Well, 2013 is here and tournament season is right around the corner. I'm ready to get started and will discuss my 2013 plans a little later, but for now, I have to talk about December! After I returned from my disastrous trip to Sam Rayburn, I spent a couple weeks getting my 2012 Triton/Mercury cleaned up to sell and getting my 2013 rig ready for action. Around the first of December the gentleman came to buy my boat and wanted to take it for a test run so I told him to bring an umbrella rig and we could catch a few after he drove the boat. I only fished KY Lake a few days last winter but it was ridiculously easy to catch bass on a rig just fishing down the shoreline. I assumed this year would be no different but after fishing four stretches that were prime in 2011, we hadn't caught a fish. I idled around a point searching for a school and was explaining to him what I was looking for and just before I pulled the plug on the operation I spotted a few fish suspended right off of a main lake bluff wall. The water was 32ft deep a half a cast away from the bluff and the fish were sitting in about 16ft of water. Had I not been talking to this gentleman I would've already turned around and would have never seen this group of fish. We fished for a few minutes and each caught a 4lb largemouth but we had to call it a day to go finish up his paperwork at Odoms Blue and Gray Marine. I didn't know it at the time, but I had just tapped into what was going to be some of the most phenomenal bass fishing I've ever experienced on KY Lake. Once I got my old ride sold, I was chomping to get my 2013 21 HP on the water! I had a few guide trips I had to cancel over the course of the year and I'd told them if the weather held up we would make them up this winter. I called the three gentlemen and told them I had some openings, decent weather was in the forecast and I thought we could catch a few. I figured if nothing else I could get my new Mercury broken in. Luckily, they were all available and we booked the dates. The first day I took a loyal client and friend from Indiana named Mike. I started right where I'd left off the week before and it didn't disappoint! I couldn't seem to coax one into biting but Mike caught two 3lbers, a 4.5lber, a 5lber and a 7lber on our first stop. Though I never caught a fish I was learning from the experience and immediately started thinking of similar places that might fit the pattern. We didn't just crush 'em that day but in six hours we ended up finding a few more schools and had about 24lbs on our best 5 with a 10lb striper in the mix! My highlight of the day was catching two over 4lbs on one cast with my Strike King Titanium umbrella rig! I had a few days before my next trip and I knew there were a lot more schools with a lot bigger fish in them that I needed to find before I took another paying customer. I called my buddy Zach Parker and we hit the lake for about four hours the next day. We looked for all new water and though we only found three new schools, I popped an 8lb 2oz largemouth out of one of them plus Zach had three smallmouths in the 4lb range. We ended that day with about 25 bass and around 24lbs on our best 5. Two days later I had another client roll into town and we spent the first half of the day fishing the stuff I'd already found. At noon, we'd caught 23 bass but none were over 4.5lbs, although we had caught a couple limits of 4lb class fish. We took a lunch break and spent the second half of the day looking for new schools and it was the right decision! We found three new schools and caught over 40 keepers out of them with our best 5 weighing over 27lbs! We had 15 smallmouths in the mix and two of them were over 5lbs. The biggest of the day was a 7lb largemouth I caught while he was fighting a 5lb smallmouth. Great day of fishing and my client told me it was the best day of fishing he'd ever experienced which is the best thing a guide can ever hear! I had a few days off before my next trip and I knew I had enough fish located to get me through one more trip so I was just going to lay low until Sunday when my trip was scheduled. Thats when Zach called me and told me there was a small tournament coming out of New Johnsonville that weekend. I told him we'd watch the weather and if it was going to be nice wed fish it because I knew there wouldnt be many boats and I wasnt willing to fight the elements all day for a small tournament. As Saturday drew near, wouldn't you know it, the front started heading our way and the 25mph winds were forecasted for tournament day. I finally talked Zach into bailing on the tournament but he came over to hang out Friday night anyway. As we sit there rigging Swimmin Caffeine Shads up for our next outing, he kept working on me about fishing the tournament. Finally, at around 10pm, I gave in! We started rushing around getting our gear ready and after a few hours sleep we headed to Jville. Most of the fish wed found were in KY water and the few schools I'd found in TN were still 35 miles from take off. We obviously HAD to make the run and after an 8:00 blast off time and a 35 mile run in 3 and 4 foot swells, we finally made our first cast at 9:00. It was quite a chore fishing the main lake in that kind of wind and it was pretty hectic for the first hour but at 10:10 exactly, I weighed our 5 best on my boga grip and they weighed over 27lbs. Im not sure how many we caught but we basically caught fish for a solid hour unless we stopped to cull and we'd blow 100 yards down the bank and I'd have to idle us back to the school. We decided to change scenery after that and