NIGHTFISHION CLASSIC PRACTICE AND TOURNAMENT: I try to fish one night tournament a year with my good friend Mike Hardin. He loves it, is very good at it and I think we’ve won all but one that we’ve fished together and we finished second in that one. We usually fish out of Paris Landing Marina against a pretty small field and don’t weigh-in until 2am. Mike had asked me to fish the Nightfishion classic with him this year and it was going to be a little bit different. One big difference was that we were launching out of Barkley State Park about 30 miles from KY Lake and we had to be back at Midnight. Normally we would’ve just fished around close and enjoyed the peace and quiet of a night time derby but this tournament paid 10 grand for first place! That’s some pretty serious cash for a night tournament and we both agreed our best shot at the win would be to make a long run to Paris. That’s where I felt confident in catching a few before dark and that’s Mike’s bread and butter after the sun goes down. Not knowing if it was even feasible to make that kind of a run at 4pm and be back by midnight, I decided to do a little scouting on North KY Lake just in case we couldn’t make it all the way to Paris. While talking to Troy Hollowell about our Michigan trip I asked him what the fish were doing on North KY. He said that a lot of schools had shown back up on the ledges and they had some grown ones in them. I headed out the Thursday before the tournament and I couldn’t believe what I saw on my Lowrance. The schools from Kenlake to Danville had been gone for over a month and it seemed like every obvious place north of Kenlake was loaded! Not only were the northern ledges loaded with bass but they were big ones too! It was more difficult to catch a 2lber than a 5lber if that tells you what kind of quality was swimming around down there. I told Mike I thought we could catch well over 20lbs before dark but we’d need to stay north on KY Lake which would take him out of range of his normal night time stomping grounds. He said that was fine and that we would make due once it got dark because 20+ sounded good to him.
We had around 100 boats which I knew was going to be a cluster trying to run around in the dark on Barkley Lake but we launched at 4:05pm and headed towards the canal. We reached our first school at 4:35pm and I caught two small keepers on my first cast on a crankbait. My next cast produced a 3lber and then they scattered. I wasn’t worried about it too much because I really didn’t think we’d have that much company but the next six places I wanted to fish had at least one boat sitting on them. We found one that was open and I saw a few scattered bass on my Lowrance. Mike popped a 4lber on a swimbait but that was it for that spot. We headed back to where we’d started and the school had regrouped. We caught doubles on about six casts in a row but they were all short fish. After about 20 minutes without a bite we were running out of daylight and I was running out of ideas as to what we should do. Just before I pulled the plug on that school I caught a 3lber as I was pulling my swimbait out of the water. We decided to make one more lap around the lake and see if any schools had opened up and if not we’d get our night gear rigged up.
Every school was still getting hammered so we got night ready and headed to a stump filled ledge. I was pretty disappointed that we only had 15lbs before dark and I knew I’d put Mike in a bind having him so far from his best night stuff. He assured me we would be ok and once it got good and dark he bowed up on a good one. I cut my head lamp on and netted a good largemouth that culled a 15” keeper. We weren’t real sure just how big that fish was as it’s hard to judge when it’s pitch black but we guessed it was around 5.5lbs.
About a half hour went by and we just kept working back and forth on the ledge and then I loaded up on a good fish. Mike scooped mine up and I culled another 15”er. He asked me how big mine was and I said around 5lbs. We decided to spend the rest of the evening fishing around that same ledge and we each lost a good fish but never caught any that would help our cause. We thought we had around 19lbs and when we got to weigh-in I was blown away when I heard that 29lbs was leading. That is a monster stringer any time of year but for a night tournament on Barkley in August, that’s ridiculous!
When we got to the scales they wanted us to weigh one of our big fish and when Mike picked the two big ones up not only could we barely tell them apart, they were substantially larger than what we thought. The one Mike had caught definitely had the fattest belly so we dropped her on the scales and she weighed 7.03lbs! That was a nice surprise and she ended up being big fish of the tournament and our total weight was good enough for 4th place at 23.38lbs.
