It's been awhile since I had access to the internet. I was at Champlain for the FLW Series 2 weeks ago. The weather was horribly cold and windy in practice and then somehow became beautiful. The first 2 days were warm and sunny and both species of bass were biting. We were not so lucky on the third day however. I think the wind blew so hard that if you made the run down to Ty, all you had to do was idle back and the South wind carried you back to Plattsburgh in 2 hours. I was lucky fishing just 5 minutes from the launch all day. We stayed in one spot out of the wind on the north end of Valcour Island. I fished with Brian Hensley and him and I both caught decent limits; my 14lb limit was good enough to put me in a tie for 5th. Unfortunately, I lost the tie breaker and an extra $1,000. Dusty made me a $50 bet that he would finish higher than me; he hasn't paid up yet! I left Champlain immediately following the weigh in on Friday evening and drove straight home. I got home at 11pm, spent some quality time with my wife, and went to sleep. My wife and kids and I went out to breakfast in the morning and then it was back on the road for me. I now had a 7 hour drive down to Kerr Lake on the Virginia/North Carolina border. I had heard the fishing there was really tough this time of year. The Strens had always been there in the spring, and last years tournament was moved to Lake Gaston because the water was too low to launch at Kerr. Unfortunately this year they got a bunch of rain in the weeks before the tournament and the water had risen to acceptable launching levels. I say unfortunately, because it was as bad as I had heard it would be. Had it not been for the one decent day I had in three days of practice I would have sworn that something killed all the bass in Kerr Lake. That good day I only caught 6 fish, but they were nice ones including a 6-10 I caught on a pop r. In three 11 hour days of practice I caught 10 fish; it was difficult to stay focused. I was truly worried that I might not catch a fish in the tournament. As luck would have it, I caught a keeper in the first ten minutes. I felt allot better and went on to catch 3 more keepers for 6-8 that day. The second day was a little tougher, but the bites were bigger; 3 for 8-12. The last day was what I thought the whole tournament might be like; I registered a big fat goose egg. Even with the “0” I still ended up in 50th which was good enough to move me up 2 points to 21st in the overall standings. I don’t think I can make the top 10 for the year after this finish, but I’m going to try anyway. The next stop is our last Stren Series tournament on the Potomac River. I have to leave there and go directly to the last FLW Series down in Georgia. For now I’m home enjoying some much needed time with my wife and kids