MUSIC CITY BFL KY LAKE TOURNAMENT

I headed south to one of the humps I’d caught a couple 3lbers on in practice and started dredging it with a Series 5. I caught a fish off of both ends of the hump just like in practice but instead of 3lbers they were just small keepers. I cranked a couple other humps and fished all of the places I fished the last weekend and didn’t get a single bite. I finally went into a creek to flip some stake beds and I didn’t even get bit doing that. As I was trolling from one bed to another I almost trolled right into a stump in about a foot of water. I dropped a Strike King tube down on the stump and caught a 2.5lber. I finally figured out that the stake beds were in 2ft of water which apparently was too deep! I got on the inside of the beds and dropped my Power Poles. I caught a 2.5lber off of every little dark spot I could see on the bottom. It was amazing how shallow the fish were and that I couldn’t actually see the fish. After I cleaned that area out I made a run to the east side of the lake to a marina with clear water to look for some spawners. I saw several fish on beds in the marina but the water was so clear they were super spooky. I went to the back of the creek and started flipping the dark spots and it was just like the other creek. Every dark spot in a foot or less of water had a 2.5lber on it. I cleaned those out and headed back to the creek where I’d started hoping that maybe I could catch some females on the dark spots once I’d taken the males away but it never happened. I caught about 30 keepers on the day and never had one much over 2.5lbs. I weighed in 11lbs 11oz. and finished 34th.

 It's been a frustrating crazy March! When I saw the schedule for this year I was foaming at the mouth because March has been so good to me and I cashed one check out of three tries. That just goes to show you never know what to expect in this game from year to year or day to day for that matter. I’ve never seen stable 65 degree water in March until this year and I can tell you one thing, I don't like it! I’ll take the more normal mid 40 water temps any day over this. On the bright side, I would like to see the Hydrilla come back and the low water, sunny skies and warm weather shouldn’t do anything but help that cause. Now maybe if I can survive April, things will start looking up!

MUSIC CITY BFL KY LAKE PRACTICE

The fishing got tougher on me as the water warmed. I ran around for a few days before this one and not only were the places I had been catching fish on not producing, I wasn’t finding anything new. The only fish over 3lbs I caught in practice were cranking shallow humps out in front of spawning coves with a Strike King Series 5, but they were few and far between. The water was already 70 degrees in places and I spent a half day looking for beds but never saw any sign of spawning activity. I’ve been lost on KY Lake before but this has to be the most I’ve ever struggled trying to catch a fish over 3lbs. I've decided to stay close to Paris Landing where we're launching from and just junk fish and hope for the best.

LBL BFL #1

 I planned on fishing the Redeye Shad all day but when I passed by the point where I’d caught the 9lber last week, I couldn’t resist. I spent about 30 minutes there and never had a bite. I stopped on the school of 2lbers where I’d finished my limit in the BWS and  quickly cranked up a limit of small keepers. Once I got a limit, I headed south of Paris to a creek that’s a refuge area and had been off limits up until the weekend of this tournament. There were a pile of fish on a point at the mouth of the creek and I was able to cull all of my 2lbers with a little better sized fish, but not much better. Once we exhausted that school, I headed further south to a little slough where I’ve caught them pretty good in April on my Redeye Shad. It didn’t take long and I hooked a decent fish in the 3lb range on my Redeye. The fish made a run towards the back of the boat and I used its momentum to swing it into the boat. Just as the fish left the water, my co angler was pulling his Arig out of the water and a 4lber ate his rig! I’m pretty sure that 4lber had followed my fish to the boat and led her right to my co angler’s bait! Oh well, that’s the way it goes sometimes so I made a quick cull and went back to chunking my Redeye Shad. I fished a little further into the slough and something hit my Redeye so hard, it knocked slack in my line. When I finally caught up to it, a 6lb class fish came to the surface and spit my bait right back at me! That was a very tough break but I shook it off and kept on fishing. I caught a few more small keepers in the slough and decided to fish back out to where those bigger bites had come from. I’d gotten so shallow my Motorguide was in the mud and I made the mistake of stomping the foot pedal to force it to turn. That’s when my bad luck got worse and the steering cable snapped. The good news was I had a spare trolling motor, but the bad news was it was in my Suburban in Benton, KY! It was only 10:30 but I knew the rest of my day was shot so I tried to make the best of it and I idled back out to where I’d lost the big one and let what little wind there was blow us through the area and drop my Power Poles if we hit a hot spot. We drifted through the area with no luck so I idled to another stretch and made a drift through there. I didn’t make it far and just as my Redeye Shad got within sight, an absolute tank rolled up and engulfed it! I didn’t have much line out so I eased back on the fish and kept her hooked for two head shakes and she came unbuttoned! That was the final nail in the coffin! I’d lost two 6lb+ sized fish and my trolling motor in 45 minutes. I ran back north to where I’d caught my Redeye fish in the BWS and drifted around out there for the rest of the day but never caught anything that would help. I weighed in a measly 13lbs 5oz and finished in 48th place.

LBL BFL #1 Practice

I spent a few days this week practicing for the first LBL BFL tournament.  I spent a day on the north end of the lake, a day in the mid section and a day on the south end.  I'm catching a ton of fish but not the right size. I've tried everthing I can think of but can't seem to figure out how to catch the big fish. I'm just going to go fishing during the tournament and cover a lot of water with the Redeye Shad and hope to stumble on to something.

KY BWS

Man, fishing was a little tougher than I was hoping.  I started where I caught the 3lber yesterday and when I fished that place in Dec. we had 21lbs in about 10 minutes.  Unfortunately, I caught a 17"er there and that was it.  I headed to where I caught my 9lber and as soon as I got to the waypoint, one smoked my Shadalicious!  I was hoping it was going to be another giant but it was only a 4.5lber!  Don't get me wrong, I was pleased to have a 4+ but the last fish I rolled up on this spot was a BIGGUN!  I ran to one of my little schools of 2lbers and finished my limit and then it was a slow go until about noon.  I finally pulled my trusty Redeye Shad out and just went fishing and managed a 5lber and culled a few more times but just by ounces.  I ended up with 17.38lbs which surprisingly was good enough for 6th place and the highest finishing Triton Gold money and the Boat US bonus money......I love contingency programs!!!!

BACK ON KY FINALLY!

I've been under the weather for a few days since I came home from Gville but finally made my way to KY and gotta day of practice in before my first Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament tomorrow.  The weather has been unseasonably warm and the water is 60 degrees already!  I immediately ran to a couple of places that were slammed full of fish over the winter and started chunkin my Arig loaded with Shadalicious swimbaits.  The first place I hit I caught a 3lber and left.  My next stop was empty but my 3rd stop produced a 9lb even largemouth which is my personal best KY fish.  I thought I had  something going but I never caught another fish over 2.75lbs the rest of the day though I did catch plenty that size.  Oh well, I wish I could've gotten some more practice in but I'm going to scramble around and try and make something happen tomorrow.