The Renegade Classic is an interesting format in that the full field (269 boats) fish Thursday and Friday and then the top 50 after two days start at 0 on Saturday in a one day shootout for a new Nitro Z8. Historically about 16lbs for two days makes the cut but with the grass bloom we've had on KY Lake this year 2lbers seem to be more prevalent so we were shooting for 11 or 12lbs a day to feel good about making the cut.
I spent 3 days practicing for this one and my partner practiced about a week. About all I figured out in practice was that the 3+ lb fish I'd been on were gone and I never figured out a way to catch anything over 2.75lbs. I did hook a good smallmouth off of a stump one day but it jumped in the boat, hit the front deck, came unhooked and flew out the other side of the boat. It looked to be about a 4.5lber as it went skidding by. I also relocated a couple of deep schools that were readily choking down a 6XD and thought they were just small keepers I thought we probably could catch enough to make the cut pretty quickly out of them without having to burn too much fuel. My partner had a decent day or two in the 15-17lb range during his practice session but it was inconsistent.
We headed to my deep schools in the Blood River area on Thursday morning and Mike caught two small keepers immediately. I was feeling pretty good about getting a quick limit and then spending the rest of the day practicing. The was the last bite we had fishing deep after two hours of rotating between my two spots. I decided to run to Paris to a shcool of grass fish I'd been fishing for three weeks but they weren't the quality I was catching out of the school I did so well in my last two tournaments on. We rolled up at 10am and at 10:15 we were culling! They were smoking the 7/16oz Baby Burner and I even caught one pushing 4lbs which really surprised me. I couldn't stand being that close to the place that had been so good to me the past few weeks without giving it a look. I'd checked it three times in practice without a bite but I still had to make a pass down the stretch. As I made my way through there I noticed a boil up on top of the bar so when I reached the end of the stretch without a bite I headed up on top and fan cast a Sexy Dawg. I hit a wolf pack and we caugth several in a row in the 2.75lb range and culled up a few ounces. We headed back north and checked some places but never found anything. We weighed in 13.82lbs and were in 14th after day one.
Day two we headed straight for the Paris spot and I was surprised when the first bite I got was a 4lber. We put a limit in the boat in no time that weighed about 15lbs, more than enough to get us to the last day. With seven hours to kill we just went around fishing and caught 3lbers every where we went. We finally headed back and weighed in a couple hours early with 16.69lbs and made the cut in 4th place.
Day three was post frontal with a 25 mph NE wind. They also took an hour of fishing time away and made us weigh in at 2pm which made it tough on us guys running to Paris and even further south. We got to our starting spot hoping to catch a quick limit and then go hunt the big girls. We had two 3lbers a 2.75 and a 2lber in the boat in the first 10 minutes and then it was over. We made several passes through the area without another bite. I finally fished another 300 yards down the grass line and picked up another small keeper which gave us a limit. On the rough ride up there the bolts in Mike's trolling motor mount had gotten loose and after a couple of hours of fighting the waves on the trolling motor, the nuts had backed completely off and we were about to lose the entire thing. I called Larry Odom at Blue and Gray Marine and he headed to Paris Landing with the tools we needed to make the repairs. We beat Larry to Paris and while we were waiting on him I caught a 3lber out of a brush pile on a football jig and culled one of our tiny keepers. It took us a good hour to get the trolling motor repaired which made an already short day even shorter. Mike and I discussed what we should do, stay close and try to upgrade by ounces or make another 15 mile run south and lose another 30 minutes of fishing time and go for the kill. We made the run south to where Mike had caught a couple of big fish in practice knowing that was our only chance to catch enough to win the boat. We never got another bite the rest of the day. We weighed in 12.82lbs and finished 9th overall. It took 16lbs to win the boat and we had caught that in 10 minutes on day 2. Oh well, thats fishing. Now I head to Chickamauga for the BWS Regional and another shot at a new boat!
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