In an interview today with Bassmaster Elite Series pro Rick Morris of RPM Full Throttle Fishing sums up his days at the Sunshine Showdown on the season opening stop of the Bassmaster Elite on the Harris Chain of lakes in Florida.
RPM made the first field cut to fish on day three and ended the tournament on the Harris Chain in 39th place.
Saying, “Overall it was a success” the Virginia pro commented that he had only one regret from his final day of fishing.
The 4-time Classic qualifier shared that he committed to spending all of his fishing time in the Griffin area. He gave up travel time equal to an hour and a half each way, each day, but after coming to the determination that he was not going to bed fish, he felt this was a good, conservative decision to effectively stay in the running, make a day two cut, look towards a check and to accumulate some points in the overall standings.
His choice proved to be correct as Griffin was able to produce a limit with enough weight to land him in 36th place, well above the day two chop.
Day three he wiped the frost from his boat and blasted off with intention to resume his place in the back water pond in Griffin. The area was crowded with other anglers and after three hours of fishing time had quickly gone, RPM had only one swirl to his name.
With the day warming fast, he chose to put aside the Phenix Vibrator Jig that he had been using and opt for a moving frog. To his dismay, he missed four bites. Keeping on top of his mental game, Morris regrouped and thought about what he needed to do to be able to turn a bite into a bass in the boat. He structured his strategy, changed his hook size and recast back where he had lost the first one.
The frog landed on the lilypads and he immediately knew a big one was on the way as he watched the wake of a bass torpedo towards his bait, Morris recalled, “It looked like Jaws, coming in.”
Remembering what he called the “#1 rule for a moving frog”, he dropped his tip, set the hook hard and boat-flipped the 6 ½ lb’r with his remarkably strong RPM rod, the 711 Okeechobee Special.
With not much time left he swung one more in and blazed the Roadhouse Tackle boat back to the scales.
Although he did not make the top-12 cut for the final day, he was pleased with what he accomplished saying, “There were more positives than negatives; I am a power fisherman and I fished my strengths, chuckin’ and windin’ all day long.”
His only regret would’ve been to adjust with the frog a little earlier in the day.
Morris is already making his way to the next trail stop, the Citrus Slam also in Florida.
The Slam blasts off from the St. John’s River on March 17 and runs through March 20.
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For more information on Elite Series pro Rick Morris visit his website.
For standings on the entire field, visit the Bassmaster Sunshine Showdown Real-Time Leaderboard.
Details on the Bassmaster Elite 2011 schedule are available here.
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