing experience

Prefishing for a buddy tournament in Kentucky, my partner and I caught 30 plus pounds of fish.  All flipping and pitching.  A Tornado came through the area the next day and blew out all our areas. Oh well.

How Gene preps for a tournament

Mostly checking my logs at home and all the latest information I can get.  I have a lot of friends that are active tournament fishermen and we share a lot of information.  I try and get at least 1 pre-fish day to prove out what patterns I suspect will be in play.  Sometimes none and I wing it.

Three favorite search baits

Carolina rigs, spinnerbaits and crankbaits.

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

The most recent tournament I won on Lake Eufaula, I caught a limit of bass weighing around 16 pounds on a Zara Spook.  I caught a limit in about 15 minutes out of a grass bed when the lake was high.

Most challenging part of tournament fishing

Trying to compete against some competitors that can spend a lot more time on the water than I can.

When tournaments don't go my way

Try to learn from them to see what decisions I should have made differently.  Then forget them.

Advice to give to an aspiring tournament angler:

Experiment and try not to get in a rut of doing the same things every tournament.

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

Fishing a frog is a blast.I prefer a SPRO baby popping frog. Cast it out near the shoreline and objects near the shoreline.Wait a few seconds and then alternate twitching and taking in the slack line slowly.  You will develop a cadence and can walk the dog with it. When you get a bite, COUNT TO 3 or 4 before you set the hook.  Otherwise you will pull the frog away from the fish. Experiment with the speed of the cadence and let the fish tell you what they like.  It will be a blast and you will catch some big fish.