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After a string of poor performances to start the 2011 Bassmaster Elite Series season -- and a run of what he calls bad mojo for the past two and a half years -- Monroe appears to be turning it around this week in Louisiana. Monroe squeaked into Sunday's final round in the 12th and last qualifying spot. Complete Story
"I was fishing everything," he said. "The Repo Man was up under overhanging trees in the shade, across secondary and minor points. You had a lot of little points in the backs of pockets that had grass, and the fish were relating to the grass. I was just covering a lot of water. Complete Story
Monroe, who's now en route to next week's Potomac AFS, is stoked to have a shot at the AOY title.
"I'm happy with the finish," he said. "I gained some points on Bryan Thrift. Brent got a few points on me, but it makes the race a little closer and anything's possible. Plus, I pretty much guaranteed myself a spot in the Cup – I'm 99.9% locked in with a shot at AOY. If I can crack a Top 10 at Guntersville and Bryan's a Top 40, it's going to be close."
About his light bag today (9-04), Monroe said: "I never saw them today. They dropped the water a foot last night and it scattered those fish horribly. I came up on one little wolfpack of fish and they weren't even that big.
"I tried a few little other things – I went and flipped for a little bit, and I went back to a swimbait and tried a smaller swimbait to see if it could fire some fish up. It didn't. Then I just hammered it out with a topwater. I had nine keeper bites and landed five." Complete Story