PRODUCT REVIEW: STRIKE FORCE FISH ATTRACTANT

Well, unfortunately I still don't have any good fishing stories to write about. I've spent very little time on the water other than a few excursions to break my new Mercury in and to see if the umbrella rig bite has turned on and as of this writing, it's nonexistent, at least for me. I've decided to fill this month's entry with a product review on a product I've been using for several years now. I actually started writing this article several years ago and got a little greedy and never published it. I figured it wouldn't hurt to have at least one secret weapon I kept to myself but my good friend and owner of Big E Attractants, Jeremy Estes, has a fine product that deserves some recognition so I've decided to spill the beans and share my experiences with you on Strike Force Fish Attractant.

For those of you that have been following my blog or Tournament Angler Journal series over the years, you probably get the idea that I'm pretty skeptical about a lot of new products that hit the market. I wasn't always this way, in fact I used to be the first one in line to buy the latest and greatest invention. After being let down more times than not I eventually became a lot more leery of gimmicky type products that were introduced.

Scent's and attractants are by no means a new invention. I remember as a kid hearing my granddad's talk about spraying WD40 on their bait or even spitting tobacco juice on a wad of night crawlers before they made a cast. I've used them off and on over the years especially in cold water situations,  around the spawn or anytime the bite can be really light or the fish just may not want to commit 100% to my offering. As I gained more experience, the better I became at detecting light strikes and eventually totally got away from using any sort of attractant or scent and really didn't notice any adverse effects from doing so.

Jeremy started Big E Attractants in the summer of 2010 and gave me a bottle of his new Strike Force craw scent that he was about to put on the market. He told me that I should really take the time to give it a try. I explained to him my feelings on scent and that I wasn't a big believer but I assured him I would give it a try and let him know what I thought.

I threw it in my boat and on my next trip I shot a squirt or two on my jig that morning. The first thing I learned on my initial field test of Strike Force was that it definitely wasn't lacking in the smell department. It didn't smell terrible if you like the smell of fish and garlic but one squirt is all it took to let me know it was doing its job.

The next thing I noticed about Strike Force was that at the end of the day I could still smell it on my jig. Most other scents I've ever used would wash off after a few casts and I would have to add another coat, so that was definitely a check in the win column for Strike Force.

At the end of the day I had caught plenty of fish on my scented jig, but I still wasn't sold that it would out produce an unscented jig. After all, it was Kentucky Lake in June so you're going to catch plenty of fish on your jig no matter what it smells like.

I put the bottle in the cup holder of my boat and it rode around there the rest of the summer and I really never gave it a second thought. As time went by I did think to myself about how well the bottle had held up. I've had problems with other scents busting, leaking or the nozzle breaks on the aerosol can, but that little bottle of Strike Force had been kicked, bounced, stepped on, smashed, basically everything except what it was intended for and hadn't leaked a drop. I later found out that was because it has a small rubber washer between the cap and the bottle that keeps it completely leak proof which was another nice little feature, if of course you were a believer in scent's, which I still wasn't.

I talked to Jeremy later that summer and he asked me what I thought about his new recipe and I told him how he definitely had the smell part down, I was impressed with how well it stayed on the bait and how durable the bottle was but I still wasn't sold on it making a difference in catching fish. He assured me that it worked and that I just needed to keep using it, which of course I didn't.

Later that Fall I rolled into Guntersville, AL for the Bassmaster Weekend Series Championship. I had a pretty strong swim jig pattern going and after the third day I was in 3rd place, 5lbs out of the lead. I knew I needed a big bag the final day to have a shot at 1st place, the $200,000 check and the Bassmaster Classic berth that came along with it. My swim jig pattern was dying and my three biggest fish of the week had come off of a river ledge on a football jig so I decided to camp out on that ledge for eight hours the last day.

It was early November and a major cold front had rolled through Guntersville the night before. I knew from past experience that Guntersville bass were very finicky during the first few major fronts of the Fall so I wasn't sure what to expect when we launched that morning.  I headed straight to my ledge and the first fifteen minutes of the day were fifteen minutes of my life I would love to forget. I had seven bites on my jig and never hooked a single fish. I couldn't help but see that 200 grand slipping right through my fingers. I happened to look down and there sit my little bottle of Strike Force in the cup holder of my boat all banged up from a season of bouncing around on KY Lake. I couldn't think of a better time to see what that stuff was all about than right then and there. What I'm about to say may sound like a sales pitch but I assure you it is absolutely, 100% the truth of what went down that cold November morning. I shot a squirt of Strike Force on my jig and caught eight keepers on my next eight casts! I couldn't believe that was all it took! I never missed another fish the rest of the day off of that ledge with my Strike Force soaked jig and though I weighed in the heaviest limit of the day, when the scales closed I came up 2lbs shy of what would've been a life changing win and finished in 2nd place.

That seems like forever ago now and while it has gotten easier with time, to this day I still think back on that week quite often and wonder what might have been if I would've been using Strike Force the entire day, or the entire tournament or the entire year for that matter.

I'll never have anyway of proving that Strike Force was the difference maker that day, but it definitely made a believer out of me and you will never see me make a cast in a tournament without it.

A 3oz. bottle will last you a season and can be purchased for $7.99 from TackleExperts.com. Whether you're a skeptic like I was or a die-hard believer in scent's and attractants, I highly suggest you give Strike Force a try, I wish I would've just a little bit sooner!

PHOTO SUBMITTED TO ABA MAGAZINE ON THE KEYS TO MY SUCCESS IN 2010 BWS CHAMPIONSHIP

2015 OVERVIEW

For the past several years I’ve spent the winter trying to land a title sponsor so I could fish the FLW Tour. As I’ve gotten a little older and more familiar with the Tour level side of the fishing industry, it’s really not very appealing to me anymore.

One of the reasons I've lost some desire to take a shot at the big leagues is due to how cutthroat the competition has become.  When I run down the lake in a BFL and I see a boat on a place I want to fish, I just go to the next one.  Sometimes I may run by 20 or 30 schools of bass before I find an open place to fish.  It seems more and more folks have a different outlook than myself nowadays and multiple boats fishing within spitting distance of each other is a very common occurrence, especially at the tour level.  

While discussing the subject with friends that compete on Tour, I think I have an understanding of why fishing in crowds has become a common practice and for the most part, accepted among Tour Pros.  

