Fishing Hype

Sometimes turn around

BB — Sun, 01 May 2011 20:33:00 GMT

I along with Mary are firm believers everything happens for a reason. Many feel as we do that road blocks in life are just one way to get you to ask the Lord for his help rather than just thinking all that you do and get done is because of who you are. If you are good at something it's because he has blessed you with that ability to do so, if you start taking credit for yourself being talented in that field it doesn't matter what it is, he will humble you very quickly. I had one of these days at the Jet-A-Marina tournament here on Kentucky and Barkley Lakes. This is the largest team tournament each year and with a $95 entry and $5000 first place prize it's easy to see why. I had been doing guide trips all week and hadn't practice one minute for the event. We had had some rain the lakes were on the rise and I knew the fish would be in the bushes again. With my game plan in mind for most of the week I felt like I was going to go knock there lights out. This was also going to be the first tournament of the year for Mary and I together and wanted it to be fun and laid back. Which for me is very difficult to do when in a tournament as I am always on edge and going 100mph. In my mind I was ready to go but I should have listened to Him when he sent me a few messages to not fish. The first came on the way to the meeting when I stopped to get cash out to pay the entry fee. The ATM machine at the bank wouldn't let me do a with drawl but that didn't stop me from going to the meeting. When I was there my buddy Jeremey asked it I wanted to sign up yet tonight and I said no I would do it in the morning. After the third time of him asking I took is money and signed up at boat 217. After the meeting I headed back home to get things situated for the morning. As most of the spring has gone we had severe thunderstorms during the night which is no big deal and would be a help in putting more water in the bushes. The second sign came when we woke up at 4am got everything and headed out but only made it about half way out the drive when we ran into 2 large trees laying across the road. Well I told Mary guess we aren't suppose to fish today and got turned around, which on a one lane road is not easy to do with a suburban and 21' boat, and headed back to the house. I called the tournament director and explained the situation, he understood and said to call him later in the week and get our refund. We then changed clothes and grabbed the chainsaw and Mary's truck and drove back down to cut the trees out of the way.

It didn't take as long as I thought it would as all I did was cut them into chunks big enough to roll out of the way. We had a path cut but 6am and to Mary we could still be on the water by 7ish. So back to the house changed clothes again and off we went. After putting gas in the boat we made it to the ramp and Kerry Jet A's owner was still there and checked us in and we were idling out of the Marina at 10min after 7. The third sign and not so much we shouldn't have fished cause we were already on the water but not to burn a $100+ in gas and make that 1hr and 15min run south and still didn't go were I wanted. On the way down the lake Mary looks at me and says are you sure we should run all the way down there, the tournament was won with in 15mins of the dam! Instead I ran us down to a couple areas and we cranked and flipped bushes for 5 fish weighing a total of 9lbs-13oz good for a 150 something finish or maybe it was in the 170s out of 312 boats. Sometimes he puts road block in front us to ask for his help other times he puts them there so we make the right decisions and this time I didn't do either and have the results to show for it.

Why!

BB — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 01:46:00 GMT

WHY! This is the question I found myself asking during and after the second FLW Central Everstart Series tournament on KY/Barkley lakes. I couldn't wait for this tournament as it was going to be early than it has ever been here helping neutralize the field some what. Finding fish is always the key but staying with them is a whole nother deal and that would be a huge factor as it is during any transition period on any body of water. My calender of practice was going to be the Thurs thru Weds just as if I was out of town for a tournament. As it turned out I did a guide trip on Thurs with gale force North winds that ushered in a severe cold front plummeting temps from the mid 70s on Weds to the mid 40's. Needless to say the fishing was not very spectacular and just became a game of getting out to the wind so you could fish. I dropped the two gentleman off and went home thawed out and decided to go back out after wind settled some after all it was only 2pm. I put in close the house and ran to a some what protected creek and started on one bank and fished it all the way to the back without as much as a sniff. At this point I was pretty discourage and was considering just putting it back on the trailer. When I decided I would just fish the entire creek so I put the trolling motor back in the water and started working down the other bank. 40 minutes later I boated 5 nice keepers in the 12-13lb range that would be enough each day to get a check. Friday brought another guide trip and even worse weather with snow, sleet, hail, rain, and thunder mix.  With the wind blowing hard out to the North again we set out to find them some fish for a tournament they were fishing on Saturday. We checked some stuff within the bay we put in at as there are many tournaments out of there with lots of fish being released also. I caught a keeper on a lone stick up with a lipless bait and a couple small fish that was it. I decided to take them back to the creek that I had caught them the afternoon before. The first pass we made we caught 1 short fish throwing crankbaits as I did yesterday. Knowing there had to be more fish we made another pass with shakey heads. This was a good move as we did pick up few more fish including a couple keepers. With the temps hovering around the 32 degree mark with a steady 30 mph North wind and steady rain we cut the trip short.

    With the guide trips done it was time to put some serious prefishing time in for the upcoming Everstart tournament. I spent Saturday staying out of some of the other tournament anglers ways going on that day and fished a bunch of out of the way stuff that didn't pan out to anything. Sunday I decided to run down to the Paris area and either find a little something to build on or completely write it off. After spending the entire day down there only catching a couple keepers and very few short fish I wrote it off. Monday I had friend and long time Barkley fisherman with me and we headed for the south end of Barkley. The first spot we stopped on I boat a 6lber that ate the Outkast Tackle T-2 football jig for breakfast. Chris boated a couple shorts with a crankbait also. We checked some other stuff in the area but with no success so off to the next creek. I dropped him off on shore so he could do a conference call and I went back to fishing a jig on a couple of points on a flat in the bay but nothing playing. I moved out to another flat and picked up a crankbait and boat a short fish but that was the extent of that fun. After the conference call was over I picked Chris up of his little island and headed to the next creek where we fished a couple lead in banks without a bite. Before leaving the bay I side scanned a flat that had stumps on it and lined down the edge where it broke from 5 to 10 feet of water. Spinning the boat around we began fan casting crankbaits when Chris loads up on a good one it's a fat 5+lb fish. We catch a couple more short fish from the flat and head for the next creek to look for the type of stuff the two big fish have come from. It was a very hit and miss pattern but in the end the only one we could put together. Tuesday brought a bunch of nothing fishing wise with a few small fish but we were completely unable to put anything together. Wednesday it rained got cold, not that it hadn't be all week with highs only in the mid 40s at best, Chris didn't come out and I ran the upper end of KY with nothing but short fish to show for it.

