For those of you that have followed my blogs, articles, etc., know that I've never set the woods on fire in early to mid April. The only good finishes I've had in BFL's or Weekend Bass Series tournaments have always been when the water comes up earlier than normal and I can catch them flipping flooded buck bushes. Last year I guided a bunch during April and filmed a t.v. show with Joe Thomas and was forced to learn how to catch some fish. I actually had a pretty good time during that span and felt like I had figured out what I'd been missing.
With a busy guide schedule and an LBL BFL on the April schedule this year, I was looking forward to putting what I learned in 2014 to use.
Unfortunately the water stayed a couple feet below what it was last year and the patterns and places I found a year ago weren't much of a factor. We were able to scramble around and catch several fish on my guide trips but the 20lb stringers I saw in '14 were nowhere to be found.
Back in the day when all I knew was shallow water fishing on Cheatham and Old Hickory Lakes, Barkley was like the promised land for a river rat that was accustomed to just hoping to catch a limit of keepers every time they went fishing.
Barkley was also where I had my first big payday in a tournament when my buddy Stevie Mills and I won a team classic there in 2004. In fact, I was so fond of Barkley Lake, when I saw two Barkley tournaments on the 2006 LBL BFL schedule I decided to fish their division that year and ended up falling in love with both KY and Barkley and would eventually call KY Lake home.
For all of these reasons, Barkley will always be special to me and I would love to be able to win a BFL off of Barkley and I know that the best time to do that is in the Spring when KY Lake is fishing tough.
With the KY Lake bass being stubborn, I decided to head to Barkley the Friday before the 2nd LBL BFL of the year and if I didn't catch 'em, I'd tough it out beating the banks on KY in the tournament.
LBL BFL PRACTICE: I headed to Dover, TN Friday morning with my buddy Kenneth McChristian. We pulled into a small creek that never has been a big fish area but it's a good little place to pick apart real quickly and try to dial in on a pattern. Within the first hour it was apparent that the fish were on steep rocky banks and readily chomping a Strike King Rodent. We caught a dozen bass or so with our best 5 weighing about 12lbs.
We made a short run to another creek that had the right ingredients and historically holds some better quality specimens. I decided to give a new spinnerbait my buddy Jeff Archie and I designed a try and within a few cast I hooked up with a beautiful egg laden 4.5lber. Kenneth asked me if we should just leave and I said let's make a few flips and see if we get anymore bites and my first pitch with my Rodent I bowed up on a 5.5lber!
I ran around the rest of the day and before it was said and done I could basically call my shots on where the big ones would be laying. We caught around 40 keepers just running new water and our best 5 weighed 23lbs.
You would think with the fish biting like that it would've been a no brainer on what I should do in the tournament but some of you may recall that last year before the April BFL I had absolutely smoked them on South Barkley for a couple days only to find them locked on nests during the tournament in which I only managed two small keepers.
After some serious thought I decided there was no way Barkley could burn me two years in a row and I made up my mind to hit the canal Saturday morning and point my Triton towards Dover, TN.
LBL BFL TOURNAMENT APRIL 11: After a 45 mile run weaving in and out of floating trees, I reached my first stop which was where I'd caught back to back bigguns' on Friday. I made several casts with the spinnerbait and caught a short fish. I picked up a Rodent and within ten minutes had 3 keepers in the live-well. I didn't know it at the time but getting those early bites on the Rodent may have been the worst thing that could've happened. I ran through all of my areas and at 12:30 I only had four small keepers. I headed back to my starting spot determined to get my fifth keeper and hopefully salvage the day with a check as a limit of 2.5lbers is usually enough to earn a little money in April. I decided to spend the last hour seining the area with my Rodent and if there was a fish living there make sure it got a look at my bait. I ended up catching several more keepers that last hour and culled a couple times but only for ounces. I weighed in 12lbs 14oz. and finished in 37th place and missed the last check by 7oz.
SUMMARY: I've been burnt by Barkley on more than one occasion and believe it or not I wasn't surprised it happened again. The part that really frustrated me this time around was that the majority of the top 20 were fishing on Barkley and throwing spinnerbaits on steep banks which is the same pattern I was on. I have to wonder if I'd stayed with the spinnerbait all day if I would have had a better stringer. Between catching those so fast on my Rodent that morning and the sun being bright with no wind, it just didn't seem like the spinnerbait was the way to go. The good news is I made it there and back without hitting any floating trees and I moved to 3rd in the points standings so it wasn't a total loss.
DALE HOLLOW BFL PRACTICE: I was really looking forward to another few days on Dale Hollow Lake and I had allowed two full days of practice in my schedule. The only thing I wasn't looking forward to was the fact that the water had just hit the bushes on KY Lake and I knew I was probably going to miss the best week of flipping of the entire year.
