BFL KY LAKE REGIONAL OCTOBER 15-17, 2015

BFL REGIONAL PRACTICE: KY Lake had been off limits for a couple weeks and I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone who’d been on the water. I followed tournament results closely and there were a couple of things I figured out from that. The top-water guys were not catching them good but neither were the grass fishermen. I also felt like I’d found the part of the lake with the biggest population of top-water fish in my previous BFL and I knew a few other guys also knew they were in those areas and none of them did very well in the tournaments that had taken place during my off limits.

I was determined to live and die with top-water in the regional and I still felt like the northern ¼ of the lake was the place to do it. I knew the schools I’d located before my last tournament had to be somewhere and I had 5 days to find them.

BFL REGIONAL PRACTICE: Practice started off pretty good. After some serious map study I’d picked out a couple areas that I felt were set up right to hold a school of spook fish. The 2nd one I pulled up on was absolutely loaded and I had 10 bites on 8 casts and got out of there as quickly as possible so I wouldn’t be seen.

It took me about two hours to find the next school and while they didn’t look as big, I had 3lbers fighting over my plug as I walked it to the boat.

I ended up finding two more top-water schools that day and about 100 yard stretch where I could get a few bites. I checked my little deep school that bailed me out in my two day right at the end of the day and they were stacked!

I was feeling very confident going into day 2 of practice but after several hours of fishing the best stuff I know, I had one blow up on my spook.

I ran around and checked some other patterns and ended up catching a couple of short fish.

I decided on day 3 that I needed to focus more on the part of the lake I’d found so many fish in on Sunday. After 5hrs. I hadn’t had a bite! I decided to sneak in and check one of the schools I’d found on Sunday and never had a sniff there.

I was losing confidence by the minute and decided that my best bet would be to get off the water, prepare my tackle and make any adjustments that needed to be made during the tournament.

BFL REGIONAL DAY 1 OCT. 15: With 189 boat field stacked with some of the best fishermen that aren’t fishing at the tour level I’ve ever competed against, I was concerned that all of my schools had been found by some of my competition.

I was hoping to get a good boat draw on day 1 because it was going to be by far the best weather/water conditions to catch a giant bag of the entire tournament and I wanted to be sure I got a shot at what I felt was the best school on the lake.

I took off boat 16 Thursday morning and let my Triton/Mercury eat in route to my first stop. I was very relieved to see the area void of any other boats when I arrived. 

I started short of my waypoint and had that anxious feeling wondering if my fish would still be around. On about my 2nd cast I told my co that I believed these were the winning fish I just didn’t know if they’d stay put for 3 days and before I finished the sentence a couple of good ones ran shad out of the water right on my waypoint from practice! 

I bombed a cast into the frenzy and for the next half hour I had a blow up on every cast! I made my first cast at 7:30 and at 7:52 I culled my first fish. When the action slowed it was a good feeling having a limit so fast but I was very disappointed in the size of the fish. I had about 13lbs in the boat and had missed a 5lber. I stayed there until 9am just to make sure no one else tried to come in on my school and I never saw another boat. 

I made about a 5 mile run to my 2nd best school and just like clockwork they were sitting right where I’d found them. I caught about 15 keepers out of that school and culled a couple times by ounces and then I hooked into what I was looking for. I made a loooooong cast with my spook and twitched it twice and a 6lber gobbled it up! That gave me around 17lbs and once the action slowed I headed south to fish for giants but never had a bite the rest of the day. 

I was a little surprised and concerned that I’d caught so many fish that day and didn’t have more big bites as I knew it would only get tougher with a major cold front passing through but I still held the day 1 lead by over 2lbs.

BFL REGIONAL DAY 2:  I was one of the last boats to take-off on day 2 but wasn’t concerned as I hadn’t seen another boat all day the first day. The wind was howling out of the north and when I reached my starting spot there were already 3ft mud rollers breaking over the bar. I’ve caught plenty of fish in those conditions but I just had a bad feeling for some reason. 

I fan cast around the area for about 20 minutes without a bite and something was telling me I needed to leave. I raised my power-poles and started packing up and the wind blew me 30 or 40 yards up onto the bar. Just before I left I power-poled down again and decided to make a few more casts. I cast my bait out of sight and a 2.5lber choked it! My next cast a 2lber ate it but came off. My next cast one missed it and that was the last bite I had on top. 

