2014 SEASON RECAP

I would like to start off by mentioning a great day I had on the water recently with my little buddy Blare Houston.  I've taken Blare and his dad Scott fishing a few times and have become good friends with them along the way.  I really wanted to get Blare in on some of the ledge action earlier in the year but I had so many guide trips and tournaments I never could get it done.  I decided to invite him to fish the Montgomery County Bass Club Winter Trail event with me Dec. 20 and while we didn't catch them as good as I expected, we were able to make an adjustment or two throughout the day and win the tournament with 20.08lbs.  I just wanted Blare to know how much I appreciate him toughing out a cold, slow day with me as I know it's a lot to ask out of anyone especially a 13 year old. If he even had half as much fun as I did, he had a pretty good time!

I always like to use this last entry of the year to reflect on my season, compare it to years past and that helps me get an idea of if, and how I'm progressing as a fisherman. The main things I like to look at are as follows:

1. Did I learn anything that will help me be more successful down the road?

This is the most important part of the equation to me. It's the reason I fish and I've always said the year I don't learn something will be the year I quit fishing. A couple years ago I got in a rut and I was really beginning to think I'd about maxed out on what I could learn. Last year some things started clicking and I actually said in my 2013 Season Recap that I felt like I'd learned more in 2013 than I had in any year prior. Learning that much in '13 really had me excited about putting it to use this year and I never dreamed I could have another learning year like '13 this far into my career but '14 was even better! It's really hard to explain but let's take March for instance. March has always been my favorite month to fish, I've been pretty successful in March over the years and caught fish a lot of different ways. I pretty much thought I was as dialed into March fishing as I could be and this year it was like all of the little pieces of the puzzle came together and I could see the big picture. Before, I was fortunate to find good places or patterns but this year it became crystal clear to me when and why those places were good and I even added a few new patterns that I never knew existed to my March arsenal. April has always been my Achilles Heel on KY Lake and I had numerous 20lb days this year and that was a huge confidence boost for me moving forward. Another good example was what I learned about electronics and school fishing. I've been able to find and catch fish using my Lowrance for several years but I really learned some next level stuff this past summer. The coolest thing I learned was where to make my first cast into the school by the way they're positioned on the Lowrance to get the most out of the school. I really believe this is the type stuff that's separated guys like Randy Haynes from the rest of the pack the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I know as much as Randy, just saying I know a lot more than I did 8 months ago! To sum it up, it was a very exciting year from a learning standpoint and probably the best of my career.

2. TOURNAMENT WINS

For me to make a living fishing at this level, I have to win tournaments. As I've said many times, the difference in a win and second place for me is around 10 grand. In order to get all of my big bonus checks from Triton, Mercury, Power-Pole, etc, I have to win! In a recent Bass Fan interview Randall Tharp said at the end of the year he doesn't want to count paychecks, he wants to count trophies! Randall hit the nail on the head and even though I'm competing at a lower level, I can definitely relate. Tournaments, especially one day tournaments, are very hard to win. There are more fishermen on the lake than ever before and with all of the technology and info available the vast majority of these fishermen know what they're doing out there. I don't think we'll ever see an era like I've heard about in the 80's and 90's where guys like Bill and Billy Schroeder on KY Lake or Ed Gettys and Billy Ledbetter on Guntersville dominated and won every single tournament they entered because the playing field is just too level now. I try to set realistic goals every year and while I fish to win every tournament I enter, that's just not realistic this day and age. Too many things have to come together to win. I do believe with smart game plans, smart decisions, perfect execution and a little luck, you can win several tournaments in a season so my goal the past few years has been to win five Triton/Mercury sanctioned events a season. Three years ago when I set this goal, I won two but they were more luck than anything and I just never got in tune with the winning fish that year. Last year, I won two sanctioned events again but I really felt like I was around the winning fish or on the winning patterns in several more. This year I was able to get even closer to my goal of winning five in a season. I only sealed the deal in three of them but either lost the winning fish or was within ounces or one bite of winning four more. This was definitely the most consistent year I've ever had as far as being in contention to win and it strengthens my belief that 5 or more wins in a season is a realistic and reachable goal.

3. TOP 10 FINISHES AND CHECKS

I also like to look at my top 10 finishes and how many checks I cash compared to past years because even though the ultimate goal is winning, the longer you linger around the top 10 the more wins you’re going to get. I was able to cash checks in 17/22 events (77%) and finish in the top 10 in 15/22 events (68%). These numbers are almost identical to 2013 (16/23 on checks and top 10's) but there was one major improvement. Out of my 15 top 10 finishes, 13 of them were 4th place or better. That number of top 4's surpasses any year I've had to date by far and again helped me prove to myself that winning numerous tournaments in a season is very possible.

SUMMARY: I don't have any complaints about this season. My guide business absolutely exploded and I feel like I'm right where I need to be at this point with my guiding. As far as the tournament side, not having any complaints doesn't mean I'm content. I am still striving for the "perfect" season where all of the "one bite away" 2nd and 3rd places are "W's"! What this season did was show me that while not an easy feat, winning 40 to 50% of the tournaments I enter is very possible. It may never happen, but as long as I believe that it's a reachable goal, that's what we're shooting for. I'm usually pretty burnt out by this point in the year and not even wanting to think about the upcoming season but after what I learned this year, I'm very much looking forward to next year's tournament season. That's what I love most about this amazing sport. No matter how much time we spend on the water we can never learn it all, every day is brand new and that's what keeps us coming back.

As always thanks to all of my sponsors: Odom's Blue and Gray Marine, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Lowrance, Strike King Lures, Power-Pole, Seaguar, All Pro Rods, Abu Garcia, The Rod Glove, Strike Force Fish Attractant, The Cabin Bait and Tackle and TackleExperts.com.

Thanks to my family and friends for all of their support and most of all my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the opportunity to live the dream.

Thanks to everyone who followed along this year, I hope you all have a blessed 2015! 

OCTOBER, NOVEMBER and DECEMBER 2014

When I returned home in early October from a terrible tournament at Lake Cherokee I was relieved that another season had come to a close and I could kick back, relax and finish out the year guiding without the hustle and bustle of tournament fishing.

A buddy of mine stopped by for a visit as I rigged up four All Pro top water rods and I told him how awesome it was going to be to only need four rods and four baits to close out my fall schedule.  Little did I know the lake was rising and I was on a collision course with some of the toughest fishing I've ever seen on KY Lake.

For the next few weeks I had several guide trips a week and some very excited clients anticipating the phenomenal top water fishing I've advertised the past couple years.  The water muddied up and the current was flowing at a pace I've never had to deal with, at least in the fall of the year, and I was as lost as last years Easter egg on how to consistently catch a fish.

I take my guiding very seriously and believe it or not, I get a lot more stressed out over a bad guide trip than a bad tournament.  To prove my point about how seriously I take guiding, I started a tournament limit guarantee a few years back on every trip which means if we don't put a minimum of five keeper bass in the boat, the trip is on the house.  Five keepers on a lake as good as KY isn't that big of a feat but it is still fishing and when you have a trip scheduled weeks, months or even a year in advance, you never know what you may be faced with weather/conditions wise on a given trip.  During the three years I've been offering this guarantee we have never failed to catch a limit of bass until this brutal stretch at the end of October.  I had six straight trips in which we failed  to catch a limit and it was weighing on me heavily by the end of the month.

The free trip part didn't bother me as there are a lot more good days and $100 tips than terrible days so that all works out.  What was really eating at me is that I had guys driving up to 6 hours to get here expecting explosive top water action and I just couldn't make it happen. It also hurt my pride a little to see my streak of a few hundred consecutive trips with limits come to an end.

What made it even more frustrating was that a few of these days we had the bites to have really big stringers but they jumped off or missed the bait completely which is going to happen Sexy Dawg fishing but when your only getting 5 or 6 bites a day, it makes an already tough day even tougher.

All of my clients were very patient and understanding of the tough fishing and none of them would accept a totally free trip so we ended up agreeing on a half price trip for that day and then they come back for another trip and pay me the other half.  So, it all worked out but it drained me mentally and the cold weather couldn't get here fast enough.

November was pretty mild weather wise other than one little cold snap which got the water temps lingering around that magical 49 to 50 degree mark and I had a list of guys waiting for me to call them for trips when the conditions got prime for the umbrella rig bite.  I called a couple of guys and told them it should be right so they drove down and we hit the lake for my first time since the first week of the month.  It wasn't as fast and furious as I was expecting but we ended up catching about 15 bass and had 23.5lbs on our best 5.  That was a lot better day than we were having earlier in the fall but when I go on an umbrella trip I expect to catch a minimum of 20 fish over 3lbs and at least 25lbs on our best 5 but the majority we caught that day were barely keepers.

