Stihl's Reel in the Outdoors, LBL BFL April 12, April Fishing in General and Tom O'Bryants Unbelievable Month

I have lot's of stuff to ramble about this week and it all sort of ties in together so instead of writing four separate blogs, I've decided to try and pack it all into one and keep it as short as possible so no one falls asleep on me while reading.

It's no secret to those that know me that April and I don't mesh very well on KY Lake unless the water reaches flood stage. I can go from lost to catching 20+ lbs overnight if that water reaches the shoreline cover. I've worked hard since my first year of fishing the BFL's on KY/Barkley Lakes back in 2006 to try and understand low water April fishing better. One thing that definitely stands out is that April is always, without a doubt, the lowest winning weight tournament of the year in the LBL division of the BFL's unless of course, the water is in the bushes.

I think one reason I stumble this time of year is the fact that I really, really, really don't like fishing the bank on KY Lake. I like fishing shallow, I just like to stay out in the middle to fish shallow. Barkley is a different story, I have some banks that are a flipper's paradise over there that I have a ton of confidence in but usually it's just a smaller grade fish on average you catch as opposed to KY. That's why this year I decided to be a little more open minded and try and overcome my hatred of bank beating leading up to this tournament.

Another thing I've learned for sure over the years is that I have to be content with "only" being around 2.5 to 3lb class fish this time of year. I say "only" because normally that size fish WILL NOT win or come close to winning on KY Lake. One year I thought I could only catch around 14lbs on KY Lake so I gambled and went to Barkley without practice and only caught a few keepers, 14lbs made the top 5 in that event. That's why this year I had told a couple of my buddies to remind me before this tournament that if I could get around 3lbers, I could end up doing really well.

PRACTICE: I was coming off of a 3rd place finish in the ABA WBS in which I caught my fish shallow but still somewhat offshore on a Redeye Shad and was hoping that would hold up for one more week. I had a guide trip last Tuesday and realized the fish had made yet another move and I knew then that it was inevitable that I was going to have to fish the bank!

Joe Thomas and I have been trying to get together for awhile now and film a show and every time I'm whackin' those ol' biggun's, he's busy. I told him the water would be in the bushes soon and it would make a great show and he said he really needed to do something before that. Wouldn't you know the first time I get to do a major T.V. deal, it's during my absolute least favorite time to fish my favorite lake. I really wanted to have a good day because I wanted Joe to want to come back and film again when the fishing is on fire.  We headed out Wednesday morning and I was just praying something good would happen.

We ran through my Redeye Shad places just to make sure another wave hadn't moved in and I caught a nice smallmouth pretty quickly . Unfortunately that was the only "t.v." fish we caught off of that pattern and we both knew it was bank time. I explained to Joe that I hated fishing the bank but the fish should be on the first available cover closest to the bank so we headed to my favorite creek, that is if I have to venture into a creek. The first piece of cover we came to I pitched in and caught a fish pushing 4lbs and while we were messing with that the wind blew us closer to the bank and Joe popped one on a square bill in the 4lb class.  Long story short, we ended up putting a little pattern together and while we didn't catch a ton of keepers, everyone we caught was in the 3 to 5.5lb range which they said would make for a great show!  I was very relieved that they were happy with the day and it was an absolute blast filming with Joe and Jimmy the camera man.  After just a little while in the boat it was like we'd known each other forever and I look forward to doing it again especially when we can do something fun as opposed to throwing at gravel banks all day! I also got a little excited about what we found that day believe it or not and I had a good  feeling that if the fish were on those type banks on KY, Barkley may just be the ticket for me to break the April curse.

I spent the next two days on south and even further south Barkley and the fishing was phenomenal.  I wasn't catching giant fish, but I caught 15 to 18lbs both days within a few minutes.  I shook off the majority of the bites I had but when I set the hook they were anywhere from 2.5 to 6lbers.  I was getting anywhere from 50 to 75 bites a day and by 2 p.m. Friday, I was headed home to get all of my  Rodents out of storage and get ready to go to work on them Saturday morning.