    Day 1 of the tournament I ran down to the South end of Barkley and started on a spot the my buddy Doug gave up to me some what reluctantly but said it was a 15 min. deal if the fish are there. Well this day they weren't there so off to my second starting spot so to speak. This is the flat that I caught my big fish on but things didn't happen quite as fast as I hoped. The first couple of passes didn't yield anything but as I am watching the graph I noticed lots of shad with larger arches mixed in with them in deeper water. I began to stroke the T-2 football jig when I bowed up on a nice 31/2lb fish and a 2lb fish on the next pass. After missing a couple of fish I mixed it up with a blade bait stroking that threw the bait balls. This only produced one short fish so off to the next stop. This was the stump flat that Chris caught the 5lber on and again the first couple of passes didn't give up anything on the crankbait so I switched back to the jig. I bowed up on a good fish just to have it come off. My co-angler put down his jig and picked up his crankbait and on the next cast boats a 3lb fish...really! After netting that for him I fired my crankbait back to the same spot and instantly hook up with 21/2lb fish and net it myself as he still celebrating his catch. After getting him in the box I hook up with a 3lb fish and net him before he has even got his fish in the box yet. As fast as the flurry started it was over, we circled the back side of the flat and tried different angles but couldn't get anymore to go. We ran around and checked some more stuff but those turned out to be our only keepers for the day. My 4 went 11.01lbs good for a 41st place start and in a check for now.

    Day 2 of the tournament I ran back down to the 15 min spot and in the first 15 mins of the day I knew exactly how my day was going to go. I dropped the trolling motor in the water tell my co-angler we are only going to be here a couple minutes then go I started fan casting this flat. I've got 6 or 7 cast in before he is up and ready to fish on his second cast he boats a 3lb largemouth. After netting it for him I fire to quick cast to where he had just caught that fish. Ready to fish again he fires out another cast and bows up on a 5lbs smallie after an epic battle I net that fish for him and I am mentally ruined for the day. All I can think about is those two fish get me a check easy but the day has just begun there is plenty of time for a quick flurry and I'm back in the game. After running everything from yesterday and even some new stuff it was time to work our way back so we stopped on the 15 min spot again. This time working it from the other direction. With his rods tangled up I was able to get in a couple dozen cast before he was ready to fish. On his second cast he again bows up on a 5lb largemouth and all I can ask myself is WHY!!!!!!!!! Really WHY!!! We had the same bait throwing at the same bank, why did he get bit and not me. At the end of the day I layed a big egg and fell out of check range down to 71st place and he weighed 3 fish for 13lbs and made the top 10 cut. This one hurts and will for a while just because of the question WHY?

Not the start I was looking for

BB — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:37:00 GMT

Well the 2011 season has started for me and not the way I envisioned. Lake of the Ozarks is turning out to be one of those lakes that just kicks you in the backside. Last year was a total bomb over there with nothing happening in practice and one small keeper for the tournament and a 98th place finish. Hoping that with some previous exposure to the lake this year would be a much better trip, in the end in one case it was. Arriving at our condo Friday afternoon it was shorts and t-shirt weather like was great and putting the boat in the water made it that much better. I would spend the week of practice with friend Chris Gable from right down the road in Eddyville. We stayed in the river arm by the condo as they were calling for rain this evening and with the ramp right there it would make it easy to bail off the water if need be. We ran about halfway back in the creek and started fishing a main creek point that fish should use to travel to the back of this bay to spawn. Chris set up on the first fish of the trip a short largemouth but it was a piece to the puzzle. A short way down the point I also boat a small keeper also on a jerkbait. We hopped around checking a different types of banks and cover without much luck. As we were running down the river I noticed two small rounded pea gravel points just off the main river at the end of a bluff wall and decided to stop and fish them. Chris told me this was an area he fished last year that held lots of shad. Within a couple cast he bows up on a bigun a solid 6lb fish and a few short casts later I hang a nice 4lb class fish with Chris adding another one in the 3lb class on the next point. Not a bad start to week of prefishing on a lake that I could barely get bit last year. The next 5 days the weather changed back to winter and you couldn't put enough clothes on to stay warm. We traveled down river to practice some near the dam and around the Gravois Arm and began to put together a very strong pattern with jerkbaits on transition banks from chunk rock to gravel or pea gravel type areas. We then ran the pattern closer to the take off area around Grand Glaze arm and it held up there also. I wanted to spend one day up the river towards the Truman dam but it blew 30-40mph with T-storms and 34 degrees on Tuesday so we headed to Springfield to visit BPS. It's never fun to go there and just window shop but I did good and only spent $15 plus $10 on the Hemingway Buffet...mmm good. With one day left in practice I decided to scratch the up rive idea and stick with what we had found and find more areas that fit the pattern. With the wind howling and bitterly cold we pulled the ice covered cover of the boat and launched right there at the condo. We pulled into a pocket a couple miles down the river and found a bank like we had been catching fish on. It didn't take long and we boated a quick keeper and with boats on the rest of the same type bank we left looking for another bay. After pulling into a larger bay the first bank we went down we caught 3 short fish and 3 keepers. Hoping around in that bay we boated 3 more keepers on the same pattern and decided that was enough sticking fish and we were frozen half to death anyway. It was time for a warm shower get the rods new line and tied up and get to the meeting.

Tournament day one I'm boat 10 out and will be able to get on a good stretch of bank first rather than waiting to get in line. I made a couple passes down my favorite bank without a sniff, then my second stop nothing and the 3rd, 4th 5th! I am fit to be tied but keeping my head on straight I abandoned my down river stuff and headed back to the bay we caught fish in yesterday. The spot I pull up on I boat a small keeper spotted bass and have another nice keeper pull off. We moved over to another bank and I boat a nice 3lb fish on the same dock we caught one yesterday and things are starting to look a little better. I've still got an hour and half to fish plenty of time to get 3 more keepers. Well two banks, an hour and 20 mins, and two more lost keepers later it was time to check in. It was a very frustrating day to say the least and all I can do tomorrow is regroup and try to save face.

Tournament day two I am one of the last boats out and decided to start close were I had caught the couple fish yesterday. We spent 3 hours fishing the same banks that I caught fish on the past two days and nothing not even a short fish, what gives! The weather was at least nicer with sun shining and temps in the 60s I figured the fish would do one of two things pull up to the bank and enjoy the warmth from the sun or bail out into the brush piles. Both scenarios played out except I couldn't catch my ass with both hands even if I was sitting on them. After giving this down river stuff a chance for almost 4 hours I had to bail and go back to the bay I had caught fish in yesterday. We pulled up on the bank I caught my spot on and my co-angler boats the first keeper of the day on a shakey head. We bounced around the bay hitting the same banks but no other fish so it was time to move. I ran across the river and stopped on a main lake point getting pounded by the wind and on my first cast I boat a nice 3lber before my co-angler is even out of his seat, game on! Nope not so much not another bite in the next 45min and the day is done.