I headed to Kingston Springs to visit my family over Thanksgiving assuming the rig bite was getting better by the day.  When I resumed fishing the following week my dad and uncle joined me on a scouting trip and I was very disappointed to learn that the bite had gotten worse and we only caught 6 bass all day with the biggest being 4.75lbs.  As I ran around trying different rig areas I told my dad that the bass were probably doing something so simple that I'd probably feel like an idiot if and when I figured it out.  On the way in that day I passed my buddy Troy Hollowell and gave him a call when we got off the water.  He said he'd struggled with the rig too but right at the end of the day he went shallow and caught a couple handfuls of good fish on a crankbait.  Before I could get off the phone with Troy a txt popped in from my buddy Chad Ashmore informing me he'd caught a pile of fish shallow that day as well.

I spend 9 months out of the year chasing bass around trying to adjust with them and keep up with them and this is the one time of year I hope to be able to throw a few rods and rigs in the boat and not have to think, just cast and catch.  I wasn't looking forward to having to pull all of my tackle back out and try and figure 'em out but I needed to work and I was pretty ticked off at the bass which had me a little extra motivated to hunt them down!

After Chad had told me there was still some grass in New Johnsonville so I decided to start my search there.  I've never gotten to fish grass much in cold weather on KY Lake because there usually isn't any in the spring and I can usually catch them better out deep in the winter. I have spent a lot of time grass fishing on Guntersville in cold weather and figured it couldn't be much different.  I called a buddy who I owed a trip and asked him if he'd like to help me hunt some fish so we headed to New Johnsonville loaded down with all of my favorite cold water grass baits.  It took us a couple hours but once I figured out what to look for we were catching a few bass on every stop ripping a Chili Craw Redeye Shad through the hydrilla which just happens to be one of my favorite ways to catch 'em!  We didn't just blister them that day but I did learn a lot about what to look for and we boated 16 keepers with 21lbs on our best 5 and a 6.75lb big fish.

My good buddy Zach Parker was planning on fishing a small buddy tournament out of Jville that weekend so I told him what I'd found and he went out on Friday and found a few stretches himself.  His partner ended up backing out on him so he talked me into filling in.  We had fished this same tournament in 2012 when we were straight cracking them on the rig and won it with 30.63lbs.  I thought this time around was going to be a different story because other than the one big one I'd caught on Thursday, I felt like we were fishing a 15 to 18lb pattern.  It ended up being a lot better than I expected and we caught about 30 keepers that day and weighed in 23.33lbs on our best 5.  That was only good enough for 2nd place as another team edged us out with 23.44lbs!  It was a fun day and probably ended up like it should've as one of the members of the winning team was none other than Chad Ashmore, who of course was the one that told me the grass was still lingering around to begin with.

I made a few calls to some guys on the A rig waiting list and while most of them wanted to hold out for that bite to turn on, I booked three trips the following week for some grass fishing action.

The first trip was awesome and we caught over 40 bass most of which were keepers we just didn't have any giants.  We ended up with 19lbs on our best 5.

The next trip the bite seemed to be going away and while we did manage a 6.25lber, we only caught a dozen fish all day and had a little over 18lbs on our best 5.

I was a little discouraged heading into trip number 3 as it seemed the grass pattern was dying quickly so I threw some jerkbaits, jigs and rigs in the boat just in case we had to make an adjustment.  For whatever reason the big ones decided to bite that day and we caught 4lber after 4lber and when it was all said and done we had a pair of 7's and a trio of 5's to fill our 28+lb stringer!  It was an awesome day and one I'll never forget as I've never been in on that big of a stringer in December that wasn't caught on an umbrella rig.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and I have a "Season Recap" blog that will be up soon so be sure to check it out!

The Great Debacle of OCTOBER 2014

You would think that guiding on the weekdays and fishing tournaments on the weekend would be a pretty stress free way to make a living.  The tournament organizations threw a serious wrench into my plans this year with their scheduling.  I start planning my season months in advance and when the schedules came out for 2014 I immediately knew I wasn't going to fish the BFL Regional on Lake Cherokee and instead would fish the Renegade Classic on Barkley for a shot at a new boat.  It also looked like I would have plenty of time to attend the ABA WBS Regional on Lake Chickamauga the last weekend of September.

As the season progressed it was announced that the Toyota Owners Tournament would be held out of Paris Landing the last Sunday of September.  That would put the pressure on me to drive from Chickamauga to KY Lake immediately after the tournament, but still doable.

Next, the PAA announced their schedule.  They also had scheduled a tournament on KY Lake the same days as the Renegade Classic.  What I liked better about the PAA v.s. the Renegade was that it would be a 3 day cumulative weight as opposed to the Renegade where weights would be zeroed after two days for a final day shoot out.  I felt like my odds of catching 3 good bags were better than one giant bag so that had my wheels turning on what would be the better option.

By the end of the year numbers were way down in the ABA WBS and there was no way we would have enough boats in the final two day event to qualify for the Triton Gold and Mercury bonus so I chose to fish a Music City BFL the same weekend in hopes that it would draw the 60 boat minimum field.  That decision cost me being able to go to the WBS Chickamauga Regional because the rules state that you must participate in the two day in order to fish the Regional. So that nixed that chance of winning a new Triton boat.

Knowing I couldn't attend my BFL Regional, I'd had a bad BFL earlier in the year in which I'd only caught a few small keepers and had thrown them back in hopes of possibly qualifying for the Chevy Wildcard which is open to all contestants who have paid for an entire division of BFL's but failed to make the top 40 in the point's.   By mid September rumors were circulating that the BFL All American was coming to KY Lake in 2015!  The only way to qualify for the AA is to finish in the top 6 in a Regional or the Wildcard.  I had a funny feeling that the Wildcard would be somewhere good but it wouldn't be announced until all of the regular season BFL's were complete.  Heading into my last LBL BFL I was in 32nd in the points and the only way I would be eligible for the Wildcard would be to zero in the Super Tournament.  I decided to fish to win and if I didn't have enough weight the first day to have a shot at winning, I'd just throw them back and fish the Wildcard.  I ended up catching 23lbs that day so obviously I had to weigh them in which meant my only hope of making a once in a lifetime All American on KY Lake would be dropping out of the Renegade or PAA and going to Lake Cherokee for the Regional. Confused yet?!?!?

After a long talk with my good friend, Renegade Tournament partner and counselor/adviser, Dr. David Gnewikow, I still didn't know what to do.  David seems to always give me the right advice and he had told me as bad as he wanted to try and win that boat in the Renegade with me, he really thought I'd regret it if I didn't at least try and qualify for the All American.  Meanwhile, the PAA had been canceled so that was a big relief.  I now had it narrowed down between the Renegade and the Cherokee Regional.  I decided to spend a few days on Lake Cherokee before the off limits and if I felt like I could catch some fish when I left, I'd fish the regional, if not, the Renegade. My first couple days on Cherokee were rough and it looked like my decision would be easy.  The last day I decided to run as far up the river as a bass boat could go and then some.  I caught the heck out of bass and ended the day with about 17lbs which is a monster bag for Cherokee in the fall.  I called David on my way home and told him I had to go to the regional and try and make the All American.

As official practice drew near for Cherokee I'd been keeping an eye on the water level.  The lake had dropped 4 feet since I had been there just ten days earlier.  I knew the only way I'd be able to make it up that river was with a jet boat and they are no longer allowed by FLW.  At that point it was too late to drop out and I was stuck fishing Cherokee while my buddies were sending me pics of giants they were catching that week on KY Lake, a lot of which were caught on places I fish!  I was sick that I'd opted out of the Renegade and I knew the only way I would ever forgive myself would be to make the All American on Cherokee.

PRACTICE: The first day of practice eased my pain a little.  I had about 30 bites that day a lot of which were on my trusty old Sexy Dawg.  I also got on a pile of smallmouth with a jigging spoon but they were all between 16" and 17.5" and they had to be 18" to keep. I had about 14lbs that day and my goal weight going in was 10lbs a day.  The next day I tried to make it up the river but couldn't even get within sight of where I'd caught them on my previous visit and other than a few bites flipping trees, I couldn't get anything else going. The tree flipping pattern had been strong on my scouting trip but the water had fallen so much there were only about ten trees left in the water.  The next day storms set in and I only had two bites all day in an abbreviated practice session.

