Monday, April 14, 2014

Stihl's Reel in the Outdoors, LBL BFL April 12, April Fishing in General and Tom O'Bryants Unbelievable Month

I have lot's of stuff to ramble about this week and it all sort of ties in together so instead of writing four separate blogs, I've decided to try and pack it all into one and keep it as short as possible so no one falls asleep on me while reading.

It's no secret to those that know me that April and I don't mesh very well on KY Lake unless the water reaches flood stage. I can go from lost to catching 20+ lbs overnight if that water reaches the shoreline cover. I've worked hard since my first year of fishing the BFL's on KY/Barkley Lakes back in 2006 to try and understand low water April fishing better. One thing that definitely stands out is that April is always, without a doubt, the lowest winning weight tournament of the year in the LBL division of the BFL's unless of course, the water is in the bushes.


I think one reason I stumble this time of year is the fact that I really, really, really don't like fishing the bank on KY Lake. I like fishing shallow, I just like to stay out in the middle to fish shallow. Barkley is a different story, I have some banks that are a flipper's paradise over there that I have a ton of confidence in but usually it's just a smaller grade fish on average you catch as opposed to KY. That's why this year I decided to be a little more open minded and try and overcome my hatred of bank beating leading up to this tournament.


Another thing I've learned for sure over the years is that I have to be content with "only" being around 2.5 to 3lb class fish this time of year. I say "only" because normally that size fish WILL NOT win or come close to winning on KY Lake. One year I thought I could only catch around 14lbs on KY Lake so I gambled and went to Barkley without practice and only caught a few keepers, 14lbs made the top 5 in that event. That's why this year I had told a couple of my buddies to remind me before this tournament that if I could get around 3lbers, I could end up doing really well.


PRACTICE: I was coming off of a 3rd place finish in the ABA WBS in which I caught my fish shallow but still somewhat offshore on a Redeye Shad and was hoping that would hold up for one more week. I had a guide trip last Tuesday and realized the fish had made yet another move and I knew then that it was inevitable that I was going to have to fish the bank!


Joe Thomas and I have been trying to get together for awhile now and film a show and every time I'm whackin' those ol' biggun's, he's busy. I told him the water would be in the bushes soon and it would make a great show and he said he really needed to do something before that. Wouldn't you know the first time I get to do a major T.V. deal, it's during my absolute least favorite time to fish my favorite lake. I really wanted to have a good day because I wanted Joe to want to come back and film again when the fishing is on fire.  We headed out Wednesday morning and I was just praying something good would happen.


We ran through my Redeye Shad places just to make sure another wave hadn't moved in and I caught a nice smallmouth pretty quickly . Unfortunately that was the only "t.v." fish we caught off of that pattern and we both knew it was bank time. I explained to Joe that I hated fishing the bank but the fish should be on the first available cover closest to the bank so we headed to my favorite creek, that is if I have to venture into a creek. The first piece of cover we came to I pitched in and caught a fish pushing 4lbs and while we were messing with that the wind blew us closer to the bank and Joe popped one on a square bill in the 4lb class.  Long story short, we ended up putting a little pattern together and while we didn't catch a ton of keepers, everyone we caught was in the 3 to 5.5lb range which they said would make for a great show!  I was very relieved that they were happy with the day and it was an absolute blast filming with Joe and Jimmy the camera man.  After just a little while in the boat it was like we'd known each other forever and I look forward to doing it again especially when we can do something fun as opposed to throwing at gravel banks all day! I also got a little excited about what we found that day believe it or not and I had a good  feeling that if the fish were on those type banks on KY, Barkley may just be the ticket for me to break the April curse.


I spent the next two days on south and even further south Barkley and the fishing was phenomenal.  I wasn't catching giant fish, but I caught 15 to 18lbs both days within a few minutes.  I shook off the majority of the bites I had but when I set the hook they were anywhere from 2.5 to 6lbers.  I was getting anywhere from 50 to 75 bites a day and by 2 p.m. Friday, I was headed home to get all of my  Rodents out of storage and get ready to go to work on them Saturday morning.


TOURNAMENT:  I made a short (for me) 50 mile run from Moors Resort to my first stop and couldn't wait to get the action underway.  We caught a couple short fish real quick and I knew it was about to happen.  As I made my way down the bank, bites were few and far between and other than a small keeper my co angler picked up, every fish we caught wasn't even close to 15".  I decided the only thing different that day compared to practice was that the sun wasn't on the bank yet so I made a short run to another good stretch of bank that the sun was beaming down on.  I made it to the end of the stretch and had only caught one short.  I fished over to the other side of the pocket and as I worked my way out I saw a white flash under the water.  I trolled in for closer inspection and I saw about a 3.5lber and a 2lber hovering over a bed.  I dropped my Power Poles and made a quiet pitch to the bed and neither fish moved.  After a few pitches I finally popped the female in the side with my bait and she slowly swam out of the bed and the male back peddled up under some branches.  That's when it hit me that the fish were right smack in the middle of the spawning ritual and the only way to catch them is to pester them into biting.  On a clear lake this wouldn't have been that big of a deal but on south Barkley, it's not an option.  If I had it to do over again, I would've immediately headed back to KY Lake and tried to salvage the day but I noticed in practice the better fish I caught in this particular pocket had some blood on their tails and the fish I caught 25 miles further south didn't.  That made me think that just maybe those more southern fish were still a day or two behind and I could still catch 'em if I fished thoroughly enough.  I made another 25 mile run south and picked every little piece of cover apart and ended up catching one keeper the rest of the day.