I end this derby with 3 fish for a whopping 7.5lb good for 105th place out of 137 boaters, not the way I wanted to start the year. The part that sucks the most is I'm not even sure what I missed or did wrong. I fished the same pattern we fished all week and truly thought I could easily catch 15-18lbs a day with a possible 20+lb bag with the right bites. I fished the same areas as guys in the top 10 and many that made a check. It's one thing to do bad in a tournament and learn from it but I really don't know what I did wrong. Time to regroup and get after them on Kentucky and Barkley as the second stop of the Central Everstarts is here in 2 weeks, it's payback time...

Tight Lines,
B

That time of year

BB — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:29:00 GMT

Well I just finished up the regular season for the KY BWS division with a 10th place finish which was enough to get into the top 40 and qualify for the regional down at Lay Lake. It wasn't the year I was looking for, don't get me wrong I wasn't looking at coming down and being in the top 10 at every tournament but just thought the catching would be better than it was. From everyone that I've talked though have all said this has been an off year all starting with the near record flood this spring to the record heat has had the fish really messed up. As for my first year in the KY division of the BWS I guess I can't really complain. I was only able to fish 4 events, having to miss the first one due to have to attend my captains classes for getting my guide license, and checked in 2 of those both out Barkley with a 12th and 10th place finishes. I also had my worst regular season finish in the BWS ever with a 58th in my first KY division tournament, which was a flipping bite, when we received 6" of rain in a few hours and the lake came up 10', that doesn't happen on the lakes of Minnesota. I sanwiched a 33rd on KY in there also on a balmy 102 degree flat calm day...LOL. After all that I was still able to make it into the top 40 by 50 points when going into the weekend I was out by 29. Hopefully I've got one my big win left here on the big ponds when Ryan Otto comes down to fish the Fishers of Men regional in mid September.

    BWS divisional tournament practice was so so. I gave it a half hearted attempt as I felt I wouldn't win and just needed to catch a couple of fish each day to make the top 40. Looking back to 2007 - 2009 no one other than last years winner had ever caught a limit both days of this tournament this time of year so I really wasn't expecting much of a bite anyway. The weather was crazy also with some very severe thunderstorms popping up ahead of an approaching cold front. I got caught in one these on Saturday while prefishing, that rolled down the KY lake around 2:30 with a wall of water and 50+mph winds and 6' rollers resulting in one guy drowning. I spent much of the day idling around watching my side imaging unit and marking what I thought would be productive areas. I did stop and fish one ledge point that held a couple stumps and caught a 5lber right away but not another bite. Sunday I did much of the same but on Barkley just idling along the ledges marking promising looking structure and did very little fishing. I did manage to get out a couple nights during the week which proved to be a good idea. Tuesday night I got out for 3 hours and was going to check some new stuff that I had marked on Sunday along a road bed. When I stopped at my way point marking where the road bed ran into the bank I started fishing across the mouth of the cove the road bed cut across. Only a few cast down the road bed I heard that all sweet sound of fish busting shad on the surface. I turned around to see the water boiling with shad swimming for their lives. I put my C-rig down and threw a crankbait into the mix and instantly hooked up with a feisty short fish, it was like a 13 or 14 incher but thought he was 3lbs. I got him unhooked and fired another cast toward the area, which was where the road bed ran up onto a flat by the bank. Again I hooked up and again and again and again I spent an hour and half catching a fish literally on every cast. In the end though I maybe boated 5 or 6 keepers and had a 4lber jump off. I was able to get out with friend Wayne Winters for a few hours on Thursday and check a few areas that didn't really produce what we were looking for which had me wonder if I should stay on Barkley on Friday or spend the day over on KY Lake. Friday I decided to stay on Barkley and fished with fellow damn yankee (for those that do not know that is what a northern is when they move down here because your not leaving after their vacation is over) Doug Peitzrak on the south end of lake. When we put the boat in and got out to the main river we were very surprised to see the amount of current being generated along with all the debris floating around it brought back memories of the record flooding we had this past spring with full size trees coming down river. We fished some ledges inside the bays where there was still some cleaner water but with little success so we decided to put some time in out in the muddy main river stuff. This proved to be a better choice though not great but we did manage to catch a bunch of fish on the upper current points of the small buck brush islands. We would catch the fish in the eddies just down current of the point where the fish could get out of the current enough to ambush the shad the current would sweep by. At the days end I had made my mind up that I would only use this as a back up and would stick with the upper end of Barkley and move over to Kentucky after I had a limit to work on a bigger fish.

    Tournament day 1 found me drawing out boat 50 out of 53 which in the end didn't hurt to bad considering we had a 20 min. weather delay with a line of severe thunderstorms rolling threw the area right a blast off. When we got the all clear to take off I ran down river which here is actually North to Kuttawa Bay and fish a channel under a bridge that I figured would have current coming threw it due to the heavy current draw on the main river. When I get there, there is already a boat from another tournament sitting on it so I decided to fish my way thru the channel to the other side and fish it. Once we got to the other side the other boat left and we made our way back out there. The banks are lined with riprap as most are but found that they had spilled a bunch of rock in the mouth of the channel on both ends and have caught fish cranking these rock piles. After getting out there I only managed to short fish and decided to leave and fish another point in the bay before leaving. This only gave up a couple short fish also so I decided to head to the school I had found tuesday night on the road bed. I was about 9:30 when we pulled up on it and the fish were busting shad just like they had been. Over the next 3 hours I myself caught a 150 fish on a crankbait and only managed one yes one little keeper. It's now 12:30 and I need to make something happen and decided to run to another point that I found a school on two weeks ago fishing with Mary. Only a few minutes on the spot and I hang a decent 2 1/2lber on a crankbait it took a while but I was able to coax another keeper to eat my crankbait this now gave me 3 keepers but not much size. I ran two more spots in hopes of generating a couple more keeper bites to finish off my limit but the fish all had some sort of decease which had their tall growing to close to the head...aka...short fish. With only hour and half left I decided to run back to the big school to see if something bigger had moved up. As we got there the fish were busting shad all over the place so I jumped on the deck grabbed my topwater and fired a cast towards the flurry of activity and hooked right away with a keeper. After a few more casts and no action on the topwater I picked up the crankbait and again boated a keeper immediately finally this gives me a limit albeit a very small limit it is 5. Which over the past 3 years at this tournament this time of year no one other than last years winner had caught a limit both days so this was on okay start. We had 45 mins. left with a 30 min run so I decided to head back and if we had time fish a quick spot before checking in. Having a little time left I stopped on the end of island that Doug had caught a fish on yesterday. My co-angler picked up a big worm while I was still throwing a crankbait and made the exact cast Doug had and boated a nice 2 1/4lb keeper, his only one for the day, which will get him some valuable points towards the regional. With 5 fish for 9.77lbs I was sitting in 16th with a reasonable chance to make a check if I can catchem tomorrow.