REGIONAL DAY 1: I started where I'd had the majority of my bites the first day of practice and an hour went by without a bite.  I finally made my way around a point where the sun was beaming down on a brush pile.  I walked my Sexy Dawg right over the brush and just as I started to say, "it's just not happening", a 4.5lber exploded on my bait but missed it.  I kept the bait steadily walking through the explosion and the fish erupted from the water again but still didn't get a hook in it.  By that point my bait was way too close to the boat and the fish retreated back into the brush. That set the tone for the day and I ended up with 4 more keeper bites that day and lost or missed all but one pitiful little 1lb. 13oz. largemouth.  I knew I needed a seemingly impossible 17 or 18lb bag on day two to have a shot at making the cut but crazier things have happened.

REGIONAL DAY 2:  I started day 2 the same as day 1 but never had a bite.  I even tried my jigging spoon pattern in hopes some 18" smallies had moved in with the 17" fish but never had a bite.  I made my way up the river where I'd had several keeper bites flipping on day 1 and only caught one keeper and several tiny little fish.  I did eventually put a 13" spotted bass in the boat but it was way to little way too late and I ended up dumping my fish on day 2 and getting out of Morristown, TN as quickly as possible.

SUMMARY:  I had a 6.5 hour drive to think about what had taken place at Lake Cherokee and the first few hours I couldn't wait to get on Facebook and my blog and vent about how terrible Cherokee was and how terrible Fall fishing is.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized, no matter how bad the fishing was on Lake Cherokee that week, someone was going to win a boat and a truck and six guys were going to qualify for the All American.  That's when it really hit me that tough lakes at tough times are exactly where the Regional's need to be held.  The All American is the Bassmaster Classic, the Forrest Wood Cup, the Super Bowl of this level of fishing and it shouldn't be a cake walk getting into such an event.  Kentucky Lake has been very good to me.  It's allowed me to make a living with a fishing rod in my hand and I will always have much love for KY for that reason.  At the same time I really feel like it's hurt me when I try and fish a tough lake like Cherokee.  I'm so spoiled from catching 100's of bass a day some days and 20 to 30lb stringers that I just can't seem to get motivated to really try and unlock a lake where five keeper bites are hard to come by and are enough to win a lot of the tournaments.  I notice that a lot of these BFL regional events are dominated by guys from OH, IL, IN and WI.  I'm friends with a lot of guys from those areas and they tell me that the lakes are so tough where they live, they're right in their comfort zone when they get to a place like Cherokee.  After having a pretty strong season at home this year I was really considering fishing some BASS opens or a full trail of FLW Rayovac's next year but after my week at Cherokee I really don't think I'm prepared mentally to take on that challenge.  I've really studied the schedules for 2015 and with so many chances at big pay days on KY Lake, I think my best bet will be to stay home and try and make the most out of those opportunities.

FLW LBL BFL SUPER TOURNAMENT SEPT. 20-21

For those that have followed my blog this year you know I've had a very blessed season of tournament fishing. I haven't figured the numbers up but after starting the season off with a $14000 lick in the March BFL, I had a streak of 2nd to 4th place finishes that's hard not to be happy with.

What some may not realize is that my only source of income is guiding and tournament earnings. While top 5 finishes are nice, there's about a 10 grand difference in a first and second place finish for me after my Triton Gold, Mercury money and Toyota Bonus Bucks. That's why a very good year with lots of top 5's can still be a little frustrating if a few of them aren't wins when you look at it from a financial standpoint.

September has been a big month for me the past few years and I was hoping this year history would repeat itself and I would be blessed with another lucrative fall.

I had all intentions of fishing the ABA Weekend Bass Series Regional on Lake Chickamauga and in order to do that I had to fish their two day divisional championship which took place several weeks ago on KY Lake. The catch was that there was a Music City BFL Super Tournament the same weekend out of Paris. Due to my love of September fishing on KY Lake and knowing the WBS wouldn't have enough boats to win the full Triton Gold and Mercury bonuses, I opted to fish the BFL. The Music City division had been averaging about 70 boats and I was sure they would have the minimum of 60 that it takes for the full bonuses to kick in. I was very disappointed to learn they only had 57 boats in that event which I was fortunate enough to win. Again, you can't complain with a $6000 pay check for two days of work but at the same time it kind of stung a little because I'd been so close so many times this year and with two tournaments left I finally sealed the deal only to miss out on an extra $10000 by 3 boats!

Between that and some comments that were made by an out of town tour "pro" about how he was going to come up here and jackpot the LBL BFL two day, I was more than looking forward to getting my practice session under way for my last shot at the big pay day on KY Lake of 2014.

PRACTICE: Id learned from the MC BFL two weeks prior that the stump bar deal that had been so hot and played a major role for me in that win was fizzing out fast. I also knew that the few deep schools that were still out were getting smaller and would probably be gone completely by the start of the tournament.

I hit the water on Monday for a couple hours just to get a sampling of what I should really focus on the next couple of days. The first place I hit was a Sexy Dawg hole and it didn't take long to catch a 3.5lber. My next cast produced a tiny little bass which was a little discouraging but a few throws later.....6lber! That had me pretty pumped because two weeks earlier I was getting a bite a day on top and to get three in ten minutes with a biggun' in the mix was a very good sign. I buzzed through several of my favorite top water locales but never had another sniff. I scanned every ledge that had a school on it two weeks before and never saw a speck on my Lowrance. I then spent about an hour throwing a jig on stumps....notta!

I decided to spend my first full day of practice focusing on the grass and of course experiment more with my Sexy Dawg pattern. After several hours of flipping, spinner baiting, swim jigging and top watering grass, I'd found two stretches that had some fish. I'd caught about 15lbs off of one stretch and missed a big one, the other stretch only had 16" fish on it.

I spent the next day focusing entirely on Sexy Dawg stuff and caught a 7lber on my first stop. My next stop produced a 4.5lber and the next I had 3 bites on 3 casts but missed the biggest of the bunch. I knew at that point I was going to spend my tournament with a Sexy Dawg in my hand but I also knew I really needed a plan B. I've yet to catch 'em as good on day 2 as I do the first day in a two day event and have always had to fall back on something. With no deep fish to be found I decided to do something I rarely do and I ran to the backs of a few creeks. With such little activity on the main lake I figured the backs of the creeks would be teeming with bait and small keeper size bass but even they seemed void of life. I did scrounge up a few 2lbers covering water with a buzz bait but I was determined I'd go down swinging for the big girls out on the river before I resorted to that in the tournament.

I normally try and only fish two days before a tournament but not having a plan B had me a little concerned. I’d noticed a giant school of shad in about 35 ft of water the day before while scanning a ledge and it was bugging me that the majority of the bass population may be out in the abyss with all of those shad. To satisfy my curiosity I hit the water for a couple hours the next day and while I never had a bite out among the schools of bait, I did hit a top water stretch on my way in that produced three 5lbers in about ten casts! At that moment, I really believed Id found the winning school of fish and was very glad Id decided to spend a few more hours on the lake.

TOURNAMENT DAY 1 SEPT. 20: The place Id found on Thursday was not a secret hole by any means and I knew I’d need a good boat draw to have a shot at it. For the first time in over 100 draw tournaments, I was boat 1! It was almost like it was meant to be the way everything was coming together. I headed straight to where I thought I was going to win it and started working my way around the bar. After several thorough passes and almost two hours, I hadn't had a bite. I decided to pull the plug and I started running through every place I’d had a bite in practice. At 10am I hadn't had a bite and had made my way to the place I’d caught three fish real quick on Monday. I told my co that if we didn't catch one on this stop, we were in trouble. As soon as I got to my waypoint I hit ‘em! It took me about 30 minutes to put around 19lbs in the boat and then I made a couple passes without a bite so we left. At 12:30 I’d fished about everything I had on the agenda and some places twice. I hadn't had a single bite since I’d put my fifth keeper in the boat but I knew 19lbs wasn't going to get it done. I decided to spend the rest of the day where Id caught my fish that morning and it ended up being the right decision. My second stop in the area wasn't the fast and furious feeding frenzy wed experienced that morning but the size was a lot better. I ended up culling three times with a 5, a 5.5 and a 5.75lber. I also had two 6lbers jump over my bait and had an absolute giant straighten an extra strong salt water split ring on my Sexy Dawg and come unbuttoned. I would've loved to have caught everything that bit and weighed in a monster bag but at the same time that told me there were plenty of big ones left there for day 2. I was leading with 23lbs 8oz. and my good friend Jackson Ryley was in 2nd with 22lbs 1oz after day 1. Third place was 15lbs so we knew there were good odds that one of us would take home the trophy on Sunday.

