MUSIC CITY BFL LAKE BARKLEY

We didn't have much of a turn out with only 64 boats but all it takes is a 60 boat field for the $7000 Triton Gold money to be in effect so I wasn't complaining. I had the best practice I've had since February and felt good about my chances to finally seal the deal in one of these things. I was boat 62 and made a short run to the very back of a creek to gamble on the shad spawn bite. A friend of mine had caught 25lbs off of this bank the previous weekend which made it an easy choice of where to spend my morning. Apparently my buddy cleaned them out because after an hour and a half and two passes up and down the bank, I had one small keeper. I headed out of the creek and down the river to hit my schools. I was a little concerned about the river fish because the water was stagnant and it was still fairly early in the morning. There was a boat sitting dead on my first school so I headed to the next one. It was open and my Humminbird showed a pile of fish close to the bottom in 16ft of water which is exactly what I wanted to see. I started winding my 6XD through the school and caught two short fish on my first two casts. I knew it was about to get dirty but after 15 minutes, I never caught another bass, just a few white bass. I packed it up and headed further north to my next school which, of course, had a boat sitting dead on it. I ran into the creek where my spinnerbait banks were and the first two I came to had boats on them. I was getting a little concerned about having a place to fish but luckily had scouted out several banks that had the right ingredients in practice and one of them was open. I dropped the trolling motor and started down the bank with a spinnerbait. I immediately notice shad swimming with my spinnerbait which was a very important part of my pattern. I was catching a fish every few casts and when I reached the end of the good stretch, I’d added two small keepers and a 4lber to my creel. The bank across from me had big ones on it in practice but there was a boat working it back and forth. I finally headed that way and just fell in behind him. I eased down the bank and caught a 3lber right behind the other boat which gave me a limit but that’s the only keeper I caught there. I headed to another stretch and caught a very small keeper and some short fish off of it. I ran back towards the mouth of the creek and my other two banks were then void of other fishermen so I pulled in and started fishing. The shad were still courting my spinnerbait and the wind was picking up which were good signs and I pretty quickly popped a 2.5lber. I cut across to the other side of the pocket to where I’d caught a 6lber in practice but there were no shad and I never had a sniff off of that stretch. I ran back across to make one more pass down the other side and caught a 15.5”er that culled a 15”er on my first pass. I turned and fished my way back out the same bank and I told my co angler I was going to make one more cast and I caught a 4lber on that cast. I obviously had to make a few more casts after that but they were unproductive. I noticed the fish I caught early were just loading up on my spinnerbait but those last two hit it like a freight train so that made me think they were getting more active and I should run back through all of my stuff. Unfortunately, everything I’d fished and wanted to fish had boats all over it so I decided to head back south, check my schools and eventually finish out the day flipping. All three of my schools had boats on them so I just kept my Mercury wound out and headed south of Dover to a slough. I had about 15lbs and it was 12:00 which gave me a little more than two hours to work the area over and get a couple of big bites. I slowly flipped my way to the back of the slough picking apart every piece of cover. I caught eight keepers during that time but only one helped my cause and it was just a 3lber. I weighed in 16lbs 8oz and finished in 5th place.

After a phenomenal practice, I really felt like a had a good shot at winning this tournament but I had told myself if I didn't at least make the top 5 then something bad was wrong. The funny thing is, as good as Barkley was fishing for me and a lot of other people I talked to, I thought Id need at least 20lbs to make that top 5. Even though I achieved one of my goals I was still disappointed with the fishing overall. It only took 19lbs to win and I thought it was going to take that to make the top 10. I talked to the guys that were sitting on the schools I'd found and one of them had 14lbs and the other only had three keepers. Any one of those schools wouldve produced at least 18lbs earlier in the week in just a few minutes. I'm not sure why the bite got so tough, probably a combination of the pressure all of the good places were getting and the lack of water movement didnt help the deep bite at all. When the day is done a top 5 is a top 5 but I was really pumped up thinking this was going to be one of those slugfest's where everybody catches them good but that wasn't the case at all. A positive note was that my game plan worked to perfection other than the fact that I didn't get to hit my deep stuff and my 4 to 6lbers turned into 2 to 4lbers. Barkley is still a nice change from massive KY Lake and I'm looking forward to fishing a BWS over there next weekend.

