ABA 100% TEAM TRAIL AUGUST 22, 2015

I was looking forward to fishing my first tournament since June especially since we're moving in on my favorite time of year to fish, when there are more ways to catch quality fish than just driving around looking for them on your Lowrance.

My good friend Ed Gettys had been on a tare of late catching 20+ lb stringers out of the hydrilla regularly.  Knowing I was going to help Odom's Blue and Gray Marine work their Triton booth at the Big Bass Splash the weekend prior to the lake going off limits for the tournament, I decided to slip out for a couple days earlier that week and see what I could find in the grass.

TEAM TRAIL PRE-PRACTICE:  I headed to the Danville area on Tuesday August 11 and it didn't take me long to get a few bites.  The bad part was I missed or lost my first few bites so not only did I not know the size of the fish, I didn't even know if they were bass.  I finally hooked about a 2lber and got it into the boat and a couple cast later I hooked into what felt like a giant!  My line headed to the left and I could hear it cutting trough the water and strands of grass were floating to the top like a bush hog had run through it, and then it pulled off.  I still have no clue what size that fish was or what species but I really needed to ID that fish in order to know if I was in the right area.  I went awhile without a bite and decided to change areas.

I picked out a nice little point with a ditch swinging around it on the map and thought that looked like a prime location to check.  When I dropped my trolling motor I saw hydrilla on my Lowrance and I fired a long cast towards the little point.  I missed a fish on my first cast, caught a 2.5lber on my 2nd cast and caught a 5lber on my 3rd cast.  I made a few more cast and noticed I wasn't hitting any grass so I started trolling towards where the fish had been and it was as slick as glass on the bottom.  I was really confused as to why these fish were there and got frustrated to the point that I started to leave.

As I fired up my Mercury to take off I started thinking there was no way there were 3 fish laying out in the middle of nowhere and I was determined to figure out why they were there.  I idled around for about an hour studying the lay of the land and I finally figured out that the map was off and I had actually been sitting in the shallow water casting into the deep and the majority of the grass was behind me. That told me that there must have been a pretty big group of fish there if I caught some that far away from the grass plus the big one right under me in the edge of the grass.

Once I had my bearings and really understood how the grass was growing I started fishing my way back through the area and as soon as I got within a cast of the way-point where I had my first few bites, I popped a 4lber!  That was all I needed to see for that little spot so I moved on.

I found another school of fish a little later but they topped out at about 3lbs and then I went fish-less for the rest of the day.

I headed back out on Wednesday, August 12 for one final day of scouting.  I headed to the New Johnsonville area and it was terrible. I caught 3 short fish all day and missed a few bites but that was all I could come up with.

ABA TEAM TRAIL OFFICIAL PRACTICE:  By the time the official practice day rolled around, my partner David Gnewikow and I had talked and he wasn't going to be able to make the tournament. Fortunately for me, my good buddy Ed Gettys was the hottest stick on the lake and was planning on fishing alone so he asked me if I would like to fish it with him.  I jumped all over the opportunity to learn from the master and we began planning our practice day.

We decided I would check the patterns the fish may be going to if they were leaving the grass and he would continue hunting fish in the grass but stay away from anything we'd already found.  At the end of the day I hadn't had a single bite on top water and I'd caught a limit of 2lbers fishing shallow bars, stumps and brush.

Ed had caught about 20lbs fishing in the grass off of places that he'd either never fished before or places that fit the pattern that he'd checked earlier in the summer with no success.

After sharing notes on our practice sessions Ed really believed after what he caught on his new found places and secondary places that his primary places should still be loaded and we both agreed we would live and die in the grass.

ABA TEAM TRAIL TOURNAMENT:  We had one place holding some good fish close to Paris that Ed had caught some on a couple weeks prior and I had slipped in there and checked it the week before and caught a 5lber so we decided to start there.  After a half hour he had caught one short fish and we decided to head south.

We pulled up on the place where he'd won the Weekend Bass Series just a few weeks earlier and he hadn't made a cast on it since that day.  We fished around that area for another 30 minutes and caught one short fish.

Our next stop was where Ed had caught a big one on Friday and after 30 minutes there, not a sniff.

The next stop was one where he caught a 4.5lber on one cast and left the day before and after a 45 minute stay, I'd caught two line burner keepers.

We made a short run to a stretch where Ed said he'd caught about 30 bass in the WBS that he'd won but none of them would help him that day because they were all 4lbs or less!   At that point in the day we would've welcomed anything over 15".  I could tell he had a ton of confidence in this area because we spent at least an hour working it over but when we left we'd caught one 14.5" fish.

It was 9:30 and Ed said he had one more place and after that he didn't know what we should do.  I told him I had a few grass stretches that had some good fish two weeks before but if they weren't biting in his grass they probably wouldn't be in mine either as we both look for the same type grass.

We headed to his most southern area, an area that he hadn't fished in 12 days.  We fished through what he thought was the sweet spot without a bite.  He moved in a little shallower and finally he hooked up with a 4lber!  That gave us 3 in the box, two of which we new we had to get rid of to have any shot at all of winning the event.

