After my last two days of practice I didn't know what to expect. I really wasn't sure if I could catch a keeper. My only hope was that the places I found on Monday, which were loaded with fish that day, had enough still hanging around that I could coax a few into biting. I've already qualified for the National Championship since I won the points championship in the KY division so I really had nothing to lose in this tournament but I desperately want to win a boat which I've never done and this was a free shot at accomplishing just that.
I started day 1 where I caught the 6lber in practice and after 30 minutes never had a bite. I ran to where I'd caught a 3lber and never had a bite. At 9:30 I rolled into a little pocket that was packed with fish on Monday and finally caught a 15"er on my Rage Craw. A few minutes later I caught a 3lber on my swim jig and a little later got another bite flipping. When I set the hook on the fish my bait flew back at me and my heavy wire flippin hook was straightened out! That was a bad deal because I've swung 7lbers in the boat with that same hook and not bent them so I know that had to be the kind I was looking for. I made a couple passes without a bite and made a move. After another hour without a bite I decided to return to the area I'd had my 3 bites in. When I pulled in one of my buddies, Brian Brown, was fishing my stretch. I fell in behind him and watched him catch two 3lbers which was hard to stomach because I knew how tough it was to get a bite. Brian eventually left and I spent the rest of the day picking apart every sprig of Hydrilla in the area and managed 3 more keepers. I weighed in 14.14lbs and was in 8th place going into day 2.
I made up my mind to camp out in the 30 yard stretch where I caught all of my fish on day 1 and immediately caught two short fish. After 2.5 hours working back and forth I finally caught a 17" keeper. After another hour without a bite I couldn't stand it any longer and made a move. I fished a few new places and a few I'd fished in practice that looked promising and never had a bite so I returned to my starting spot and finished the day. I never caught another keeper the rest of the day and weighed in 2.83lbs. Amazingly, I only dropped to 14th place and still cashed a check. I knew if I only dropped 6 places after weighing in 1 keeper it had to be tough on everyone. I looked at the stats and there were only 4 limits of bass weighed in out of 129 boats! That was the 2nd toughest day of fishing I can remember ever having. My buddy Brian Brown who I shared some water with had one of those limits and weighed in 17.20lbs and finished in 4th place. Good job Brian!
I'm headed to Pickwick for the BFL regional so maybe I will have a better showing in that one, but the word on the street is Pickwick is fishing as tough as nails right now. I will probably take the hero or zero approach and fish Wilson or Bay Springs. I'll definitely give them a look in practice.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
BWS REGIONAL CHICKAMAUGA PRACTICE
Practice started out great when I caught a 4 and a 6lber in the first 20 minutes. They were on a specific type of grass line and the next two similar places I fished produced several keepers in the 3 to 5lb range. We ended the day with over 20lbs of bass and I was feeling pretty good about my flippin, swim jig and spinnerbait pattern.
Tuesday was like we were on a different lake and after several hours of trying to duplicate my day 1 pattern we hadn't had a sniff. I finally pulled out an umbrella rig loaded down with 5.5" Shadalicious and caught a 5.5lber on my 3rd cast on a bluff end. I thought I was on to something but after another hour of running that pattern I never had another bite. We finally caught a couple other small keepers that day but it was brutally slow.
Wednesday started out strong and I caught a 3lber in the first 15 minutes throwing a Tour Grade swim jig around scattered hydrilla but my next bite was a catfish and it went down hill from there. I fished several more grass lines and scrounged up one more small keeper and then spent the rest of the day scanning ledges and although there were a ton of shad on the river ledge, I never found any bass.
My confidence was quickly dwindling along with the bite and I rested up today and prepped tackle for tomorrow.
Tuesday was like we were on a different lake and after several hours of trying to duplicate my day 1 pattern we hadn't had a sniff. I finally pulled out an umbrella rig loaded down with 5.5" Shadalicious and caught a 5.5lber on my 3rd cast on a bluff end. I thought I was on to something but after another hour of running that pattern I never had another bite. We finally caught a couple other small keepers that day but it was brutally slow.
Wednesday started out strong and I caught a 3lber in the first 15 minutes throwing a Tour Grade swim jig around scattered hydrilla but my next bite was a catfish and it went down hill from there. I fished several more grass lines and scrounged up one more small keeper and then spent the rest of the day scanning ledges and although there were a ton of shad on the river ledge, I never found any bass.
My confidence was quickly dwindling along with the bite and I rested up today and prepped tackle for tomorrow.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Renegade Classic Barkley Lake
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!
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!
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
BWS DIVISIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
I didn't find much in practice but I did find out the stretch I finished 3rd in the BFL on last weekend had a fresh crop of largemouth on it and they were readily chasing down my Baby Burner spinnerbait. The plan was to catch as much as I could there as quickly as I could and then go flip Hydrilla and maybe hit a deep stump or 2 and try and upgrade.