Some good examples of both sides of the "should I stay or should I go" debate took place right here on KY Lake during the FLW Tour Event.  My good friend Micah Frazier, whose an up and coming young gun on Tour told me there was a boat on his starting place and when I asked him what he did he said he went ahead and started fishing and soon thereafter another boat or two joined the party.  I asked him what the other guy said when he pulled up and Micah replied, "Everything was cool, that's just how it is on Tour."  He then explained to me how when your fishing for that kind of money, you can't just "not fish" a place you found in practice because someone else found it. Micah stuck to his guns and fished among the crowds for 3 days and though he lost the fish that would've put him in the top 10, he still put 10 grand in the bank with a top 30 finish.  He gave me another example of how Brent Ehler,who is very well respected, had pulled in on him during a BASS Open on Douglas lake.  He said Brent pulled up, apologized, and said, "There's boats on every school, I have to fish somewhere." I definitely see his and the other guys who don't mind fishing in close proximity to one another's point. 

On the other side of the spectrum was my good buddy and one of my heroes, Larry Nixon.  Larry knew where all of the good schools were hanging out that week, just like a lot of the field.  He chose not to fish boat to boat with anyone and instead tried to catch scattered fish off of more obscure places and ended up struggling and finishing out of the money.  Now we all know Larry Nixon knows how to find and catch fish as good as anyone on the planet so you have to assume if he would have gone ahead and joined the crowds, he would've easily cashed a check in the tournament. 

I'm not sure what makes some guys o.k. with fishing in crowds and others totally against it.  If I had to guess I would say that a veteran like Larry can probably afford to gamble a little more than the young guns who have more to prove and more on the line financially. 

While I understand and respect both views, I don't think I could ever embrace fishing in a crowd which would make me an "up and comer" with a "veterans" outlook on things and therefore I probably wouldn't last long on Tour! 

My other reason for having a change of heart is, as I’ve said many times, my love of fishing is trying to figure the fish out. When I first started bass fishing in 2000, the BASS Invitationals were drawing 400 “Pros” per event, the FLW Tour was maxed out with 200 entrants at every event and I really believed that those 600 or so guys were able to go to lakes they’d never seen and find winning fish in just a few days. 

I’ve since learned that there are only a handful of fishermen on the planet that can actually accomplish such a feat. Most rely on info from local fishermen, waypoints, sharing info with travel partners, etc. I’m not saying there is anything wrong with what makes the Tour go round as long as this info is obtained in accordance with BASS and/or FLW rules. I’m also not saying Tour Pros aren't great fishermen as most of us know it’s quite a challenge to catch another person’s fish and it still takes a lot of skill and knowledge to put said info to use. What I am saying is that what inspired me to dedicate my life to trying to become a “Pro” fisherman was the belief that it was possible to learn enough to figure fish out in three days like the “Pros” did and 15 years later I realized that, for the most part, it doesn't exist. 

Honestly, at first, I was a little bummed out over this discovery. I felt like someone had told me Michael Jordan and LeBron James had flubber in their shoes or the NBA is really using 8ft. goals. I use this analogy because a goal of mine as a kid, was to be able to dunk a basketball on a 10ft. goal which is pretty tough when your 5’8” but as long as I saw Jordan doing it, I knew it was possible and believed I could reach that goal, no pun intended, with enough hard work and determination. 

***NOTE: Just so I don’t leave you hanging I finally maxed out by dunking a volleyball but just didn't have the hands to dunk a regulation ball, but that’s another sport and another story for another time and I probably couldn't touch the net now with my fishermen's physique!!!***

But anyway, hopefully you get my drift on how learning that the best fishermen in the world were getting a little input on where to start their search for bass on unfamiliar water sort of took the wind out of my sails. 

Luckily for me, it took me awhile to realize this truth or I probably would've given up and still be sitting at a desk every day. Instead, the work I put in trying to reach my goal of becoming a "Pro" help me build a successful guide business and I am now very content making my living fishing as opposed to being a professional fishermen and believe me, there is a very big difference in the two. 

All that being said, I’m pleased to announce that I’ll mostly be staying local again in 2015 guiding and fishing FLW/ABA draw events on KY Lake. 

I am going to venture out a little bit and fish the Mountain division of the FLW BFL’s in an effort to qualify for the Regional event in October on KY Lake. I’ve been wanting to fish another division for several years that holds it’s Regional on KY but scheduling conflicts with local events have always nipped the idea in the bud. I will have to miss a Weekend Bass Series event or two but a BFL Regional win is worth around 70 grand plus an All American berth and I’d much rather take my chances at home than somewhere like, uh, let’s say, CHEROKEE LAKE!

So, the goal in the Mountain division is going to be making the top 50 in the points. That sounds easy enough but unfortunately it’s one of the strongest divisions in the country and draws well over 100 boats in all 5 events. What that means is, catching a couple fish at each tournament isn't going to get it done. A lot of divisions have people start dropping out after a bad tournament or two and you can overcome a couple of mediocre showings, but that’s not going to be the case in the Mountain.

Another thing I have going against me is not only are the lakes (Dale Hollow twice, Cumberland once and Barren River twice), places I’ve never been, but with the exception of Barren, the others are deep, clear, highland reservoirs which is far from my strong suit.

The good news is both Dale Hollow events will be pre-spawn and if I’m going to catch any on a deep, clear lake it’s going to be that time of year.

Cumberland is the one I’m really worried about and it takes place in mid-May. I’ll probably run up the river and make as many flips as possible in hopes of just catching a few keepers in that one. There could potentially be a few lingering spawner's also, so I’ll definitely be looking for a few.

I’ve heard pretty good things about the Barren River and my buddies that have fished there have been able to do well fishing their strengths whether it be shallow or deep so that should be a fun place to try and figure out.

The FLW Rayovac is going to be in early May this year which is a little different. I’m really excited over that because depending on the weather, it may not be a full-fledged ledge tournament. I feel like a ledge tournament is a safer bet for me as far as definitely being able to cash a good check, but I really think if I ever win a Rayovac it’s going to have to be at another time of year when everyone in the field doesn't know where the entire bass population is. My best finish in a Rayovac to date is 3rd and that one was held in mid-March so hopefully we’ll have a cool spring, some high water and we can mix it up a little bit in that one.

Other than that and a few excursions to Eastern KY, it’s going to be a pretty standard year.

I’d also like to say that all of my sponsors stayed on board this year so I’d like to give a shout out to Odom’s Blue and Gray Marine, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Lowrance, Strike King, Power-Pole, All Pro Rods, Abu Garcia Reels, Seaguar Fluorocarbon, The Rod Glove, Strike Force Fish Attractant, The Cabin Bait & Tackle and TackleExperts.com for all of their support. 

I’ve considered The Cabin owner Ronnie Critcheloe a sponsor for a while now and he’s always gone above and beyond for me but this year we made it official. For those that have never been to The Cabin in Kuttawa, KY, it’s the best tackle store I’ve ever stepped foot in and they also have an online division now, www.TackleExperts.com. Not only do they have everything you could ever need, Ronnie and Diane are great people and I look forward to working with them again this year. 