SUMMARY:  Believe it or not, I wasn't as bent out of shape over such a horrible day as you would think.  I've been burnt on this same deal before and it's just part of it sometimes during the spawn.  I've had a very blessed season so far and can't let one bomb in a tournament get me down. The main thing I was upset over is not setting the hook on the 50 to 75 bites I was getting in practice.  Had I known they weren't going to bite on Saturday, I would've been sure to let them all know I was there on Thursday and Friday. Congrats to my good friends Jeff Archie, Jackson Ryley and Terry Chastain on top 10 finishes!


This is an entirely different subject but when a guy does what the guy I'm about to talk about has done they deserve some recognition.


A lot of people may have never heard of Tom O'Bryant because he doesn't do the social media thing, or the team deal thing or the fancy jersey thing but what he does do is flat out catch 'em!  He and I became friends a couple of years ago when we dueled it out for the "W" in a couple of ABA WBS events.  The first one was August 2012 and Tom had me beat fair and square but a fish care penalty cost him the win and I ended up with the trophy and the fairly substantial Triton Gold/Mercury check that came with it.  Tom was the first guy to congratulate me and I really respected him for that.  Our next tournament was the two day event and Tom was in first right ahead of me after day one.  His fish didn't bite on day two and for the second time in a month I edged him out and once again he was all smiles and the first to congratulate me.  We went through the same thing last year in the two day event and Tom lost the fish to beat me but I landed every bite I had and once again edged him out.  The point I'm trying to make is that at that point some people would be ready to strangle me and making all kinds of excuses as to why they didn't win but Tom just isn't that way.  He's got the same smile on his face when he catches 8lbs as when he catches 34lbs like he did a month ago.  What he's done the past month is pretty incredible and hasn't gotten a lot of attention because it has been in smaller tournaments that don't get the publicity the BFL's and WBS get.  He's caught five bass over 10lbs the past month, three of which were in competition!  He won a Sportsmen's Digest team event in March with 33.94lbs and had a 10.24 and a 10.98lber!  Yesterday he weighed in 28+ and had an absolute freak that weighed 11.84lbs.  There are a bunch of guys on this lake that a lot of people don't know because they don't play the Facebook game or write articles or wear fancy jerseys that can flat out catch fish as good as anybody on the planet.  These are the guys that don't care about the glory they just fish solely for they're love of our sport and I just want to give a shout out to all of them, especially Mr. O'Bryant.




Me and Joe Thomas Reelin' in the Outdoors!

TOM THE GIANT SLAYER!

Sunday, April 6, 2014

ABA Weekend Bass Series KY Division Barkley Lake, April 5

I had all intentions of practicing on Barkley for this one especially after I'd called my dad to come up last Monday and get in on some of the umbrella rig action that was taking place and we only caught ten fish all day. I couldn't believe just two days after catching fish until my fingers bled, we could barely get a bite on any of my offshore schools. Luckily a couple of the ones we caught were the right caliber and my dad ended up boating a 4lber and a 6lber that day. 

Tuesday was the second Sportsmen's Digest Series 1 event of the year and I decided to spend that day "making sure" my umbrella rig deal was over. I fished from Paris to New Johnsonville dropping A bomb's on every place I could think of and at 11 a.m. I had one bite, a 2.5lber. I spent another hour really working one of my productive areas from last weekend over in hopes of relocating the school. I fished from the river channel to the back of a pocket and never had a bite. At about noon I was almost convinced that I wasn't even going to catch a limit of bass after catching 15 limits just a few days earlier. I pulled out my old trusty Redeye Shad and headed to the shallows and ended up catching 18.62lbs which landed me in 5th place and I had 2nd big fish with a 5.20. The key thing I learned from this tournament was that if a 5.20lber was the 2nd biggest fish caught in a tournament featuring some of the best New Johnsonville fishermen alive, the "biggun's" were definitely on the move.