    Day 2 and the final day of the regular season for the KY division of the BWS. I went out boat 2 today and headed straight for the big school of fish from yesterday. Figuring we put a pretty good beating on them I didn't figure we would catch as many but was hoping some keepers had moved in. Within the first couple of casts I bowed up on a nice fish that ate my crankbait and it felt heavy I was excited as to did a school of big fish move in. As my co-angler slid the net in the water and the fish came up and in the net I happy thought were dashed as a 5lb flathead and my crankbait wedge in it's mouth without a single hook actually hooking it. On the next cast I boat a fish that barely measures but it's a start. After an hour of catch a few short fish and seeing very little action I wasn't going to die on the spot and moved about hundred yards to a point that always holds fish but generally small and this time was no exception catching a half dozen or so short fish it was time to move. I headed to the spot that I caught my other two keepers yesterday only to find a boat from another tournament sitting on it. I then ran to a point with a large stump on then end of which also only gave up two short fish. So off again to the next spot another point which I've always caught a couple fish on keepers and shorts but this time it also only gave up a couple short fish. It is now 10:30 and a little panic sets in as I really wanted to wiegh in another limit and needed to, to have a shot at a check. I decided we would make a run to Kentucky Lake and try to get a couple bigger fish and then come back and try to fill out a limit if needed. On the way there I decided to stop on a spot that I had yet to catch a fish yet have been to it holds fish on the right conditions and this seem to be the right conditions. I told my co-angler give me 15 mins to see what happens, this way the best 15 mins. turning into 2 1/2 hour decision I made this year. On my first cast I boat a keeper smallie, then on the next cast I boat another keeper smallie. My co-angler then boats back to back largemouth backed up a few cast later by a beautiful 3 1/2lb smallie. He then continues to boat a couple more smallie culling one of the largemouth and boxing another 3 1/2 lb smallie. At this point I am now very frustrated as I haven't had a bite for an hour after boating the first to smallies. Swallowing my pride I asked him for one of the baits he was throwing, which he more than willing gave me. We were both throwing C-rigs with a fluke type bait but his floated more than mine did. After switching baits we moved down the break little farther and I bowed up on a nice 4.46lb smallie which put me in a little better mood.


We moved back down the break to where we had the fish in the beginning and was able to boat another smallie that just measured but I now have 5 more in the box a limit two days in a row which had been done only once before. Again they don't wiegh much but it was a limit. With time running out we made the 40 min. run back to check in and put my 5 fish on the scale that went a scant 13.21lbs, yes much better than yesterday but still small for Kentucky/Barkley standards. In the end only 5 of us brought a limit to the scales both days which made me feel pretty good about my efforts and it was enough for a 10th place finish and the last place check, my second of the year, so all in all, a good tournament and a good regular season.

    Now it's regional time and time to really step it up, this is where the big money for the year is made and where you qualify for the different tour championships. So keep watching the website and the my blog for further up to date action as I have two regionals in September and one in October, until then Tight Lines,B.

Not sure what to think

BB — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:24:00 GMT

I guess this is why they call it fishing and not catching, I've been on all the right stuff but just seem to missing something and when I get it figured out watch out! I sometimes feel I've never done this before as I go out and struggle to get bit and watch other guys bringing in 24lb plus bags but seem them on the same stuff I've been fishing really makes it sting. I just keep trying to remind myself that this is a learning year and these guys have been here most of their lives just like if I was still in MN. I know it's something stupid and when I figure it out look out, I may not win but I will be in contention. It's that one thing though that has me not sure of what to think. Is it the baits I'm using, my presentation, depth, speed, color, weight, size the list goes on and when your not catching them this is what runs thru your mind daily even if you know your on a good spot which doesn't help the mental aspect of the sport.

    Tournament wise Mary and I fished a tournament here called the "Free Tournament" which is a no entry fee tournament put on by a local church and the payout guaranteed by an individual wanting people to here the word of Christ. It was a great event with a 1st place payout of $5000, and the Riverwoods Church put on a great feed before hand along with some great music. Al Odom president and owner of the Fishers of Men bass tour along with his V.P. Bobby Eads where on hand also. In fact Al was the presenting speaker at this years event and brought a tear to everyones eyes with the story of his sons death and how his faith in GOD was what kept there families spirits up and got them through such a tragic event.

    Practice was very weak for me as fishing was very spotty at best with no numbers of fish on any one spot, though that changed on Thursday night prior to the event. After along day on the water checking 20 or 30 ledges I came across the mother load. I had a spot marked from when the elites had been here and decided to check it out. I started work down the ledge and got to the gps mark without a bite but decided to keep going and lucky I did. I was down the ledge probably 50yds when I loaded up on what I thought was a really good fish when in actuality it was a 4lb and 3lb fish on my Series 6XD with three more over 3lbs following them to the boat. After releasing them I fired out another cast and bowed up on a 5lb+ fish that jumped off at the boat that had two more following it. I picked up an Outkast T-2 football head and boated back to back 2lb spots! I decided to see what else they would eat and picked up a swimbait and boated back to back 3lbers each time a group of fish would follow them to the boat trying to get the bait. At this point I wasn't sure if I should just have some fun and catch as many as I could or leave it for the tournament. This probably sound like a stupid question to ones self but I hadn't found anything else to bring me down here, an hour+ run from our take off, but it was a heck of a school fish but with other tournaments going on the same day I was sure someone else would be on it. I did decide to leave it and hope I could be the first one on it tournament day. Friday I spent looking for something closer so I could spend more time fishing than running and really didn't find much other than a school of keepers which wont get you any where on KY lake.

    Tournament morning was beautiful, warm temps, flat calm ideal conditions for the long run. I was nervous the whole way there with that gut feeling someone was going to be sitting on the spot when we get there. As I rounded the last long corner to were I could see the ledge I wanted to fish there sat reality, a boat fishing another tournament, square on my mark and line. I decided I had ran this far I am going to pull in on the ledge and fish anyway and started down river 80-100yds and worked our way in that direction. I let the wind blow me towards them but with the nose of the boat pointed into the wind as not to show I was trying to move in. After 30 minutes of fishing around and drifting I was able to get to my mark as the other boat moved down the ledge. I understand why they let me have it, after an hour and half of fishing in it we left without even a bite. I ran 20 miles back to the ledge I thought we could at least catch 5 keepers on. This was not to be either as we worked roughly 200yds of this ledge only to catch to short fish. Now the decision was needing to be made do I run back to our starting spot 20 mile or keeping heading back in the direction of checking. With the current being drawing later in the afternoon I decided to run back to our starting spot as we were not fishing for points but first place only and this was the only place I truly thought we could win from. After a 25 minute boat ride we got set up on the spot again and after only a couple of cast I boat a 14 inch spot. A legal fish but not for this tournament as all species had to be 15 inches but I was pumped to catch one right away and figured the school had moved up to feed with the current draw. Guess not, after 45 minutes without another bite I decided to head back towards check in. I planned to give myself enough time to fish to points that have been very good to myself and my buddy Wayne from The Cabin bait and tackle during our Tuesday night tournaments. Stopping short in one bay on the way back I checked on small spot but not action. I see Ronnie the owner of The Cabin sit on a point and went over to see how they had done, they said they only had six keeper bites all day, though they were 18lbs worth of bites. So off to our final two stops. I pulled up on the first one hoping for a miracle with only an hour or so left to fish and knowing it's going to take upper 20's to win we need some big bites and need them now. After a couple of minutes on the spot Mary boats a nice 3lber on a C-rig and I thought this school was on fire and ready to go. Well not so much this would be the only true keeper we would boat all day and pitched it back before we headed back to check in. In the end a limit of 5 for 28lbs won the tournament and I had nothing like that going so that does easy the pain a little bit. Only a quarter of the boats if that out of the 175 boat field weighed fish so it was a little tough all the way around.

