Thursday, October 31, 2013

Strike King Series 1 Weekday Solo Event #2 Oct. 29, 2013

I didnt practice for this one, I just figured I'd fish the same way I fished the rest of October and see what happened. Would you believe I started on the nightmare hole and lost a 5lber in the first ten minutes of the day! Ha, its almost comical at this point. I mixed in some deep and shallow and managed a 5lber on the Sexy Dawg and had a couple of good ones miss it. My deep fish were scattered but I did hit a stretch that produced several 3lbers. It was a pretty tough day overall for me, I think I caught nine keepers on the day but once again, I love fishing during the week so you'll never hear me complain. I weighed in 17.96lbs and finished in 4th place. Congrats to KVT Kevin Tidwell for dropping 22+ on us to take home the win.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Sportsmen's Digest Pro Team Trail Classic

DAY 1: KY Lake was off limits for the week leading up to this one so everybody started even on Friday. My trusty team partner David Gnewikow decided to go on vacation so I had to fend for myself against some of the best teams on the Lake. My plan was to spend day one running through everything I'd been fishing the past month both shallow and deep from Danville to Blood River until I saw enough to dial into what I should focus on for day two. My first stop was what I now call the nightmare hole where Woodside and I had such bad luck in the Carl Perkins. A few twitches into the day a 2.5lber exploded on my Sexy Dawg and had every hook in its face! That was a big relief because that told me, they were eating. 20 minutes later a 5lber did a flip over my bait and never touched it! I hit one more top water spot after that without a bite and decided I couldn't stomach another day of what I'd seen the week before so I pulled out the Shadalicous and headed out deep. My first school produced a small keeper and a 3lber or two and I moved on. My second school only produced three bites but they were a 3.5, a 4 and a 5lber. That gave me the confidence to spend some time looking out deep. Something told me to check some places I catch them in the winter on the umbrella rig and the first one I scanned had a few fish on it. I rigged up a TN legal Titanium rig with Swimmin' Caffeine shads and a big Shadalicious in the middle. I fired it out on the school and caught two on my first cast, one was a small keeper and one was 3lbs and culled. I looked at another place and saw a few on it and I caught 8 or 10 3lbers there. I was culling up by ounces but I felt like I was heading in the right direction. I checked some really deep places, saw a few bass and caught a couple of 4lbers! I eventually made my way all the way north of Blood River and had marked fish on 10 or 12 places that I catch really big ones on in the winter. Time finally ran out and I weighed in 19.76lbs and was in 4th place heading into day two but I really felt like the big ones were heading my way and the front coming through the next day could only help my cause.

PTT CLASSIC OCT. 19th DAY 2: This will be short and sweet! Just when you think your one step ahead of those little green suckers they do what they do best, disappear! After catching over 60 keepers on day one I caught 6, that's right SIX keepers on day two and only three came on the umbrella rig. I didn't have a keeper in the boat until 1:30 and all I could think about was dropping a goose egg on KY Lake! I caught a small keeper on the Sexy Dawg, a small keeper on a worm and a 4lber on a football jig with five minutes left in the day. I weighed in 13.61lbs and finished 9th overall.

SUMMARY: I really liked this format with no practice. It makes it interesting trying to figure it out on the fly and at about 2pm on Friday, I thought I'd unlocked the magic pattern! I can't complain, tournament fishing is a bit like gambling and I went all in on the deep fish and the guys that stayed shallow caught them and caught them good. Congrats to a couple of my favorite people, Billy and Bill Shcroeder who won by almost 5lbs with 45lbs of top water fish!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Carl Perkins Classic Practice and Tournament

While I was grueling it out on Gville, a few guys I had helped out back home were sending me pics of GIANTS they were catching off of some of the places I'd showed them on the Sexy Dawg! I was ready to get back on KY Lake and get in on some of the action. My partner Kevin Woodside knows his way around New Johnsonville as good as anyone so he spent a couple days on that end of the pond and I spent a couple in the Danville and Paris area. Kevin informed me that the grass bite was not happening and while I wasn't getting many bites on the north end, the ones I got were definitely the right kind! We decided to make the 75 mile run north of Paris from Perryville the first day and see what happened.