when I got us lined up on our next spot we both bowed up on good ones! Zach had his close to the boat so I let mine swim while I netted his. His was 5lbs on the nose but wouldn't cull! I had given mine too much slack and when I caught up to it she was headed to the surface! I saw a glimpse of her and then she was gone, but all I can say is she was full grown! Our next couple casts we were getting slammed by fish but they weren't hooking up. I finally popped another 5lber that wouldn't cull and then it was over! They completely vanished! There was an absolute pile of fish there because we could actually feel our baits swimming through them but we definitely did something they didn't like! I had one more place I really wanted to hit so we made our way there and we actually caught a limit of 4lbers off of it but at that point they weren't doing us any good. We pulled the plug on the 4lbers and ran back to the place where we'd screwed the school up. We beat on those for about twenty minutes but never had a bite so we made our way back to where we started the day. After ten minutes without a bite we were beginning to think the fish had just totally shut down for the day but then Zach bowed up on another 5lber! We got it into the boat but once again it was just a tad lighter than our smallest fish which was almost 5.25lbs. I got us back in position and I loaded up on a stud! I eased her up to the side of the boat and Zach dipped her up. It was another 7lber! It was noon, we had around 30lbs in the boat and we had a long run in rough water so we decided rather than pushing it to the limit and beating those fish up on the way back in that rough water, we'd just head back south. We fished around a little in the New Johnsonville area until weigh in but never had another bite. Our best 5 weighed 30.63lbs and our two biggest were 7.13 and 7.19lbs! It was a very fun day of fishing and I'd like to thank Zach again for talking me into going. I knew that was going to be hard to follow up on my guide trip the next day but I still had several places we didn't even touch during the tournament so I had a feeling we still had a shot at a good bag of fish. We only fished 3 hours on Sunday and had around 25lbs on our best 5 with the biggest being a 6.25lber. Not a bad day but at the same time it was going to take a lot to excite me after the day Zach and I just had. I only fished one more day after that and it was just for a couple hours when I went out with Zach to break his new Mercury in and hunt for a few new schools. We caught several 4 to 4.5lbers but we just werent seeing the size and numbers we'd been seeing. I'd called it a day and was sitting down playing on my phone when Zach decided to check one last place. His first cast on that last place resulted in a 3lber and an 8lber on one cast! After we weighed and photographed his 8lber, I decided that was worth getting up for so I chunked my rig out beside his. We both bowed up and when the dust settled I had a 3lber and he had an 8.25lber! Thats the first time I've ever seen back to back 8's on KY Lake! It was awesome. Unfortunately he got hung up on his next cast and it scattered the school but those two giants gave us over 27lbs for the day! It was a difficult decision, but I headed home the next day to spend a few weeks with my family for the Holidays. I've thought about those big 'ol fish every day since I left and thought it may help get it out of my head to write about it! Strike King has hit a homerun with this new umbrella rig they have coming out. Its perfect for lakes or states where you can't throw 5 hooks.
2013 TOURNAMENTS: Now that thats out of my system, lets talk about 2013. As far as tournaments go, I'm going on my annual February trip to Guntersville for a couple of BFLs or BWSs and maybe an open or two, plus I already have a few guide trips booked there. I'll head back to KY in March and kick off the LBL BFLs March 2 and then it will be pretty busy from there with BFLs, BWSs and the Everstart in June. Im going to squeeze in a couple of opens again this year and possibly fish a team trail with my good buddy Dr. David Gnewikow. Unfortunately, the BWS and BFL regionals are the same week of October this year and BFL is going to Guntersville which I'm quite fond of so I will probably end up going that route if I'm fortunate enough to qualify. The Midwest Team Challenge is coming back to KY Lake this October so Zach and I are going to be hitting that up again and that about does it for my tournament schedule.
I also picked up a couple of new sponsors for the 2013 season and I'd like to thank them for their support. TH Marine, who makes all the goodies we run on our boats like hotfoot pedals, gauges, alarm systems, G Force trolling motor cables, oxygenators and of course the 10" Atlas Hydraulic jack plate that I can't live without to name a few. I was also fortunate enough to get in with Lowrance Electronics this year who just released their new GEN 2 HDS Touch screens! If you haven't seen these things yet check them out because its going to be the next big thing. The biggest issue myself and others have had with Lowrance in the past is the slow processing speed and the fact they werent very user friendly while navigating through your different screens and menus. From what I've seen so far with the Touch, thats a thing of the past. You can change pages with a tap of the screen and it loads in the blink of an eye. Side imaging is also built in now so no more having to install additional gadgets all over your boat! I am very excited to be running the new HDS Touch 12s in 2013.