I knew my school was sitting there for the taking and while I’ve tried to catch these top-water fish 100’s of different ways in the past, it’s never worked. 

I’ll never really know why I did it other than the good Lord was looking out for me, but I dug around in my Triton and pulled out a 5/8oz. Yo-Zuri Rattling Vibe, tied it on the first rod I could get my hands on and fired a long cast out into the school. I burnt the bait about 10 times and killed it and a 3lber swallowed it! I caught about 20 in a row and then the school broke up but I knew the rattle bait was going to be key for the rest of the tournament. 

With the lake swelled up and no success on my southern big fish haunts on day 1, I decided to manage my time and rotate all of the schools I’d found in practice in a 10 mile stretch of the lake and just milk them for all they were worth. 

I upgraded several times throughout the day, weighed 14lbs 15oz and took a 3lb lead into the last day.

BFL REGIONAL DAY 3: The top 12 fished on day 3 and I really liked the conditions we had that morning. It was still a north wind but it had layed down a little and it just seemed like a top-water day. Just a few casts into the morning a big one blew my spook out of the water but missed it. I caught a small keeper and then picked up the vibe. I caught another keeper on the vibe and several short fish and then I hooked a big one! I fought it all the way to the boat and it pulled off! Not what you want to see when you have 65 grand on the line! I made a short move to a school I’d added to the rotation on day 2 and caught a 2.5lber and a 3lber but that was it.

My next stopped produced several keepers for my co and I finally hooked into a solid 3lber that jumped off right by the boat! 

I could feel the win slipping away but I had a very peaceful feeling come over me. I knew that I’d done everything I could do to win and it just wasn’t meant to be. Once I accepted the fact I probably wasn’t going to win but I was at least going to the All American next year, I really settled down and just cut up with my co, fished and had fun the rest of the day. I eventually caught a limit and culled a few times but overall it was by far the toughest day yet.

On my way to Wal-mart I text my parents and friends who were coming out to watch the weigh-in and let them know that I wasn’t going to win the tournament but I was ok with that. They all told me the normal stuff about I should still feel good about doing as good as I’d done and all that good stuff.

Once we got to Wal-mart I saw the guy that had the best chance to catch me and asked him if he wanted to make it dramatic and wait until we put them on the scales or tell each other what we had. He said there was no drama he didn’t catch anything! I said man I had a bad day you don’t need much to pass me and he said “I zeroed!” I felt bad for him but I suddenly had a ray of hope. I looked around and found the guy in 3rd and I knew he needed about 18lbs to knock me out. I asked him if he had 18 and he said it would be real close and my heart sank a little but I sucked it up and congratulated him and then he laughed and said he was kidding he only had 2 fish! I couldn’t believe what was about to happen but it looked like I’d just won my first boat and close to 70 grand but we wouldn’t know for sure until the scales closed.

I was the last to weigh-in and my 12lbs 2oz was over 7lbs more than enough for the win.

SUMMARY: This was a pretty awesome deal I have to say. I’d had a pretty poor year as far as winnings went and the money couldn’t have come at a better time. I’ve also wanted to win a boat for a long time and I’ve come close several times but never could seal the deal. I’ve also since found out that the All American is going to be held on Barkley Lake next June where I’ll have a shot at over 100 grand fishing against 49 other guys! This was just a true blessing and it made it even more special after the roller coaster ride I had to make it to this tournament in the Mountain division of the BFL’s this year.

I don’t know the exact number but I’ve been fortunate to win a pretty good chunk of money in the fall on KY Lake the last several years. There’s a lot that goes into what I like to look for but there are 3 things that are musts in what I do this time of year. I wouldn’t have won a fraction of the money I’ve won in the fall without my Power-Poles and my All Pro Rods APX Elite 7’ MH Crankin rod. It’s hard to explain but it’s the absolute perfect rod for launching big top-water baits a mile and hooking and landing big fish on those long cast. The most important thing is my faith in God. All I ask is that he keep us safe and give me the ability to make the right decisions while on the water and he takes it from there. Thank you all for the emails and texts this past month or so, it means a lot!