MUSIC CITY BFL BARKLEY PRACTICE

This one is launching out of Dover which is unusual but it makes my decision to stay on Barkley a little easier. I figured out last weekend I need to find more places because the water is so low my old areas just don't have enough cover in the water to last an eight hour tournament especially if I have to share them.

I launched at Dover on Wednesday and headed to the back of a creek. I started fishing a rip rap bank and noticed a few shad following my bait in. That let me know the shad spawn was still going on and even though it was too late that day to be a factor, I needed to look for a shad spawn pattern the next morning. I ran around looking at different creeks and looking for banks with good cover, I fished some and caught several 3lbers along the way. I decided to run north and look at some stuff up there and on the way I stopped and side imaged a creek mouth. As soon as I hit the 16ft zone I started seeing bass! It was a giant school so I shut down and fired a 6XD out behind the boat and caught a 4.5lber on my first cast. I wanted to see if they were all good ones so I made another cast and caught a 2.5lber. I caught several more decent keepers and then another 4lber so I left. That had me pumped up and I totally forgot about flipping and spent the rest of the day scanning for schools. I only found two more schools the rest of the day but I caught a 4lber or two out of both of them. I ended the day with about 21lbs.

I got on the water at daylight Thursday morning and started covering water looking for shad spawn activity without much luck. Finally, at 9:00, I found the shad spawn but it was dying off. I caught a bunch of small fish but a lone 3lber was the only decent one I caught. I wasn’t sure if I was too late or there just weren’t any big ones on that particular bank so I just moved on. I headed north to scan some more river ledge stuff and only found one small school of small fish. I did scan the schools I found on Wednesday and they were all still intact but I didn’t bother them. I headed into a creek and started fishing a bank leading into a pocket. I caught a small keeper on a spinnerbait and then caught a 4.5lber a few casts later. The bank didn’t look like much where I caught the fish but further down looked awesome. I thought I was going to hit the mother lode but once I got to the good looking stretch, I never had a bite. I fished around the pocket and out the other side and when I got to the deepest part of the bank, I caught a 6lber. I ran around looking for similar banks and was able to catch another 4lber and a 5.5lber on the same type banks. I ended the day with 23lbs on my best five fish. That gave me a spinnerbait pattern, a flipping pattern and three deep schools plus the option of fishing the shad spawn early in the morning. I knew I had more stuff to fish than I could fish in a day so I spent today prepping tackle.

LBL BFL #2 TOURNAMENT BARKLEY LAKE

Saturday morning I headed south out of Kuttawa harbor to my first stop 30 miles away. Upon my arrival I noticed one of my friends and competitor’s, Mike McDonald, was already in the area. He wasn’t on the bank I wanted to fish but he was working his way towards it. I idled to the bank but didn’t start as far down as I would’ve liked so I wouldn’t crowd Mike. I started picking every piece of cover apart with a Rodent. I fished for a few minutes and hadn’t drawn a strike when I noticed small bass flashing just below the surface. I knew then that the shad were spawning and I needed to switch to a reaction bait. I grabbed a KVD 1.5 and caught four short fish on my next four casts off of one piece of wood. Once I thought I’d cleaned that piece out I moved on to the next one and my co angler threw a spinnerbait on the same piece of wood and caught a 3.5lber! I immediately picked up a black and blue Pure Poison and quickly caught a 3lber. Just as I thought it was about to get good, another one of my competitor’s rolled into the creek and started fishing about 25 yards ahead of me. By that time, Mike had made his way to the bank I was on and that made three of us about 25 yards apart on a 100 yard stretch of bank. We were all three catching fish but the rest of mine were short but the guy that cut in front of me was steadily catching keepers. I finished out the stretch slowly following the other boat but never caught anymore keepers. I had another stretch in the same creek I wanted to fish so at 9:30 I headed that way. When I got within sight of the pocket, I saw Mike working his way down the stretch I wanted to fish. Not wanting to move in on him for the second time, I decided to totally change gears. I headed to the river and made another 30 mile run south of Dover. I knew if I ran that far I may have some company but it wouldn’t be anyone I was fishing against. I pulled into a slough and started flipping any piece of wood I could find with a black and blue Rodent. My co caught two short fish right off the bat on a spinnerbait and then it seemed like we went forever without a bite. It was 11am, I was 65 miles away from the ramp and was starting to think what a bad decision I’d made staying on Barkley. I finally caught a short fish off of a piece of wood and then things started picking up. The next piece I flipped on, my line swam off, I set the hook and drug a 4.5lber over the first of several limbs on the tree. I got her to the next limb and she got hung up and came unbuttoned. In the next 15 minutes I caught several short fish, a bowfin, a 3.5 and a 4lb largemouth but then went on another 45 minute dry spell. I fished about a half mile back into the slough and was running out of targets in enough water to house a fish. Just as I was getting to the last few pieces of good cover, I felt a thump! I set the hook, called for the net and a 5lber rolled to the surface! That gave me four fish and all I could think about was the 4.5lber I’d lost and how I wasn’t going to have time to catch a limit. I needed to head back at 1:30 and I had one more slough I wanted to hit. It was 12:45 and just as I was about to pack it up and head to my other stretch, I popped a little 16”er which gave me a limit that I was proud to have. I left there and hit my other slough along with a few quick stops on the way back to weigh-in but only caught one small keeper and some short fish the rest of the day. I weighed in 17lbs even and finished in 8th place.

