James Moore and I have got some team chemistry going on.  After only our second tournament fishing together we took 7^th at this past event and now are sitting in 5^th place overall in the standings going into the Classic.  I’ve got myself a great partner who can definitely pull his weight.  I’m telling you, he’s someone to watch out for.  He is one heck of a stick.  It feels so good to be on the water with someone who knows exactly what I’m talking about and knows how to execute.

Well, I’m still over in Korea working my butt off and doing a little fishing in between.  The fishing has been deterred some with a particularly bad monsoon season.  We ended up having a couple KSA events cancelled because we had so much rain.  I’ve also not been able to make a couple because of work so I’ve been dying to get out.  I was actually all ready to go to a tournament on a large lake near the DMZ, but was held back because of an incident at the DMZ which had us on lockdown for awhile.  My new tournament partner Sergeant Major James Moore is actually in charge of security there.

I’m missing my boat these days.  It’s been a mental grind here, but I’ve been keeping my head up.  MERS (Middle Eastern Respiratory Disease) has been sweeping Korea.  It has been an unreal experience, people are walking the streets with masks on and the death toll is over twenty already.  Because of the outbreak, two of the five KSA tournaments have been cancelled.  However, I have been able to get out on the water and get some fishing therapy.

It looks like I’ll be fishing another season in the KSA.  My work detail was extended until November of this year which will enable me to have another shot at tournament fishing in Korea.  It’s definitely bittersweet because in one way it’s an amazing opportunity, but in another way I’m really missing fishing back home and around the U.S. in general.

Let me start off by wishing you all a blessed holiday season.  I hope your Christmas was better than the last and you got to spend it with loved ones.  I got to spend it over here with my family in Korea.  Things are still busy as ever, but my period of being on director detail is finally up.  They have asked me if they could extend me and promote me which feels good, but I’ve also been thinking about retiring soon.

Things have been crazy since my last blog.  My latest temporary promotion to Director has been kicking me sideways.  It’s been a lot more work and hasn’t let me slow down too much.  Even when I had the flu, I was going nonstop.  Now, with the Secretary of Defense resigning, it’s looking like we’re going to have quite a mess to deal with too.  The light at the end of the tunnel is near though because tomorrow I can finally take a bit of time to chill out.  Although it has been busy, it’s not all bad.  My first KSA season has wrapped up and it was a phenomenal experience.

Well, it’s been a little while since the last time I got to update everyone on what is going on in my fishing world overseas.  Recently, I had the treat of going back to the states for awhile.  For my work detail, I was sent back over to do a couple trainings in D.C. and San Antonio.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to wet a line like I had hoped though.

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ll updated you all about how the tournament season is going as I work overseas in Korea on work detail.  I’ve had a couple tournaments in July and was lucky enough to do pretty well.

The first tournament was the tougher one, not fishing wise, but because two of my fish were thrown out.  Just like in America in Korea, they also have a dead fish penalty.  Unfortunately, instead of weighing my five fish, my two biggest fish (that happened to be deceased) were thrown back and only three of my fish were weighed.  I found that pretty odd considering last time I was just penalized the 300 gram per dead fish.

I’d like to take a minute to kick things off with my first blog.  Currently, I’m overseas in Korea after being stationed here until at least December.  Surprisingly enough, I still get to follow my dream and do some tournament fishing over here.  I know, when you think of Korea bass fishing generally doesn’t come to mind, but believe it or not it’s actually big over here.  I joined and was accepted to fish as a Pro in the Korean Sport Fishing Association (KSA) circuit and really am enjoying it.