FLW RAYOVAC PART 2: TOURNAMENT MAY 29-31

TOURNAMENT DAY 1: Things didn't start off real well on day one. I got about the worst draw I could get with boat 104. That meant I was middle of the pack both days and wouldn't be able to get on anything either day if anyone else had found it. Then, I got to my unobvious school that I'd found on my first day of practice and there was a Ranger sitting dead on my waypoint. Taking that place out of play kind of through a kink into my game plan as I'd planned on milking it for an hour or so and then heading south to my shallow schools. I decided to just keep running south and if a community school that had good potential was open, scan them and if they were there, fish for them. I made it all the way to Paris and the first community place I really wanted to hit had a boat on it. The next place I had in mind was open and as I scanned down the ledge a Triton pulled up and dropped his trolling motor and started fishing so I moved on. I made my way down the lake and found an open school that were set up nicely. I knew this school had been out for awhile and I made a critical mistake. Every one's favorite bait to throw on a school is a crank bait and after they've been cranked for several weeks they become very aware of what a 6XD looks and feels like. Knowing this, I should've started with a different presentation but I didn't. I fired my 6XD out and burnt it through the school from several different angles and could feel the bait hitting the bass but never had a bite. Once I alerted the school of my presence they were impossible to catch on other presentations. As I was packing up to leave, the school came to the surface chasing shad and I was able to launch my 6XD right into the frenzy and pick up a 3.5lber and a 2.5lber but that was all I got off my first stop of the day. I was within a few miles of one of my shallow schools that I was really counting on and as I made my way there I glanced over into a creek that had a 17 or 18lb school in it. There was a boat sitting where they had been hanging out but where I knew they were headed was wide open. I pulled in and scanned the ledge and found the school. I fired out my 6XD and caught a 3.5lber on my first cast but that was it. I tried several different baits with no luck and then I switched angles on the school and changed colors on my crankbait and picked up another 3.5lber. A couple cast later my All Pro Blaster doubled over and I said "giant!" The fish came up by the boat and it's mouth looked like a 5 gallon bucket! My co angler scooped her up into the net and I thought for a minute it was an 8lber. Upon further inspection, she was still very thin from the spawn and only weighed 6.75lbs. That gave me a limit that weighed about 20lbs and I knew it was time to start targeting bigger fish. I headed to my first shallow school and there wasn't a boat in sight. I started near my waypoint and slowly worked down the bar with out a bite. I had another waypoint about 100 yards away where I'd caught fish in the past and I almost fired up my Mercury and ran to that waypoint but at the last minute I decided to just fish my way to my other waypoint and it was a good decision. I made it about 75 yards up the bar and a fish smoked my 6XD but missed it. My next cast I caught a 5lber! My co angler caught a couple 3lbers and a 4lber and then the action slowed. I grabbed a silent 6XD and fired it out onto the bar and loaded up on a big fish. The fish was swimming right at the boat and when she got several feet away she went air born and I just pulled her towards the boat and while she was in mid air my co angler caught her in the net. It was another 6lb class fish and I was feeling pretty good about things. I still had another shallow school of big fish another 25 miles south so at 10:30 am with 24lbs in my live well, I headed that way. As I approached the flat I was relieved to see there wasn't a bass boat anywhere around. I did notice a mussel diver boat in the area but what could that hurt right? As I got closer and closer I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The mussel diver's boat was right on my waypoint and his air bubbles were coming up right on the shell bed my fish were supposed to be laying on! What a way to lose a school in a tournament....to a mussel diver! I had a little place close by where I'd gotten some bites in practice so I beat around there for about 45 minutes and the diver never emerged. I finally eased back towards my waypoint and while the diver had moved off of the exact spot I wanted to fish, I never had a bite once he'd been down there crawling around. I was a little bummed out, but I had a good limit of fish in the boat and still had several hours to try and upgrade. I wanted to spend some time scanning a few places that hadn't had any fish on them in practice so I finished the day doing that plus I fished a few stumps and a couple of schools but never was able to upgrade and ended the day with 24lbs 2oz and was tied for 8th place.