LBL BFL SUPER TOURNAMENT SEPTEMBER 26-27, 2015

LBL BFL SUPER TOURNAMENT PRACTICE: I really wanted to put my time in for this one for a couple reasons. 

First of all, I was running out of chances to win an event this year and as I’ve said many times before, wins are very important from a financial standpoint because of all of the contingency money I can earn. 

Second, I’ve won 5 of the last 6 two day draw events I’ve fished in September and I really wanted to keep my streak alive. 

I had a feeling last year when I saw more and more boats showing up on the areas I’d had all of my September success that I may have a tough time finding an area with the ingredients I needed to win my 6th consecutive September two day.

The areas I’ve won off of in the past were all out of the way places that took hours or days to pick apart and when I found the fish, I could tell they had never seen a lure before. With baits raining down on these areas on a more consistent basis, I knew the fish wouldn’t have time to build up and settle in and if I was going to keep my streak alive I would have to find a brand new area that I hadn’t exploited in the past.

The catch was that most of the places, new and old, that fit the bill, were covered up with grass.

I spent my first day of practice further north than usual and eliminated everything I had in mind either due to too much grass, or lack of fish.

My second day of practice I fished all of the places I’d done well on in the past and while some were set up right, I never had a bite on my spook.

By day 3 of practice, I’d written off a top-water bite and honestly didn’t know what to do. Top-water has accounted for 75% of the fish I’ve caught in my past September wins and with no deep fish to be found on the ledges, I decided to do something I’ve never tried this time of year and I headed to the back of Big Sandy.

After several hours without a bite I was getting ready to pull the plug and head to the hydrilla where the majority of the fish population was hanging out but I also knew with such thick mats, catching the winning fish from the grass would be a tough task.

Just before I headed to the grass for the rest of the day my good friend Jackson Ryley sent me a text that read, “Don’t give up on your spook, just caught a 6lber!” A couple hours later another text popped in from Jackson, “Just found the Mother Lode!” While I was excited for Jackson and excited to know a top-water bite was happening, I was a little let down that I had given up on it even though I believed a winning school of top-water fish existed somewhere on the lake and if Jackson had indeed found the “Mother Lode”, there was a good chance I was going to get beaten at my own game when the tournament started.

I spent my last day of practice slinging hook-less top-water plugs on a part of the lake I’ve never fished this time of year in a last ditch effort to find the winners.

It started off good and I hit a stretch where I had 7 blow ups on as many casts. This was a good sign but the fish I saw were only 3lb class fish and I knew that wouldn’t get it done.

I went bite-less for several hours and with time running out I made a long cast and a 5lber exploded on my bait. A couple twitches later another big one blew it up and as it neared the boat it had a couple fish in the 6lb class following it in and I knew I’d found what I’d been searching for.

As I headed towards the ramp I remembered a little deep point a school had shown up on this time last year and I decided to scan it with my Lowrance. I was pleasantly surprised to see about 50 bass lined up across the point and my day 1 game plan became very clear. I would rotate between my two top-water schools and if I needed keepers to fill out my limit, I’d hit my deep school.

LBL BFL DAY 1 SEPT. 26: I headed to my best school and caught a solid keeper on my first cast. I was concerned that it wasn’t a giant but a few cast later a big one flushed my spook. I dragged about a 6lber into the net and had that old feeling that good things were about to happen. I spent an hour fishing back and forth on a 25 yard stretch and never had another bite. I headed to the school of 3lbers and after an hour searching for them, they’d vanished. On my way back to the big ones I decided to throw on my deep place and caught a 3lber on a Baja Outdoors X-wing spinnerbait and lost a solid keeper trying to swing it over the side of the boat. To make a long story short, I bounced back and forth between my two top-water schools until the last minute and only had one bite which was about a 2.5lber that jumped off by the boat. On my way in I had a few minutes to spare and was hoping I could scrounge up two more keepers off of my deep spot. I caught one keeper pretty quick and just before I had to head back I hooked up with another 2.5lber but it jumped and threw my bait. I was very disappointed with my day especially since I had several missed opportunities that would’ve at least kept me in the hunt for day two. I weighed in 4 fish for 13lbs. 14oz. and made the day 2 cut in 11th place about 10lbs out of the lead.