TOURNAMENT:  I made a short (for me) 50 mile run from Moors Resort to my first stop and couldn't wait to get the action underway.  We caught a couple short fish real quick and I knew it was about to happen.  As I made my way down the bank, bites were few and far between and other than a small keeper my co angler picked up, every fish we caught wasn't even close to 15".  I decided the only thing different that day compared to practice was that the sun wasn't on the bank yet so I made a short run to another good stretch of bank that the sun was beaming down on.  I made it to the end of the stretch and had only caught one short.  I fished over to the other side of the pocket and as I worked my way out I saw a white flash under the water.  I trolled in for closer inspection and I saw about a 3.5lber and a 2lber hovering over a bed.  I dropped my Power Poles and made a quiet pitch to the bed and neither fish moved.  After a few pitches I finally popped the female in the side with my bait and she slowly swam out of the bed and the male back peddled up under some branches.  That's when it hit me that the fish were right smack in the middle of the spawning ritual and the only way to catch them is to pester them into biting.  On a clear lake this wouldn't have been that big of a deal but on south Barkley, it's not an option.  If I had it to do over again, I would've immediately headed back to KY Lake and tried to salvage the day but I noticed in practice the better fish I caught in this particular pocket had some blood on their tails and the fish I caught 25 miles further south didn't.  That made me think that just maybe those more southern fish were still a day or two behind and I could still catch 'em if I fished thoroughly enough.  I made another 25 mile run south and picked every little piece of cover apart and ended up catching one keeper the rest of the day.


SUMMARY:  Believe it or not, I wasn't as bent out of shape over such a horrible day as you would think.  I've been burnt on this same deal before and it's just part of it sometimes during the spawn.  I've had a very blessed season so far and can't let one bomb in a tournament get me down. The main thing I was upset over is not setting the hook on the 50 to 75 bites I was getting in practice.  Had I known they weren't going to bite on Saturday, I would've been sure to let them all know I was there on Thursday and Friday. Congrats to my good friends Jeff Archie, Jackson Ryley and Terry Chastain on top 10 finishes!

This is an entirely different subject but when a guy does what the guy I'm about to talk about has done they deserve some recognition.

A lot of people may have never heard of Tom O'Bryant because he doesn't do the social media thing, or the team deal thing or the fancy jersey thing but what he does do is flat out catch 'em!  He and I became friends a couple of years ago when we dueled it out for the "W" in a couple of ABA WBS events.  The first one was August 2012 and Tom had me beat fair and square but a fish care penalty cost him the win and I ended up with the trophy and the fairly substantial Triton Gold/Mercury check that came with it.  Tom was the first guy to congratulate me and I really respected him for that.  Our next tournament was the two day event and Tom was in first right ahead of me after day one.  His fish didn't bite on day two and for the second time in a month I edged him out and once again he was all smiles and the first to congratulate me.  We went through the same thing last year in the two day event and Tom lost the fish to beat me but I landed every bite I had and once again edged him out.  The point I'm trying to make is that at that point some people would be ready to strangle me and making all kinds of excuses as to why they didn't win but Tom just isn't that way.  He's got the same smile on his face when he catches 8lbs as when he catches 34lbs like he did a month ago.  What he's done the past month is pretty incredible and hasn't gotten a lot of attention because it has been in smaller tournaments that don't get the publicity the BFL's and WBS get.  He's caught five bass over 10lbs the past month, three of which were in competition!  He won a Sportsmen's Digest team event in March with 33.94lbs and had a 10.24 and a 10.98lber!  Yesterday he weighed in 28+ and had an absolute freak that weighed 11.84lbs.  There are a bunch of guys on this lake that a lot of people don't know because they don't play the Facebook game or write articles or wear fancy jerseys that can flat out catch fish as good as anybody on the planet.  These are the guys that don't care about the glory they just fish solely for they're love of our sport and I just want to give a shout out to all of them, especially Mr. O'Bryant.

Me and Joe Thomas Reelin' in the Outdoors!

TOM THE GIANT SLAYER!

ABA Weekend Bass Series KY Division Barkley Lake, April 5

I had all intentions of practicing on Barkley for this one especially after I'd called my dad to come up last Monday and get in on some of the umbrella rig action that was taking place and we only caught ten fish all day. I couldn't believe just two days after catching fish until my fingers bled, we could barely get a bite on any of my offshore schools. Luckily a couple of the ones we caught were the right caliber and my dad ended up boating a 4lber and a 6lber that day. 

Tuesday was the second Sportsmen's Digest Series 1 event of the year and I decided to spend that day "making sure" my umbrella rig deal was over. I fished from Paris to New Johnsonville dropping A bomb's on every place I could think of and at 11 a.m. I had one bite, a 2.5lber. I spent another hour really working one of my productive areas from last weekend over in hopes of relocating the school. I fished from the river channel to the back of a pocket and never had a bite. At about noon I was almost convinced that I wasn't even going to catch a limit of bass after catching 15 limits just a few days earlier. I pulled out my old trusty Redeye Shad and headed to the shallows and ended up catching 18.62lbs which landed me in 5th place and I had 2nd big fish with a 5.20. The key thing I learned from this tournament was that if a 5.20lber was the 2nd biggest fish caught in a tournament featuring some of the best New Johnsonville fishermen alive, the "biggun's" were definitely on the move.