Please be sure to check them out as well as all of my other sponsors as I assure you they’re the best companies and people in the business and I couldn't do my job without each and every one of them.

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year and you all have a blessed 2015. 

2014 SEASON RECAP

I would like to start off by mentioning a great day I had on the water recently with my little buddy Blare Houston.  I've taken Blare and his dad Scott fishing a few times and have become good friends with them along the way.  I really wanted to get Blare in on some of the ledge action earlier in the year but I had so many guide trips and tournaments I never could get it done.  I decided to invite him to fish the Montgomery County Bass Club Winter Trail event with me Dec. 20 and while we didn't catch them as good as I expected, we were able to make an adjustment or two throughout the day and win the tournament with 20.08lbs.  I just wanted Blare to know how much I appreciate him toughing out a cold, slow day with me as I know it's a lot to ask out of anyone especially a 13 year old. If he even had half as much fun as I did, he had a pretty good time!

I always like to use this last entry of the year to reflect on my season, compare it to years past and that helps me get an idea of if, and how I'm progressing as a fisherman. The main things I like to look at are as follows:

1. Did I learn anything that will help me be more successful down the road?

This is the most important part of the equation to me. It's the reason I fish and I've always said the year I don't learn something will be the year I quit fishing. A couple years ago I got in a rut and I was really beginning to think I'd about maxed out on what I could learn. Last year some things started clicking and I actually said in my 2013 Season Recap that I felt like I'd learned more in 2013 than I had in any year prior. Learning that much in '13 really had me excited about putting it to use this year and I never dreamed I could have another learning year like '13 this far into my career but '14 was even better! It's really hard to explain but let's take March for instance. March has always been my favorite month to fish, I've been pretty successful in March over the years and caught fish a lot of different ways. I pretty much thought I was as dialed into March fishing as I could be and this year it was like all of the little pieces of the puzzle came together and I could see the big picture. Before, I was fortunate to find good places or patterns but this year it became crystal clear to me when and why those places were good and I even added a few new patterns that I never knew existed to my March arsenal. April has always been my Achilles Heel on KY Lake and I had numerous 20lb days this year and that was a huge confidence boost for me moving forward. Another good example was what I learned about electronics and school fishing. I've been able to find and catch fish using my Lowrance for several years but I really learned some next level stuff this past summer. The coolest thing I learned was where to make my first cast into the school by the way they're positioned on the Lowrance to get the most out of the school. I really believe this is the type stuff that's separated guys like Randy Haynes from the rest of the pack the past few years. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I know as much as Randy, just saying I know a lot more than I did 8 months ago! To sum it up, it was a very exciting year from a learning standpoint and probably the best of my career.

2. TOURNAMENT WINS

For me to make a living fishing at this level, I have to win tournaments. As I've said many times, the difference in a win and second place for me is around 10 grand. In order to get all of my big bonus checks from Triton, Mercury, Power-Pole, etc, I have to win! In a recent Bass Fan interview Randall Tharp said at the end of the year he doesn't want to count paychecks, he wants to count trophies! Randall hit the nail on the head and even though I'm competing at a lower level, I can definitely relate. Tournaments, especially one day tournaments, are very hard to win. There are more fishermen on the lake than ever before and with all of the technology and info available the vast majority of these fishermen know what they're doing out there. I don't think we'll ever see an era like I've heard about in the 80's and 90's where guys like Bill and Billy Schroeder on KY Lake or Ed Gettys and Billy Ledbetter on Guntersville dominated and won every single tournament they entered because the playing field is just too level now. I try to set realistic goals every year and while I fish to win every tournament I enter, that's just not realistic this day and age. Too many things have to come together to win. I do believe with smart game plans, smart decisions, perfect execution and a little luck, you can win several tournaments in a season so my goal the past few years has been to win five Triton/Mercury sanctioned events a season. Three years ago when I set this goal, I won two but they were more luck than anything and I just never got in tune with the winning fish that year. Last year, I won two sanctioned events again but I really felt like I was around the winning fish or on the winning patterns in several more. This year I was able to get even closer to my goal of winning five in a season. I only sealed the deal in three of them but either lost the winning fish or was within ounces or one bite of winning four more. This was definitely the most consistent year I've ever had as far as being in contention to win and it strengthens my belief that 5 or more wins in a season is a realistic and reachable goal.

3. TOP 10 FINISHES AND CHECKS

I also like to look at my top 10 finishes and how many checks I cash compared to past years because even though the ultimate goal is winning, the longer you linger around the top 10 the more wins you’re going to get. I was able to cash checks in 17/22 events (77%) and finish in the top 10 in 15/22 events (68%). These numbers are almost identical to 2013 (16/23 on checks and top 10's) but there was one major improvement. Out of my 15 top 10 finishes, 13 of them were 4th place or better. That number of top 4's surpasses any year I've had to date by far and again helped me prove to myself that winning numerous tournaments in a season is very possible.

SUMMARY: I don't have any complaints about this season. My guide business absolutely exploded and I feel like I'm right where I need to be at this point with my guiding. As far as the tournament side, not having any complaints doesn't mean I'm content. I am still striving for the "perfect" season where all of the "one bite away" 2nd and 3rd places are "W's"! What this season did was show me that while not an easy feat, winning 40 to 50% of the tournaments I enter is very possible. It may never happen, but as long as I believe that it's a reachable goal, that's what we're shooting for. I'm usually pretty burnt out by this point in the year and not even wanting to think about the upcoming season but after what I learned this year, I'm very much looking forward to next year's tournament season. That's what I love most about this amazing sport. No matter how much time we spend on the water we can never learn it all, every day is brand new and that's what keeps us coming back.

As always thanks to all of my sponsors: Odom's Blue and Gray Marine, Triton Boats, Mercury Marine, Lowrance, Strike King Lures, Power-Pole, Seaguar, All Pro Rods, Abu Garcia, The Rod Glove, Strike Force Fish Attractant, The Cabin Bait and Tackle and TackleExperts.com.

Thanks to my family and friends for all of their support and most of all my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the opportunity to live the dream.

Thanks to everyone who followed along this year, I hope you all have a blessed 2015! 

OCTOBER, NOVEMBER and DECEMBER 2014

When I returned home in early October from a terrible tournament at Lake Cherokee I was relieved that another season had come to a close and I could kick back, relax and finish out the year guiding without the hustle and bustle of tournament fishing.

A buddy of mine stopped by for a visit as I rigged up four All Pro top water rods and I told him how awesome it was going to be to only need four rods and four baits to close out my fall schedule.  Little did I know the lake was rising and I was on a collision course with some of the toughest fishing I've ever seen on KY Lake.