SUMMARY: Apparently we weren’t the only ones that got the memo on the biggun’s being out on North KY Lake. The top 7 all came from that area and amazingly 1st and 2nd both had they’re weight before dark. We took home a little over a grand for our efforts and it’s always a good time fishing with my old buddy Mike Hardin. I couldn’t have done it without him because there is no way I would’ve run all the way to Barkley State Park in the dark! I lost a few years off of my life as I was a nervous wreck the entire way but once again the good Lord took care of us and for that I’m very thankful.
BARREN RIVER BFL PRACTICE: I had an absolute blast catching big smallies with Troy up in Michigan but by the time I got home and got everything ready for Barren, I was down to one full day of practice. The only chance of making the KY Lake regional was to have a good finish in this last tournament and I was afraid one day on an unfamiliar lake just wouldn’t be enough to put it together. A couple of good friends of mine had spent several days practicing and they were nice enough to fill me in on what they’d found since I had a limited practice session. The main thing they told me was that there weren’t any schools left out deep. That narrowed it down because I would’ve spent at least half of my day scanning out deep without that tidbit of info. I rolled into Barren State Park at 6pm on Thursday evening and decided to squeeze an hour or so in before dark. There had been a big school right outside the State Park Marina back in June and I decided to spend some time up shallow in that area in hopes of locating some of the fish that had resided in that school.
I started down the bank and when I got to the back of the cove there was a pile of old docks laying on the bank and out in shallow water. I picked up a tube and pitched around them and caught a 14”er. As I made my way to the back of the cove it got super shallow and I could see a stump under the water and I pitched my tube on it and one smoked it so I shook him off. By that time it was getting dark and I was churning up mud so I turned and fished my way back out and ended up getting a couple more bites on the way.
I hit the lake Friday morning and headed up the river. I fished coves, flats, shallow banks, deep banks and everything in between. I got several bites pitching my tube around any isolated wood laying in shallow water out away from the bank but there just wasn’t that much of that kind of stuff. I marked every piece that I could find and didn’t set the hook on any of the fish that bit. I decided I would head back down the lake and spend the last few hours of the day scanning out deep just to be sure I couldn’t find any schools. Just when I got to the area I wanted to scan in a big storm started rolling in. I scanned a point and was almost positive I saw a few bass laying on it and they were on the back side about halfway down the structure. I ran to another point close by and the tip where the fish would normally be was void so I got on the backside and eased along the length of the point. When I got halfway down the point I saw a HUGE school of bass off to my right. I couldn’t believe there was such a giant school on such an obvious place that no one had found but all I could figure is that they were so far down the point they’d been over looked. By then thunder was booming and I was ready to take cover but I had to make sure they would bite because on my last trip to Barren even though you found big schools most of them still wouldn’t bite. They were suspended up off the bottom a little bit so I fired a BAJA X spinnerbait out into them and burnt it through the school and a 3lber choked it. Another big bolt of lightning hit nearby so I headed to the ramp with an entirely new game plan for day 1 of the tournament.
BARREN RIVER BFL DAY 1 SEPT. 12: I was boat 72 out of 107 and had a bad feeling I would never get a shot at the big school I’d found Friday afternoon. I headed straight there and was pleasantly surprised when I had it all to myself. I decided not to scan it and instead just fish where they’d been the day before.
I started just short of my waypoint and within a couple cast my co-angler caught a 4lber. A few casts later I caught a 3lber and then he caught a 3lber. My next cast I caught a small keeper and then a 4lber. It looked like it was going to be an easy limit and a great start to the day and then they shut off. I could still see them on my sonar and tried every bait in my boat from every angle imaginable but at 10:30 we hadn’t had another bite.
I decided to run up the river and flip some wood and come back to my deep school later in the day. I got very few bites flipping and the only one I hooked was about a 2.5lber that got wrapped around a log and came off. I headed back to my deep fish and spent the last few hours of the day trying to coax one more bite out of them but it never happened. I weighed in 3 fish for 8lbs 13oz and surprisingly made the day 2 cut in 16th place.