Since my track record in April on KY Lake is far from stellar (unless the water hits the bushes), I was definitely planning on spending my practice time on Barkley after Tuesday but my guide trip the next day on KY changed my tune. I figured I'd take the guy out and whack a bunch of 3lbers on a Redeye Shad and then head to Barkley on Thursday and Friday to try and figure something out for the tournament. My client could only do a half day so I met him at Paris Landing at 11 a.m. and we headed to the place I'd caught a few in the Series 1. I gave him my all time favorite spring rattle bait, the Chili Craw Redeye Shad and told him it was THE bait he needed to be throwing because every fish I've weighed in this year on a lipless crankbait has come on that very bait. He started fishing and asked me why I wasn't fishing and I said it was his trip and I wanted him to catch the fish. He told me that was like us going to play golf and me just keeping score so he wanted me to fish. I pulled another Redeye Shad out in Sexy Shad that I'd thrown some the day before and not had a bite on thinking that would give him the best shot at catching the fish. My third cast with the Sexy produced a 2.5lber. He commented that he thought his bait was supposed to be the magic color and I assured him that it was. A few casts later I bowed up on a pretty good one. I swung it into the boat and it was pushing 5lbs! By this time he's really on my case about how his bait was supposed to be better than mine and again I explained to him how I'd caught so many on the Chili Craw that the paint was chewed off and I hadn't had a bite all year on Sexy Shad. I tried to swap baits with him but he said at that point he was determined to catch a fish on the "magic" color. I power poled down and fan cast around for a few minutes and then I hooked into something I couldn't move. At first I thought it was a stump but I could hear my line singing as it was cutting through the water and just as I said "this can't be a bass", an absolute toad tried to exit the water but she was just too big to get much air and my Redeye came flying back at us! He looked at me and said "that was a ten!" I assured him it wasn't a 10lber but it was definitely in the 8-9lb class and I was just thanking the good Lord we weren't in a tournament! To make a long story short, we caught 'em pretty dang good the next few hours and yes, he did finally catch some on the Chili Craw but I never heard the end of how I gave him the color the big ones didn't want and all that good stuff. It was all in good fun and we ended the day with about 22lbs and could've had substantially more had I landed the giant.

Even after the pretty solid thrashing we put on them on Wednesday I was still skeptical about running that far during the tournament. We were launching out of Barkley Lodge, 80+ miles from where we were catching our fish and those shallow Redeye fish tend to be very undependable. One day their big, the next day their small, the next day their gone, the next day their medium sized, etc., etc. I still wanted to get some time in on Barkley and if I didn't figure anything out over there, I'd roll the dice and make the run to my Redeye fish on KY. That night I found out there were several other tournaments on south Barkley that weekend and that's all I needed to hear. I made up my mind to make the run to KY Lake.

TOURNAMENT: I made the 80 mile run yesterday morning in just over an hour. There was a big college tournament going on at Paris and those guys were all over the bank I was fishing but they weren't on the little flat where the fish were holding so I felt like I was going to be in good shape. I got lined up and dropped my power poles and caught a short fish in just a few casts. A couple casts later I hooked a solid 3.5lber. I smiled at my co angler thinking we were about to unload on 'em but I never had another bite. After trying several baits from several angles, I just couldn't get them going so I made a move. I pulled up on the stretch where I'd lost the giant on Wednesday and pretty quickly put another 3lber in the boat. I slowly fished the bar dropping my power poles and fan casting different baits around making sure I gave every fish around a fair chance to ride in my new Triton. I made it right to where I'd lost the big one Wednesday and hooked a fish! It pulled a little drag and I thought I had hooked another monster but it ended up being a foul hooked 3lber. My next cast I caught a fish pushing 4lbs and that was it for that stretch. I fished another area mainly to give my other two places time to rest and never caught anything. I made it back over to where I started and caught a 2.75lber on my first cast which was number five. I was relieved to catch a limit but I was a little disappointed in the quality. My very next cast one smoked it and it was another good one pushing 4lbs but it came off about half way to the boat! I can't complain because that's the first fish I've lost all year in a tournament but at the time I had no idea how critical that mistake was going to be. I ended up culling once more that day with a 3.25lber and had to leave to head back at 1 p.m. I had a long time to think about my day as I made my way back to Barkley Lodge and really I couldn't think of anything I would've done differently. I felt like other than losing that fish that only cost me about a half pound I'd fished pretty efficiently considering I only had 4 hours to work. My main goal at that point was getting a check to pay some of my gas bill and when I weighed in I learned something a little disturbing. I was in 2nd place with 17.40lbs and 17.50lbs was leading. That's when it really set in that the one I lost could very well come back to haunt me. I was just hoping that somebody would weigh in a big stringer so I wouldn't have to think about losing the winning fish and I finally got word that Harry Barber had a good bag and was probably going to win it. When Harry weighed in he took the lead and eventually won with 17.75lbs! I like Harry a lot and was happy for him to win but man I couldn't quit thinking about letting that 4lber get away. I ended up 3rd and got my Toyota Bonus Bucks again for the 5th straight event so that was a good thing.