For the next few weeks I had several guide trips a week and some very excited clients anticipating the phenomenal top water fishing I've advertised the past couple years.  The water muddied up and the current was flowing at a pace I've never had to deal with, at least in the fall of the year, and I was as lost as last years Easter egg on how to consistently catch a fish.

I take my guiding very seriously and believe it or not, I get a lot more stressed out over a bad guide trip than a bad tournament.  To prove my point about how seriously I take guiding, I started a tournament limit guarantee a few years back on every trip which means if we don't put a minimum of five keeper bass in the boat, the trip is on the house.  Five keepers on a lake as good as KY isn't that big of a feat but it is still fishing and when you have a trip scheduled weeks, months or even a year in advance, you never know what you may be faced with weather/conditions wise on a given trip.  During the three years I've been offering this guarantee we have never failed to catch a limit of bass until this brutal stretch at the end of October.  I had six straight trips in which we failed  to catch a limit and it was weighing on me heavily by the end of the month.

The free trip part didn't bother me as there are a lot more good days and $100 tips than terrible days so that all works out.  What was really eating at me is that I had guys driving up to 6 hours to get here expecting explosive top water action and I just couldn't make it happen. It also hurt my pride a little to see my streak of a few hundred consecutive trips with limits come to an end.

What made it even more frustrating was that a few of these days we had the bites to have really big stringers but they jumped off or missed the bait completely which is going to happen Sexy Dawg fishing but when your only getting 5 or 6 bites a day, it makes an already tough day even tougher.

All of my clients were very patient and understanding of the tough fishing and none of them would accept a totally free trip so we ended up agreeing on a half price trip for that day and then they come back for another trip and pay me the other half.  So, it all worked out but it drained me mentally and the cold weather couldn't get here fast enough.

November was pretty mild weather wise other than one little cold snap which got the water temps lingering around that magical 49 to 50 degree mark and I had a list of guys waiting for me to call them for trips when the conditions got prime for the umbrella rig bite.  I called a couple of guys and told them it should be right so they drove down and we hit the lake for my first time since the first week of the month.  It wasn't as fast and furious as I was expecting but we ended up catching about 15 bass and had 23.5lbs on our best 5.  That was a lot better day than we were having earlier in the fall but when I go on an umbrella trip I expect to catch a minimum of 20 fish over 3lbs and at least 25lbs on our best 5 but the majority we caught that day were barely keepers.

I headed to Kingston Springs to visit my family over Thanksgiving assuming the rig bite was getting better by the day.  When I resumed fishing the following week my dad and uncle joined me on a scouting trip and I was very disappointed to learn that the bite had gotten worse and we only caught 6 bass all day with the biggest being 4.75lbs.  As I ran around trying different rig areas I told my dad that the bass were probably doing something so simple that I'd probably feel like an idiot if and when I figured it out.  On the way in that day I passed my buddy Troy Hollowell and gave him a call when we got off the water.  He said he'd struggled with the rig too but right at the end of the day he went shallow and caught a couple handfuls of good fish on a crankbait.  Before I could get off the phone with Troy a txt popped in from my buddy Chad Ashmore informing me he'd caught a pile of fish shallow that day as well.

I spend 9 months out of the year chasing bass around trying to adjust with them and keep up with them and this is the one time of year I hope to be able to throw a few rods and rigs in the boat and not have to think, just cast and catch.  I wasn't looking forward to having to pull all of my tackle back out and try and figure 'em out but I needed to work and I was pretty ticked off at the bass which had me a little extra motivated to hunt them down!

After Chad had told me there was still some grass in New Johnsonville so I decided to start my search there.  I've never gotten to fish grass much in cold weather on KY Lake because there usually isn't any in the spring and I can usually catch them better out deep in the winter. I have spent a lot of time grass fishing on Guntersville in cold weather and figured it couldn't be much different.  I called a buddy who I owed a trip and asked him if he'd like to help me hunt some fish so we headed to New Johnsonville loaded down with all of my favorite cold water grass baits.  It took us a couple hours but once I figured out what to look for we were catching a few bass on every stop ripping a Chili Craw Redeye Shad through the hydrilla which just happens to be one of my favorite ways to catch 'em!  We didn't just blister them that day but I did learn a lot about what to look for and we boated 16 keepers with 21lbs on our best 5 and a 6.75lb big fish.

My good buddy Zach Parker was planning on fishing a small buddy tournament out of Jville that weekend so I told him what I'd found and he went out on Friday and found a few stretches himself.  His partner ended up backing out on him so he talked me into filling in.  We had fished this same tournament in 2012 when we were straight cracking them on the rig and won it with 30.63lbs.  I thought this time around was going to be a different story because other than the one big one I'd caught on Thursday, I felt like we were fishing a 15 to 18lb pattern.  It ended up being a lot better than I expected and we caught about 30 keepers that day and weighed in 23.33lbs on our best 5.  That was only good enough for 2nd place as another team edged us out with 23.44lbs!  It was a fun day and probably ended up like it should've as one of the members of the winning team was none other than Chad Ashmore, who of course was the one that told me the grass was still lingering around to begin with.

I made a few calls to some guys on the A rig waiting list and while most of them wanted to hold out for that bite to turn on, I booked three trips the following week for some grass fishing action.

The first trip was awesome and we caught over 40 bass most of which were keepers we just didn't have any giants.  We ended up with 19lbs on our best 5.

The next trip the bite seemed to be going away and while we did manage a 6.25lber, we only caught a dozen fish all day and had a little over 18lbs on our best 5.

I was a little discouraged heading into trip number 3 as it seemed the grass pattern was dying quickly so I threw some jerkbaits, jigs and rigs in the boat just in case we had to make an adjustment.  For whatever reason the big ones decided to bite that day and we caught 4lber after 4lber and when it was all said and done we had a pair of 7's and a trio of 5's to fill our 28+lb stringer!  It was an awesome day and one I'll never forget as I've never been in on that big of a stringer in December that wasn't caught on an umbrella rig.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and I have a "Season Recap" blog that will be up soon so be sure to check it out!

The Great Debacle of OCTOBER 2014

You would think that guiding on the weekdays and fishing tournaments on the weekend would be a pretty stress free way to make a living.  The tournament organizations threw a serious wrench into my plans this year with their scheduling.  I start planning my season months in advance and when the schedules came out for 2014 I immediately knew I wasn't going to fish the BFL Regional on Lake Cherokee and instead would fish the Renegade Classic on Barkley for a shot at a new boat.  It also looked like I would have plenty of time to attend the ABA WBS Regional on Lake Chickamauga the last weekend of September.