    I also just fished our 4th BWS tournament in the KY division for the 2010 season. Prefishing wasn't going so good for this either at least size wise though I was at least catching fish. I haven't been able to find a solid deep bite as the schools have really pulled apart and scattered. Most everything I've found has been shallow with small keepers with a few decent but not winning fish mixed in. Though I did have one area in the lake that has had a school of good fish on it that other guys have been fishing and bring in some good weights from. I spent Thursday on the South end of the lake looking for some more shallow fish and found a couple of areas with a ton of fish chasing shad and was able to catch them pretty easy on an Outkast Swim jig, a shallow running crankbait, and Tru-Tungsten 4" swimbait. These fish were in mid bay areas around islands in shallow water. I also found a shallow flat on the top of a ledge that has a massive school of fish with some good fish mixed in. I noticed these fish busting shad as I was fishing the ledge it's self and decided to investigate and maybe have a little fun with some topwater. As usual by the time I got up there they had quite feeding. I decided to throw a swimbait around and was getting hit but wasn't able to get hooked up and started thinking maybe these were whitebass instead. Putting the swimbait down I picked up my Strike King 1XS crankbait and on the first cast hung a 2lber which was followed to the boat by at least a dozen fish, though many were not keepers I was still very excited. After working the area for 15 minutes in was apparent that there was a huge school of fish here and if we weeded through all the small fish you could probably boat a limit of okay keepers. Friday morning I had a 4 hour guide trip in the morning which I stayed on the North end of the lake by the dam. We had a ball catching a bunch of fish and would've had a decent tournament limit with a 5lb kicker. After the trip was over I head south to Paris to get some practice in before the pretournament check in and meeting. On the way there I blew out a trailer tire, that makes one tire or every boat I've owned now, not bad considering all the miles I put on. After getting that fixed I was back on the road and put in at the Paris landing around 2pm, had to stop a Culver's for a little lunch. I ran to the bay that I knew had the better fishing come from it, the one Ronnie had caught his fish on for the Free Tournament. I idle around the area watching my side imaging unit to find all the high percentage spots on these three points, after 45 minutes of idling and 8 waypoints later I got on the front deck to make a few casts. Working the spots in the area that I marked with the gps I was able to get what I felt were a couple good bites that I shook off not wanting to burn any fish going into tomorrow. I didn't get as many bites as I wanted but it was enough to give me confidence these fish were still there and decided that's where I would start the tournament. I got checked in and grabbed a bite to at Meo Mio's a cajun style restaurant that has some awesome pasta dishes, with some guys I've met since being down here including my boy Brent Anderson who I stay with down here and he stay with me when we go out of the north end of the lake. After the meeting and partner drawing it was time to get respooled and organized for the tournament day. Talking with Brent about where we've been catching fish and plans for tomorrow it has been very evident we are planning on starting on the same place, NICE! Well since he is boat 11 and I'm boat 41 that pretty much puts me out on the left overs.

    Tournament day I decided to run to the bay to start anyway and started on a different point and let Brent have the best one to himself as it was really to small for two boats. Watching him boat 4 keepers with two really good ones didn't help the start of my day but it is what it is. As my co angler and I fished our point he was able to boat a small keeper to get things going but we were only able catch a couple more small fish. I made a move around to another point and was able to boat a small keeper myself but again this was the only keeper we boated. Now that 2 hours have ticked by I decided to work my way south to the shallow fish that I had found. Along the way I stopped on 3 more ledges where we both boated another keeper but we just were not able to get a school fired up. With two fish each I thought lets just go get a limit from the smaller shallow fish and then we can try to work the ledges for an upgrade. Well this didn't go as planned what so ever, as I pulled up to the first island there sat a pontoon on the best spot and there are four other boats fishing the same stuff. It quickly became apparent these fish had been beat up as the shad were still there but the bass were not chasing and busting on them like they had been on Thursday, the only three bites I got choked down the 1XS but were very tight to the cover and all short. Thinking our best shot now at getting a limit is the big school of fish on the ledge flat that is where I headed. Pulling up on it I didn't see any activity at all this didn't surprise me as nothing has went right so far today. I started out throwing a jerkbait without a sniff then switched over to the 1XS again nothing now I'm past my waypoint by 50yds and feeling pretty discouraged. My co angler is throwing a shakey head and has missed a couple bites and then boats his 3rd keeper of the day giving him a limit. I decided to pick up my C-rig with a 4" swimbait on it an huck that around. On the first cast I boat a short which was followed to the boat by 6-8 other fish. Yes they are still here, so you're say there's a chance. On the next cast I boat my 3rd keeper a solid 3 1/2lb fish which again was follow by a bunch a fish. Then my co boats another keeper to cull out his small fish and we sat there and caught 50 fish over the next hour. I was able to get one more keeper in the boat a very small one at that then it was time to make the run back to check in. I ended the day with 4 keepers for 9.70lbs good for 33rd place out of 67 boats which moved me up to 46th overall in points 29 points out of the top 40 regional cut even with missing the first tournament. So I accomplished one goal of moving closer to making the regional but definitely fell short on getting a check. Again I have to remind myself this is a learning year and I'm competing against guys that have fished here there whole life so over all being only 29 points out only fishing 3 out 4 tournaments is a good feeling. Good luck and Tight Lines to everyone on there next trip to the lake.

HOT HOT HOT!

BB — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:53:00 GMT

The weather has been hot to say the least since Memorial day weekend and the fishing has been just as hot. June is the kick off to the ledge fishing and it has been game on. The BASS Elites were here the 2nd week of the month and I spent a couple days watching the pros at work. You can tell that there is no reservation on using gas as these guys would run 20 miles to fish a spot for 15 minutes and run another 20 miles. For the most part no one was on any out of the secret spot but fishing pretty obvious stuff you could see on a paper map or chip. When it's your tournament it's your tournament as evident by KVD catching a 5lber right away the 3rd morning in the back "see picture below" The yellow spot on it's back is his crankbait.