TOURNAMENT DAY 2 SEPT. 21: I had a tough decision to make on day 2. As crazy as it sounds I didn't want to start on my little honey hole because the fish tend to be scattered early in the morning and I've seen times where if you bust them up before they ever really get settled in, they may never group up the rest of the day. The bad part was that the mild SW wind we had on day 1 and early on day 2 was predicted to pick up steam and swing to the W and eventually be ripping out of the N at 20mph. I was afraid if I didn't start on my best place it may get blown out before I could fish it. So, against my better judgment, I headed straight there. I started a little short of where I’d caught them on day 1 and in about ten casts a 4lber blew my bait three feet in the air. I dropped my power poles and what happened for the next hour was unbelievable. I had no less than 30 blow ups from fish anywhere from 3 to 6lbs and when the dust settled, I’d caught two 3lbers! After watching giant after giant jumping over my bait and blowing it out of the water I’d finally just accepted the fact that it wasn't meant to be. How could so many fish hit a bait with so many hooks and not eventually get one in their face? The action finally slowed and with nothing better to go to I just kept fishing around hoping to relocate the school. They never fired again the rest of the day like they did that morning but I did finally catch a limit that weighed 17lbs 9oz. The first person I saw when I got to check in was my buddy Jackson and I asked him what he had and he held up four fingers! I had a pretty good feeling I’d overcome a nightmare of a morning and won my third BFL of the year and when the scales closed I was right!

SUMMARY: Wow! What an awesome two weeks. I've grown to love September and I really feel like I understand what the fish are trying to do this time of year but to win my fifth two day September event in a row was a true blessing. I've been asked a lot about why September has been so good to me. The answer is I really don’t know. Out of the five tournaments I’ve won, I’ve never weighed in a fish off of the same place. That’s probably what means the most to me about the whole deal. It’s not like I found a secret spot that I've been able to keep to myself for three years it’s more that I understand the fish enough to make the right decisions and find the best patterns and when all those things come together, good things happen. With each successful September I’ve had more and more spectator boats. At first I was honored that people would take the time to get out of bed to come and watch me fish. They have always been very respectful and given me plenty of room to do my job. Since this last BFL win I’ve watched a place that I found a year earlier in which I’ve never seen a boat anywhere near become the biggest community hole on the lake. I never want to be the guy that says people are only fishing a place because they saw me there but seeing such an obscure place become so popular can’t help but make me wonder how so many people found it so fast especially since the fish left it a few days after the tournament. The reason these places are so good is because they aren't getting pounded like most of the deep schools of fish on the lake and I hope these people that are finding these special schools of fish realize that, however they’re finding them. The fish need time to build up and settle in on these shallow bars and a potential winning school may never materialize with an abundance of boat traffic and fishing pressure. Oh well, I’ve always said if I could win a big tournament off of a place it was worth losing and I get the feeling that this may have been my last September hot streak due to losing areas to other fishermen. Even so, it was a fun run the past three years and I have seen some truly amazing things that I will never forget and that is what will always keep me working to hopefully find it again someday.

FLW BFL MUSIC CITY DIVISION SUPER TOURNAMENT SEPTEMBER 6-7

August and September have been really good to me on both KY and Barkley Lakes and late summer is in a tight race with the pre spawn as my favorite time of year to fish.

The late summer isn’t quite as action packed as early summer and there are no 100 fish days fishing mega schools of post spawners. There are however really big fish willing to bite this time of year and there are several ways I like to target them.

I hadn’t been on the lake in a couple weeks but I already knew there were five patterns I had to investigate in practice. Three of these patterns I’ve won major tournaments on and the other two were back up plans to fill out limits if my big fish patterns failed to produce.

The first thing I wanted to look at was shallow, stumpy ledges and bars. I won my first BFL in 2009 fishing this pattern and before I left for Michigan, this bite was as good as I’d ever seen it!

My next plan of attack was the grass. I’ve won a WBS flipping hydrilla in August and another swimming a jig around Naiad in September so I knew I had to spend some time playing in the grass.

My third and favorite winning pattern is of course throwing top water. Preferably a bone colored Strike King Sexy Dawg if the wind will allow. It’s still a little early for this pattern to be wide open but I had the best three weeks of fishing in my life last September with a Sexy Dawg in my hand so I had to give it a look.

My final two patterns I wanted to check were flipping shallow wood and scanning for deep schools. I’ve never actually won in the late summer solely doing either of these two things but I have caught key fish in multi day events mixing these patterns in with my primary stuff.

I spent two full days practicing and the main thing I learned was that the fish were very scattered. I got a few bites fishing a lot of different ways but past experience told me I needed to concentrate on the top water bite and the shallow stump pattern even though neither of them was on in full force. I only had one bite a day on my Sexy Dawg but one of them was an 8lb class brute that made me wish I hadn’t cut my hooks off to practice!

So, heading into day 1 I knew it was going to be a grind it out deal but I also knew there were some big bites to be had fishing stumps and top water. I decided I would fish those two patterns until about 1:00 every day and then run to a deep school if I needed a keeper or two to fill out a limit.

TOURNAMENT DAY 1: I’m not going to get into much detail about the fishing during the tournament but talk more so about my approach and decisions. I only caught 13 keepers in two days so the fishing was pretty boring. The first day I started my milk run of top water and stump bars and at 9:20am I had yet to get a bite. I rolled up on a place at that time that I honestly would’ve never fished had my good friend Jeff Archie not told me he’d had some bites there earlier in the week. I caught two 3.75lbers and a 2.75 in about five casts with a football jig and was feeling good about my decision to give it a look. It slowed down after that and I fell back on my old “one pass without a bite, I leave” rule. I reached the end of the stretch and caught a 4lber and a 3lber on consecutive casts so that meant I had to make another pass down the bar. My next pass produced what I’d been looking for, a 5.5lb largemouth. I finally made a pass without a bite and decided to move on. I wasn’t sure how much weight I had, I thought around 18lbs which I was sure would be plenty to make the top 11 cut. It was 11:30 and I was right where I wanted to be. I had a good limit and was right in the middle of my best late summer big fish area of the lake. The catch was that I wasn’t fishing for points, only to try and win. My co angler on the other hand, had fished the entire division and was on the bubble for making the regional. We had to get him a fish in the boat and I knew if I gambled on my “big fish” strategy all day, neither one of us may get another bite. Since I was way ahead of schedule, as I thought it’d take all day to catch a limit, I decided to give my partner 30 minutes on a school of small keepers close by. I ran to the school and suggested he throw a drop shot and I chunked a spinner bait around trying to luck into a better grade fish. He caught 5 fish in a row but they were all short. I felt really bad because I’d told him it would be easy to catch a limit off of this place because I’d done it 100 times in recent weeks. Once he made a few cast without a bite I picked up my drop shot in hopes of relocating the school. I caught a 17” fish on my first cast! I felt even worse then since the fish wouldn’t help me but would’ve been huge for him. At 12:30 I told him I hated to do it but I had to go back to chasing big ones. I ran through several places without bites and on my way in pulled back up to where I’d caught my original limit and culled with a 4.25lber. Just before we had to leave to head to check in, Stevie boated a 3.5lber which was all he needed to secure a spot in the regional! I ended up with more weight than I thought and finished the day leading by a slim margin with 21lbs 4oz.

