Sunday, September 22, 2013

LBL BFL #5 Day 2 Sept. 22, 2013

I had to make a tough decision this morning. I left the biggest school I've ever seen biting on day yesterday and regretted not spending more time there. The bad thing was there were some pirates waiting outside the marina to follow me and see where I was fishing and that place was too special to give away, even for14 grand. I decided to do the same thing I did yesterday and start on my back up place. We started strong and my co angler caught a 5lber about 10 minutes into the day. A few casts later one blew mine up and about a 5lb smallmouth erupted from the water! I fought her all the way to the boat and she came unbuttoned! I shook it off, fired another cast out and caught a 15" keeper and that was all she wrote for my back up place. I ran and fished where I won the BWS and another place where I caught some big ones in practice and nothing! I headed back to where I started and made two passes without a bite and then I started to panic a little. Once again I was faced with the question to gamble it all on the mother lode and just hope they'd cooperate or try to scrounge out a limit before I went to them. I had a school close by that I guide on all the time but they were by far the worst school I have and I've never caught a fish much over 2.5lbs out of them. I realized I had such a big lead over 3rd place that a limit of 2lbers would at least secure me 2nd place. I decided to stop on them on my way to the mother lode. I scanned over them and they were loaded! I started catching 14" fish on every cast and I was beginning to think it just wasn't meant to be and then I popped a solid keeper. My next cast I caught a 3lber which was a giant for this school. My very next cast my bait never made it to the bottom when a 5lber smoked it. I knew I still had work to do, but when you start catching 5lbers off of places they don't live you get a pretty good feeling that its your time to win. I stopped on one more school on my way to the giants and caught two more 3 to 3.5lbers which gave me about 18lbs and a few hours to work my giants over real good. I pulled up and started down the bar and nothing ever happened. I left at 2:00 on the nose without a bite. Everything I caught today came out of 18ft of water. I weighed in 18lbs 4oz and ended up winning the by over 10lbs. We also had a enough boats for the full Triton Gold Bonus of $7000 plus $1500 from Mercury/MotorGuide, $250 from Toyota Bonus Bucks and $150 from Boat U.S. Weigh to Win. After bonuses I took home over $14000! Not bad for a couple days of fishing!

SUMMARY: Its been a couple years since I was as dialed in to what the big fish were doing as I was over the past few weeks. By the end of my BFL practice I could almost call my shot. This BFL win is really special to me because I'd only won one BFL tournament before this back in 2009. I've been very close to winning several since then but always come up a little short. I honestly don't think I could've caught the weights I caught in these two tournaments without a few very important pieces of equipment. Everything played a roll, my Triton/Mercury had to get me there and back in some brutal conditions and my Sexy Dawg had to do its thing, but without my Power Poles to hold me right on the juice in that rough water, it would've been very tough to have fished as efficiently as I did. Another very important component was my 7' All Pro medium heavy cranking rod. I've been using the All Pro Blaster big crank bait rods for several years because I believe its the best big crankbait rod on the market. I recently started using All Pro Rods exclusively and it couldn't have come at a better time. This rod isn't specifically designed for top water fishing but its the perfect rod for big walking baits! I walked that Sexy Dawg about 10000 miles the past few weeks and I never once had to lay it down due to fatigue. If you throw a lot of walking baits you know it can be grueling to stay with it all day and this rod takes a lot of the work out of it because it has the perfect action. Teamed up with an Abu Garcia Revo STX reel and 60lb Seaguar Kanzen braid, I can throw it a mile and I've caught giants from the end of my cast to right by the boat and only lost two fish out of probably 100 that I've hooked. If you like walking that Sexy Dawg you better give this rod a try, it'll make your job a lot easier.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

