I hope Rich Dalbey makes it to day four. He will need a big bag to get there.

My hats off to him. It was brutal tough for me.

It was brutal tough for a lot of guys that know how to fish that lake, so no shame there James. Wish you could have had a better first Tour event as a Pro. There are other lakes coming up that are better suited for North Texas anglers.

Good luck on the next round James.

Thanks. The first 2 days of practice there was a big cold front that shut the bass down. That being said the first 2 days of practice were pointless with zero prior experience on the lake. 100's of miles of the same looking water. I found one group of fish and stayed on them for 2 days. I wish I would have had the nerve to run new water during the event. Live and learn

So why y'all complaining no DD weighed in? Who cares.... Good job guys

just good fun interstate rivalry. Okeechobee is known for its big bass.

Will be wide open tomorrow.....between the top 2....and Ehrler has an outside chance....1st one to 85# wins...

Wow. Weights were low today.

1 DREW BENTON PANAMA CITY, FL* 62.-lbs after 3-days
2 RICK COTTEN GUNTERSVILLE, AL* 61.03-lbs
3 BRENT EHRLER REDLANDS, CA* 56.03-lbs
4 WADE HENDRICKS THOMPSONS STATION, TN* 54.11-lbs
5 MICHAEL NEAL DAYTON, TN* 54.11-lbs (tie)
6 CASEY MARTIN NEW MARKET, AL* 53.09-lbs
7 BRYAN THRIFT SHELBY, NC* 51.06-lbs
8 CHAD GRIGSBY MAPLE GROVE, MN * 48.16-lbs
9 ADRIAN AVENA VINELAND, NJ * 47.26-lbs
10 PHILIP JARABECK LYNCHBURG, VA * 45.13-lbs

I really like Ehrler under pressure, he knows how to win.
I think the seperation is to great for Thrift, he is also one of my fav's and a dark horse for tomorrow.


I'll take Cotten for the win, I may lose my shorts on that bet but I'm laying it down anyway..

I just wanted to say thank you for all of your support. Hated that I was not able to finish the way I wanted to but still satisfied with the finish. If someone would have told me I would make the cut I would have told them that they was crazy!!! 3rd day I swung for the fence because I knew I needed a big bag to move into the top ten. Knew an area I could go catch between 9-10 pounds on a swim jig but that would not have done it for me. Threw a big swimbait looking for big bites and they never came on that 3rd day.They would come up on the bait but would not commit to it. I even scaled back later in the day and it was the same other than those 3 swimmers that I weighed in. Like James said the practice was brutal. Keep it going James, you have a great career in front of you. See you at Smith Lake here in a couple of weeks.

rob saw where you asked if austin had boat trouble. yes he did . he had a decent bag that was going to move him somewhere in the forties and cash a check in his first tour event .he is at toledo now and they are still working on it and think they know what is wrong. hopefully he will be on water later today and not miss to much pre fishing.

Just saw him heading south through Longview. Hopefully he gets on the water today.

I was wondering why he was letting his fish go. I saw him troll back to the ramp. That sucks. We almost didn't make it back in Thursday due to dead cranking batteries (NO MORE INTERSTATE batteries!). It took 2 sets of jumper cables to get us back to the ramp. I thought I might be spending the night on the Big Pond!

thanks for the update, that is just too too bad, I feel really for him. that was a great first showing regardless.

That really stinks about Austin Terry. I broke a trolling motor cable day 1 which cut my day short. I wish I had a good excuse for day 2.