Day 1 was working to perfection. It took me 17 minutes to catch 15lbs and then I made a 12 mile run south to the Hydrilla. After an hour and a half I hadn't had a bite so I eased back north hitting a couple of deep places along the way which failed to produce. I caught a few keepers that wouldn't help on some other places similar to my primary area. I decided to spend the last 30 minutes on the goods and I finally got a brown fish to eat! It was my biggest fish of the day, a 4.31lber that culled a 2.5lber. I weighed in 17.04 and was in 2nd place.
Day 2 was a little bit tougher and after 10 minutes I hadn't had a bite which was unusual. I finally hooked up and a 6lb class largemouth jumped right by the boat and threw my swim jig! Not the way you want to start the day but that's part of the game. It took me until 9 am to get a limit that weighed about 14lbs and one of them was just a 2lber. I kept seeing that big largemouth coming unbuttoned in my mind and couldn't help but have a sick feeling. Finally at 11 am, I decided to change gears and I ran and threw a football jig on some stumps and caught a 4lber. I returned to my primary spot to finish the day and caught several more keepers but none would cull. I just knew that big fish was going to cost me the tournament but I always say when it's your time it's your time and the day 1 leader struggled on day 2 and I ended up winning the tournament by more than 3lbs.
More importantly, I overcame a horrible 32nd place finish in May and ended the season tied for the point's championship with my good friend David Gnewikow. I ended up winning the point's on a tie breaker because I had 91lbs for the season and David only had 88lbs. The point's champion receives free entry's into next years tournaments, an automatic berth into the National championship and a free set of the best batteries on the planet, Odyssey's!
I've been very blessed the past few tournaments and hopefully I can keep it rolling into the regionals and championships coming up in October.
Day 1 was working to perfection. It took me 17 minutes to catch 15lbs and then I made a 12 mile run south to the Hydrilla. After an hour and a half I hadn't had a bite so I eased back north hitting a couple of deep places along the way which failed to produce. I caught a few keepers that wouldn't help on some other places similar to my primary area. I decided to spend the last 30 minutes on the goods and I finally got a brown fish to eat! It was my biggest fish of the day, a 4.31lber that culled a 2.5lber. I weighed in 17.04 and was in 2nd place.
Day 2 was a little bit tougher and after 10 minutes I hadn't had a bite which was unusual. I finally hooked up and a 6lb class largemouth jumped right by the boat and threw my swim jig! Not the way you want to start the day but that's part of the game. It took me until 9 am to get a limit that weighed about 14lbs and one of them was just a 2lber. I kept seeing that big largemouth coming unbuttoned in my mind and couldn't help but have a sick feeling. Finally at 11 am, I decided to change gears and I ran and threw a football jig on some stumps and caught a 4lber. I returned to my primary spot to finish the day and caught several more keepers but none would cull. I just knew that big fish was going to cost me the tournament but I always say when it's your time it's your time and the day 1 leader struggled on day 2 and I ended up winning the tournament by more than 3lbs.
More importantly, I overcame a horrible 32nd place finish in May and ended the season tied for the point's championship with my good friend David Gnewikow. I ended up winning the point's on a tie breaker because I had 91lbs for the season and David only had 88lbs. The point's champion receives free entry's into next years tournaments, an automatic berth into the National championship and a free set of the best batteries on the planet, Odyssey's!
I've been very blessed the past few tournaments and hopefully I can keep it rolling into the regionals and championships coming up in October.
Monday, September 17, 2012
LBL BFL SUPER TOURNAMENT
I didn't have much going on in September other than the BFL and BWS 2 day tournaments. I usually try to stay off the water until 2 or 3 days right before the tournament but I was chomping to get out and see what the grass fish were doing so I hit the water 8 days before the BFL. I found a stretch of grass that was chalk full of bass and the biggest of the bunch were SMALLMOUTH! I don't catch a lot of smallies so I was bouncing off the walls wondering if they'd hang around long enough for me to exploit them in the BFL.
The fish stayed put but they changed colors on me and I weighed in 31lbs 5oz worth of largemouth that all fell victim to a 7/16oz Strike King Baby Burner spinnerbait or a 3/8oz Tour Grade Swimming Jig tipped with a pearl Rage Craw. I caught a ton of fish but only had one smallmouth and it was a 17 3/4" beauty but unfortunately they have to be 18" in the BFL's so I had to let her swim away. I managed a 3rd place finish and finished the year in 3rd place in the point's standings.
