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!