TOURNAMENT DAY 2: A cold front had moved through over night and we were greeted with a stout 15 mph NE wind Sunday morning. My first stop produced a line burner keeper for my co angler but that was it. I decided to look at a deep school close by before I headed to my primary area. I saw a few on the Lowrance and pretty quickly hooked up with a 4lb class fish but it jumped and threw my spinner bait. I headed to where I caught my fish on day 1 and after a couple hours I’d only had two bites, a 3.5 and a 4lber. It was about 10:30 and I had a big decision to make. Should I keep chasing “winning size” fish or try to secure as high a finish as possible by getting a limit first? I could tell by the way the fish were acting they were definitely feeling the effects from the front. That got me to thinking that maybe the rest of the field would struggle as well. I decided a limit may be the route I needed to go so I made a run to where I’d taken my day 1 partner that didn’t pan out. I scanned the area and saw several fish on the Lowrance and within 15 minutes I’d put a 3lber and a 2.5lber in the livewell and it looked like I’d made a great decision, would have a limit and be back to swinging for the fences in no time. Unfortunately the little guys decided to swim over and join the party and for the next hour we caught 12” fish after 12” fish. That frustrated me a little as I was really anxious to get back out and start hunting the bigguns’! I finally couldn’t stand anymore and headed back to the shallow ledges. At 1pm I hadn’t had a bite and my brain was churning with ideas of what I needed to do. It finally hit me, I’d found a school about 25 miles north of Paris on Tuesday that was loaded with keepers that I’d totally forgotten about. I strapped my rods down and said, “I know where we need to be!” I fired up and ran 25 miles and within 5 minutes had a 3lber in the livewell which finished my limit. I had some really good shallow ledges in the area as well so I worked my way back to Paris hitting as many places as I could but never had another bite the rest of the day.

As we drove to Wal-mart to weigh-in, I was explaining to my partner how tournaments are won and lost by decisions. I told him that since my bag was substantially lighter than it would’ve been had I caught 5 fishing my shallow bars, I’d probably lost the tournament. At the same time, if everyone else had struggled, it may have been the smartest thing I could’ve done and we wouldn’t know for sure until the scales were closed. I was the last to weigh-in and as I approached the stage, my assumption had been right. The field had struggled and only 4 limits had been caught by my competitors. I needed 13lbs 4oz to win it and in my mind I thought I had between 13.5 and 14lbs. When the scales finally settled they read 15lbs 11oz and I’d earned my 4th BFL win of my career and my 2nd of the year!

SUMMARY: This was one of the coolest, most interesting tournaments I’ve ever fished. September is a really tough month on KY Lake and this one hit at the toughest part of September as there were fish scattered all over the place. To elaborate a little bit on the diversity of the fishing, I’ll discuss who made the cut and how they did it.

2nd Place- James Byrd- J Byrd and I have a little history. When I was leading the LBL BFL last September J Byrd followed me the second day to try and learn more about fishing KY this time of year because he had a BFL regional coming up. Other than borrowing some ice and Rejuvenade from him that day, we’d never actually met until this past Sunday. I knew he was on the roster for this one and as cut throat as competitive fishing has become I had some concerns that he may be fishing some of the stuff he’d seen me on last year. I’m happy to say that J proved to me what kind of person he is. I never saw him all week in practice or in the tournament. He’d taken what he’d learned, found his own pattern and his own places and almost spanked my tail. I let him know after weigh-in how much respect I had for him and he’d shown me the same respect by not fishing anything I’d shown him. Awesome job and congrats to J Byrd!

3rd Place- Drew Boggs- Drew is an Old Hickory guy and a buddy of mine. He’s also, in my opinion, one of the top three flippers in the state of TN. The other two are Adam Wagner and Andy Morgan so that shows you the respect I have for Drew as that’s pretty good company! Drew catches ‘em every time he comes to KY Lake and he always does it with a flippin’ stick. I think it’s awesome when a guy masters a technique to the point he can make it work on a lake or at a time of year that it shouldn’t even be possible. He flipped shallow isolated wood for his 3rd place finish which also earned him the point’s title in the Music City division. Congrats Drew, you are the man but I am gonna beat you in May before I retire!!!

4th Place- Ed Gettys- Ed’s one of my best buddies and one of my heroes. He’s a master deep cranker turned grass fishing guru. He learned how to ledge fish when he was 13 years old with a rope and a rock bouncing it on the bottom until he found a drop! Now that’s impressive! He caught his fish swimming a worm around hydrilla both days and rode that to his fourth place finish and added another top 10 to his very impressive resume.

5th Place- John Hopkins- Hoppy is another Percy Priest/Old Hickory fisherman but catches ‘em everywhere he goes. He’s one of the best grass fishermen I’ve ever known but chose to fish deep ledges in this one which really surprised me. What surprised me even more is that I never dreamed that pattern was strong enough to produce a top 5 finish. Very impressive job and congrats to my buddy John.

6th Place- Scott Brummet- Another good friend for whom I have a lot of respect and can flat catch ‘em. He chose to go more the route I went and mixed in a grass pattern, shallow stump pattern and deep ledge pattern.

8th- Phillip Bates- Phillip is another guy I know very well and think the world of. He’s also one that definitely knows how to win in Sept. I didn’t ask him much about how he was fishing but I’d be willing to bet it involved a top water bait, some hydrilla and a loooooong run south.

9th Place- Shawn Perrigo- Shawn is a Pickwick ledge fishing ace and friend of mine who I roomed with several years ago on the Rayovac trail. He managed to find one of very few schools left out deep in a very limited practice session and milked them for his 9th place finish.

I mean no disrespect to the guys I left out I just don’t know how they caught their fish. I got to meet the guys that made the cut that I didn’t know and they are all stand up guys. I was very impressed with the weights everyone caught (on day 1 especially) on an even stingier than normal, September KY Lake. I’d also like to thank all of them for the respect they showed me as it is sometimes frowned upon for a local to jump in another division’s tournament.

My point to this little break down is to show how spread out the fish were and how good these guys have to be to figure them out so many different ways. I’ve fished here so long I feel like I should know every way to catch them this time of year but there were obviously a lot of ways to get quality bites that I overlooked. I learn something every day whether it be from my own outings, a guide client or from my friends and competitors and that’s what keeps me coming back. Thank you God for giving me the opportunity to add another fish trophy to my parent’s trophy case, they are hard to come by!

AUGUST AND THE JASON SAIN BENEFIT TOURNAMENT

August was a slow month as far as tournaments and guide trips went so I took that time to get my 2014 Triton TRX ready to sell and planned a little fun trip to Lake St. Clair with my good buddy and Tour pro Micah Frazier.  My St. Clair trip isn't until next week so hopefully I'll have lots to blog about when I get back.  I did guide a little and fished the Jason Sain Benefit Tournament that ended up being quite possibly the best tournament I've ever fished.

As most of the fishing world knows by now, my friend and fellow angler, Jason Sain, was diagnosed with inoperable brain tumors earlier this summer.  My good friend David Gnewikow and Jason were college roommates and began their tournament fishing careers together back in the late '90's. As soon as David got the news he immediately sprang into action organizing a tournament in which all proceeds would go to help Jason and his family during this very tough time.  The tournament was scheduled for August 9 and David told me his goal was to draw 200 boats and raise $40,000 for Jason and his family.  I knew that would be a tall order as there are so many tournaments going on this day and age, it's hard to draw even a 100 boat field in a single event anymore.

As tournament time drew near, the list of preregistered entrants and donation items was getting longer by the day and it was shaping up to be what David had envisioned and then some.

David told me before the tournament that he really wanted me to win the tournament because he knew I'd donate the $5000 first place check back to the cause.  I told him that I'd do my very best but I was a little concerned that he'd made it a 3 fish limit as opposed to the usual 5 fish tournament limit.  I told him I felt like I could catch 5 good fish but wasn't sure about catching two good fish and the GIANT needed to win a 3 fish event.

I was coming off of a 6th place finish in a BFL a couple weeks prior in which 1st and 2nd place were both caught fishing shallow, stumpy ledges. I know that's a strong pattern in late summer on KY Lake and I had actually practiced that pattern before the BFL in the Blood River to Danville area but couldn't make it work. The following week I had a guide trip and with all of the deep schools nowhere to be found, I decided to try the stumps again.  It was on in full force and by the end of the day we had caught a fish or three off of every stump bar we fished with our best 5 weighing about 23lbs.  Knowing  I wouldn't have any time to practice the week of the tournament I decided to head out the Sunday before and check a few places that fit the pattern and the second one I fished produced a 6.5lber.  I knew then, that for me and my partner Mike Hardin to have a shot at the win, we needed a big worm, a jig and soak them around as many stumps as possible during the tournament.

Mike was planning on meeting me at Paris Landing the morning of the tournament and when I made it to highway 79 which leads to Paris Landing Marina, what I saw gave me chills.  There were boats lined up a half mile down the road, something I haven't seen in a very long time.  It reminded me of the classic movie "Field of Dreams" and the famous line from that film, "If you build it, they will come!" My friend David Gnewikow had built it and they had definitely come!