TOURNAMENT DAY 2: I had a good feeling I would get a shot at the unobvious school I'd wanted to start on the first day since I had a little better boat number. I headed straight to it and it was wide open. I pulled up to my waypoint and fired out a 6XD and loaded up on a 3.5lber but the fish jumped straight out of the water and threw my bait. After about 20 more casts I hadn't had a bite and I was a little concerned that losing that fish so close to the school may have shut them down which happens often when you lose a fish right in the middle of an active school. About that time the Ranger boat that had started there on day 1 showed up and I could tell he was frustrated I'd beat him there. He shut down and watched me for a minute and I thought surely he would show me the same respect I showed him on day 1 and not move in on me. I could tell he wanted there badly but he eventually did the right thing and idled about 100 yards from me and just started fishing. A few minutes later a camera boat arrived to get some pics of the day 1 leaders for FLWOUTDOORS.com. I told him I'd jumped a fish off on my first cast and wasn't having any luck since. I told him I was about to leave and then I saw the guy in the Ranger up ahead of me bow up on a fish. I told my camera guy that in the three years I'd been fishing this school I'd never seen them get where that guy caught that fish but for the next 45 minutes he and his co angler caught one on every single cast! It was a hard thing to stomach and I don't know if the school swam over there after I lost that 3.5lber or what, but I had to suck it up and move on. I headed towards Paris and there were boats on absolutely everything. I finally found a couple of places open and scanned them with my Lowrance but never saw a fish. At 7:30 I'd reached the school I started on the first day and they were open and they were loaded. I asked my co to not start with a crankbait as this was the school I'd turned off the day before by cranking them. I picked up a Shadalicious swimbait on a 3/4oz jig head and fired it right into the school. I caught fish on my first five cast and had about 14lbs in the boat. I spent another half hour there but never upgraded so I moved on. I headed to the creek school that I'd caught my big one out of on day 1 and there wasn't a boat around but neither were the fish. I went ahead and fished the area and picked up a 3.5lber but that was it. I headed to my best shallow school and when I got within sight of it there were boats everywhere! I eased in to see if there was room for me to slip in with them but they were scattered about every 25 yards down the bar. I didn't want to totally bail on it because it had the biggest average fish of anything I had so I made a short run to a channel ledge where I've caught some in the past so I could keep an eye on the bar and see if it ever opened up. I fished for an hour or so and actually hit a school of fish that we beat down with a 6XD but they were all 3lbs or less and wouldn't help my cause. I kind of lost track of what was happening on my shallow bar when we started catching fish but once the action slowed I glanced over and it looked like it had thinned out a bit. I ran back to it and there was only one boat left but he was sitting dead on where I'd caught them the day before. His boat was pointing north so I eased in south of him and fished towards him and he immediately turned towards me. I fired up and ran north of him and once again, he swung around and turned towards me. For those that don't know, this is the nice way of saying, "you're not going to fish here!" I got the message and looked at my coangler and said, "we have to make something happen." I decided to head back north and if I could find an open school, just work them over and try and get some big bites out of them. The first open school wasn't one I've caught a lot of size out of in the past but I only had 15lbs and I knew every pound was critical. I caught a few on a swimbait and culled by ounces. When they shut down I was still seeing them on the sonar so I pulled my drop shot out and caught a couple 3.5 lbers. This got me up to about 17lbs and I decided to gamble on some big fish places the rest of the day. I headed to a shallow creek channel ledge where I've caught big fish in the past but I'd never found a school of big ones there. I caught a 2.5lber on my first cast with a jig and it was on! We caught them every cast for an hour and I was culling constantly but only by ounces. I knew there had to be a few big ones in the school so I pulled out a Bottom Dweller spinnerbait and started working around the school. I finally found an angle they liked and I caught a 4.5 and a 5 on consecutive casts and I thought I was about to put 25lbs in the boat! I culled up to about 19lbs, got lined back up and I knew I was one big one away from sealing a top ten slot but they started just slapping my spinner bait. The next thing I knew my co called for the net and I scooped up a 6lber for him that he caught on the jig. I want my co anglers to catch fish and I never try and hinder them from catching fish but I knew that fish would've been a game changer if it had been on the end of my line instead of his. I tried to shake it off and a few minutes later he popped another fish in the 5lb class! I could see my chances of another big day and the top ten cut slipping away as time was running out. I never culled the rest of the day and ended up with 19lbs 2oz and was in 9th place at the time I weighed in. I went to a local restaurant and watched the rest of the weigh-in online and with about ten guys left, I got bumped to 11th place and missed the cut by less than a pound!

SUMMARY: What an awesome but at the same time frustrating tournament. I had no idea what we were heading into since I hadn't tried to catch a lot of fish in practice. I thought 21lbs a day would win and 18lbs a day would make the top ten cut. When I had that good bag the first day I really thought I'd be in the top three but barely made the top ten. I knew then I needed to catch them big on day 2 but just had a few things go wrong and couldn't make it happen. The bottom line was that I didn't figure out how to catch that 4lb average. I think I was the only one in the top 20 that weighed in 3.5lbers both days. The other guys were averaging 4lbers and I wasn't. If I had 4lbers to go with my 5 to 7lbers both days, I would've made it easily. It's hard to complain about catching 44lbs of bass in a couple days and putting 5 grand in the bank for doing it but it would have been a real honor to make a cut with such an All Star line up of off shore fishermen. As I predicted, the Pickwick guys which are all Tour Pros as well, dominated the top ten. A lot of people don't know that ledge fishing isn't what I consider one of my strengths. I actually had never caught a bass deeper than six feet of water until 2008. I've worked very hard at it since then and I've learned a lot. I feel like I can find them as good as anyone but I'm not the best at catching them and getting the most out of the school. I learned a lot from this tournament about what I need to work on and I've been on the lake guiding almost everyday since the Rayovac and have already learned a few new tricks. Hopefully if the Rayovac comes to town in late May or June again next year there'll be a KY Lake guy holding the trophy on Saturday!