Hello Hype fans!!!! Well the spring started out a little slow as it usually does but the end of the month was all go. Mary and I headed down to Kentucky for the Triton Gold Elite tournament and to do some more house hunting on May 21 and ended May on the 31 in Red Wing, MN for the first ABA/BASS Weekend Series tournament for the MN/WI division.

I can't say enough about Kentucky Lake, it didn't go so well last year for the Weekend Series regional in October but I did catch my personal best 7.9lb Largemouth. This spring though WOW!!! I went down with the total mind set that the major spawn was over and I would concentrate on the ledge bite. We started prefishing on Sat. the 23rd after looking at houses all day Friday. Craig Powers was staying at the same hotel we did on Friday night and with talking to him there was still a strong shallow top water bite going on with a some good fish still up on beds and lots of little fish out on the ledges. Well with my mind already made up to fish deep I spooled up with 10lb and 12lb GAMMA EDGE and Copolymer and Strike King Series 5 and Bomber Fat Free Shads and yes even tied on a top water.

First morning of practice I decided to visit a bay I had fished in October to familiarize myself with the water conditions and started by throwing a top water and Mary throwing a swim jig. After fishing about a 150 yds of bank it was obvious that there where fish shallow but not much size so we headed for the ledges. There seems to be a school of fish on every ledge in this lake it's just a matter of what size they are and from what I've seen this lake has an extremely bright future as there are hundreds of thousands of fish in the 12"-14" in class with 15" being a keeper. On any given spot you can make 50 repeated cast and catch a fish on every cast!!! with multiple doubles on the same bait. Second morning of practice started out with a bang as I boated 6 fish on my first 3 cast yes I said 6 fish on 3 cast, 3 good keepers and 3 shorts. Over the first two days of practices we kind of put a little something together and that was to keep the boat in 10 -12 feet of water and fish the tops of the ledges in 5' with most fish coming on the points, with gravel, rock, of mussel beds on them.

Day 3 of practice I decided I wanted to run south past the New Johnsonville area and see what was there for grass and maybe do some flipping. Well that wasn't going to happen as we pulled up to the first flat I didn't see a stitch of green weed to pitch to. So out came the crankbaits again and we started cranking a creek channel that ran through this flat. On maybe every third cast you would come back with a 3' stock of hydrilla and few fish. So with that not panning out I put the cranks away and went to the bank to flip what ever got in the way. This did produce a 5lber and  a couple 3lb fish but nothing worth running all the way down for.

Day 4 found us back up by Paris crankbaits in hand out on the ledges again with the same results, lots and lots of short fish with an occasional descent keeper thrown in. It wasn't the practice I had hoped for but I did learn and that is what it's about. So I at least have a few place I can fish the first day of competion.

First day of the tournament I go out boat 74 out 82 and planning on starting on a total community hole as I watched boat after boat work it in practice after I had caught a couple good fish on it. As I rounded the corner to my surprise no one was on it so I sat down on it and pulled out, you guessed it, my trusty sex shad series 5 on tied on 12lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon and began dredging the top of the ledge. After an hour of beating the place up and only one keeper and a bunch of shorts it was time to move. Stop to produced the same thing so off to stop three. As I approved my spot there are several boats in the area but luckily none of them on what I wanted to fish. I started fishing a short distance from my way point and never made it there. The fish had moved off the point and down the ledge about 50yds and it was a fish on every cast for an hour, I've never seen anything like it. Needless to say I left there with my limit and decided fish some new water on the way to my fourth stop, wise decision. I began cranking this long road bed and for the first 200yds never felt a thing on the bottom and then that tell tail tick tick tick as the bill on my bait started but into hard bottom. I caught a short fish on the next cast and hooked another short on the following cast. As I was reeling that fish to the boat and about to lift it in a 5lber come out of now where and eats the bait also that made the day. At the end of day ones weigh in I am in 21st place making the top 25 cut with 15.81lbs. 

Day 2 we are going to fish from 5:15 to 4 pm yes that is 11 hours of tournament fishing!!!  Normally 4 hours into a tournament I am having sandwich for lunch but that is only 9:30 here at that makes still breakfast. Well I decide to make the same rotation as I had on day one and it started out well with a nice 3lb smallie and a keeper from stop number one. Stop 2 gave up nothing and stop 3 which was loaded with fish yesterday had a boat parked on it and I managed on keeper and a few shorts from it. So bailed on the deep stuff to try a shallow spawning bay to see if I could get a couple quick keepers on top water or possibly flipping. With only on good fish swirling short of the bait in the bay I headed back for the ledges. I decided to give stop number 3 one more shot there where just to many fish to leave it even with other boat boat pressure. On the first cast I lost a nice fish in the 3lb range and boated a 3lber and thats all she would give up. So I decided to run to the mouth of a creek that ran through a shallow flat that had a school of small fish in practice hoping something bigger moved up. There I was able to get my limit fish and cull one but with time running out I made the move to run back to were I had started the tournament both days. When I pull up to the spot there is another competitor sitting smack dab on the "spot". This was a blessing in disguise as I decide stay there but start out farther and work my way in. I didn't make a dozen cast and hooked a 5.78 that jump 3 times and looked like a 8lber out there after netting and a couple high fives from my observer it was time to check in. With 5 fish weighing 17.13lbs I jumped from 21st - 16th not bad for my first time there in the spring.

Now with the Gold Elite Tournament over Mary and I spent Friday continuing our house hunt and then in the truck for the trip back to Red Wing. We got into Wabasha at 4a.m. Sat. morning and got an hour and half nap in before Connor shows up to get me going. He had spent Friday on pool 4 and was going to stay there today also so I went down to 5 to maybe put something together for us down there. The bite turned out much tougher than expected and from what was being said at the meeting there had been a decent bite until the dropped the water. I was able to put together a deeper wood pattern but that was about it. Connor seem to find the same thing up on 4 along with finding our fish from the St. Jude tournament hadn't left yet either. So Connor was going to stay on 4 and I was going to run down to 5. As my co angler John Peterson and I arrive at the lock we find a barge in it so I turned the boat around and head for the fish that Connor and I had going in the St. Jude tournament. Not sure which part Connor was going to start on I picked a side and started fishing and boating 3 nice fish right away. Connor stop short on his way in not knowing it was me and I didn't recognize it was him coming and not showing up John and I continued to fish the entire area. John broke off probably the biggest bass I've seen on the river on 50lb braid on the hook set. I did manage a limit from the area but with some nice fish missed that definitely cost me a check and also cost John in a bring a zero to the weigh in. All my fish were caught flippin a craw tube with 20 GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line on a Tactical Series 7'-6" flippin rod and Shimano Castaic reel. With 5 fish weighing 11.62lb I was the first guy out of a check in 17th place with 11.72 being 16th. Congrats to my buddy Josh Douglas for whacking a sack of smallies for 15.85lbs and a well deserved win, with a 2nd and 1st place finished in his first two money tournaments he is on a roll.