Follow Missouri High School BASS All-American Joe Grafeman Preparing For BASS All American Tournament
Joe Grafeman, a native of St. Louis and now permanent resident of the Lake of the Ozarks was selected a couple of weeks ago by BASS to their first ever Bass Fishing High School All American Team.
The 12 all All Americans have been invited to participate in a special Bassmaster High School All-American Bass Tournament being held in conjunction with BASSfest June 3-7 on Kentucky and Barkley lakes in Tennessee. Each high school angler will be paired with a Bassmaster Elite Series pro for the one-day tournament.
We will follow Joe’s daily preparation here and update daily.
Monday Day 1
Joe and family depart Lake of the Ozarks for Barkley Lake.
Tuesday Day 2 – On the Water Preparation
Today Joe spent most of his time in the mid lake area of Barkley Lake. He spent most of his time graphing for schools of fish. He found a pattern of schools on bends with some specific structure. He fished for some of those fish to test baits and caught a few. He did not want to stick many fish, so he left those schools alone and continued to validate this pattern in and around the mid lake area.
Wednesday Day 3 – On the Water Preparation
Today Joe ran to the lower end of the lake around the dam. He encountered a lot of fishing pressure as there was a college tournament on the lake and the lower end was full of boats. He tried to graph some fish and fish a bit without great success as boats were covering up most of the good stuff that Joe wanted to check out. Joe did check out some river area fishing without catching any big ones. Joe felt a bit disappointed about his practice day today, but he is looking forward to Thursday’s practice.
Preparation Day 4 – Thursday June 4, 2015
Today was Joe’s last day of practice. Best day of practice this week. Joe said that he really leaned about the lake and honed in on that deep bite. He finally figured how to catch them out there. He is feeling pretty good and said, that it should be a good tournament. He feels ready and is looking forward to it and ready to see how it turns out. Friday, Joe will be working the BassFest event and will learn which Pro he will have on his boat for the tournament on Saturday. He is glad that Friday is a day off the water as he feels pretty good about what he needs to do to catch some good ones.
Friday – Working Bass Fest Today, The Big Tournament Tomorrow
Today, Joe did not fish today. He was working the Bass Fest Show today for his sponsors LEWS and Livingston Lures. Part of Joes obligations today included an exclusive interview with BassMaster Magazine discussing his High School All American selection, his background fishing and his preparation for the HS All American Tournament which is tomorrow, Saturday June 6, 2015, with take off at 8:00 and weigh in at 2:30PM.
See video below with Joes comments today and intrstruction on how to follow Joe on the water with a BASS Live Blog and how to watch Joe on-line with the BASS video stream weigh-in.
Follow Joe on Saturday via Bassmaster Blog for hourly updates on how Joe is doing on the water.
http://www.bassmaster.com/blogs/2015-elite-series-bassfest-live-blog
Weigh-in at 2:30PM Saturday – Watch Live at:
http://www.bassmaster.com/video/bassfest-weigh-0
Joe will be fishing tomorrow with the Arizona BASS Pro Cliff Perch, http://www.bassmaster.com/anglers/cliff-pirch. The format for the tournament is that Joe needs to catch at least three good ones and he can also use Pro Cliff Perch 2 keepers. Joe and Cliff talked today and Cliff is impressed with Joe’s prefishing success and his strategy. They will work Joe’s plan during the tournament. If that pattern is not producing, Cliff has a few ideas as well. It should be interesting. Good luck Joe!!! Joe has worked so hard to get to this point in your young fishing career. Regardless of the outcome tomorrow, Joe has already made his mark on bass fishing. Joe’s fishing success is just starting, his name will be heard for years to come in the bass fishing world.