As the season progressed it was announced that the Toyota Owners Tournament would be held out of Paris Landing the last Sunday of September.  That would put the pressure on me to drive from Chickamauga to KY Lake immediately after the tournament, but still doable.

Next, the PAA announced their schedule.  They also had scheduled a tournament on KY Lake the same days as the Renegade Classic.  What I liked better about the PAA v.s. the Renegade was that it would be a 3 day cumulative weight as opposed to the Renegade where weights would be zeroed after two days for a final day shoot out.  I felt like my odds of catching 3 good bags were better than one giant bag so that had my wheels turning on what would be the better option.

By the end of the year numbers were way down in the ABA WBS and there was no way we would have enough boats in the final two day event to qualify for the Triton Gold and Mercury bonus so I chose to fish a Music City BFL the same weekend in hopes that it would draw the 60 boat minimum field.  That decision cost me being able to go to the WBS Chickamauga Regional because the rules state that you must participate in the two day in order to fish the Regional. So that nixed that chance of winning a new Triton boat.

Knowing I couldn't attend my BFL Regional, I'd had a bad BFL earlier in the year in which I'd only caught a few small keepers and had thrown them back in hopes of possibly qualifying for the Chevy Wildcard which is open to all contestants who have paid for an entire division of BFL's but failed to make the top 40 in the point's.   By mid September rumors were circulating that the BFL All American was coming to KY Lake in 2015!  The only way to qualify for the AA is to finish in the top 6 in a Regional or the Wildcard.  I had a funny feeling that the Wildcard would be somewhere good but it wouldn't be announced until all of the regular season BFL's were complete.  Heading into my last LBL BFL I was in 32nd in the points and the only way I would be eligible for the Wildcard would be to zero in the Super Tournament.  I decided to fish to win and if I didn't have enough weight the first day to have a shot at winning, I'd just throw them back and fish the Wildcard.  I ended up catching 23lbs that day so obviously I had to weigh them in which meant my only hope of making a once in a lifetime All American on KY Lake would be dropping out of the Renegade or PAA and going to Lake Cherokee for the Regional. Confused yet?!?!?

After a long talk with my good friend, Renegade Tournament partner and counselor/adviser, Dr. David Gnewikow, I still didn't know what to do.  David seems to always give me the right advice and he had told me as bad as he wanted to try and win that boat in the Renegade with me, he really thought I'd regret it if I didn't at least try and qualify for the All American.  Meanwhile, the PAA had been canceled so that was a big relief.  I now had it narrowed down between the Renegade and the Cherokee Regional.  I decided to spend a few days on Lake Cherokee before the off limits and if I felt like I could catch some fish when I left, I'd fish the regional, if not, the Renegade. My first couple days on Cherokee were rough and it looked like my decision would be easy.  The last day I decided to run as far up the river as a bass boat could go and then some.  I caught the heck out of bass and ended the day with about 17lbs which is a monster bag for Cherokee in the fall.  I called David on my way home and told him I had to go to the regional and try and make the All American.

As official practice drew near for Cherokee I'd been keeping an eye on the water level.  The lake had dropped 4 feet since I had been there just ten days earlier.  I knew the only way I'd be able to make it up that river was with a jet boat and they are no longer allowed by FLW.  At that point it was too late to drop out and I was stuck fishing Cherokee while my buddies were sending me pics of giants they were catching that week on KY Lake, a lot of which were caught on places I fish!  I was sick that I'd opted out of the Renegade and I knew the only way I would ever forgive myself would be to make the All American on Cherokee.

PRACTICE: The first day of practice eased my pain a little.  I had about 30 bites that day a lot of which were on my trusty old Sexy Dawg.  I also got on a pile of smallmouth with a jigging spoon but they were all between 16" and 17.5" and they had to be 18" to keep. I had about 14lbs that day and my goal weight going in was 10lbs a day.  The next day I tried to make it up the river but couldn't even get within sight of where I'd caught them on my previous visit and other than a few bites flipping trees, I couldn't get anything else going. The tree flipping pattern had been strong on my scouting trip but the water had fallen so much there were only about ten trees left in the water.  The next day storms set in and I only had two bites all day in an abbreviated practice session.

REGIONAL DAY 1: I started where I'd had the majority of my bites the first day of practice and an hour went by without a bite.  I finally made my way around a point where the sun was beaming down on a brush pile.  I walked my Sexy Dawg right over the brush and just as I started to say, "it's just not happening", a 4.5lber exploded on my bait but missed it.  I kept the bait steadily walking through the explosion and the fish erupted from the water again but still didn't get a hook in it.  By that point my bait was way too close to the boat and the fish retreated back into the brush. That set the tone for the day and I ended up with 4 more keeper bites that day and lost or missed all but one pitiful little 1lb. 13oz. largemouth.  I knew I needed a seemingly impossible 17 or 18lb bag on day two to have a shot at making the cut but crazier things have happened.

REGIONAL DAY 2:  I started day 2 the same as day 1 but never had a bite.  I even tried my jigging spoon pattern in hopes some 18" smallies had moved in with the 17" fish but never had a bite.  I made my way up the river where I'd had several keeper bites flipping on day 1 and only caught one keeper and several tiny little fish.  I did eventually put a 13" spotted bass in the boat but it was way to little way too late and I ended up dumping my fish on day 2 and getting out of Morristown, TN as quickly as possible.

SUMMARY:  I had a 6.5 hour drive to think about what had taken place at Lake Cherokee and the first few hours I couldn't wait to get on Facebook and my blog and vent about how terrible Cherokee was and how terrible Fall fishing is.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized, no matter how bad the fishing was on Lake Cherokee that week, someone was going to win a boat and a truck and six guys were going to qualify for the All American.  That's when it really hit me that tough lakes at tough times are exactly where the Regional's need to be held.  The All American is the Bassmaster Classic, the Forrest Wood Cup, the Super Bowl of this level of fishing and it shouldn't be a cake walk getting into such an event.  Kentucky Lake has been very good to me.  It's allowed me to make a living with a fishing rod in my hand and I will always have much love for KY for that reason.  At the same time I really feel like it's hurt me when I try and fish a tough lake like Cherokee.  I'm so spoiled from catching 100's of bass a day some days and 20 to 30lb stringers that I just can't seem to get motivated to really try and unlock a lake where five keeper bites are hard to come by and are enough to win a lot of the tournaments.  I notice that a lot of these BFL regional events are dominated by guys from OH, IL, IN and WI.  I'm friends with a lot of guys from those areas and they tell me that the lakes are so tough where they live, they're right in their comfort zone when they get to a place like Cherokee.  After having a pretty strong season at home this year I was really considering fishing some BASS opens or a full trail of FLW Rayovac's next year but after my week at Cherokee I really don't think I'm prepared mentally to take on that challenge.  I've really studied the schedules for 2015 and with so many chances at big pay days on KY Lake, I think my best bet will be to stay home and try and make the most out of those opportunities.