Rusty Rust called me Monday before I left and asked me if I would like to film the Fishin' Affliction T.V. show with him on Wednesday. I had planned on packing and leaving for Dale that day but I couldn't turn down the chance to film a show catching fish my favorite way, flippin'! I told Rusty that I would be happy to do the show and we should be able to catch enough by noon to make a good show and then he could just drop me off at the ramp and I could head to Dale Hollow.
Long story short, other than a couple big ones we lost early in the day, at 4:30pm we had only caught some small keepers and a couple of 3lbers. Rusty knew I needed to get off the water and kept asking me if I needed to leave but I just couldn't throw in the towel that easily. We ended up catching more in the last two hours than we'd caught all day and put about 20lbs in the boat before it was said and done.
I finally made it to Dale Hollow Thursday afternoon and spent a few hours running around looking for beds. I'd heard the spawn was on in full force but after a few hours of looking, I'd seen one 3lber and I would've never spotted him if he hadn't rolled up on my Sexy Frog. I didn't get much accomplished that day other than making up my mind I was going to try to get on a flipping pattern on Friday.
I flipped everything in sight Friday morning and quickly figured out the fish were in a certain type of bush and readily chomping on a Strike King Rodent. I'm not sure what the proper name for these bushes is but I called them tumbleweeds. They were the bushiest bushes I could find and they grew in clusters and by the end of the day I could call my shot on where the fish would be if I could see the right type of bushes. I didn't set the hook much that day but did have about 20 bites and the few I caught were decent keepers up to about 3lbs.
MOUNTAIN BFL DALE HOLLOW APRIL 25: It was raining Saturday morning which didn't really concern me as I've had some of my best days flipping on KY in the rain. I made it to my first area and caught a short fish out of the first bush I pitched in. I was pumped to see what all I could catch after shaking most of my bites off on Friday but never got another bite in that area. My next stop had a few willow trees in it and several clusters of tumbleweeds. I hadn't had a single bite off of a willow tree in practice but made a pitch at one between clusters of bushes and a bass knocked slack in my line. I set the hook and rolled a solid 3lber to the surface and my hook popped out. I was not pleased as every keeper is critical when fishing for points especially one of that quality. I didn't think much about the fish being on a willow at the time but after two more hours of picking the bushes apart I hadn't had a bite. The next area I rolled into I decided to spend more time on the willows and caught a 16" keeper off of each of the first three willows I came to. It was apparent the fish had made a move to the willows but Dale Hollow is full of willows and I didn't want to just fish random willow trees as it would take a year to fish them all. I wanted to fish the willows in the areas where I'd had bites in the bushes but I'd been so dialed in on looking for bushes on Friday I hadn't really paid much attention to the willow population in my best areas. I ran around and looked at my areas and fished what willows were available and the next thing I knew it was 1pm and I only had 3 keepers in the boat. About the time I was thinking I was done for the day the Sun finally broke through the clouds and I thought that just maybe that would put some fish back in the bushes where I needed them to be. I headed straight to where I started the day and over the last hour I lost a critical 3lber and caught 6 bass flipping tumbleweeds including a 3.5lber with 10 minutes to go in the day which gave me my limit. I weighed in 12lbs 8oz and was in the top 20 at the time. I really felt like I would get a check as the bag line was short which signifies lots of zeros but as the later flights started rolling in I started dropping down in the standings. I ended up in 41st place and missed a check by a pound.
SUMMARY: I really have enjoyed my two trips to Dale Hollow. I wish I could've had an extra day to practice because there were a few different patterns that were working that I just didn't have time to dial in. Losing those two 3lbers really hurt me as I would've had enough for a top 10 finish had I put them in the boat. Unfortunately that's happens to everybody that plays this game and you just have to move on from it. I will say that this tournament showed me a lot about how I've progressed as a fishermen as far as mental toughness and decision making goes. I caught my first 3 keepers out of an area I never made a cast in on Friday but I just knew it had them because it looked right. Earlier in my career I would've never been able to spend time in an area that I hadn't caught some out of in practice.
I also used to be really bad about just giving up if I didn't have a limit going into the last hour especially on a lake I didn't know. For me to fish hard to the end and be determined to put those last two in the boat is a huge step from where I was not too long ago.
Last but not least, back in the day once I saw those fish had moved to the willows there is no way I would've abandoned the willows after that. To be able to scrap what was working and head back to the bushes just because the Sun popped out lets me know that I have the confidence in myself and my decision making ability to make the right adjustments in a tough tournament.
I owe a lot of this to my buddy David Gnewikow, he's taught me everything I know about not giving up and staying confident no matter how tough the day is. 12lbs doesn't seem like much but the difference between that and the 3 keepers I had at 1pm was about 50 places in the standings which ultimately moved me up to 16th in the points.
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