SUMMARY: These low weight tournaments drive me nuts! These are the tournaments that you have to capitalize on and this is the 2nd tournament in less than a year out of Barkley Lodge that took 17lbs to win and I was right there just a few ounces out of it. There's a fine line between fishing to win and being stupid and I leaned towards the stupid side in this one. I was bummed out that my fish weren't the size I was hoping for and I got a little sloppy trying to land them. I sort of took it for granted that they were "just" 3.5lbers and not the kind of fish you win with but when it was all said and done, they were the winning fish I just didn't know it. This is something I definitely need to work on. I have it in my head that you have to have 5+ lbers to win a tournament and I don't put the TLC into landing lesser quality fish. Unfortunately this isn't the first time I've made this mistake. Oh well, it could've been worse, I'm just thankful to make it through another event safe and sound with a top 5 finish. Congrats to my friend Harry Barber on the "W" and my good buddy and Guntersville legend Ed Gettys on his 4th place finish.

ABA Weekend Bass Series TN Central Division KY Lake, March 29

My good buddy David Gnewikow and I fished a team tournament out of KY Dam Marina last weekend so we decided we would practice separately. I had a horrible day on the north end of the lake managing only 3 keepers. Dave figured out a pretty strong umbrella rig pattern down south so we decided to spend our tournament there. We caught a ton of fish but never caught any big ones and ended up 13th with 17lbs. I had an electronics trip Monday and had no intentions of fishing afterwards but it was such a nice day I decided to make a few casts. I decided to play around with the pattern Dave had figured out in the Paris area and the third place I hit produced a couple of 3lbers and a 7lber. I found a couple more places that day and when it was said and done my best 5 weighed over 26lbs and I felt like I had really fine tuned the pattern.

I had a guide trip Wednesday and spent the day trying to expand on what I'd found Monday and by the end of the day we'd caught 40 or 50 bass, several stripers in the 15-20lb range and our best 5 largemouth went about 23lbs. After that, I was so dialed into what I needed to look for I decided to not even practice for the upcoming ABA WBS.

TOURNAMENT: After a beautiful week of low wind, sunny skies and mild temperatures, a big cold front rolled through Friday night and Saturday morning. We launched out of Paris Landing Marina into a cold steady rain and a steady 20 mph north wind. Strong current and a stout north wind create some giant swells on KY Lake but I knew from past experience the bite would be on fire in those big waves for the guys that were willing to fight it all day. My first stop was what I thought was my best school but after a half hour I'd caught a handful of stripers and three bass. One of them was pushing 6lbs but it definitely wasn't as good as I was hoping. I made a short run to my next best place and it was on! I caught a largemouth or smallmouth on every cast for about 20 minutes and when I'd exhausted the school at 8 a.m., I had around 21lbs. My next stop was loaded with 2 and 3lb class fish and after catching at least one on every cast for awhile, they shut off and I never upgraded. With the waves getting bigger by the hour I had a decision to make. Should I run around trying to fish everything I'd found earlier in the week, or stay close and rotate through the three places that had already produced for me that morning? I really felt like the two places I'd started on had the potential to produce the winning fish so I decided to spend the day bouncing back and forth between the two. I headed back to where I started for round two and I was catching a striper on every cast. I knew the bass had to be close by so with each cast I moved a littler further up onto the flat and suddenly I had slack knocked in my line four times on one retrieve! I knew then I'd hit the school and my next cast produced a 3 and a 4lber. I made a quick cull and fired out another cast and caught another fish over 4lbs. This went on for awhile and then I hooked my biggest fish of the day, a 6.54lber. The action finally slowed so I headed back to my other little honey hole about a mile away and while the school was still busted up from my earlier assault, I did manage to cull twice. It was 10:45 a.m. and on my scales I had over 25lbs. I caught another 18 to 20lb stringer or two as the day went on but never was able to upgrade again. I'll never complain when I have a 5lb average but this day and age on KY Lake you never feel sure you have a tournament won unless you have over 30lbs and some days your not safe with that, but with the conditions we had that day I thought I may have a shot at the "W". I got in line to weigh in and before I ever made it to the stage, Craig Dowling weighed in 29.08lbs! I knew I didn't have enough to overtake him but I honestly didn't even care. I'd had a blast out there bouncing around on those five footers catching 3 to 6.5 lbers all day. Before the scales closed another 29.08lb bag was weighed in and I ended up 3rd with 25.82lbs and claimed my fourth Toyota Bonus Bucks check in as many tries.