LBL BFL #5 Day 1 Sept. 21, 2013

Well, the weather let me let me down! After a night of torrential down pours we were greeted with a nice 20mph North wind as we launched from KY Dam Marina this morning. Most people would think I'm crazy to pass by the best school I've ever seen but those fish were not going to get found and it was late in the day when I found them so I wanted to be there about that same time today. I decided to start on the giant school of 3 to 4lbers and luckily they were somewhat protected from the wind behind rip rap. The action started immediately when one blew my bait out of the water on my first cast. I caught a 3lber on my next cast and a 3.5lber on my third cast. I was pretty sure I was about to have a pretty good sack to start the day in the first few minutes and for whatever reason a school of 13" fish moved in and took the place over. I spent over an hour there and never caught another keeper. I left and headed to the place I'd caught them in the BWS and it had 4 footers rolling over the top of it and I knew then I had a decision to make. I knew that most of my top water holes were going to be blown out and it was so rough I couldn't run a lot of different places. I had my giant school of giants on the back burner but the catch was, if I got to them and they didn't wanna play, I didn't have anything to fall back on. I really wanted a limit before I went to them because I had to make it to tommorrow. I decided to give the deep fish an hour and then head to the promise land. My first deep stop produced a 2.5lber and I lost another keeper and that was it. My next stop produced nothing but 14"ers and my third stop was covered up with boats. At 11:00am I told myself that I'd planned on living and dying with the Sexy Dawg and thats what I was going to do so I headed north to the mother lode! As I made my way back north I glanced over at where I'd started the day and there wasn't a boat in sight. It was 11:15 and I still felt like that place had 20lb potential. I decided to make a quick pass through the sweet stretch before I totally committed myself to my giant school of giants. It seemed like the right move when I pulled in and caught a 3.5lber on my third cast which finally gave me a limit and took a little pressure off. I worked my way down the bar and picked up another 3lber. It was 11:45 and I knew I had to leave at noon. Just before I pulled the plug I saw a shad blow out of the water and I caught another 3lb class fish. That gave me somewhere around 16lbs and an hour and half to see what I'd been missing on my giant school of giants. I pulled up to the bar at 12:15 and started 25 yards shy of my waypoint. I was extremely lucky this place was tucked in behind an island because the wind was roaring. I was a little nervous about what was about to go down, would they still be there, would they be giants, would I be able to land them, did I have time to get back, everything you can imagine was running through my head and then BOOM! A monster blew it out of the water right by the boat! I looked down and there were about twenty 5 to 7lbers swarming around my Triton like sharks! I made a short pitch to them and a 5.5lber choked it! I fired out another cast and the school followed my bait in. I sat there working my bait in place and a 6.25lber slurped it up! The school must have scattered after that because I went awhile without bite but with about 20 minutes to go I made a long cast and all I could see were big green sides slashing at my bait and a 6.5lber smoked it. I really thought I was about to easily break 30lbs but when I finally had to head back, I hadn't caught another fish. I weighed in 25lbs 5oz and have a little over a 3lb lead heading into tomorrow. The wind is supposed to laydown overnight so maybe I can fish a few more places and bust 30 tomorrow!

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

LBL BFL #5 Practice

Monday I tried a few of the jig places I'd fished in the BWS and it wasnt happening.  My deep fish were still cooperating but 17lbs was about as good as I could do out there on a good day and while I never went to my best Sexy Dawg spot, I did spend some time throwing it on my guide trips last week and caught several keepers up to 3lbs. I really spent some time thinking about how my best top water place was set up and decided to spend most of my practice looking for similar places. After really studying my top water area from the BWS I had thought of about 20 places that might fit the pattern.  The first one I hit was a slow go but before I left I caught a 5lber.  I paid close attention to where that fish was sitting and tried to look for the same type deal on my next few stops.  My next few places were unproductive but the fifth one was the one!  It had all of the ingredients, shallow water close to deep, stumps and most importantly, GIANT SHAD!  I covered a good portion of the bar without a bite and all of a sudden one knocked my bait 2 feet in the air.  I kept the bait moving and another took a swipe at it. Just before it got to the boat a 4.5lber grabbed it and it had about ten big ones swimming with it!  I dropped a waypoint and trolled up the bar a little ways, made a few casts and an 8lber engulfed my Sexy Dawg!  I was pretty bent out of shape and probably should've left but I made a few more casts and covered a little more ground and when I finished my best 5 would've weighed between 32 and 34lbs!  I spend a lot of time on KY Lake and a lot of other great lakes and this is by far the most impressive school of fish I've ever seen!  I went out the next day and ran the pattern again and found six more places holding big ones and one school that had a ton 3 to 4lbers.  It's three more days until tournament day and I'm going crazy waiting for it to get here. I think if the wind doesn't blow too hard I can smoke 'em this weekend!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