FLW LBL BFL SUPER TOURNAMENT SEPT. 20-21

For those that have followed my blog this year you know I've had a very blessed season of tournament fishing. I haven't figured the numbers up but after starting the season off with a $14000 lick in the March BFL, I had a streak of 2nd to 4th place finishes that's hard not to be happy with.

What some may not realize is that my only source of income is guiding and tournament earnings. While top 5 finishes are nice, there's about a 10 grand difference in a first and second place finish for me after my Triton Gold, Mercury money and Toyota Bonus Bucks. That's why a very good year with lots of top 5's can still be a little frustrating if a few of them aren't wins when you look at it from a financial standpoint.

September has been a big month for me the past few years and I was hoping this year history would repeat itself and I would be blessed with another lucrative fall.

I had all intentions of fishing the ABA Weekend Bass Series Regional on Lake Chickamauga and in order to do that I had to fish their two day divisional championship which took place several weeks ago on KY Lake. The catch was that there was a Music City BFL Super Tournament the same weekend out of Paris. Due to my love of September fishing on KY Lake and knowing the WBS wouldn't have enough boats to win the full Triton Gold and Mercury bonuses, I opted to fish the BFL. The Music City division had been averaging about 70 boats and I was sure they would have the minimum of 60 that it takes for the full bonuses to kick in. I was very disappointed to learn they only had 57 boats in that event which I was fortunate enough to win. Again, you can't complain with a $6000 pay check for two days of work but at the same time it kind of stung a little because I'd been so close so many times this year and with two tournaments left I finally sealed the deal only to miss out on an extra $10000 by 3 boats!

Between that and some comments that were made by an out of town tour "pro" about how he was going to come up here and jackpot the LBL BFL two day, I was more than looking forward to getting my practice session under way for my last shot at the big pay day on KY Lake of 2014.

PRACTICE: Id learned from the MC BFL two weeks prior that the stump bar deal that had been so hot and played a major role for me in that win was fizzing out fast. I also knew that the few deep schools that were still out were getting smaller and would probably be gone completely by the start of the tournament.

I hit the water on Monday for a couple hours just to get a sampling of what I should really focus on the next couple of days. The first place I hit was a Sexy Dawg hole and it didn't take long to catch a 3.5lber. My next cast produced a tiny little bass which was a little discouraging but a few throws later.....6lber! That had me pretty pumped because two weeks earlier I was getting a bite a day on top and to get three in ten minutes with a biggun' in the mix was a very good sign. I buzzed through several of my favorite top water locales but never had another sniff. I scanned every ledge that had a school on it two weeks before and never saw a speck on my Lowrance. I then spent about an hour throwing a jig on stumps....notta!

I decided to spend my first full day of practice focusing on the grass and of course experiment more with my Sexy Dawg pattern. After several hours of flipping, spinner baiting, swim jigging and top watering grass, I'd found two stretches that had some fish. I'd caught about 15lbs off of one stretch and missed a big one, the other stretch only had 16" fish on it.

I spent the next day focusing entirely on Sexy Dawg stuff and caught a 7lber on my first stop. My next stop produced a 4.5lber and the next I had 3 bites on 3 casts but missed the biggest of the bunch. I knew at that point I was going to spend my tournament with a Sexy Dawg in my hand but I also knew I really needed a plan B. I've yet to catch 'em as good on day 2 as I do the first day in a two day event and have always had to fall back on something. With no deep fish to be found I decided to do something I rarely do and I ran to the backs of a few creeks. With such little activity on the main lake I figured the backs of the creeks would be teeming with bait and small keeper size bass but even they seemed void of life. I did scrounge up a few 2lbers covering water with a buzz bait but I was determined I'd go down swinging for the big girls out on the river before I resorted to that in the tournament.

I normally try and only fish two days before a tournament but not having a plan B had me a little concerned. I’d noticed a giant school of shad in about 35 ft of water the day before while scanning a ledge and it was bugging me that the majority of the bass population may be out in the abyss with all of those shad. To satisfy my curiosity I hit the water for a couple hours the next day and while I never had a bite out among the schools of bait, I did hit a top water stretch on my way in that produced three 5lbers in about ten casts! At that moment, I really believed Id found the winning school of fish and was very glad Id decided to spend a few more hours on the lake.

TOURNAMENT DAY 1 SEPT. 20: The place Id found on Thursday was not a secret hole by any means and I knew I’d need a good boat draw to have a shot at it. For the first time in over 100 draw tournaments, I was boat 1! It was almost like it was meant to be the way everything was coming together. I headed straight to where I thought I was going to win it and started working my way around the bar. After several thorough passes and almost two hours, I hadn't had a bite. I decided to pull the plug and I started running through every place I’d had a bite in practice. At 10am I hadn't had a bite and had made my way to the place I’d caught three fish real quick on Monday. I told my co that if we didn't catch one on this stop, we were in trouble. As soon as I got to my waypoint I hit ‘em! It took me about 30 minutes to put around 19lbs in the boat and then I made a couple passes without a bite so we left. At 12:30 I’d fished about everything I had on the agenda and some places twice. I hadn't had a single bite since I’d put my fifth keeper in the boat but I knew 19lbs wasn't going to get it done. I decided to spend the rest of the day where Id caught my fish that morning and it ended up being the right decision. My second stop in the area wasn't the fast and furious feeding frenzy wed experienced that morning but the size was a lot better. I ended up culling three times with a 5, a 5.5 and a 5.75lber. I also had two 6lbers jump over my bait and had an absolute giant straighten an extra strong salt water split ring on my Sexy Dawg and come unbuttoned. I would've loved to have caught everything that bit and weighed in a monster bag but at the same time that told me there were plenty of big ones left there for day 2. I was leading with 23lbs 8oz. and my good friend Jackson Ryley was in 2nd with 22lbs 1oz after day 1. Third place was 15lbs so we knew there were good odds that one of us would take home the trophy on Sunday.