I jumped up and fired a cast out into the same area where he caught the 4lber and I caught a 2lber. and Ed caught a 2lber. on his next cast. That gave us our limit at about 10:15 and they weighed a whopping 12lbs.

We fished around a little bit and I paid close attention to every move Ed was making as he is a master of his craft whether it be deep or shallow.  We eventually made it back in the area where we'd caught those three real quick and Ed popped another 4lber.

As I was culling a 2lber I noticed Ed was trolling away from the area where we were getting all of our bites.  He kept saying "something isn't right"! I asked him what he meant and he said that there were some big ones close by.  In my brain I was thinking at that point in the day 4lbers were looking pretty big but he insisted we troll around until he saw what he was looking for.  I kept launching casts as far back towards where the action had been happening as I could but he kept getting further away.

Just as I was beginning to question his decision to leave the hottest area we'd found all day he said, "there it is"!  I'm not sure what he saw even though he tried to show it to me and explain it to me but it was such a subtle change in the grass I just couldn't see it.  He spun the boat around and fired a cast out and the next thing I knew I was dropping a 7.26lb brute into the live-well!  I told Ed while I've always had a ton of respect for him and his ability to find and catch fish, I was very close to questioning his decision to leave biting 4lbers but I would never do it again.  We had a pretty good laugh about it and then I heard "BIGGUN"!  I look up and he has another good fish hooked right under the boat and I scooped up a 5lb class fish into the net.

The decision he made to drift away from the 2-4lb class fish had taken us from 14lbs to 22 lbs in about a half  hour span.  Although we both knew we still had a lot of work to do to make a run at the win, to be able to sit and watch one of my heroes, best buddies and legends do his thing was worth the price of admission to me.  There are very few times I've ever been in a boat where I feel like I'm totally useless but watching him pick out those subtleties in that grass and surgically remove giants from it was mind boggling.

Knowing that area had the winning size fish we both agreed we should spend as much more time there as possible.  Unfortunately we never had another bite and time was running out.  I was almost a little intimidated to offer my input after the show the master had just put on but I really felt good about a couple of the grass areas I'd found so I asked Ed what he thought and he said let's go.

I eased into my first area and everything looked perfect grass wise.  As soon as I reached my way-point I made a long cast to my lineup on the bank and a good fish gobbled my worm up.  Ed came up front with the net and scooped a 6lber up which culled our 15"er and gave us around 25lbs.  We were pretty pumped up I have to say because fishing had been very tough the previous few weeks and we knew getting five good ones in the boat would put us in contention to win a Triton Boat not to mention 9 grand in Triton Gold and Mercury contingency money.

We fished hard til the end and we did catch a few more fish but the biggest was about 3.75lbs and wouldn't help our cause.

We were in the last flight and one of the last boats to weigh-in.  When I dropped them on the scales we took the lead with 25.50lbs and took over big fish with Ed's 7.26lber.

Everyone was congratulating us and even the tournament director said we needed to go around back and take a polygraph because no one was going to beat that and just before the scales closed, my heart sank as I heard a 27lb stringer hit the scales.

SUMMARY:   When the difference in a win and a 2nd place finish is about 20 grand, it hurts a little to finish 2nd.  The good news is we didn't lose any fish that would've helped us.  Plus, we got beat by a pretty substantial margin when you start talking about mid to high 20lb bags in August which makes it a little easier to swallow. At the end of the day, wins, boats and money come and go but the experience, the memories and what I learned watching one of my heroes in action that day, I can keep forever. It truly was another blessed day on the water and one I'll never forget.

JUNE 6 BARREN RIVER BFL

As I’ve said before, I decided to fish the Mountain division of the BFL’s this year in hopes of making the top 50 in points and qualifying for the regional on KY Lake in October. After the first two events I was in good shape sitting in 16th in the points. I had to miss the Lake Cumberland event and could only hope that a lot of guys would zero in that one and keep me within reach of the top 50. Unfortunately most of the field caught at least one keeper and I slipped all the way to 96 in the points. I knew my only hope to make it back into the top 50 was to have two great finishes in the final two events. I headed to Barren River for the first time with my sights set on a top 10 finish.

BARREN RIVER BFL PRACTICE: I had never been to Barren River before but several of my friends had. They had informed me that there would be schools out deep that I could find on my Lowrance but there was a good chance I wouldn’t be able to get on those places on a Saturday. I had also heard that you could catch some good fish up the river flipping in the summer as well.

I had marked about 20 places on my map that fit the criteria for holding a school so my first day of practice I ran around and scanned those. At the end of the day I’d found 7 schools and caught a 3 to 5lber out of each of them on my very first cast with an Ignite swimbait.

I spent day 2 up the river flipping and scanning some more subtle deep stuff. I found a stretch of river bank that had several fish on it but only found one more school of deep fish.

I was feeling pretty good about the tournament until I started talking with a couple of my buddies that were fishing it too. We figured out we’d all found the same schools and we knew if we had found them others had as well.

