We’re already a quarter of the way through the MLF Bass Pro Tour season. It’s been exciting for me, and I’m pretty pleased with where I sit right now to qualify for The Redcrest, the Bass Pro Tour championship. But I know one thing for sure, I’ve got to keep the throttle down and push hard so I can make the championship.

Now with the Raleigh, N.C. Stage Three coming up next week, I believe the time of the year is going to put that event in my wheelhouse as far as fishing strengths: I’ve historically done well at pre-spawn and spawn events. I’ve been watching the local weather trends for Raleigh. It’s been cool, but with a stable and warming trend.

You never know, we may see the beginnings of a spawn bite, but likely heavy pre-spawn.

Realistically though, I’ve never fished these lakes, and don’t know much about them at all. There will be no resting on your laurels here. I’ll need to find the fish on two different bodies of water to make the finals.

With this twist in the format, I’ll need to develop a different practice and tournament strategy. Finding that magic location won’t necessarily play out, since we fish Jordan Lake on Day 1 and then Falls on Day 2. It’s going to be difficult, challenging, and very exciting.

Now, if I’m fortunate enough to make it to the final day of fishing, we change lakes again to Shearon Harris. On that last day, everybody will be fishing with no practice, just a ride-around. On that day, we all will have to rely on the primary basics of fishing we’ve learned over the years, literally figuring it out as we go.

This event has no home-field advantage for anyone.

Again, the time of the year for this event is when I usually perform well, so I hope to take my pre-spawn and spawn success from the past and continue to do well. I prefer fishing shallow, and I believe that is where most of the bass will be. For me, shallow means 0-5 feet deep. Anything my Garmin shows me at 6 feet deep or deeper is eliminated.

My bait choice is wide open now. I don’t know what I’ll be throwing, since I have no history fishing these lakes. I’ll really just be playing it by ear.

I relish the opportunity to be fishing these potential big bass lakes this time of the year. My plan is the same as it always is, catch the most and the biggest bass I can.