SUMMARY: Absolutely, by far, the most fun I've had in a tournament in a long time. There's just something about fishing in such horrible conditions that most people think it would be impossible to even catch a bass and just thumpin' 'em all day long! I even had to cull an 18lb limit of smallmouth which was pretty cool because I've never even caught a limit of smallmouth in a tournament before.

I've mentioned several times before that every good finish I have, there seems to be a critical piece of equipment that made it possible. This time it was no doubt my new Triton TRX, Mercury Pro XS and MotorGuide 109 trolling motor. I ran around like a mad man all day in those giant waves and my boat and engine got me everywhere I needed to go safely and comfortably. The deck on the new TRX looks like an aircraft carrier and I stood up there all day with waves breaking over the bow and never missed a cast. Last but not least, my MotorGuide 109 allowed me to stay right on my waypoints and quickly return when I blew 100 yards away while culling or rigging baits. Thanks Triton, Mercury and Odom's Blue and Gray Marine for allowing me to run the best tournament rig in the industry!

FLW Music City BFL, March 8, 2014

Tournament number three of 2014 is in the books. Only three weeks after the worst tournament I've had in years, things luckily turned around in a hurry. With a little guidance from the good Lord above, I was able to figure out what was probably the best pattern on the lake last weekend and win the LBL BFL by nearly 8lbs. I was pumped to get on the lake again and see if my pattern was still holding but mother nature had different plans and dumped several inches of the frozen stuff all around KY Lake so I was unable to hit the water until last Thursday. I had a guide trip that I booked back in January scheduled that day and almost canceled Wednesday because all of the ramps were still iced over. We decided to give the sun a few hours to do it's thing on the icy ramp Thursday morning and I met Phillip and Ronnie at Paris Landing at 9:30am. The lake had risen a couple feet since my win just a few days prior and the already stained water was pure chocolate. I told the guys that conditions had changed a lot so I was basically going to just treat it like a day of practice and see what we could come up with.

Our first stop was a real shallow place that I catch a lot of big fish on this time of year with the Redeye Shad and as we worked our way out a little deeper I decided to give the KVD Flat a try and in a few casts hooked up with a 4.5lber. I put my rod down and they told me I was welcome to keep fishing but I said I didn't really want to catch a lot myself since I had another Triton Gold and Mercury sanctioned BFL coming up. They said they were more interested in learning what to look for this time of year than catching fish and encouraged me to just leave the area before we caught any more. Our next stop was very similar to the first and it didn't take long for us to crank up a couple 3lb class fish and we moved on. We then headed to an offshore bar that I hadn't fished the weekend before but it definitely fit the pattern and I have definitely flat smoked 'em there in the past. After only a few casts, Phillip bowed up on a 5lber and we snapped a few pics and headed on. We hit a lot of different type places as we made our way up the lake and caught a fish or two here and there but no quality. We finally made it to where I caught the bulk of my fish in the LBL BFL and after I scanned the area to make sure there weren't any boats around, I decided fish it and make sure the school was still there. We made a pass with the KVD Flat's and with the water being higher we were having trouble getting the bait to the bottom. I tied them on a couple of 5XD's in Chart. Perch and it was on! They caught several in the 3-4lb range in a row and finally said they'd seen enough so we made a move. I spent the rest of the day in the creeks just checking some places and patterns that work this time of year but we never caught another fish. When we headed in I scanned some main river ledge stuff just to show them how many fish of all species (especially shad) were still out really deep and they were absolutely loaded with fish. I told them they'd been there for several months but I hadn't been able to get them to bite since the water got muddy back in December and it would be a waste of time to even try. We ended the day with about 15 fish and around 20lbs on our best five and I was feeling pretty good about the BFL on Saturday.