Jamie Fralick puts on a clinic while I talked with him with a spoon. Billy Mccaghren also pulled in to share the spot.

Our 3rd BASS Weekend Series tournament of the KY Lake division was this past weekend. We launched out of Little River which is about 30 miles south on Lake Barkley. I've never spent much time down there and decided to spend my time prefishing the upper portions of KY and Barkley Lakes. Prefishing for me was hit and miss as I was fishing to shallow most of the time. The better fish had moved out into the 18-20 foot zone rather than on top of the flats. They would be up there to feed and you could load the boat quickly with a crankbait if you caught them up there feeding but with the water temps reading between 85-90 degrees the fish had pulled back off the tops of the flats. This is something I had been told, for about a couple weeks but just never put it togther until I fished with Wayne Winters from The Cabin Bait and Tackle during a tuesday night derby that we won fishing deep. Not knowing Barkley that well I spent a day in the boat with Lance Freeman a young kid that has grown up fish Barkley and learned what I should be looking for and how to fish it. These two lakes fish somewhat a like but are also very different. Barkley has the ledges and points like Kentucky does but tends to fish much shallower with less hard spots such as rock and shell beds and more brush and wood cover. After spending monday and tuesday on Kentucky and weds. on Barkley I went back to Kentucky on thursday only to get blown off by a severe afternoon thunderstorm, which seem to happen daily, after only a few hours of fishing. Everything thus far that I have caught has been on a Outkast Tackle weedless T-2 football head dragging it across hard spots on the ledges with a few fish mixed in on a crankbait. Never being to the south end of Lake Barkley and the meeting being down there as well I decided to put in at Little River on friday and spend 8 hours checking likely spots down there. It sucks not catching much when prefishing but on some occassions it does help eliminate water as was the case for me on the lower end of Lake Barkley. I only boated one keeper bass with 30 short fish and I mean short fish as in the 11-13 inch range. At hour meeting on friday night I drew a gentleman that was fishing just this tournament to get out and fish at least fish one for the year. This really helped take the pressure off as he wasn't expecting to go out and catch 20lbs and load the boat all day. It was beautiful at our 5:15 take off put 20 minutes later we had a wall cloud in front of a cold front pushed down the lake with 30 mph north winds. This made it almost impossible to fish the main river ledge we had started on so I headed for a creek to fish a road bed that should be protected, well not so much. Though better than out in the main river she was blowing through there pretty hard also. After a couple hours the wind layed down and I ran to what was going to be my number two stop, this was another main river ledge in Barkley. I started out with a crankbait on the first pass but not a single bite as my co-angler boat one on a tube. I then switched over to the T-2 football head and boated two quick small keepers and he boated a solid 3 1/2lber and another small keeper on a C-rig. After a couple more pass without any keepers I decided it was time to run to Kentucky Lake. When we got over there the wind had switch to the south at 25 mph, NICE! We checked 3 points in front of creeks with some bites but I only boated one small keeper to give me 3 little swimmers. I then decided to run out and check the ledge that Wayne and I had won the tuesday night derby on and after on hour without a bite and battling the wind and waves from the poker run I had enough and ran to another point in the mouth of a creek. I had stopped short and was in 20' of water throwing up on it dragging my football head across mussle bed when my co-angler misses a bite right under the boat. I blew it off and made another cast up on the point and he says he missed another bite under the boat. Well I maybe kind of slow but after that second bite I pulled the boat out into 25' of water and made a long cast up to the edge of the point and began to stroke the jig down it. With in a couple casts I bowed up on a 3 3/4lb fish, a couple cast later I bowed up on another 3 3/4lber what and attitude changer those fish were, as I was getting pretty upset at the day thus far. Over the next hour I culled up two more fish and my co-angler culled up one. With only a half hour of fishing left I decided to run out and check the big fish spot one more time. I wasn't able to land a giant though I did manage to cull up one more before it was time to make the run back. In the end I weighed 5 for 15.45 good for 12th place and a $277 check my first BWS check here in Kentucky hopefully the first of many to come.

Emotional Rollercoaster

BB — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:23:00 GMT

5 tournaments, 7 tournament days and it has rained at least 6 hours at each one here on Kentucky Lake. After our torrential rains and mass flooding two weeks ago during the BWS the lakes came up 10 feet one foot below record flood stage. The USCG for the first time ever shut down the lakes on Weds. 5/5/2010 to recreational boating, which they opened more water each day as the debris started spreading out. There was one point on Thursday I thought that you could honestly walk across Lake Barkley without touching water.

The sign pretty much says it all, anyone who has put in at the KY Lake Damn Marina knows this sign. The lakes crested on Mon. 5/10 and the Army Corp. began to draw the lakes back down to summer pool, 359 at a rate of 18-24 inches a day. This meant every day you put the boat in you were looking at a new lake.

    AFS practice - with the lakes high there was alot of new water and one pattern that seemed to hold true every where at least for me was fishing in peoples yards with either a shallow crankbait or pitching plastics such as an Outkast Tackle "Naughty Bug" and Tru-Tungsten flippin weight. I wasn't catch the quality of fish that it would take to win but could count on it to catch fish. Flippin bushes is was the other and most utilized pattern that most guys seemed to be running, and with the high water there were a lot more of them to fish the only problem at some points there was to much water as it went forever behind the bushes in threw the woods. I spent Sunday the 9th out on the main river ledges south of Paris without much luck what so ever and nixed that out of the plans. Monday I spent the day flippin bushes and working really shallow with a small bit of success but nothing to get excited about and am starting to get a bit depressed. I was staying with my bro Brent Anderson from Kingston Springs, TN who has a trailer at Buchanan Resort in Paris. While housing down some pizza subs that night he said he had the best day ever numbers wise on KY lake and pointed me in the right direction, which seemed to have the fish still using the old creek channel bank rather than moving up with the water. I spent Tuesday running that pattern and was able to find a couple schools of fish but nothing really big. Wednesday I decided I better take a look at Barkley to make sure I wasn't missing anything over there and I wasn't.