DAY 1: After a chilly 75 mile run we pulled in on our first stop and it didn't take long for the action to get under way. In the first 45 minutes we had blow up after blow up on our Sexy Dawgs which was good news. The bad news was after watching 4 to 6lb fish blow our baits out of the water, jump over them, roll behind them, eat them and then pull off for 45 minutes, we had one 4lb smallmouth in the live well when we left. I thought that if we changed areas the fish may cooperate a little better but as soon as we hit the sweet spot on our second stop a 5lber jumped over my bait and never touched it! Kevin finally connected on a couple of keepers but they were just 2.5lbers. To make a long story short, when we got ready to make our voyage back to Perryville, wed' had no less than 25 blow ups and we had three fish in the boat! We pulled out our Shadalicious swimbaits and stopped on a deep school on the way back and caught a couple of 3lbers to fill our limit and then we headed to the ramp. We weighed in a very disappointing 14.61lbs but fortunate for us, the majority of the 167 boat field had struggled and we were still in the hunt going into day two.

DAY 2: After all of the action we'd seen on day one we knew we were around the right fish so we decided to make the long run north again. We started on the same place and I'd like to say they were choking it on day two but after an hour we had 9 blow ups and had another lone 4lb smallmouth in the boat! We made a short run to a stump row that I hadn't fished in awhile and a few casts in a 4lber jumped over my Sexy Dawg. A few casts later I walked it over a stump and a GIANT rolled up under it but didn't take it. At that point I was starting to think we were on an episode of PUNK'D! I'd never seen so many good fish hit a bait with that many hooks and not get hooked. After a couple of dry runs on some stretches we'd gotten bit on the first day we decided to change gears and hit the deep fish a little earlier. I went to a school we didn't have time to hit the first day and they were loaded! We caught 3 to 3.5 lbers cast after cast until we finally exhausted the school. I told Kevin I was out of ideas and turned the boat over to him for the rest of the day. We headed to some of his holes down south that have been good to him in the past and with about ten minutes to go we FINALLY caught a 5.5lber on a Sexy Dawg, it was a miracle! It did come unhooked as soon as it hit the net but hey, it was in the boat. We weighed in 18.69lbs on day two and finished 7th overall.

SUMMARY: This tournament moved into first place as the most frustrating tournament I've ever fished. 7 grand in Triton Gold money was on the line and the best of the best fishermen from the south end of the lake were competing. I really wanted to win it for the $$ and the prestige. The worse part of it all is that it only took 36lbs for two days to win and I really believe we were on enough deep fish that were willing to eat that we could've caught that much if we'd fished deep the entire tournament. Then again, when you turn 170 boats loose in the land of the giants, you don't expect only 36lbs to win, so you can't really look at it that way. We did what we thought we needed to do to win and we were around the fish to win, we'll just have to chalk this one up to the fact that it wasn't meant to be. Congrats to my buddy Keith Himes and his partner for figuring out how to put 36lbs worth of stingy top water fish in the boat and claim the win.