KY BWS #5 Day 2 Sept. 8, 2013

Tom had me a little nervous this morning being that close to me. This is his time of year and the big ones were in shallow water which is his specialty. I ran straight to where I caught my Sexy Dawg fish on yesterday and started well shy of my waypoint. I had no idea if these fish would bite that early in the morning but just as I went to pull my bait out of the water a 5lber almost took my rod out of my hand. The fish was so close to the boat I couldn't get any line out and she pulled off.  Normally losing a 5lber on my first cast would hurt but I turned to my co angler and said we're about to crush 'em! I made my way down the stretch and heard an explosion behind the boat. I looked back and my co had a giant on and it immediately went airborne and threw his bait. I fired a cast out in the same area and caught 4.5lber. A few casts later I caught another 4.5lber, then a 4.25lber. I was piecing together a pretty good stringer but I still had Tom in the back of my mind and I knew if I was catching 'em then so was he. I worked along the stretch and just as I was ready to swing around for another pass, a 6.5lber smoked my Sexy Dawg! That gave me four fish that weighed over 19lbs in the first hour of the morning! I made a few more passes without a bite and that's when I started thinking about that big one I'd lost. I was afraid I'd missed a huge opportunity. I had to get number 5 in the boat so I could relax and run my big fish pattern the rest of the day so I ran to the closest school I had and popped a 3lber in about 10 minutes. I headed back to the shallow water and finished up the day and only caught one more fish but it was a 4.5lber. I weighed in 22.95lbs today for a two day total of 50.85lbs and ended up winning the tournament by 11lbs!

Saturday, September 7, 2013

KY BWS # 5 Day 1 Sept. 7, 2013



I headed south out of Moors Resort and straight to my most northern school in the Blood River area. I looked at it with my Lowrance and didnt see any bass but there was a ton of activity in the water column so I made a few casts. I never catch them when its like that but there had been some good fish in the school and I had to try it. 15 minutes passed without a bite and I headed south. My next stop was south of Paris and when I pulled up there was a boat sitting right on the goods. I fished around for about 30 minutes hoping he would leave but he never did. I headed further south and things started to pick up. I scanned one of my favorite schools and only saw a few fish but the quality had been good there so I went to work on them. It took me a little while to get the right line up but once I did I had 14lbs in the boat in 10 minutes. I spent another thirty minutes trying different baits and angles but never could upgrade so I headed further south. My next school was small also but they too have had some 4lbers in them so I spent about an hour on this particular school. I caught them on everything from a 6XD to a Rage tail Recon worm but when they finally exhausted, Id only culled once. I was up to about 15lbs and seriously thought about heading shallow but I had one more school close by and gave them a look. I caught a couple real quick on Shadalicious swim bait but they didnt help. I saw a few on the bottom right under the boat and lowered my drop shot down and caught a 3.5lber on my first drop. That gave me around 16lbs and I headed to the shallows. As I ran down the lake trying to decide where to start I ran right past my Sexy Dawg hole and almost forgot about it. I turned around and idled out into the middle of the flat. As I neared my waypoint, I told my co angler “were in the danger zone!” My bait hit the water and two twitches later there was an explosion around my bait and the tip of my rod almost touched my knuckles! I wrestled a 5lber into the net and culled a 3lber. I was pumped because I knew that was going to be huge in a low weight tournament. I told my co that we probably wouldnt get another bite but I dropped my Power Poles and worked the area over. I fan cast around for a few more minutes and just before I got ready to leave….KABOOM! A 7lber did horrible things to my top water plug! I wasnt sure what my weight was after that but I knew I had over 20 and was feeling confident Id have the lead after day 1. I fished around the area for awhile with no action so I made my way back north throwing a jig on the best stump places I know. As I fished my way back I thought how awesome it would be to get three more giant bites and get rid of ALL of those little 3lbers for a change. At 12:30 we hadnt had a bite in a couple of hours and I rolled in on a place south of the 68/80 bridge. Ive caught big fish there this time of year but never multiples. I worked around the bar with the jig making sure I hit every piece of wood. I felt my jig fall over a stump and a light tick; I set the hook and a 5lber shot out of the water! Thats when it hit me that I was absolutely, no doubt doing the right thing to catch the big ones and I was determined to get 2 more! I made a few casts and hit another stump and felt another tick and caught another 5lber. I made a few more casts, felt another tick and caught a 6lber. With an hour of fishing time left I knew I had in the high 20s and one of those big girls was looking weak so I decided to weigh in early. I weighed in 27.90lbs and I had a pretty big lead for most of the weigh in. Id decided if I had at least a 10lb lead I would strictly fish deep tomorrow, catch about 15lbs and have enough to win and save those big fish for a rainy day. Thats when my buddy Tom OBryant dropped 25lbs on the scales and put the pressure on me for day two! Im swinging for the fence in the morning and catching as much weight as I can catch!