Friday I headed south to New Johnsonville in hopes of finding a backup pattern for Saturday. I fished everything from the bank to the main river ledge and caught one drum all day. With a couple hours left I headed back to Paris to try and figure out a way to make those deep fish go one last time and was pretty shocked when every place I scanned with my Lowrance was void of life! I'm talking thousands of fish that had been on these places every day for months had completely vanished! That told me that something had changed in a big way but I still felt like my main pattern would only get better with more fish migrating through the ditches with the warm weather ahead.

TOURNAMENT DAY- We took off out of Birdsong Creek at 7am and I had a bad feeling I was going to have some company on my best place. I wasn't concerned with guys in my tournament because my new Triton TRX will run close to 80 mph but there were several other tournaments going on that had started at daylight. When I got within sight of it there was only one boat in the entire area and they were sitting right on my waypoint! I headed to another section of the bar that I caught a few on the weekend before and started cranking my way down the bar. The guys in the other boat were catching a fish on every other cast with an umbrella rig and I was watching close to see if they were big ones and that's when my co angler called for the net. I netted a 3lber for him and went back to fishing and a few casts later he yelled for the net again. This time I scooped up a fish over 4lbs for him and from the looks of things everybody behind me and ahead of me were off to a good start and I couldn't get a bite! Things finally slowed down for everyone but I fished around the area until 9:30 and when I left I had a fish pushing 4lbs and four 15" fish for a total of about 12lbs. I ran through all of the other stuff I fished in the LBL event, all of the stuff I fished on my guide trip and never had a bite. While I'm fishing I'm constantly analyzing everything imaginable in order to try and make good decisions and adjust as the day goes on. The one thing that really stuck out to me were the fact that the guys that were sitting where I wanted to start were catching fish on an umbrella rig and my co angler caught a few fish behind me on a Sexy Shad crankbait while I was using crawfish patterns. That made me think about how all of the shad had disappeared from the deep ledges between Thursday and Friday. I came to the conclusion that when all of those shad moved up, the bass followed and with everything in transition I knew it was probably going to be hard to nail down a strong pattern. I decided to cover some really shallow water with a Redeye Shad and see if maybe I could relocate the majority of the bait and hopefully catch a few bass along the way. The second shallow place I stopped on I snagged a big Gizzard Shad in the back and I knew then there had to be some bass around. I slowly worked the area over and finally caught a 4.5lber. I really slowed down then and basically fished the bait like a jig and ended up catching two more fish in the 4-4.5lb range and a 2.75lber. I got that gut feeling that I was about to put 20 plus lbs in the boat but after an hour I hadn't had another bite. By that time I was a lot further north than I'd planned on going, time was slipping away and I had a big decision to make. I felt like I could run around throwing the Redeye the rest of the day and probably run into another 4lb fish or two but I really thought in order to win I needed to catch a giant. I felt like my best bet to catch that giant was back in New Johnsonville so I headed back south. I made a quick pass through all of my productive areas from the week before and only picked up a few small keepers. I finished the day running as many shallow points and bars as I could but never caught anymore fish. I weighed in 18lbs 14oz and finished in 4th place. 

SUMMARY: I was a little disappointed when only 20lbs ended up winning the tournament because I knew then I'd probably made the wrong decision going for a giant bite the last few hours of the day. Unfortunately when you fish to win you have to take some gambles and more times than not, it doesn't work out. Overall it was another beautiful day on the lake and much more successful than my opening event of the year just three weeks ago.

FLW LBL BFL March 1

I'm going to try and keep this as short as possible but this tournament was a first for me in a lot of ways and it's proof that when the good Lord wants you to win there's nothing you can do to stop it. I wrote an article last month for The Sportsmen's Digest magazine where I talked about cold water, pre-spawn fishing. I talked about how my first few years on KY Lake I did really well and seemed to always figure out a potential tournament winning pattern. I also talked about how each of those years I caught my fish different ways in different places. Having had success so many different ways, each new year I have to run through all of my old patterns and places just to make sure they aren't working again (which they never are) and by the time I eliminate all of my "old" water, I don't have much time to try and figure out what's going on at the present time. I keep thinking that just maybe some day one of my old patterns will be on again and make my job a lot easier but up until this past Saturday it hadn't happened.