I love fishing Barkley and should probably make the run over there more than I do. I’ve managed top 10’s in the past several tournaments I’ve fished on Barkley but though I’ve had the fish hooked to have a couple of giant stringers there I’ve never actually caught a really big stringer over there which makes me think I can’t win unless I go to KY Lake. It only took 21lbs to win and if I could’ve landed that fish I lost I would’ve been flirting with a 20lb bag. It was a grind to catch what I caught and a little stressful but I was very pleased to make the top 10. That good finish moved me up to 13th from 48th in the points and hopefully the next three tournaments won’t be as tough as these first two were and I can stay in the top 40.

LBL BFL #2 BARKLEY PRACTICE

This is my second LBL division FLW BFL of the season and I really need to do well. The regional will be on Pickwick Lake and only the top 40 in points will be invited. I’ve kind of taken making the top 40 for granted before both because I’ve never been able to attend a regional due to other obligations and because making the top 40 has never been an issue as long as I fished all five events. With my less than stellar 48th place finish in March and my history of poor finishes in April, I was a little concerned about my point’s situation.

As I've mentioned, I havn't fished but a couple days since my last March tournament and the only thing I had to go on was what a couple of friends had told me. My buddy Zack Parker had been on KY Lake and found a school of ledge fish. Though it was strange to me that they were out there so early, it still had me chomping to go out and search for more off shore schools. My Triton had been sitting for three weeks and when I got to the water on Wednesday morning I had no power to my engine or any of my electronics. After a couple hours of digging around checking all of my wiring, I decided to take it to Odom’s Blue and Gray Marine. They checked my voltage on my Odyssey battery and it was as dead as a hammer. I was surprised because those Odyssey’s are by far the best batteries I’ve ever used and I run three graphs and leave my pumps on manual all day and have never had any loss of power. That’s when they informed me that I’d left my power on for three weeks and that had been slowly draining my battery. I took it home, plugged in my onboard charger and added an additional portable charger to give it a little boost.

Meanwhile, Zack was on his way to Paris because he had a small issue with his boat that he was going to have Blue and Gray look at Thursday morning and then he was going to start practicing for the BFL. He arrived a couple hours before dark and asked me to go out with him and check the school he’d found. We idled over the school and they were stacked in 16ft of water. He asked me if I wanted to catch some of them and I told him they were his fish so it was up to him. Well, we Sexy spooned and 6XD’d up about 30 of them in the next 15 minutes that would’ve weighed about 18lbs! I asked him why we caught so many two days before a tournament and he assured me there were plenty down there and that we weren’t going to put a dent in ‘em. After we exhausted his school, he turned the boat over to me and I scanned a few of my best river ledges. Everything was void of life but we went ahead and fished one of them for the heck of it. There wasn’t a school there but in a 20 yard stretch of ledge we caught a couple of 2.5lbers and a 4lber which was surprising as they usually don’t show up on this particular spot until July.