 

Friday, September 6, 2013

KY BWS #4 Practice



Id been guiding on my deep schools a few days a week so I knew all of the best baits and angles for each school. I also knew that it would be tough to catch much more than 15lbs fishing out deep. All of the reports Id heard were that fishing was super tough and some predicted 15lbs a day would win. I felt like if I could catch a 5lber each day to go along with the 3lbers I could catch out deep, Id have a good shot at the win. I spent both practice days trying to figure out how to catch a big fish. The best ways I knew to catch big fish in late summer was to fish isolated stumps and brush in the 4-8ft range with a jig or fish the grass with top water. The first day I headed to the grass determined to throw a Sexy Dawg all day and never lay it down. The hydrilla was dying off and what few patches Id had some success in had disappeared but I stuck with my plan and covered a ton of water. I caught a few fish throughout the day as I worked my way back towards Paris Landing but none were over 2.5lbs. By the time I made it back to the Danville area, I knew the grass wasnt going to cut it. I spent the rest of the day scanning a few schools just to make sure they were still around and hit all of the isolated stumps and brush I knew with a jig. My schools were sitting right where Id left them but I never got a bite off of the stump pattern. This same time last year I caught a lot of fish around the Spiny Naiad and they stayed put as long as there was a little grass left. As I fished on into the fall last year, the Naiad disappeared but I kept beating the areas to death because there had been so many fish around. One day I was fishing one of my best stretches and I saw a huge gizzard shad fly out of the water. I trolled out into the flat and immediately started catching 3lbers on the Sexy Dawg. At the time, I thought it was luck that I happened to be right there when the bass chased the shad through the area, but as the fall progressed I continued to catch fish off of this place and they were always within a few yards of my waypoint. The grass never grew in that area this year but as I ran by it during practice I thought Id twitch my Sexy Dawg around on top of the flat where I caught them last fall. I started shy of my waypoint and as soon as I got within range a 5lber crushed it! I was pretty pumped up because I knew 5lbers were going to be gold in this derby and last year when they were on this stretch they were loaded! Unfortunately I fished around for awhile and never had another bite but I still felt good about possibly getting at least one good one there if I fished it both days of the tournament.


Day two of practice I did more of the same on the north end of the lake. I made sure my schools were still around and fished shallow water for big bites most of the day. Once again, it was a pretty slow day for the most part other than confirming my deep fish were still around. On the way back to the ramp, I ran by a shallow bar I havent fished in a while and wheeled in to make a few casts with the jig. I hit the biggest stump on the bar and a 6.5lber choked it. That was all I needed to see. I packed it up and headed to the meeting with plans of spending day 1 out deep until I caught around 15lbs and then jig and top water for a big fish.