Coming off of the worst tournament I've ever had on KY Lake I really wanted to spend some time trying to figure out what I'd done wrong before the upcoming BFL. Unfortunately between business, weather and a throbbing tooth ache that set in Thursday night, I only practiced one day and caught one 2lb fish. Having never done good in a tournament after a terrible practice and still in pain on Friday, I called BFL tournament director Daniel Fennel and asked him to take me out of the tournament and he said he would. That night I got a text from FLW Outdoors with my boat number and co angler partner for the tournament. Daniel immediately called and said he apologized but for whatever reason I wasn't removed from the system but he could still get me out of the tournament if I really didn't want to fish. I told him that maybe that was a sign from God that I needed to fish and I'd just throw back some Advil and tough it out.

Next, I talked to my partner Bryan Henry and told him I wasn't on anything, wasn't feeling very good and I had no clue what we were going to do the next morning. I told him to bring everything he had and be sure he bought a TN license.

We headed out of KY Dam Saturday morning and made a 45 mile run to the Paris area and I stopped on a place that I caught one of my two keepers the weekend before. I told Bryan if we didn't catch any there I was rolling the dice and going to New Johnsonville. We didn't catch a fish so I headed to another place close by and once again said if we didn't catch them, I was going to Jville. After an hour there we hadn't had a bite and I said one more stop and we're going to Jville and that's when Bryan said something you rarely hear from a co angler especially when it's 35 degrees outside, he said he wanted to go to Jville. He said he'd wanted to go for two years but his boaters never took him. I'd been wanting to practice in Jville for two weeks but hadn't made it up there and though I've made that run many times, I'd never done it without at least a small clue as to what the fish were doing on that end of the lake. Knowing I was basically throwing in the towel if I stayed around Paris I strapped everything down and made another 30 mile run to New Johnsonville. By that point it was already 10am and I had to leave at 2pm in order to make it back on time so I knew in order to salvage the day I needed to figure them out quick. Lake conditions were very similar to 2010 when I figured out a really strong pattern on that end of the lake. I headed to the first place I came to that worked that year but didn't have a lot of faith in it because like I said before, I've never been able to duplicate any of my past successful patterns or areas. I fired out a bait I've never even made a cast with, the new Strike King KVD 1.5 Flat, and caught a 3lber on my first cast. A few minutes later I caught another 3lber and then several 2.5lb fish. When they quit biting I only had about 14lbs. but I smiled at Bryan and said "I know where they are!" My next stop produced a 6.5lber and my next stop produced a 7.25lber and I basically ran as many of my 2010 places as I could until we had to go back. Bryan was a great guy and he'd told me that he'd never weighed in a limit in a BFL. I really wanted him to catch five but when I pulled up on our last stop it was 2 pm and he only had two small keepers. I told him we only had ten minutes to fish and I had a good feeling there would be a load of fish on this particular spot. I only had one spare KVD Flat in my boat but on my first cast our baits landed side by side and I had three bites and then hooked a 4lber and he never had a sniff. I grabbed my back up bait and threw it to Bryan and told him to tie it on. Over the next ten minutes we doubled up on 4 to 5lbers on every cast but unfortunately we were having to take time out to cull and finally had to leave. When the scales closed I'd weighed in 26lbs. 7oz. and won the third BFL of my career. Bryan weighed in 15lbs. 5oz. and finished 3rd on the co angler side. 

What an amazing day! This was a really special tournament for me in a lot of ways. Number one, one of my old patterns that I'd worked so hard to figure out back in the day finally came into play only a few weeks after I'd written an article on how they never do. Number two, it showed me that I can figure out the winning pattern during a tournament which has always been my Achilles Heel.

It seems like every tournament I win there's a piece of equipment or two that really play a role in my success. I started using All Pro Rods exclusively late last summer. I weighed in over 75lbs of Sexy Dawg fish in three days of tournament fishing using the All Pro APX MH Cranking Rod. This was my first tournament to actually use this rod for what it was intended for, cranking, but I'm telling you I wouldn't have won without it. I didn't mention that my co angler kicked my net over board early in the day and I caught over 30 keepers and never lost a fish either swinging them in or lipping them beside the boat. The 7lber I caught made a run beside the boat and my drag was waaaaay too tight and my APX absorbed it and allowed me to keep that fish hooked up. 

Another key to my pattern was staying way off of the bars and making a long enough cast that my bait had time to really dig into the bottom and I was out casting my partner by 25 yards. 

The most important part of my pattern was that when I felt the bait really get into the roughest stuff around, I'd pause it and then it would get engulfed! I could feel every piece of gravel and shell that my bait hit all day long and I know that's why I caught so many more fish than my partner. I've always cranked with glass rods so this was my first go round cranking with graphite and this rod is the deal for shallow to medium diving crankbaits, lipless baits and obviously it's a pretty good top water rod too! 