The fish stayed put but they changed colors on me and I weighed in 31lbs 5oz worth of largemouth that all fell victim to a 7/16oz Strike King Baby Burner spinnerbait or a 3/8oz Tour Grade Swimming Jig tipped with a pearl Rage Craw. I caught a ton of fish but only had one smallmouth and it was a 17 3/4" beauty but unfortunately they have to be 18" in the BFL's so I had to let her swim away. I managed a 3rd place finish and finished the year in 3rd place in the point's standings.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Fishing with the Parents round 3
My parents were more pumped up over me catching some fish out of the grass than I was and headed straight to the lake two days after my BWS win. We fished about 6 hours on Tuesday and the football field size mat I'd found practicing for the BWS that didn't produce a single bite during my tournament was on FIRE! We didn't catch anything over 3.5lbs but they had a blast catching 2.5 to 3.5lbers on Sexy frogs. My mom had at least 30 blow ups and boated around 20 of them on her frog and my dad and I flipped, spinnerbaited and frogged up 20 or 30 more. Another awesome day on the water with my two favorite fishing partners! I'm truly blessed.
Monday, August 20, 2012
BWS #4 August 18th
I only had one tournament in August and I was looking forward to a break from tournament fishing. I had several guide trips during early August and we mostly fished the offshore schools I've been fishing all summer. We had decent numbers with about 30 keepers a day and our best 5 were in the 16-18lb. range. My parents came up for a couple days and wanted to catch some on the Sexy Frog so after busting a few out of a couple of deep schools we headed to a stretch of Hydrilla. My mom had several blow ups on her frog but didn't hook any, my dad caught a few on a Burner spinnerbait and I caught 8 bass on 8 flips to one clump of grass on a Rage Craw but none of them were over 3lbs. I didn't realize it at the time but that little stretch of grass would prove to be a valuable find when my BWS tournament rolled around August 18th.
I spent 2.5 days practicing for the BWS one of which I dedicated entirely to grass fishing. I found one area loaded with fish but they were in a grass mat about the size of a football field and I could only catch them when they came up schooling and the odds of them coming up with in casting distance were slim. After several unproductive hours I decided to check the stretch I'd fished with my parents. The stretch was still loaded with keeper size fish up to 3lbs and I expanded my search a little bit and flipped up a 7lber a little further down from where the keepers were hanging out. My other day and a half wasn't that productive other than verifying a few schools were still in tact and I planned on spending the majority of my tournament hours on the offshore schools.
At 10am on tournament day I only had 1 small keeper fishing off shore so I decided to check my stretch of Hydrilla. In an hour and a half I flipped up a limit with a 5lber in the mix and headed back north to finish out the day on ledge fish. The ledge fish weren't cooperating and I only caught a couple of small keepers and had one in the 4lb range follow my Shadalicious back to the boat but didn't commit. I weighed in 16.51lbs of Hydrilla bass and was hoping that would keep me inside the top 10. As the weigh in started winding down several of my fellow fishermen started congratulating me but I wasn't sure why. I walked over to the stage and to my surprise my 16.51lbs had held up and won the tournament!
It's not often that 16lbs will win a tournament on KY Lake but I guess when it's your time it's your time and I'll take a win any time I can get one because they are hard to come by. Fortunately we had 67 boats so the $7000 Triton Gold Money was up for grabs and that will come in handy as I have some traveling to do in October with the Regionals and Championships coming up.
I spent 2.5 days practicing for the BWS one of which I dedicated entirely to grass fishing. I found one area loaded with fish but they were in a grass mat about the size of a football field and I could only catch them when they came up schooling and the odds of them coming up with in casting distance were slim. After several unproductive hours I decided to check the stretch I'd fished with my parents. The stretch was still loaded with keeper size fish up to 3lbs and I expanded my search a little bit and flipped up a 7lber a little further down from where the keepers were hanging out. My other day and a half wasn't that productive other than verifying a few schools were still in tact and I planned on spending the majority of my tournament hours on the offshore schools.
At 10am on tournament day I only had 1 small keeper fishing off shore so I decided to check my stretch of Hydrilla. In an hour and a half I flipped up a limit with a 5lber in the mix and headed back north to finish out the day on ledge fish. The ledge fish weren't cooperating and I only caught a couple of small keepers and had one in the 4lb range follow my Shadalicious back to the boat but didn't commit. I weighed in 16.51lbs of Hydrilla bass and was hoping that would keep me inside the top 10. As the weigh in started winding down several of my fellow fishermen started congratulating me but I wasn't sure why. I walked over to the stage and to my surprise my 16.51lbs had held up and won the tournament!
It's not often that 16lbs will win a tournament on KY Lake but I guess when it's your time it's your time and I'll take a win any time I can get one because they are hard to come by. Fortunately we had 67 boats so the $7000 Triton Gold Money was up for grabs and that will come in handy as I have some traveling to do in October with the Regionals and Championships coming up.
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