LBL BFL DAY 2 SEPT. 27: I knew being 10lbs back would be tough to overcome but I’ve also seen 30-40lb stringers this time of year and whether I’m in the lead by 10lbs or behind by 10lbs in a multi-day event, I know it’s not over until it’s over.

I decided to run the same route I’d run on day one and if it didn’t pan out in the first couple hours I would gamble and make a run south.

I caught a 4lber right from the get go but that was my only bite. My next stop didn’t produce and then I headed for my deep school to try and scrounge up a limit. I caught two solid keepers there on the X-wing but that was it.

I headed south and ran a series of shallow water sweet spots. I reached the first one, dropped my power-poles and began fan casting my spook around the boat. About 10 cast in a big fish exploded on my spook and I thought it missed it. I was looking for my spook on the surface and my rod started loading up. I leaned into the fish and couldn’t budge it. I eventually worked a 6lb. 14oz. toad into the net. I was pretty pumped but I knew I needed 4 more bites like that to have a shot at the win.

I ran a dozen more places just like that one and never had another bite. I headed back north and allowed myself a few minutes on each of my starting places and ended up catching another 4lber on my last stop.

Once we arrived at Wal-mart for weigh-in most of the other competitors were grumbling about how tough it had been. I weighed-in 20lbs 7oz and took the lead. One by one guys weighed just a couple fish and the next thing I knew it was down to me and the day 1 leader. The tournament director asked me how I felt about it and I told him that I knew I wasn’t going to win I just hoped I lost by more than 2.5lbs as I’d lost several fish on day 1 that would’ve easily made up that deficit.

I had no idea what the day 1 leader had caught and when the scales settled I was very relieved to see 20lbs 7oz on the screen.


SUMMARY: I talk a lot about how finishing 2nd is tough to stomach and there’s a big difference in pay between 1st and 2nd but if I have to finish 2nd this is how I like for it to happen. Kyle Metzger had found the winning fish and caught them and beat my tail by almost 10lbs. I can live with finishing 2nd in a situation like that because even if I’d landed every fish I’d hooked during the tournament, I still couldn’t have won. It was disappointing to see my winning streak in September come to an end but I felt I’d at least had a decent showing and I had a weird feeling that God had a bigger plan for me in the form of a good finish in my upcoming BFL Regional on KY Lake October 15,

Nightfishion Classic and Barren River BF

My main focus heading into September should’ve been the last Mountain Division BFL Super Tournament on the Barren River. I’d dug quite a hole for myself and between missing a tournament and having a top 10 fish jump out of my bag on the way to the scales in the June event, I was sitting in 71st in the point’s standings. The good news was that FLW was taking the top 50 in points to the regionals this year instead of the top 40 but while I was only 21 places out of where I needed to be, I was actually 60 points out of the top 50. That meant not only did I have to have a good tournament, I needed some guys inside the top 50 to zero in the last event if I were to have any prayer of making the top 50 and qualifying for the KY Lake regional which was the whole point of me fishing that division to begin with. So, instead of spending every spare second I had on the Barren trying to figure it out, I decided to fish a night tournament on Barkley Lake with my good buddy Mike Hardin the last weekend of August and then spend the week before the tournament chasing big smallmouth in Northern Michigan with my good friend Troy Hollowell! What can I say, I’m a sucker for those big northern brown fish!

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.

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.

LBL BFL MAY 2 & FLW RAYOVAC KY LAKE MAY 7-9

LBL BFL PRACTICE: I spent my BFL practice flipping bushes and just couldn't find an area that had the quality I thought it would take to get it done. With the tournament coming out of Ken Lake Marina as opposed to the Dam or Moors, I decided to gamble on a run to New Johnsonville and try and put an offshore pattern together on the fly.