Monday, October 7, 2013

BFL Regional Lake Guntersville Oct. 3-5, 2013

DAY 1: I started on a stretch of Hydrilla on the main lake where I never caught a fish in practice but I saw a few big ones chasing big Gizzard shad there. I started down the grass line with a white Strike King Tour Grade Swimming jig with a pearl Rage Tail Menace trailer. On about my 5th cast one smoked it and my rod loaded up! The fish wasn't putting up much of a fight and when it neared the boat I saw why, it was a 16" Crappie! I spent a few more minutes there without a bite and headed to my first creek spot. I've caught fish on this particular place in the past and I'm not sure what holds them there but they are always within a few yards either way of my waypoint. I slowly worked my way around the grass dropping my Power Poles every few feet and picking the area apart. I caught several really small fish and then I heard my co anglers drag slip and he let out a grunt! I turned around and he had a 5lber doing summersaults behind the boat. We spent another 45 minutes in the area and all I could come up with were a few short fish. I headed to my next creek spot and immediately caught a couple short fish. A few casts later I reeled my jig in and a 3lber was right on its trail! The fish went under the boat and I dropped my jig and felt a tick! I hooked the bass and it shot straight up and came unbuttoned! I left there and hit some flipping stretches and after not getting a bite on my first stretch I caught a 5lber on my 3rd flip on my next stop! A few flips later another one popped my Rodent but came off before I could pull it through the mat. The next few hours were brutally slow and the next thing I knew I had about an hour left to fish and only had the one 5lber. I decided to head back down lake to my deep fish and hopefully fill out my limit. I had two bites on each of my two deep schools and only hooked one of them which was a small 15 keeper. I weighed in two fish for 6lbs 12oz.


DAY 2: I knew I needed at least a low 20lb bag to make the cut and I figured the best way to accomplish that was to flip for five bites all day. During a two hour fog delay I was talking with my co angler and he was a limit of fish away from making the cut so I decided to hit my two deep schools right off the bat in order to give him a shot at catching that limit. As soon as I got lined up on my waypoint, I caught a 4lber on a football jig. My next cast I caught a 3lber, my next cast I had a keeper jump off and my next cast I set the hook and came back with no trailer but then it was over. I headed to my next deep spot and never got a bite and then pulled out my All Pro Flippin stick and headed to the mats. I caught a keeper on my first stop and my co angler caught 2 keepers. I made several passes down the grass line and had a couple more bites but didnt hook up. The next few hours were slow and the few bites I got pulled off before I could pull them through the mat. With time running out I headed back down lake and gave my two deep holes one last shot. I caught a solid keeper off the first one and lost a 5lb class fish on the other one but those were the only two bites I had. I had four fish that would've weighed around 12lbs and pitched them back since they would've put me nowhere near the check cut.

SUMMARY: I think my past experience on Guntersville killed me in this one. Historically early fall tournaments arent won in the most obvious grass mats on the lake but this one was dominated that way. Looking at the standings none of the locals did very well and while I dont live on Gville, I have put my time in there. I did have the bites to make a run at the top 12 cut but when your fishing that thick Hydrilla your going to lose some fish and I wasn't around near enough fish to make up for the mishaps I had during the tournament.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

BFL Regional Lake Guntersville Practice

The Lake had been off limits prior to practice but I had talked to my good friend and Guntersville legend Ed Gettys just before off limits. He told me the only thing I thought I needed to hear and that was that the swim jig bite was on in the deep Hydrilla which was the same pattern I used to finish 2nd in the 2010 BWS National Championship. I spent the first day of practice running old swim jig holes and at the end of the day I'd found that bites were hard to come by and the ones I got were in the creeks and not out on the main lake flats where I really like to fish. I was also catching a lot of yearling bass with the occasional 3 or 4lber mixed in which was not what I was looking for. In 2010 when I'd catch a 3 or 4lber it would have an entire school following it up and that wasn't happening this go round.

I spent day 2 flipping Hydrilla and milfoil and while I had a dozen bites or so, there was really no pattern to it and I didn't get to see what size fish I was dealing with because I didn't want to be seen by other fishermen.

I spent day 3 looking out deep and as usual in the fall on Lake G, I found the same 2 schools I find every year. They were right where they were supposed to be and I didn't set the hook on any of those either but I've fished them for so many years now I pretty much know what to expect size wise.

I'm not real sure what to expect going into day 1 because I've set the hook on so few fish in practice, but I'm pretty sure a decent limit each day will make the top 12 cut to Saturday and I feel like 17 or 18lbs a day will win. I feel pretty good about catching a limit each day but I think I'll need to luck up and get a couple of big bites each day to make a run at the win.