Seeing that many boats pouring in to help out a fellow fisherman in need was a very emotional moment and my desire to win the event for my friend grew even stronger as I knew with that many competitors on the water, it wasn't going to be an easy task.

Mike and I took off boat 47 and I had all intentions of running to the Blood River area and slowly working our way back.  As I made my way there I noticed a well known community hole that fit the stump pattern perfectly was void of any boats.  I headed straight to it, dropped the Motor Guide and before Mike could pick a rod up I was calling for the net.  He scooped up a 4.5lber and threw her in the live well and a couple cast later I had another fish in the 3lb range hooked up.  The first hour was pretty action packed and at 7:30 we had a 4.5lb largemouth and two 4lb smallmouth.  Normally when I fish this pattern I'll make slow passes through the sweet stretches and if I make a pass without a bite, I leave.  It was 8:50 and we had fished over an hour without a bite and I asked Mike if he thought we should leave.  He said it was totally up to me and as I was sitting there struggling to make the decision on what we should do, Mike set the hook!  His rod almost touched his knuckles and he said "this has to be a drum!"  A few seconds later a beast of a largemouth emerged from the water and I scooped up a 7.5lb toad into the net!  That culled a 4lb smallmouth and had us up around 16lbs on our best 3 fish.  We knew then we had to stay a little bit longer and exactly one hour from the time Mike had caught the big one, I again asked him if he thought we should leave and before he could answer, I leaned into another good fish!  This one was pushing 5lbs and culled another 4lb smallie.  I knew we were in good shape but I still felt like we needed another 5 or 6lb class fish to secure the win.  We fished for another two hours and only caught one 3.5lber that didn't help and finally we decided to pull the plug and head to some new real-estate.  We had sit on the same 20 yard stretch for 6 hours and when I tried to crank my Mercury, my battery was dead.  I pulled out the jumper cables and got her fired up and made a short run to our next location.  Mike caught a 4.5lber on his first cast on our next stop but after checking her on the balance beam, she was just a tad lighter than our smallest specimen.  We spent about 30 minutes there without another bite and when we got ready to move, my battery was already dead.  We jumped it off again and made another short run.  When we arrived my good friends and KY Lake legends Bill and Billy Schroeder were trolling away from where I wanted to fish.  Billy waved me in and I asked him if he cared if we fished there and he said he was done but they had just caught a 4lber before we pulled in.  This particular place is usually a one bite deal but with time running out and a dead battery I really didn't have any other option.  I got lined up and fired out a couple casts and felt a light tic. I set back on a good fish and I told Mike, "this is the winning fish!"  He scooped a 5lber into the net and we culled a 4.5 which gave us over 17lbs on our best 3 and I really felt like we had a shot at the win.  I talked to Gnewikow and Fish Fishburn before we weighed and they said for us to wait towards the end of the weigh-in to bring our fish up in hopes of having a dramatic finish.  When we headed to the boat to get our fish, 16lbs was leading and it was setting up to be just what they'd hoped for.  When I reached the weigh-in line, Crispin Powley was on stage and had just weighed in 18.19lbs on 3 fish!  My heart sank a little as I knew we didn't have quite enough and our best 3 ended up weighing 17.38lbs earning us a 2nd place finish.

For those of you that have followed my 2014 season, you know it's been full of 2nd and 3rd place close call finishes and it's starting to weigh on me a little bit.  It would've meant the world to me to be able to win this one for my friend and his family but the ultimate goal was for the winner to donate the 5 grand back and that's exactly what Crispin and Dylan Powley did along with 98% of the other teams that finished in the money.

I have to say this was one of the most awesome tournaments I've ever fished. David wanted 200 boats and though we came up a little short with 160+, after the auction items and donations were tallied, his goal of raising $40,000 was more than doubled and the last count was at $83,000!  This was truly an amazing experience that I'm very proud to have been a part of.  The effort that was put into making this thing happen was unbelievable and there is no way I can remember everyone or even know everyone that was involved but I would like to thank my personal friends and sponsors that played a big role in making this a success by either fishing the event, donating cash and prizes or both.

Thanks to: Larry and Verna Odom of Odom's Blue and Gray Marine, Earl Bentz, Adam Adkinson, Scott Sanders, Triton Boats, Jon Davidson and Mercury Marine, Crispin Powley and Strike King Lure Company, Bill Merrick and All Pro Rods, Britt Franks and All Around Industrial Inc., Jackson Ryley and Scott Pet, Subway of Paris Landing, John Dick of Five-0 Jigs, Jeff and Stephanie Archie, David Gnewikow, Brent Sain, David and Sharon Seaton of Fishtale Lodge, Pat Hailstones, Fish Fishburn, Larry Nixon, Sam Lashlee, Keith Amerson, Kenny Loudon, Gary Mason, Rodney Clawson, Billy Schroeder, Steve Clapper, Joe Thomas, Kevin Hawk, Chris Davis, Gary Singleton, Mark Menendez, Terry Bolton, Jason Sealock, David Allen, Randy Sullivan, Nathan Bedwell, Evan Boutwell and American Bass Anglers.

I know I've left out a ton of people and I apologize but the fact that there were so many people willing to help that I can't remember all of them just goes to show what kind of man Jason Sain is and how respected he is in the fishing industry.

I'm not much of a writer but I've listed some links below to some really well written accounts of the event, you can also visit the Friends of Jason Sain Facebook page to read numerous posts and comments about the tournament.

 FRIENDS OF JASON SAIN

STRIKE KING JASON SAIN BENEFIT RECAP

As awesome of an event as this was, and a bright spot in a sometimes dark, greedy and cutthroat world we live in, at the end of the day our friend is still fighting for his life.  Please continue to pray for Jason and his family as nothing is as powerful as the power of prayer.

MY FRIENDS AND LEGENDS, BILL AND BILLY SCHROEDER

Mike and his 2nd Place Plaque

Me and my Larry Nixon Jersey

JULY ABA WBS, TWIN LAKES RENEGADE AND LBL BFL

WBS PRACTICE: All good things have to come to an end and when I returned to the water after a July 4th break, it was like an entirely different lake. I hit the water on Tuesday July 8th for a little practice session before the upcoming ABA Weekend Bass Series out of Paris Landing and learned pretty quickly that the majority of the deep ledge fish had disappeared. I scanned about every ledge that had been loaded with bass for two months and only a handful still had schools hanging around. The bad news was that all of them were community places and the odds of getting on them during a tournament were slim to none. The good news was the fish were suspended high in the water column and moving a lot. This was good for a couple reasons. When the fish get in that mood they are very hard to catch and a lot of fishermen give up on them and start looking for other patterns. That meant I would have a better chance at getting to fish these schools and have the room I needed to chase them around with my Lowrance which is a must when they are on the move chasing shad and constantly relocating. The other reason was that I have a bait I designed that just happens to work pretty well on suspended bass.

I decided to spend the rest of my practice trying to find a shallow pattern as well as a school or two on an oddball place. I couldn't make anything happen fishing shallow bars, stumps or brush but I did find a couple of schools on some subtle humps in a couple of creeks. The few I caught out of these schools ranged from very small to 3 lbers and I knew that wasn't going to get it done. I happened to run by a place and even though I've never seen the fish get there in late summer, I scanned the ledge. I caught a glimpse of a small group of bass about 20 feet to the left of my boat on my Side Imaging and fired a cast into them. My bait never made it to the bottom and a 4.5lber had it choked! I was pretty pumped over this find and left immediately as not to be seen in the area by any other fishermen. This hidden school was heavy on my mind the rest of the day and I was concerned that they were just passing through the area since I only saw about 50 fish on my Lowrance. On the way in, I had to give it one more look to make sure they were still there and the school had quadrupled in size! I never made a cast because that told me there were more fish coming to the school and I knew from past experience they would have plenty of bigguns' mixed in.

