By Luke Clausen

For many anglers and boat owners, the onset of winter means an end to the boating season. As temperatures continue to drop around the country, it is now time to start thinking about the final preparations that will guarantee your next season starts off on the right track. The time and energy that you spend now protecting your boat will not only enhance your boat’s performance, but it will save you both time and money next season.

I have been back from Pittsburgh fishing in the Forrest L. Wood Cup for $1 million and already raced to another FLW series event that was as tough of a fishery.  The cup did not go nearly as well as planned - I had a decent practice and discovered something the last day that I thought had great potential, but conditions changed drastically and I failed to adjust with them.  I had found that I could catch a lot of suspended fish around the barges and under docks but that evaporated when we had som heavy rain that muddied the water and brought strong current adn caused the fish to scatter down the banks.  I ended up throwing a Megabass pop-x under trees with mayflies hatching on them and throwing a Berkley slim shakey on current breaks to catch a measly 5 fish over two days and finish 50th place.