By Friday morning my battery was juiced up and as good as new and I headed to Paris Landing. I scanned ledges for a couple of hours and wasn’t finding anything. I finally fished some of the ledges and was able to catch a couple of 2.5lbers off of most of them but never found any groups of fish. At 10am Zack called me and said the small issue with his boat was more serious than he thought and he wasn’t going to be able to fish the BFL. He told me if I’d let him practice with me then I could fish his school during the BFL if I needed them so I picked him up and we headed back out. I had a bad feeling about the school he’d found because he’d caught them there twice but each time it was late in the day. We scanned the area at 10:30a.m. and they were nowhere to be found. We still fished the area just to see if there were any stragglers but never had a bite. We side imaged and fished everything I could think of and though we caught a couple of fish off of a lot of places, none of them were over 3lbs and none of them were schooled up. On our way back to the ramp around 6:30 we decided to verify if his school was indeed an “evening” school. I made two passes with my Humminbird and like clockwork there was a stack of them. Since we hadn’t located any other schools I’d already made up my mind to fish Barkley during the tournament so we did the only thing we could do and that was pull out a spoon and a 6XD and catch as many as we could!

 I didn’t practice on Barkley because I fish the same areas every time I fish over there. I knew I was going to flip and throw a Strike King Pure Poison no matter what and with the water three feet below pool, I knew where and what the fish should be set up on. I spent Friday getting my KY tackle out of my boat and replacing it with Rodents, Pure Poison’s, spinnerbaits and KVD square billed crankbaits.

Jet-A-Marine Tournament

Well, instead of running 75 miles on KY Lake, I took my Triton/Mercury on a 65 mile excursion south on Lake Barkley!  I have never fished Barkley with the water this low and even though I knew there wouldn't be a lot of cover in the water, I was still shocked to see there was NO cover in the water!  I have a few little sloughs that have big laydowns on the banks and I thought at least some of the limbs would have some water on them but I was mistaken. Once I ran around in Dover for an hour or so and couldn't find anything to fish, we headed back north towards the KY state line and managed to catch a couple of keepers on some deep creek banks but they weren't much to talk about.  At about 1pm I was scratching my head and Jeremy suggested we fish some river stuff.  Seemed like a good idea to me unfortunately I've never fished river stuff on Barkley and didn't really know where to begin.  We ran down the river and pulled up on a ledge at the mouth of a creek because it looked like as good a place as any to make some casts.  I fired a 3/4oz. Redeye Shad out and when I reeled it in it had not one, but TWO 3lb largmouth attached to it! It was apparent we'd picked a pretty good place and I proceeded to catch a 3lber on my next several casts.  Jeremy being the great guy he is, sit in the floor of my Triton and culled fish until the flurry had ended and by the time he got to fish, the school was exhausted!  I felt bad about it but I guess that's part of buddy tournaments.  We spent the rest of the day fishing similar stuff but never upgraded.  We weighed in 14lbs 13oz and finished 47th out of 300 plus boats and earned a very small check.  It was a fun day fishing with a good friend and when it was all said and done I was glad I signed up for it.  Congrats to my buddies Troy and Todd Hollowell on winning the tournament with 23lbs.

Jet-A-Marine Tournament Practice

I decided to try and stay off of the water for a few weeks and hopefully snap out of this funk i'm in and be greeted by big 'ol hungry largemouth when I return before my next BFL tournament April 21st.  I've been pretty successful in my efforts not to fish but my buddy Jeremy Estes, owner of Strike Force fish attractant, called me needing a partner for the Jet-A-Marine tournament.  I tried to decline but he was dead set on fishing it and his original partner was having boat trouble.  Jeremy's a good guy and produces the finest fish attractant I've ever smelled and it has put some extra money in my pocket on numerous occasions, so I finally gave in.  I had no clue what the fish were doing other than a report that some big stringers had been caught in New Johnsonville on topwater so Jeremy and I headed to Jville on Friday to see if we could figure something out.  We fished all of the old stuff I used to catch 'em on and didn't have any luck.  We did get on a mess of fish with the new Strike King Sexy Dawg, but none were over 3lbs. I've never seen fish go after a topwater like they did that Sexy Dawg!  If that thing was long enough to house six sets of treble hooks, I think we could've caught six at a time on it, it was crazy!  We went and looked for some spawning fish but never saw anything on the banks. We did catch several 2 to 3lbers and Jeremy popped a 5.5lber just casting around spawing areas with Rodents.  We had around 16lbs on the day and decided that wasn't worth making the 75 mile run so we decided to just go fish Barkley for the heck of it on tournament day.