    Day 1 of the AFS I decided to make the 1hr 15 min run south to the creek that I had found a couple schools in. Being in the middle of the flights I wasn't who else was going to be there but to my suprise no one was even in the area. Starting out throwing a Norman Deep Little N crankbait my 3rd cast I double up with a short and a 15 1/2'' keeper. Then over the next hour I boated 50+ more fish, it was totally insane unfortunately nothing over 2lbs was boated. We worked farther back into the creek to check another school but with the water dropping almost 4 feet since Tuesday all the fish had pulled out to the mouth. I turned around and headed back to the first school and they had moved almost 50yds already also. After relocating them it was a fish on every cast for 20 minutes, it was just stupid, in the next hour I must have caught another 75+ fish but again nothing to upgrade with, but it was an absolute blast from not catching much the last week prefishing to just loading the boat was awesome. I decided as the fishing slowed to check another creek but as I pulled into this one there were 5 boats on the stuff I wanted to fish. We fished through them but only catching a few short fish it was time to go. With only a couple hours left to fish before having to make the long run back I headed north and stopped on a point in front of spawning bay. I told my co-angler I wasn't sure if we would be able to fish it with the wind blowing as hard as it was in on it but if we catch one it would be the right one. After working up the point to the sweet spot I boated a very skinny 17'' smallie which did cull out one of the largemouths. Blowing off the spot while culling we motored back up the sweet spot and after making a half dozen more casts with a fat free shad I bowed up on another fish. It didn't fight much and my co-angler asked if I needed the net and I said I wasn't sure. He came up there with it anyway and as the fish came to the surface he was going to put the net down as it looked like a drum. After doing a double take at it I realized it was a big largmouth and started screaming for him to put the net in the water and boated what would be my biggest largemouth yet a 7-12 beauty.


Blowing off the spot again, during all the celebration and what a natural high, we motored back up the sweet spot and after making a couple more casts with the crankbait I picked up the new T-2 football head by Outkast Tackle and began dragging that across the point. The school was fired up and again the bite was on! It was literally every cast for 15-20 minutes then slowed to every other or every 3rd cast, and was able to cull up a couple more fish, what an unbelievable day of fishing and my thumbs are raw but who's complaining. At weigh-in I had 5 that weighed 17-2 good for a tie for 10th place which is the cut line to make the final day.

    Day 2 - You can pretty much guess where I am going to start. We ran down there and just in the nick of time as another boat was wanting to get on it also. Fishing wasn't quit as fast as yesterday but I manage to boat a couple decent keepers and dozen short fish before deciding to move to another point close by. Pulling up on the point I began throwing the T-2 again and boated a couple more short fish. My co-angler starting throwing one also and put his first keeper in the boat a nice 3 1/2lb smallie. It didn't take him long to box his 2nd and 3rd keepers a couple 15 1/2'' fish. I was still catching shorts on a regular basis and about every 30 minutes he would boat solid keeper. With him now having a decent limit and I still only have two fish we ran to another 3 points where we caught a couple more shorts but nothing to help. With only about an hour left to fish before the hour run back we pulled back up on the starting point. With the wind blowing 35+ out of the north it made it difficult to fish to say the least and twice as hard while trying to run the trolling motor. I managed only to boat some more short fish while my co-angler boated to more 3lb class fish at this point I am extremely frustrated and ready to start break rods, why such a great day yesterday and have this happen today is all I can think of. It was time to go and we made the run back which wasn't pretty with my attitude and the big north wind push against a north current. We got back to Malcom Creek with 20 minutes left so I left pulled up on a point with no one on it hoping for the best. After making a half dozen cast I bowed up on a 4 1/2lb smallmouth bass which helped lift the spirits a little bit but it was time to go and we checked in with 5 seconds to spare! After such a high from yesterdays numbers and that big fish and a top 10 placing I finished the day with 3 fish for 9-7lbs today and slid to 41st place which did keep me in a check. My co-angler weighed in a 15+lb bag which would have kepted me in the top 10 but everything happens for a reason. So for my first year fishing a triple A tour I cashed to checks and qualified for the Invitational tournament this fall at Lake Wheeler in November.

    My buddy Doug Pietzrak and travel partner who also moved down here to KY sacked a big 21lb bag on day two of the AFS and his kids for the College fishing tournament that 40 of us boaters took out on Sat. won their event with 6 fish for 24lbs. So I talked him into fishing a team tournament going out of Kuttawa on Sunday. We got there early to sign up and get registered and of course it was raining. We went out boat 97 out of 115 teams and ran to a rock jetty on a whim but only caught 3 shorts but it did tell us the fish were still on the same pattern. We worked our way around the lake fishing the same pattern as it looked like many of the other teams where doing also, cranking main lake points. Doug started us out boating a 16'' largmouth then I added a 5lber and then a nice 3lb fish. Doug then added a couple 3lb fish of his own and  we were feeling pretty good about the day. Then we added 4 more 5lb fish over the next couple hours and had all the fish we would weigh-in by 11:30 and still had 4 1/2 hours left to fish. Luckily we had our fish early as there was no one around us and as the bite slowed tremedously after that also. As we started looking for other areas to try we began to run into boats everywhere. We did manage to boat a couple more quality 3lb fish and a few shorts but needing a 6lb fish to cull was a big hill to climb. Knowing we had a great bag but not sure what we really had we head back for checking to make sure we made it on time and even checked in 15 minutes early. When we arrived we could hear that 22lbs was leading and second was 21lbs which made us neverous as if we really had what we thought. We loaded the boat and bagged our fish up and head to the scale. Bring them up with both of carrying the bag turned a few heads and when they dumped them in the tub the tournament director said we have a tournament leader and once they put them on the scale he was right as our 5 fish went 24.94lbs which was 2 1/2lbs over second place and Doug and my first KY win.

Wet and Wild

BB — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:43:00 GMT

Wet and Wild three words that pretty much some up my past two tournaments. On April 24th I decided to throw my hat in as co-angler in a BFL going out of Paris Landing to get and idea what to look for on the following weekends Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament. The week leading up to this was beautiful sunny and warm fish where on the move shallow some on the way out. Everything was setting up to have a fun day of fishing. I went down on Friday and jumped in the boat with my boy Brent Anderson who is becoming a solidified stick down there. We spent the day flippin bushes shallow checking a bunch of community spots. We did manage to boat quite a few fish and a couple descent ones at that. We also ran out and checked a couple ledges and did catch fish on each one we stopped on but all short of the 15'' size limit. At the meeting I drew out with a guy who seemed pretty amped up about what he had found and was ready to get after it, this was great. The one factor not taking into consideration was the fact the wind was going to blow 30+ out of the south and it was going to pour all day. We started out at 5am in pouring rain and ended the day with pouring rain, severe thunderstorms, flashing flooding and tornados. We ran to his first spot a main river bank that we cranked and did manage a couple short fish but with 4 footers rolling in on it it was pretty much trashed. Our next spot was a bluff bank at the mouth of a large creek arm. This was a place fish would use moving in or out during the spawn and it was out to the wind, it also had two small pockets in it that fish had been in spawning. We spent the better part of the day fishing back and forth down this bank along with two other boats. We all kind of had one little point that each boat was able to sit on at the mouth of these little pockets. In the end we boated a bunch of short fish and he was finally able to put a keeper in the box. The weather was getting worse, we had to check back in at 2pm so at 1pm we decided to make the 30 min run back to weighin. About half way back something just didn't seem right, the motor sounded funny and the boat was riding weird. We had just past another boat who stopped to put a helmet on as we ran straight into a torrential down pour when he decided to stop and see what was wrong. We looked back at the motor and it looked a little low to me. He turned and looked at me and said that doesn't look right and I agreed, as we both turned to look back at the motor again it fell right of the back of the boat!!!! Talk about HOLY *****, my eyes got as big as softballs, I climbed to the back deck and was greeted with 4 foot rollers hitting me in the knees, now I am a little nervous. Within 2 minutes the boat was full of water, I mean full of water, rear storage, front storage, rod lockers... everything. The guy that we passed, stopped to see what was going on and was able to give us a tow to shore. Once we were under tow I felt much safer and actually started laughing about the situation and started taking pictures with my phone. They were able to get us into a bay that had a dirt ramp in it. They needed to make it back to weighin and we told them to go and we would get it taken care of. We were still 50yds from shore when they left the only problem was the engine was still dragging on the bottom and the trolling motor wouldn't pull us to shore, so he had to jump in and use a rope to pull us to shore. As luck would have it 3 guys from Indiana just happened to pull down to the access just out driving around. These guys were able to pull the motor up to shore with their truck. I got a hold of Brent and he was going to bring the guys trailer over so we could get the boat out. As we worked to disconnect the motor it rained 3'' that hour alone. Brent arrived at the access just as we got the motor disconnected from the boat, now with the boat on the trailer we needed to get the engine out but first we had to sit in the vehicles for 30min as the sky turned green and black and tornado warning went off everywhere, with another 3'' of rain falling. In between rain squalls we got the motor into the back to the Indiana guys truck and they followed us to the Paris Landing ramp a 45 min. drive. We finally got back to the ramp at 5:30pm soaked to the bone, cold and tired. The tournament director was still there and took more pics of everything along with my partners son who had to wait around not sure what was going on. All said and done no one was hurt and we all get to fish another day, needless to say I didn't learn anything for the upcoming weekend.