WBS TOURNAMENT: I don't get nervous very often before a tournament but I was a little anxious Saturday morning because I knew if  my hidden school would be home, I could get on them and I could execute, I would make a run at the win. When I arrived there wasn't a boat in sight and I pulled up within range of my way point. Me and my co angler, Dave Ruckdeschel, brought an all out assault of crankbaits through the area and never had a bite. I assumed they were gone and I would be in for a long day fighting the crowds and chasing suspended fish around but I decided to drag a jig around for awhile and give them a chance to get grouped up. Within a few casts I had a bite on the jig and because it was still dark and hazy I didn't get a good look at the fish when it jumped so instead of calling for the net I just swung it aboard and threw it in the livewell. About 15 minutes later I felt another tick and swung another good fish into the boat. The fish never truly schooled up, but over a four hour period, I slowly fished back and forth on a 50 yard stretch and we would pick up a fish or two on every pass. Once I started culling I decided to weigh all of my fish and the two I had caught that morning were both 5lbers! I had no idea they were that big and I had nearly 22lbs by 10:30. It was a painstakingly slow way to fish which is not my style and after a couple passes without a bite, I decided to move on. There were two schools that I'd been catching some big ones out of while guiding and they just happened to be a couple that were still lingering around after the 4th of July. It was pretty well known there were some good fish on these two particular places and I really felt like if I could have them to myself I could win the tournament but I knew that would never happen on a Saturday. When I got within sight of the first one there wasn't a boat to be seen. I told Dave that apparently the school wasn't there because if they were there would be multiple boats on them. I scanned the ledge and they were loaded right where they were supposed to be. I'd caught numerous 5-6lbers and 20lb + stringers on my guide trips there and I couldn't believe I was going to get a shot at these girls on a Saturday! I worked on them for at least an hour from different angles with different baits but never could get them to fire. I did catch a few but the only one that helped was a 3.75lber that culled a 3.25lber. I was disappointed I couldn't take advantage of a rare opportunity to get a school like that during a tournament but sometimes they just don't cooperate. Off in the distance I could see the other school that had produced some GIANTS for me on previous trips and they were void of any fishermen as well. I made my way there, scanned around and they were stacked. I worked them over for an hour or so and never even had the first bite. I finished up the day bouncing back and fourth between those two schools but never upgraded. I weighed in 22.14lbs and finished 3rd just 3/4 of a pound shy of the win.

SUMMARY: I had three schools I thought I could put together the winning stringer off of and I had all of them to myself with plenty of room to work, I just didn't get it done. I say it time and time again but all I ever ask for is the opportunity to fish where I feel like I need to fish to win and if it doesn't work out, it doesn't work out. Third place was good enough for the Triton Gold and Toyota Tundra money so overall it was a pretty good day.

RENEGADE TEAM TOURNAMENT JULY 13: I try to fish a tournament every so often with my good friend, sponsor and owner of Strike Force Fish Attractant, Jeremy Estes. This year it was the Renegade out of Kuttawa Harbor on North Barkley Lake. I was pretty pumped about this one because it was the Twin Lakes division and they always have a 60+ boat field which meant the full Triton Gold bonus of 7 grand was up for grabs. Jeremy and I headed straight to where I started in the WBS and instead of starting with crankbaits we immediately picked up our jigs. It wasn't looking very promising and after about an hour of fishing Jeremy had caught one small keeper. I knew this was going to be our best shot at catching 5lb class fish and was not very happy that they weren't cooperating! I eased along the ledge and when I got to my waypoint where I'd originally found the school in practice, we doubled up. I had a 5lber, Jeremy had a 4lber and it looked like things were about to turn around. We caught small keepers on our next few casts but then it was over. We made several more passes through the area but never had another bite. I'd been keeping my eye on a huge community hole close by that a minimum of 6 boats had set on all day the day before and I hadn't seen any boats around it. This was one of those suspended schools I'd found and I really felt like if we had room to move around with the fish, we could pick up a few good ones. We headed to the ledge and I scanned around and found a group of suspenders. I pulled out my bait that specializes in suspended bass and caught a 3.5lber on my first cast that culled a 2.5. Then I caught several in a row that culled but only by ounces and that little group moved on us. I scanned down the ledge and found the bulk of the school sitting about 10ft off the bottom in 27ft of water. I jumped up and fired a cast right into the school and a 4lber choked my bait within a few cranks of the reel handle. Before we could even get the fish in the live well and cull, the school had moved. I put my Motor Guide on high and started searching for the school on my sonar. I found them about 30 yards away, backed up, burnt my bait through the school and a 5lber stopped it in it's tracks! Once again, I thought we had tapped into the winning fish but then they vanished. I trolled around and then idled around but never could relocate the school. I had another group of suspenders close by that I'd caught some big ones out of so we headed that way. They were sitting right on my way point and we caught a few pretty quickly but they were just 3lbers. With a long run in some pretty rough water and early weigh-in time of 2:00, I told Jeremy we had a decision to make. Did we gamble on the two schools that had failed me the day before which were another 20 miles away, or maximize our time and run back through the two areas that had produced for us so far that morning? With the waves getting bigger by the hour and over 20lbs already in the boat, we both agreed our best bet would be to stay close by and really spend some time trying to get one or two more good bites. I'd like to tell you we relocated one of the schools and culled up to 25lbs but it didn't happen. We never culled the rest of the day and we ended up in 2nd place with 20.77lbs.

SUMMARY: Man! Two nail biters in two days! This one really hurt because the difference in first and 2nd was just a measly $9,000! The worst part about this was that the two schools we chose not to run to produced 24lbs including a 6.5lber in about 15 minutes the next day on a guide trip! I know there's no way to know if we would've caught any of those fish had we gone there on Sunday but when you miss out on 9 grand by about a pound it sure makes you wish you'd at least given them a look!

LBL BFL PRACTICE: By Wednesday after the Renegade, every school I had on the main lake had disappeared. I still had a school of small fish mixed with the occasional good one in a creek but as far as schools went, that was it. I knew then it was time to change gears heading into the BFL. I planned on spending my first day of practice fishing some of the best shallow stuff I know but on the way, just for good measure, I had to scan the place I'd caught my 22lbs in the WBS. Unfortunately it was void of life and I only caught two tiny little bass fishing the shallow stuff the rest of the day. On the way in that dismal day, I decided to scan my 22lb hole one last time just in case they'd shown up because historically it's an early morning and late evening school. I drove down the ledge and when I reached the end.....JACKPOT! They were loaded!  I made two casts and caught a 4 and a 5lber and headed to the ramp with a brand new outlook on the upcoming BFL.

I spent the next day scanning South of Paris and fishing shallow bars, stumps and brush. Four hours into the day I hadn't seen a bass on my Lowrance or on the end of my line. I finally decided to check some grass out so I headed to a stretch where I'd won a tournament punching hydrilla back in 2012. The grass was only a couple feet off the bottom so I pulled my swim jig out and started down the edge. On my 6th cast a fish knocked slack in my line but I missed it. I made another cast and caught a 3lber. My next cast I could feel the bass fighting over my bait and one finally engulfed it! My rod loaded up on what felt like a big one and then my line snapped! I tied another jig on, made one more cast, caught a 4lber and I left. I spent the rest of the day scanning and grass fishing but only found one small school on a creek hump and caught a couple of random small keepers out of the grass.

LBL BFL TOURNAMENT JULY 26: I hate to put all my chips in one basket but I knew this tournament depended on my first stop, the place where my WBS fish had suddenly reappeared. I made a mad dash straight there Saturday morning and when I got within sight of it I saw the last thing I expected to see. There was a boat already setting there that wasn't in my tournament. I almost felt like I'd taken 12 grand and set it on fire because that place was no doubt my only hope of winning the tournament. I cruised on by to my next best place trying to keep my composure and when I got to that spot there was a boat with three guys in it jacking on 'em! At that point I was extremely frustrated and was way out of whack with my rotation. I'd wanted to reach my grass fish at about 10:00 and there it was 6:45 and I had nowhere to fish other than my grass stretch. I headed to the grass and spent a couple hours fishing around but my school was nowhere to be found. I did pick up a small keeper on a Sexy Dawg but that was the only bite I had. I worked my way back towards Paris and scanned a creek hump where I'd seen a few in practice and saw three bass sitting there. I was able to catch a 2.75lber on a spinner bait but that was it. I scanned several more places as I worked my way back but never saw a fish. I ended up back where I'd seen the three guys earlier that morning and no one was there. This school had been full of really small bass but about every tenth one I caught, I'd catch a pretty good one. Once I got lined up, I caught six in a row but the biggest two were just small keepers. I could tell the school was feeling the effects of the thrashing they'd taken earlier that day and they would relocate every time I'd catch a few. With nothing better to go to, I decided to really spend some time and chase them around and after a couple hours I had a limit worth about 11lbs. I was about to pull the plug on the operation but I scanned around one last time and spotted the school out in 12ft of water. They had moved out behind my boat and I'd been throwing the wrong direction for the past hour! Once I found them I quickly culled a small keeper with a 2.75lber and my next cast a big one loaded up on my spinner bait. My co angler scooped her up in the net and it was a 6.5lber! Time was running out so I decided to spend the rest of the day just trying to trigger one more big one into biting out of that school but it never happened. It ended up being a tough day on the majority of the field and I managed a 7th place finish with 16lbs 10oz and narrowly missed the big bass money with my 6lb 8oz gift from God. My old buddy Terry Bolton beat me out with a 6lb 12ozer.