LBL BFL #3 MAY 2, 2015: I had made up my mind that I was going to start on a place I caught some fish last year about the same time of year.  Normally a run to Jville in a BFL is pretty risky as local tournament anglers usually have everything on lock down before I can make it up there but with the big tournament of the weekend launching out of Perryville which is 35 miles south of Jville, I thought I may just have a shot at getting on a place or two.  Just before take off a blanket of fog blew in, covered the lake and for the second time in 3 events, we were stuck sitting out a fog delay.  While most of my competitors were worried about a big tournament out of KY Dam taking off and getting first dibs on most of the best real-estate, I had the Perryville crew on my mind.

After two hours the fog lifted and the day was underway.  When I finally reached my destination I could see a boat sitting very close to my waypoint.  A couple hundred yards up the ledge sit another boat.  I recognized both boats and have a great deal of respect for both anglers and I didn't want to intrude but at the same time I didn't want to run that far and not even make a cast.  I decided to pull in between them both and try and get an idea if they were camping out on specific spots or covering water.  Not long after my arrival both boats were netting fish.  I slowly worked my way towards the boat that was where I wanted to be until I could get close enough to verify that he was indeed sitting right on my waypoint and he didn't have any intentions of leaving anytime soon.  I turned and worked my way back down the ledge hoping to run into a straggler or two and all the while both boats were steadily netting fish.  After about an hour of watching the beat down I couldn't stand anymore and was packing up to leave when the boat north of me left.  I wheeled in and caught a couple of 4lbers pretty quickly on a Strike King Shadalicious but after another hour I never had another bite.

Last year when this pattern was working there were several good ledges that fit the bill and I had a good feeling that if they were on that particular ledge I could find a few more that had them as well.  I spent the next several hours swimbaiting and burning a 5XD over shallow ledges and never had a sniff.  With time running out I decided to run back to the Paris area and make as many flips as possible on a milk run of likely bushes I've compiled over the years.

With about 20 minutes to go I drug a 4.5 lber out of the heart of a bush that fell victim to a Strike King Structure Bug.  A few pitches later I hooked up with a chunky keeper that got wrapped around a limb and pulled off.

Then, with just minutes left before I had to head back, I pinned another 2.5 lber to a limb and just as my co reached for it with the net, it came unbuttoned.  My co asked me what I thought about the size of the fish and I said "it wasn't the kind you win with but anything is good when you only have 3 in the box!"  Little did I know that those two small keepers would've been worth about 13 grand had I been able to get them to the boat.  The field struggled and a measly 16 lbs won the tournament.  I managed a 10th place finish with my 3 that weighed 12 lbs 9 oz.

SUMMARY: Apparently the fog delay, much like the first BFL of the year, really took a toll on guys getting to fish where they needed for the amount of time they needed.  I'm still pretty disgusted that I couldn't put a limit in the boat and can't believe that 16 lbs. is all I would've needed to get the job done.  To add insult to injury, before I'd even made it out of the ramp parking lot I got a text informing me that my buddy who was on the place I wanted to start on had won the Perryville tournament with 26 lbs! Oh well, you can't win 'em all but this was a rare opportunity for a handsome pay day with a really low weight and those are the ones you have to take advantage of.

RAYOVAC PRACTICE: I've always believed that in any sport, the better the competition you play against, the better you become.  The FLW Rayovac on KY Lake has normally taken place in peak ledge season and the best ledge fishermen in the business always show up for that event. After narrowly missing the top 10 cut the past few years, I felt like there was a little something I was missing that separated me from those guys.

I worked hard last summer studying how fish positioned under different conditions and the best approach to catching those fish.  I really felt like I learned that next level stuff I'd been missing but when I saw that the Rayovac was scheduled for early May, I didn't think this would be the year to put it to use.

I knew the ledge masters would put all their chips in the ledge basket whether the bass were there or not and I had to make sure they weren't going to find something I missed so I spent several days idling around staring at my Lowrance.  I scanned from creek humps to main river ledge and everything I looked at was either completely void of life or just had a few scattered bass on it.

Knowing the majority of my competition would live or die on the few scattered bass I decided there wouldn't be enough fish out there to go around and believed they would all be beating on the same few fish.  I decided to shift gears and spend the rest of my time on ledges in New Johnsonville that are too shallow to scan.

My buddy Kevin Woodside practiced with me one day on the southern portion of the lake and he knows every bar and ledge where a fish has ever considered living on that end of the pond. After a pretty brutal day of not finding much we decided to make a cast or two on the place I had tried to fish in the BFL.  My first cast produced a 6 lber and as I was reeling it in a giant of a bass blew a shad out of the water.