We decided to make a deal with each other that if one of us got a good boat draw, we would go to the school that we all agreed had the most potential for big fish and then share it with the other two.

When pairings came out that night I had the best draw with boat number 69 which pretty much told us we weren’t going to get to fish our best places.

I decided for tournament day I’d make a lap around the lake and see if any deep stuff was open and if not I’d head up the river with a flippin’ stick in my hand.

BARREN RIVER BFL #3 JUNE 6, 2015: I headed up the arm of the lake where I’d found all of my schools and it happened that my best school was the first one I came to. I was pretty shocked to see no one around when I pulled in. I wanted to scan the area and see if the school was there but with 100 more boats blasting off behind me, I was afraid someone would pull in on me, drop their trolling motor and stake claim to the spot while I was idling around on it which seems to be the new thing for people to do to make it “ok” for them to fish there and then you’re in the wrong if you get up and start fishing even though you were there first but that’s another story for another time.

I got right on my way point and dropped my trolling motor and not long after that a boat pulled up and I could tell he wanted to fish there. I have to give him credit because even though he still pulled in behind me and casted at my trolling motor, he didn’t pull in front of me like he could’ve done. 

I was determined I wasn’t going to budge from that waypoint until he left and then I could idle around and look for my school. So, after a two hour standoff, neither of us had ever had a bite and he finally left.  

I immediately fired up my Mercury and idled over the point. I made a pass straight through where I’d been casting for two hours and I couldn’t believe what I saw. There were at least 100 bass laying right in my line of fire and I hadn’t even had a sniff!

I jumped up and fired my swimbait at them from another angle and caught a 3.5lber. I told my co they were about to fire and we were going to make a run at the win and then two hours passed without a bite! 

 Knowing I’d been casting right into the heart of the winning fish for 4 hours and only gotten one bite was a little discouraging so I decided to move on. 

My next school was open but I could tell they’d been fished for as they were scattered around all over the place. I made several passes over them to get a good idea of how and where they were positioned and once I felt like I knew where the bulk of them were I made a cast and caught a 2.5lber. A couple cast later I caught another 2.5lber and then it was over. 

I ran around and looked at my other schools and they had boats camped out on them so I told my co that I was going to gamble that the fish in the schools would be so tough to catch that a lot of guys would give up on them later in the day. 

I decided to run up the river and flip for a couple hours and then run back through my deep stuff on the way to weigh in. 

I caught a 2 lber on about my third pitch once I made it up the river and was feeling like it was a good decision. Almost two hours later I hadn’t had a bite and was wishing I’d just stayed on the schools all day. 

I headed back down just hoping some of the deep stuff would’ve opened up but it seemed like there were more guys fishing deep than earlier in the day. 

I decided to fish a rocky hump I’d found in practice that was within sight of a couple of my schools and if either of them opened up I’d make a run for them. 

With about an hour to go a boat left one of my schools and I headed straight for it and scanned around trying to see what I had to work with. 

I saw about 20 bass scattered around and suspended pretty high in the water column.  I pulled out my BAJA X spinnerbait and began burning it through the school. I caught a 3lber which gave me my limit and with just minutes to go I caught another 3lber and culled my 2lb flipping fish. 

That gave me about 15lbs which I knew would be real close to a top 10. I was pretty pumped to have gone to a lake I’d never seen, grind it out and accomplish my goal of a top 10 finish. 

As I bagged my fish up, I heard that 16lbs was leading. That made me feel even better about my chances of making the top 10. As I stepped from my boat over to the dock a terrible thing happened.

My 3lber that I’d caught just a half hour earlier got a running start and leapt out of my bag! 

It hit the side of my boat, then the wall of the dock and fell right back into the lake! I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I set there speechless for a minute and my co turned and said “what’s wrong”? 

He didn’t believe me when I told him until he counted the fish in my bag. I almost dumped the rest of my fish in the lake I was so frustrated but knew I’d regret it later so I went ahead and weighed-in and my 4 that didn’t escape weighed 11lbs 10oz and I finished in 38th place. 

SUMMARY: Man, what a frustrating deal. Not only did that escapee cost me several hundred dollars, it cost me a top 10 and about 25 places in the points. 

I moved up from 96th to 71st with my 38th place finish and with that fish I would’ve been 52nd and only had to catch a couple fish in the last event to make the regional in 4 tournaments which is nearly impossible to do in a division as tough as the Mountain. 

Now I’m 60 points out of 50th place going into the last event which means I need a top 10 and several guys have to zero in order for me to make it. 

Oh well, things happen but I’ve always been afraid of a fish jumping out of my bag and usually roll the top over and carry it with two hands but the dock wall was concrete and I had power poled down a few feet away to keep my boat off of the concrete and had to carry my bag by the handles with one hand and jump across to the dock. 

A lot of people have told me that’s why you trailer your boat before bagging your fish but FLW doesn’t allow us to trailer. We have to weigh in before we take our boats out. 

I’m not blaming them for my mishap but if they are going to force us to use the bags they provide and weigh-in from the water, I do wish they would give us zippered bags to keep things like this from happening.