BARREN RIVER BFL DAY 2 SEPT. 13: I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my deep fish biting on day 2 but had to try them. I started there and fished for about 15 minutes without a bite and then decided to scan the point. There were only four bass left down there and I knew I had to make a change. With lots of time left I decided to ease in behind the marina I’d fished on Thursday evening. I got back to the pile of abandon docks and started picking them apart with my tube. I made a long pitch over a dock and hooked a fish pushing 3lbs. It flew out of the water and then headed straight under one of the docks. I tried to get enough leverage to swing her over the dock but she came unbuttoned. I hated to see it happen but knew I was taking a chance before I ever made the cast. I pitched right back into the same spot and yanked a small keeper over the dock and into the boat. I worked my way on into the back of the pocket and it looked much different with the sun shining. There was a nice little distinct ditch that snaked around the flat. I could see dark spots resembling old stumps scattered around on the flat. I started pitching to the dark spots and I saw a good fish flash on my bait and swim out with it. I set the hook and a 4lber went tail walking across the water and came unbuttoned! At that point I was getting very frustrated after seeing two good fish on the end of my line and had neither one in the boat. A few pitches later another fish thumped my tube and I missed it on the hook set. It was pretty obvious there were several fish in that little pocket so I got on my navionics map and tried to find similar places. The first one I checked wasn’t set up right but when I got to the back of the second one it was perfect. A 2.5ft deep ditch winding through a 1.5ft deep mud flat. I dropped my power poles and started pitching at any dark spot I could see and on about my third flip a 3lber ate it up. I set the hook, got it half way to the boat and it came off! At that point I lost it and threw my rod down and broke the tip off and that just happened to be the only flipping stick I’d brought with me. I regained my composure, rigged up another rod with a different hook and when I stood up I saw about a 3lb fish swimming right towards my boat. I was sure it was a carp or a sickly drum or something but as it got closer I verified that it was a largemouth! I’ve never seen a bass acting quite like that and assumed it was injured or blind or on it’s death bed. Just for the heck of it I pitched my tube right on top of it and it’s gills flared as it engulfed my bait. I couldn’t believe what a freebie I was about to get and when I set the hook I came up empty. By that point it was almost comical how many good fish I’d missed or lost and I told my co-angler I didn’t even want to get another bite because I knew I wouldn’t land it. I worked my way around the creek and the last really good looking piece of wood I pitched on I had another solid keeper pull off right as it was coming out of the water. Very frustrated, I was ready to throw in the towel and I told my co, who was a local, I’d take him anywhere he wanted to go. I took him into a big shallow pocket he liked and he caught a keeper and a 3lber back there but I never got a bite. As we were back there fishing I knew I’d figured out probably the best pattern on the lake with the little ditches in the back of the pockets if I could only get the fish in the boat so I decided to run back through everything I’d already fished. I ended up catching two more keepers and a 3lber but time finally ran out. I weighed in 4 fish for 8lbs 10oz and moved up to 8th place for the tournament and squeaked into the KY Lake Regional in 44th place in the points!
SUMMARY: This was a fun but stressful tournament. I knew every bite was critical as far as me making the Regional and when I lost 12lbs worth of fish in the first few hours I just knew I’d blown my shot. I luckily stayed with it and ended up catching just enough to make it to where I needed to be. I’m not real sure why the fish weren’t hooking up good. I was actually running a pattern I run on KY Lake in the spring during the spawn when the water is low and the fish at Barren were acting and biting like spawning fish. I don’t know enough about the spawn to know if there was possibly as second spawn going on but something was definitely strange about the whole deal. Oh well, at least I accomplished the main goal of qualifying for the Regional on KY Lake in October which could be worth as much as 70 grand and an All American berth.