TOURNAMENT DAY 2 SEPT. 21: I had a tough decision to make on day 2. As crazy as it sounds I didn't want to start on my little honey hole because the fish tend to be scattered early in the morning and I've seen times where if you bust them up before they ever really get settled in, they may never group up the rest of the day. The bad part was that the mild SW wind we had on day 1 and early on day 2 was predicted to pick up steam and swing to the W and eventually be ripping out of the N at 20mph. I was afraid if I didn't start on my best place it may get blown out before I could fish it. So, against my better judgment, I headed straight there. I started a little short of where I’d caught them on day 1 and in about ten casts a 4lber blew my bait three feet in the air. I dropped my power poles and what happened for the next hour was unbelievable. I had no less than 30 blow ups from fish anywhere from 3 to 6lbs and when the dust settled, I’d caught two 3lbers! After watching giant after giant jumping over my bait and blowing it out of the water I’d finally just accepted the fact that it wasn't meant to be. How could so many fish hit a bait with so many hooks and not eventually get one in their face? The action finally slowed and with nothing better to go to I just kept fishing around hoping to relocate the school. They never fired again the rest of the day like they did that morning but I did finally catch a limit that weighed 17lbs 9oz. The first person I saw when I got to check in was my buddy Jackson and I asked him what he had and he held up four fingers! I had a pretty good feeling I’d overcome a nightmare of a morning and won my third BFL of the year and when the scales closed I was right!

SUMMARY: Wow! What an awesome two weeks. I've grown to love September and I really feel like I understand what the fish are trying to do this time of year but to win my fifth two day September event in a row was a true blessing. I've been asked a lot about why September has been so good to me. The answer is I really don’t know. Out of the five tournaments I’ve won, I’ve never weighed in a fish off of the same place. That’s probably what means the most to me about the whole deal. It’s not like I found a secret spot that I've been able to keep to myself for three years it’s more that I understand the fish enough to make the right decisions and find the best patterns and when all those things come together, good things happen. With each successful September I’ve had more and more spectator boats. At first I was honored that people would take the time to get out of bed to come and watch me fish. They have always been very respectful and given me plenty of room to do my job. Since this last BFL win I’ve watched a place that I found a year earlier in which I’ve never seen a boat anywhere near become the biggest community hole on the lake. I never want to be the guy that says people are only fishing a place because they saw me there but seeing such an obscure place become so popular can’t help but make me wonder how so many people found it so fast especially since the fish left it a few days after the tournament. The reason these places are so good is because they aren't getting pounded like most of the deep schools of fish on the lake and I hope these people that are finding these special schools of fish realize that, however they’re finding them. The fish need time to build up and settle in on these shallow bars and a potential winning school may never materialize with an abundance of boat traffic and fishing pressure. Oh well, I’ve always said if I could win a big tournament off of a place it was worth losing and I get the feeling that this may have been my last September hot streak due to losing areas to other fishermen. Even so, it was a fun run the past three years and I have seen some truly amazing things that I will never forget and that is what will always keep me working to hopefully find it again someday.

FLW BFL MUSIC CITY DIVISION SUPER TOURNAMENT SEPTEMBER 6-7

August and September have been really good to me on both KY and Barkley Lakes and late summer is in a tight race with the pre spawn as my favorite time of year to fish.

The late summer isn’t quite as action packed as early summer and there are no 100 fish days fishing mega schools of post spawners. There are however really big fish willing to bite this time of year and there are several ways I like to target them.

I hadn’t been on the lake in a couple weeks but I already knew there were five patterns I had to investigate in practice. Three of these patterns I’ve won major tournaments on and the other two were back up plans to fill out limits if my big fish patterns failed to produce.

The first thing I wanted to look at was shallow, stumpy ledges and bars. I won my first BFL in 2009 fishing this pattern and before I left for Michigan, this bite was as good as I’d ever seen it!

My next plan of attack was the grass. I’ve won a WBS flipping hydrilla in August and another swimming a jig around Naiad in September so I knew I had to spend some time playing in the grass.

My third and favorite winning pattern is of course throwing top water. Preferably a bone colored Strike King Sexy Dawg if the wind will allow. It’s still a little early for this pattern to be wide open but I had the best three weeks of fishing in my life last September with a Sexy Dawg in my hand so I had to give it a look.

My final two patterns I wanted to check were flipping shallow wood and scanning for deep schools. I’ve never actually won in the late summer solely doing either of these two things but I have caught key fish in multi day events mixing these patterns in with my primary stuff.

I spent two full days practicing and the main thing I learned was that the fish were very scattered. I got a few bites fishing a lot of different ways but past experience told me I needed to concentrate on the top water bite and the shallow stump pattern even though neither of them was on in full force. I only had one bite a day on my Sexy Dawg but one of them was an 8lb class brute that made me wish I hadn’t cut my hooks off to practice!

So, heading into day 1 I knew it was going to be a grind it out deal but I also knew there were some big bites to be had fishing stumps and top water. I decided I would fish those two patterns until about 1:00 every day and then run to a deep school if I needed a keeper or two to fill out a limit.

TOURNAMENT DAY 1: I’m not going to get into much detail about the fishing during the tournament but talk more so about my approach and decisions. I only caught 13 keepers in two days so the fishing was pretty boring. The first day I started my milk run of top water and stump bars and at 9:20am I had yet to get a bite. I rolled up on a place at that time that I honestly would’ve never fished had my good friend Jeff Archie not told me he’d had some bites there earlier in the week. I caught two 3.75lbers and a 2.75 in about five casts with a football jig and was feeling good about my decision to give it a look. It slowed down after that and I fell back on my old “one pass without a bite, I leave” rule. I reached the end of the stretch and caught a 4lber and a 3lber on consecutive casts so that meant I had to make another pass down the bar. My next pass produced what I’d been looking for, a 5.5lb largemouth. I finally made a pass without a bite and decided to move on. I wasn’t sure how much weight I had, I thought around 18lbs which I was sure would be plenty to make the top 11 cut. It was 11:30 and I was right where I wanted to be. I had a good limit and was right in the middle of my best late summer big fish area of the lake. The catch was that I wasn’t fishing for points, only to try and win. My co angler on the other hand, had fished the entire division and was on the bubble for making the regional. We had to get him a fish in the boat and I knew if I gambled on my “big fish” strategy all day, neither one of us may get another bite. Since I was way ahead of schedule, as I thought it’d take all day to catch a limit, I decided to give my partner 30 minutes on a school of small keepers close by. I ran to the school and suggested he throw a drop shot and I chunked a spinner bait around trying to luck into a better grade fish. He caught 5 fish in a row but they were all short. I felt really bad because I’d told him it would be easy to catch a limit off of this place because I’d done it 100 times in recent weeks. Once he made a few cast without a bite I picked up my drop shot in hopes of relocating the school. I caught a 17” fish on my first cast! I felt even worse then since the fish wouldn’t help me but would’ve been huge for him. At 12:30 I told him I hated to do it but I had to go back to chasing big ones. I ran through several places without bites and on my way in pulled back up to where I’d caught my original limit and culled with a 4.25lber. Just before we had to leave to head to check in, Stevie boated a 3.5lber which was all he needed to secure a spot in the regional! I ended up with more weight than I thought and finished the day leading by a slim margin with 21lbs 4oz.