I spent one last day scanning around on the northern part of the lake and still wasn't seeing what I thought I needed to see and decided I was going to make the 80 mile run to Jville and just hope I could get on the one school of big ones I knew about and milk it for all it was worth.

RAYOVAC DAY 1 MAY 7, 2015:  I headed straight to my one and only school Thursday morning just praying no one would be sitting there.  When I got within sight I was relieved that I had it all to myself.  I caught a 3lber on my third cast and I just knew I was about to light 'em up but after three more hours I'd only caught a few short fish and knew I had to make a change.  I hit a few more similar places and caught a few short fish and I told my co that I was going to live or die in Jville and I was going to go flip bushes for awhile until the current started moving and then we'd head back to the river.

I pulled up on one of my favorite set of bushes and made a comment about how low and clear the water was.  That had me a little nervous but I had to do something to kill some time until the current turned on.  As I worked my way down the bank I made a short pitch to a bush and just as my Rodent hit the water I noticed a fish laying next to it. It had a green color to it but looked way to long to be a bass so I just assumed it was a gar.  As soon as my bait sank out of sight I could see the outline of the fish heading towards it.  I lifted up on my bait and it was swimming to the left.  I set the hook and a big bass rolled to the surface.  I thought it was about a 6 lber so I called for the net.  The next thing I knew I was hanging on to an 8 ft All Pro Flippin' stick for dear life and 25lb line was being stripped off my reel like a spinning outfit.  The fish swam around a clump of bushes, took a right and headed into another set of bushes.  By that time I knew I had hooked into something special and amazingly I led the fish back around all of the cover and into the net.  I immediately weighed her on a Boga Grip scale and it was a little over 10 lbs!  To say I was excited was an understatement because I've never caught a 10 and to do it in a tournament was a pretty cool deal.

After catching that toad out of the bushes I totally forgot about the river fish and decided to flip the rest of the day.  I caught another keeper pretty quickly and about an hour later lost a 3lber but that was it.  As time was slipping away I was trying to plan out the rest of my day.  I knew I had an 80 mile run and had to stop and fuel up in Paris but I also knew I had to put a couple more fish in the boat so I'd have a 20lb stringer and be in good shape for day 2.  I knew of one school just north of Paris that had been out for awhile and they were mostly 3lbers.  I also had my milk run of bushes in that area so I decided to head back, fuel up, hit my school and then make a few flips before I had to call it a day.  We packed everything up and when I went to start my Mercury, nothing happened.  We messed around with it for an hour trying to get it started and I was starting to freak out a little bit.

Not only had a lost a lot of fishing time but I had what I thought was my first 10 lber in the live-well and wasn't going to get to weigh her in.  Just before I had a melt down my co angler checked my connection on my starting battery and it was hanging by a thread.  We tightened it up and everything was good to go other than the fact by the time I got gas I had to head straight to weigh-in.

Unfortunately I only had 3 fish for 14 lbs 11 oz and my toad came up a little short of the 10 lb mark at 9 lbs 3 oz but was still good enough for big fish of the day.

RAYOVAC DAY 2 MAY 8, 2015:  I couldn't believe what I'd seen when I looked at the results from day 1.  The ledge masters had done the impossible.  The top 10 was riddled with 20+ lb limits beside the names of the best ledge fishermen in the game.  I was blown away that they had caught that kind of weight out of so few ledge fish I didn't even classify them as a "school".

I decided since I couldn't beat 'em, I would join 'em and I spent all of day 2 staring at my Lowrance in hopes of running into a fresh group of post spawners that had just made there way out to the ledges but unfortunately I only saw fish on three places all day.  I fished for about a total of 45 minutes and ended up with a 12lb limit and finished the tournament in 42nd place.

SUMMARY:  There's really not much to say about this one other than that the guys I already knew were the best ledge fishermen on the planet are even better than I imagined.  Congrats guys, very impressive.

APRIL 11 LBL BFL @ KY LAKE and APRIL 25 MOUNTAIN BFL @ DALE HOLLOW

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.