Since my track record in April on KY Lake is far from stellar (unless the water hits the bushes), I was definitely planning on spending my practice time on Barkley after Tuesday but my guide trip the next day on KY changed my tune. I figured I'd take the guy out and whack a bunch of 3lbers on a Redeye Shad and then head to Barkley on Thursday and Friday to try and figure something out for the tournament. My client could only do a half day so I met him at Paris Landing at 11 a.m. and we headed to the place I'd caught a few in the Series 1. I gave him my all time favorite spring rattle bait, the Chili Craw Redeye Shad and told him it was THE bait he needed to be throwing because every fish I've weighed in this year on a lipless crankbait has come on that very bait. He started fishing and asked me why I wasn't fishing and I said it was his trip and I wanted him to catch the fish. He told me that was like us going to play golf and me just keeping score so he wanted me to fish. I pulled another Redeye Shad out in Sexy Shad that I'd thrown some the day before and not had a bite on thinking that would give him the best shot at catching the fish. My third cast with the Sexy produced a 2.5lber. He commented that he thought his bait was supposed to be the magic color and I assured him that it was. A few casts later I bowed up on a pretty good one. I swung it into the boat and it was pushing 5lbs! By this time he's really on my case about how his bait was supposed to be better than mine and again I explained to him how I'd caught so many on the Chili Craw that the paint was chewed off and I hadn't had a bite all year on Sexy Shad. I tried to swap baits with him but he said at that point he was determined to catch a fish on the "magic" color. I power poled down and fan cast around for a few minutes and then I hooked into something I couldn't move. At first I thought it was a stump but I could hear my line singing as it was cutting through the water and just as I said "this can't be a bass", an absolute toad tried to exit the water but she was just too big to get much air and my Redeye came flying back at us! He looked at me and said "that was a ten!" I assured him it wasn't a 10lber but it was definitely in the 8-9lb class and I was just thanking the good Lord we weren't in a tournament! To make a long story short, we caught 'em pretty dang good the next few hours and yes, he did finally catch some on the Chili Craw but I never heard the end of how I gave him the color the big ones didn't want and all that good stuff. It was all in good fun and we ended the day with about 22lbs and could've had substantially more had I landed the giant.

Even after the pretty solid thrashing we put on them on Wednesday I was still skeptical about running that far during the tournament. We were launching out of Barkley Lodge, 80+ miles from where we were catching our fish and those shallow Redeye fish tend to be very undependable. One day their big, the next day their small, the next day their gone, the next day their medium sized, etc., etc. I still wanted to get some time in on Barkley and if I didn't figure anything out over there, I'd roll the dice and make the run to my Redeye fish on KY. That night I found out there were several other tournaments on south Barkley that weekend and that's all I needed to hear. I made up my mind to make the run to KY Lake.

TOURNAMENT: I made the 80 mile run yesterday morning in just over an hour. There was a big college tournament going on at Paris and those guys were all over the bank I was fishing but they weren't on the little flat where the fish were holding so I felt like I was going to be in good shape. I got lined up and dropped my power poles and caught a short fish in just a few casts. A couple casts later I hooked a solid 3.5lber. I smiled at my co angler thinking we were about to unload on 'em but I never had another bite. After trying several baits from several angles, I just couldn't get them going so I made a move. I pulled up on the stretch where I'd lost the giant on Wednesday and pretty quickly put another 3lber in the boat. I slowly fished the bar dropping my power poles and fan casting different baits around making sure I gave every fish around a fair chance to ride in my new Triton. I made it right to where I'd lost the big one Wednesday and hooked a fish! It pulled a little drag and I thought I had hooked another monster but it ended up being a foul hooked 3lber. My next cast I caught a fish pushing 4lbs and that was it for that stretch. I fished another area mainly to give my other two places time to rest and never caught anything. I made it back over to where I started and caught a 2.75lber on my first cast which was number five. I was relieved to catch a limit but I was a little disappointed in the quality. My very next cast one smoked it and it was another good one pushing 4lbs but it came off about half way to the boat! I can't complain because that's the first fish I've lost all year in a tournament but at the time I had no idea how critical that mistake was going to be. I ended up culling once more that day with a 3.25lber and had to leave to head back at 1 p.m. I had a long time to think about my day as I made my way back to Barkley Lodge and really I couldn't think of anything I would've done differently. I felt like other than losing that fish that only cost me about a half pound I'd fished pretty efficiently considering I only had 4 hours to work. My main goal at that point was getting a check to pay some of my gas bill and when I weighed in I learned something a little disturbing. I was in 2nd place with 17.40lbs and 17.50lbs was leading. That's when it really set in that the one I lost could very well come back to haunt me. I was just hoping that somebody would weigh in a big stringer so I wouldn't have to think about losing the winning fish and I finally got word that Harry Barber had a good bag and was probably going to win it. When Harry weighed in he took the lead and eventually won with 17.75lbs! I like Harry a lot and was happy for him to win but man I couldn't quit thinking about letting that 4lber get away. I ended up 3rd and got my Toyota Bonus Bucks again for the 5th straight event so that was a good thing.

SUMMARY: These low weight tournaments drive me nuts! These are the tournaments that you have to capitalize on and this is the 2nd tournament in less than a year out of Barkley Lodge that took 17lbs to win and I was right there just a few ounces out of it. There's a fine line between fishing to win and being stupid and I leaned towards the stupid side in this one. I was bummed out that my fish weren't the size I was hoping for and I got a little sloppy trying to land them. I sort of took it for granted that they were "just" 3.5lbers and not the kind of fish you win with but when it was all said and done, they were the winning fish I just didn't know it. This is something I definitely need to work on. I have it in my head that you have to have 5+ lbers to win a tournament and I don't put the TLC into landing lesser quality fish. Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've made this mistake. Oh well, it could've been worse, I'm just thankful to make it through another event safe and sound with a top 5 finish. Congrats to my friend Harry Barber on the "W" and my good buddy and Guntersville legend Ed Gettys on his 4th place finish.