I decided to run up the river and flip some wood and come back to my deep school later in the day. I got very few bites flipping and the only one I hooked was about a 2.5lber that got wrapped around a log and came off. I headed back to my deep fish and spent the last few hours of the day trying to coax one more bite out of them but it never happened. I weighed in 3 fish for 8lbs 13oz and surprisingly made the day 2 cut in 16th place.
BARREN RIVER BFL DAY 2 SEPT. 13: I didn’t have a lot of confidence in my deep fish biting on day 2 but had to try them. I started there and fished for about 15 minutes without a bite and then decided to scan the point. There were only four bass left down there and I knew I had to make a change. With lots of time left I decided to ease in behind the marina I’d fished on Thursday evening. I got back to the pile of abandon docks and started picking them apart with my tube. I made a long pitch over a dock and hooked a fish pushing 3lbs. It flew out of the water and then headed straight under one of the docks. I tried to get enough leverage to swing her over the dock but she came unbuttoned. I hated to see it happen but knew I was taking a chance before I ever made the cast. I pitched right back into the same spot and yanked a small keeper over the dock and into the boat. I worked my way on into the back of the pocket and it looked much different with the sun shining. There was a nice little distinct ditch that snaked around the flat. I could see dark spots resembling old stumps scattered around on the flat. I started pitching to the dark spots and I saw a good fish flash on my bait and swim out with it. I set the hook and a 4lber went tail walking across the water and came unbuttoned! At that point I was getting very frustrated after seeing two good fish on the end of my line and had neither one in the boat. A few pitches later another fish thumped my tube and I missed it on the hook set. It was pretty obvious there were several fish in that little pocket so I got on my navionics map and tried to find similar places. The first one I checked wasn’t set up right but when I got to the back of the second one it was perfect. A 2.5ft deep ditch winding through a 1.5ft deep mud flat. I dropped my power poles and started pitching at any dark spot I could see and on about my third flip a 3lber ate it up. I set the hook, got it half way to the boat and it came off! At that point I lost it and threw my rod down and broke the tip off and that just happened to be the only flipping stick I’d brought with me. I regained my composure, rigged up another rod with a different hook and when I stood up I saw about a 3lb fish swimming right towards my boat. I was sure it was a carp or a sickly drum or something but as it got closer I verified that it was a largemouth! I’ve never seen a bass acting quite like that and assumed it was injured or blind or on it’s death bed. Just for the heck of it I pitched my tube right on top of it and it’s gills flared as it engulfed my bait. I couldn’t believe what a freebie I was about to get and when I set the hook I came up empty. By that point it was almost comical how many good fish I’d missed or lost and I told my co-angler I didn’t even want to get another bite because I knew I wouldn’t land it. I worked my way around the creek and the last really good looking piece of wood I pitched on I had another solid keeper pull off right as it was coming out of the water. Very frustrated, I was ready to throw in the towel and I told my co, who was a local, I’d take him anywhere he wanted to go. I took him into a big shallow pocket he liked and he caught a keeper and a 3lber back there but I never got a bite. As we were back there fishing I knew I’d figured out probably the best pattern on the lake with the little ditches in the back of the pockets if I could only get the fish in the boat so I decided to run back through everything I’d already fished. I ended up catching two more keepers and a 3lber but time finally ran out. I weighed in 4 fish for 8lbs 10oz and moved up to 8th place for the tournament and squeaked into the KY Lake Regional in 44th place in the points!
SUMMARY: This was a fun but stressful tournament. I knew every bite was critical as far as me making the Regional and when I lost 12lbs worth of fish in the first few hours I just knew I’d blown my shot. I luckily stayed with it and ended up catching just enough to make it to where I needed to be. I’m not real sure why the fish weren’t hooking up good. I was actually running a pattern I run on KY Lake in the spring during the spawn when the water is low and the fish at Barren were acting and biting like spawning fish. I don’t know enough about the spawn to know if there was possibly as second spawn going on but something was definitely strange about the whole deal. Oh well, at least I accomplished the main goal of qualifying for the Regional on KY Lake in October which could be worth as much as 70 grand and an All American berth.
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