SUMMARY: I really like when fishing gets tough  in the late summer on KY Lake. The last few years I've been fortunate to figure something out in the dog days of summer when the bite is a little tougher and I've really felt like I had a shot to win the last 8 or 10 tournaments I've fished when lots of guys are crying the blues. This tournament was no different and I was as confident going into this one as I have been all year until I saw that boat sitting on what I thought was my best place. Unfortunately that's part of the game, we all have to deal with it and it's only going to get worse especially during weekend tournaments. I'm just thankful the Good Lord sent me a big bite that allowed me to salvage my day and put a little bit of money in the bank even if it wasn't the $12,000 payday I had my sights set on.

JUNE 2014

When all of the tournament schedules came out last winter I didn't see any BFL's, Rayovac's or Weekend Bass Series events scheduled for June. Initially I was a little bummed out but once I really started thinking about it, I remembered how frustrating June tournaments can be.  The current never moves on the weekends and there are multiple boats on every school on the lake every Saturday and Sunday.  That's when it hit me that I could guide every day during the week under optimal conditions and for the most part have the pick of the litter as far as which schools I wanted to fish.  I had several trips booked in advance but as June drew near I had a few dates left to fill.  I decided to make things interesting and run a promotion on Facebook guaranteeing that 50 bass would come into my Triton or the next trip was on the house!  I quickly filled up my remaining dates and was looking forward to an action packed month of ledge fishing.

My first week of guiding was the week following the Rayovac and Triton Owner's Tournament in which 600 boats had brought in an astounding amount of fish in both numbers and weight.  I was a little concerned that the 600 boat beat down would have the ledge bass in a funk and they might be a little tougher to catch than normal.  I was way off with my thinking as we absolutely smoked 'em everyday that week as we averaged about 100 bass a trip with our best 5 weighing in the mid 20's.
 
It looked like I was going to breeze through June with 100 fish days and 20+ lb stringers on every trip but when I hit the water the following week the water had risen a couple feet, muddied up and the current was rolling.  Just out of coincidence I started that week in the Big Sandy River.  The water was high but clear as the influx of muddy water was from rain further up the system as opposed to local precipitation and the schools were sitting right where they were supposed to be in the Sandy.  After our first six stops that morning we had 25 fish and about 19lbs.  It was shaping up to be another awesome day but when I hit the main lake I noticed something odd.  Not only was I not seeing any schools of bass, I wasn't seeing any form of life on my Lowrance.  Fortunately this wasn't my first rodeo with high water in the summer repositioning the fish so I knew I could still find schools in the tributaries where the water remained clear and the current wasn't as strong.  The bad part about this was that I had five trips that week and didn't know if those few creek schools could sustain a weeks worth of pressure.  Amazingly, my first four trips that week were ridiculous and we averaged about 75 fish a day and low to mid 20's on our best 5 out of only 8 schools of fish.  I only had one more trip before the weekend and I was hoping my poor 8 schools would produce one more day and the water would stabilize over the weekend and give me a few more herds of bass to work with the following week.

I met Brett and Taylor Luther at Paris Landing that morning and Taylor had bought the 50 fish guarantee trip for Brett for their wedding anniversary.  We started off strong and put 6 fish in the boat on as many casts but then Brett and I both lost a fish in the school and they shut down.  That particular school had been producing 40-60 bass a day for me so that kind of put the pressure on to make sure we reached our 50 bass quota.  When we finished the milk run in the Big Sandy we'd only boated 9 bass with nothing over 3.5lbs.  I ran through the other half my schools and we were having trouble getting them to fire and once they did we always had a couple pull off and shut them down before we could really beat 'em down.  Brett and Taylor were a blast to fish with and just to get at me a little bit when Brett would hook a smaller caliber fish he would leave it in the water as long as possible and give it every opportunity to get off and several of them did!  Well played Brett!  The last hour of the day we had boated 32 bass and I was determined to get our quota and on my last stop we got on a roll and put 12 bass in a row in the boat but then we exhausted the school and had to call it a day with 44 bass and only 19lbs on our best 5.  I was a little disappointed that my well over 50 fish and 20lbs a day streak had ended but the Luther's assured me they had a good time and that's my main concern on each and every trip.  Brett told me we could've easily reached our limit if he hadn't intentionally lost several by the boat and I didn't owe them another trip but I told him a deal was a deal and I will be spending another fun day with them here pretty soon.

I watched water conditions closely over the weekend and things were slowly getting back to normal but I still wasn't sure what was going to happen with the main river ledge schools once it did.  The last time the high water repositioned the fish it was a lot later in the summer and the vast majority never returned to their early summer haunts.  When I hit the lake with Brian Chandler the following week, just to be safe I started in the Sandy. Just like clockwork, every school was sitting right where they were supposed to be and eager to eat our Shadalicious swim baits.  Once we reached the main river I scanned a dozen places and was a little discouraged when they were all still void of life.  I knew there was no possible way I could beat on those same 8 schools for another week and show my clients the kind of fishing I wanted to show them.  At about 1pm that day I scanned another main lake school "just for the heck of it" and it had a few bass on it.  We caught several of them and that made me think they were trying to come back out.  For the rest of the day fish were literally showing up by the hour and we absolutely hammered them over the next six hours! I don't think we quite reached 100 fish but our best 5 on my Boga Grip scale were over 27lbs and unfortunately Brian lost one that I estimated to be in the 8lb class, it was a giant!

I couldn't wait to get on the water the next morning and it didn't disappoint.  There was a mega school of fish on every ledge that I've ever seen a school and they were eating like it was late May again!  After experiencing some of the best fishing I've ever seen on KY Lake during and after the Rayovac, I couldn't believe it was possible that the lake was fishing even better the second week of June than then but that was definitely the case.  We ended that day with well over 100 bass, close to 28lbs on our best 5 and again we lost a true giant of a bass right by the boat that would of put us in the low 30's for weight!

My last trips that week were 3 hour electronics trips.  I scheduled 3 different trips that day and these trips usually consist of very little fishing, just enough to give the customer confidence in "catching them when they see them."  On my first trip we fished 3 different schools and at the end of the session our best 5 weighed 22lbs.  My next trip got cut short by a storm but our best 5 in that session off of 3 totally different schools weighed 24lbs!  On my last trip of the day I was determined to get us on another 20lb bag for the third time that day.  I spent a little more time fishing than scanning but we were only able to muster up about 18lbs on that trip.

I was more amazed each day with how good the lake was fishing and I had a Renegade team tournament with my good buddy David Gnewikow that weekend.  I'd told him it would take at least 28lbs to win it but I really felt like we could catch that even though I knew it would be tougher with more boat traffic on the lake and less current flowing.  The schools typically don't get set up good until the sun has been up for a while so Dave and I chose to spend the first few hours fishing shallow bars for isolated fish.  Three hours into the day we had a 5.5lber and four fish right at 4lbs each.  At 9am we headed to the depths to try and cull up.  As expected there were boats on just about every school but when we found something open I'd look at 'em on the Lowrance and if they looked right, we'd go to work on them.  With the lack of current the fish were moving around a lot and we never really got a school ignited but we did manage to cull all of our original 4lbers and weighed in 25.27lbs which was good enough for third place.  It took 27 for 2nd and 30 and some change to win it which didn't surprise me at all because I knew the lake was fishing about as good as I'd ever seen it.

Kentucky Lake was absolutely off the charts in June this year.  I took the last week of the month off to stay out of the FLW Tour guys way but I predicted before they got to town, several of them would break the century mark during the 4 day event.  Talking with some of my buddies that were fishing it during their practice, it sounded like it may be toughening up a little bit.  I went out with my dad to set his new Lowrance up the day before they started which is their off day and I noticed the fish were starting to suspend and were getting a lot tougher to catch.  That kind of changed my outlook on the Tour guys breaking 100lbs but they still smoked 'em pretty good and several of them averaged well over 20lbs a day.

As soon as all of the 2015 tournament schedules are released I'll start booking trips for next June.  If the lake fishes even half as good as it did this year, I can assure you, you won't be disappointed!