TOURNAMENT DAY 2: A cold front had moved through over night and we were greeted with a stout 15 mph NE wind Sunday morning. My first stop produced a line burner keeper for my co angler but that was it. I decided to look at a deep school close by before I headed to my primary area. I saw a few on the Lowrance and pretty quickly hooked up with a 4lb class fish but it jumped and threw my spinner bait. I headed to where I caught my fish on day 1 and after a couple hours I’d only had two bites, a 3.5 and a 4lber. It was about 10:30 and I had a big decision to make. Should I keep chasing “winning size” fish or try to secure as high a finish as possible by getting a limit first? I could tell by the way the fish were acting they were definitely feeling the effects from the front. That got me to thinking that maybe the rest of the field would struggle as well. I decided a limit may be the route I needed to go so I made a run to where I’d taken my day 1 partner that didn’t pan out. I scanned the area and saw several fish on the Lowrance and within 15 minutes I’d put a 3lber and a 2.5lber in the livewell and it looked like I’d made a great decision, would have a limit and be back to swinging for the fences in no time. Unfortunately the little guys decided to swim over and join the party and for the next hour we caught 12” fish after 12” fish. That frustrated me a little as I was really anxious to get back out and start hunting the bigguns’! I finally couldn’t stand anymore and headed back to the shallow ledges. At 1pm I hadn’t had a bite and my brain was churning with ideas of what I needed to do. It finally hit me, I’d found a school about 25 miles north of Paris on Tuesday that was loaded with keepers that I’d totally forgotten about. I strapped my rods down and said, “I know where we need to be!” I fired up and ran 25 miles and within 5 minutes had a 3lber in the livewell which finished my limit. I had some really good shallow ledges in the area as well so I worked my way back to Paris hitting as many places as I could but never had another bite the rest of the day.

As we drove to Wal-mart to weigh-in, I was explaining to my partner how tournaments are won and lost by decisions. I told him that since my bag was substantially lighter than it would’ve been had I caught 5 fishing my shallow bars, I’d probably lost the tournament. At the same time, if everyone else had struggled, it may have been the smartest thing I could’ve done and we wouldn’t know for sure until the scales were closed. I was the last to weigh-in and as I approached the stage, my assumption had been right. The field had struggled and only 4 limits had been caught by my competitors. I needed 13lbs 4oz to win it and in my mind I thought I had between 13.5 and 14lbs. When the scales finally settled they read 15lbs 11oz and I’d earned my 4th BFL win of my career and my 2nd of the year!

SUMMARY: This was one of the coolest, most interesting tournaments I’ve ever fished. September is a really tough month on KY Lake and this one hit at the toughest part of September as there were fish scattered all over the place. To elaborate a little bit on the diversity of the fishing, I’ll discuss who made the cut and how they did it.

2nd Place- James Byrd- J Byrd and I have a little history. When I was leading the LBL BFL last September J Byrd followed me the second day to try and learn more about fishing KY this time of year because he had a BFL regional coming up. Other than borrowing some ice and Rejuvenade from him that day, we’d never actually met until this past Sunday. I knew he was on the roster for this one and as cut throat as competitive fishing has become I had some concerns that he may be fishing some of the stuff he’d seen me on last year. I’m happy to say that J proved to me what kind of person he is. I never saw him all week in practice or in the tournament. He’d taken what he’d learned, found his own pattern and his own places and almost spanked my tail. I let him know after weigh-in how much respect I had for him and he’d shown me the same respect by not fishing anything I’d shown him. Awesome job and congrats to J Byrd!

3rd Place- Drew Boggs- Drew is an Old Hickory guy and a buddy of mine. He’s also, in my opinion, one of the top three flippers in the state of TN. The other two are Adam Wagner and Andy Morgan so that shows you the respect I have for Drew as that’s pretty good company! Drew catches ‘em every time he comes to KY Lake and he always does it with a flippin’ stick. I think it’s awesome when a guy masters a technique to the point he can make it work on a lake or at a time of year that it shouldn’t even be possible. He flipped shallow isolated wood for his 3rd place finish which also earned him the point’s title in the Music City division. Congrats Drew, you are the man but I am gonna beat you in May before I retire!!!

4th Place- Ed Gettys- Ed’s one of my best buddies and one of my heroes. He’s a master deep cranker turned grass fishing guru. He learned how to ledge fish when he was 13 years old with a rope and a rock bouncing it on the bottom until he found a drop! Now that’s impressive! He caught his fish swimming a worm around hydrilla both days and rode that to his fourth place finish and added another top 10 to his very impressive resume.

5th Place- John Hopkins- Hoppy is another Percy Priest/Old Hickory fisherman but catches ‘em everywhere he goes. He’s one of the best grass fishermen I’ve ever known but chose to fish deep ledges in this one which really surprised me. What surprised me even more is that I never dreamed that pattern was strong enough to produce a top 5 finish. Very impressive job and congrats to my buddy John.

6th Place- Scott Brummet- Another good friend for whom I have a lot of respect and can flat catch ‘em. He chose to go more the route I went and mixed in a grass pattern, shallow stump pattern and deep ledge pattern.

8th- Phillip Bates- Phillip is another guy I know very well and think the world of. He’s also one that definitely knows how to win in Sept. I didn’t ask him much about how he was fishing but I’d be willing to bet it involved a top water bait, some hydrilla and a loooooong run south.

9th Place- Shawn Perrigo- Shawn is a Pickwick ledge fishing ace and friend of mine who I roomed with several years ago on the Rayovac trail. He managed to find one of very few schools left out deep in a very limited practice session and milked them for his 9th place finish.

I mean no disrespect to the guys I left out I just don’t know how they caught their fish. I got to meet the guys that made the cut that I didn’t know and they are all stand up guys. I was very impressed with the weights everyone caught (on day 1 especially) on an even stingier than normal, September KY Lake. I’d also like to thank all of them for the respect they showed me as it is sometimes frowned upon for a local to jump in another division’s tournament.

My point to this little break down is to show how spread out the fish were and how good these guys have to be to figure them out so many different ways. I’ve fished here so long I feel like I should know every way to catch them this time of year but there were obviously a lot of ways to get quality bites that I overlooked. I learn something every day whether it be from my own outings, a guide client or from my friends and competitors and that’s what keeps me coming back. Thank you God for giving me the opportunity to add another fish trophy to my parent’s trophy case, they are hard to come by!