ABA WBS FEB. 22

My new Triton TRX came in just before the Weekend Bass Series and by the time I got all of that business taken care of I only had one day to practice.  I knew I didn't have time to run through all of my old stuff so I decided to start from scratch. I spent four hours that day looking around out deep and while the majority of the fish seemed to be out there, the muddy water made them impossible to catch. I finally bailed on the deep fish and ran around chunking a Redeye Shad and a KVD 1.5 the rest of the day and while  I only caught three fish that day, they were of decent quality and weighed about 10lbs.  I thought if I just covered a ton of water during the tournament I might luck up and run into five good ones.  Unfortunately, I only ran into two on tournament day and they weren't that good. I weighed in the smallest (4.91 lbs) bag of fish on KY Lake I've weighed since I started fishing and guiding full time in 2009. The good news for me was everyone struggled, 13lbs won the tournament and I finished 14th and not completely out of the race for Angler of the Year. 

THE MENTAL SIDE

There are a few reasons I wanted to blog on this topic. One is the seminar my good friend Dr. David Gnewikow is offering this March and the numerous phone calls and questions I've had about how beneficial I thought this seminar would be. The other reasons are a lot of phone calls and conversations I've had about how tough I thought fishing would be in these first few BFL and WBS tournaments with these brutal cold conditions we've had.

I've fished with hundreds of people from kids that have never made a cast to tour level pros. Once a fisherman reaches a certain level there's really no noticeable difference in an anglers fishing ability. We are all fairly equal as far as our mechanics go and the equipment we use. So the question rises, what separates the guys who consistently finish in the top of the pack in tournaments from the rest of the field. The answer, in my opinion, is the mental side of fishing.

To me the mental side covers a pretty broad spectrum that ranges from how an angler prepares before a tournament to decision making during the tournament to how he carries himself during and after weigh in. I also believe you need to be able to "change gears" mentally depending on your situation and what your goals are. What I mean by this is I have a total different mindset going into an event on KY Lake compared to say one at Old Hickory. 12lbs will get you a top ten at Old Hickory and on KY Lake, not even close. Therefore, going into Old Hickory, I try to be prepared mentally for a tough bite where every keeper is golden and on KY Lake "just keepers" are worthless most of the time. 

I learned mental toughness the hard way. My first year of tournament fishing I never caught a keeper so my goal the next year was just to catch a keeper. My next goal was to catch a limit, then get a check and so on and so forth. I basically set small goals and took baby steps but I was determined to not let anything get in my way and I focused just as hard on trying to catch that one keeper my second season as I do now trying to catch 25lbs on KY Lake. Starting from the bottom like I did I also assumed that all of my competitors were better fishermen than me so I looked for ways that I could level the playing field. I would hear guys the night before the tournament talking about how the wind was going to blow the next day and screw up their game plan or clear skies would kill their bite and those type things were what I taught myself to overcome. I soon figured out that most of the time the guys that were freaking out the night before the tournament were already beaten. I found myself hoping for nasty weather or drastically changing conditions because the more people that were psyched out before the tournament started, the fewer people I had to out fish. I had an old school fisherman tell me the other day about fishing a team tournament back in the day with legendary lure designer Stan Sloan. He said the night before at the meeting Stan got every ones attention and told them that he would have over 30lbs and that if they couldn't catch that they may as well stay home! His partner asked him why he would do such a thing and Stan replied, "now most of them are already beat." While I don't necessarily agree with Stan's arrogant approach, he was right. Many fishermen are out of the race before it ever even starts because they let dock talk, weather and things of that nature spin them out mentally.

I always thought I had a pretty good grip on the mental part of fishing and then I became good friends with David G and eventually started fishing some tournaments with him. This guy is above and beyond anyone I've ever been around when it comes to this aspect of fishing. This class on the mental side of fishing is a great idea and I don't know of a better person to try and help others understand it. It's like everything else in fishing, some will pick up on it quicker than others but we've discussed some of the things he's going to talk about and I guarantee when you walk out of there you will have an understanding of it all and a process you can follow that will help you become a more successful tournament angler.

So, do I think David's seminar is worth $200? I personally think it should cost more. He's offering something that few anglers are willing to share, something you can't read in a magazine article and something you definitely can't buy at a tackle store. Fishermen spend $200 every day on custom painted crank baits, devices that play shad sounds underwater and all other kinds of equipment. What most of them don't realize is that the most important piece of equipment they have is between their ears and Next Level Tournament Fishing is going to teach them how to put it to use. 

To learn more go to https://www.facebook.com/davidgfishing