Sunday, October 12, 2014

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.