Tournament number 2 in as many weekends the 2nd BWS for the KY Lake division going out of Paris. With past weekend behind me and the full moon in effect on Wednesday I headed back out and spent Tuesday flippin bushes and caught a bunch of fish but nothing of any great size but was able to boat a limit of keepers. Most of my flippin has been done with an Outkast Tackle "Naught Bug" rigged on a MiHatchii 4/0 OWG hook and a 3/8oz. Tru-Tungsten flippin weight . I flipped this on 20lb fluorocarbon line. I spent the day in the backs of the bays as this is where most of the shallow flooded bushes are and with the wind blowing again at 20+ mph out of the south there wasn't much else you could do. Wednesday brought calm winds and I took advantage of that to get out on the main lake/river ledges. I pushed this issue all day and wasn't able to put much of anything together. It was about 4pm and I was ready to head in when I saw a boat pull up and fish something I had thought about during the day. So with that little nudge I decide to pull up and fish part of it too. With my first 5 flips I boated to 2 1/2lb fish and shook 3 more off. I ended up shaking off 12 more bites in the next hour and a very poor day turned into a very productive day. Friday I put in at the Paris Landing and headed south straight into another day of 20+mph south winds, these are getting very tiring. I check a spot that resembled what I caught fish on on Wednesday night a was able to boat some fish so things are looking good. I kept working my way south check different bays all which seemed to have fish in the bushes. I spent some time flipping them but was covering water faster by throwing anOutkast Tackle swim jig , 3/8oz. head glimmer shad skirt, with a fat tail grub trailer. It was an awesome day numbers wise but never really seen or boated a big fish 4lb+ quality. At the meeting I drew out boat 6 and had a game plan for the day and felt good. As was the deal with the past weekend we a woke to pouring down rain and it did this all day long on top of 25+mph south winds. We were held back 40 minutes in the morning due to severe weather. Once we got started I ran to a little point that was in front of a spawning bay that holds fish all year. I had a good fish pull off a crankbait and boated a short but with this little bit of action I decided to run to the fish I had found on Wed. evening. Once I got there it was quickly evident there was no way I was going to be able to fish it very well with 4-5 foot roller pounding it. My co-angler was able to boat a small keeper as I managed 3 shorts but only fishing it for 20 min. we had to go. This is where I made a huge mental error. Knowing the better fish would come from south of Paris even though I started north I should have made the run. Instead I kepted going north to a couple bays I had caught fish in on Tuesday. By the time we got there each one was basically mud in the back half from the rain that was pounding the area, it turned normal small creeks into raging muddy mini rivers. We did have a lot of bites and boated a bunch of short fish and I managed one keeper time was running out and we still had to make the run back. With a little time left on the way back I stopped on the fish I found Weds. and boated my second keeper pretty quick. I thought if I would make one good pass I would be able to get a limit but with that wind and the waves crashing it it was impossible for any boat control. We made the run back to check in and I end the day with 2 fish for 5.18lbs and a 58th place finish out of 80 boaters a very embarrassing finish for what I had found in practice and the stupid mental error. Even with the record rain fall, flash flood warnings, extreme lightening, and tornados of the day the boys sacked them with 1st and 2nd both with 26lbs. for 5 fish, even the top 2 co-anglers had 15lbs and 14lbs respectively for 3 fish!!! In the end live and learn from your mistakes. Our area along with Nashville ended up with over a foot of rain, everything is flooded and it will be a while before things are back to normal. The AFS is next on my list May 14-16 and with the Lakes both shut down to recreation boating till Monday the 10th it will make for an interesting tournament if it happens, until then Tight Lines.

Patience is virtue

BB — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:35:00 GMT

The one thing in life most everyone will agree on is that patience is a virtue. Well when it comes to sight fishing it is a must! This goes against my comfort zone of trolling motor on high and go mode. Well I just got back from Lake Ouachita for the second American Fishing Series central division event that turned out to be a sight fishing session. For me class was definitely a learning experience as sight fishing in general is not my strong suit. I must say this is by far the most beautiful lake I have ever seen or been on.

    Day one of practice we put in on the West end of the lake closest to where we were staying. I picked out a major creek arm and put the trolling motor down and didn't pick it up for 10hrs. There were a ton of fish up including some giant crappies along with the strippers that were doing their spawning cycle with water temps ranging from 60-64. This creek was a little deeper and had steeper banks and most of the beds the bass made dead center in the bushes. I didn't try to do a lot of catching though ounce in a while I would see what it would take to get on to go. For the most part I worked on seeing the bed or fish and marking it with the GPS and noting it down on a note pad. I was only able to find a couple good fish but lots of small bucks up getting things ready.

    Days 2-4 I spent in the central part of the lake. This area had a mixture of flatter type bays along with some much deeper and steeper banked creek arms. I continued to concentrate on finding fish and beds rather than catching them but as the case with day one you need to check the attitude of a few to see what it will take to catch them. Again I would mark the beds on the GPS and note the number and position of the bed on my note pad. One thing I did learn is I will now have my puck mounted on the front of the boat rather than 21' behind me. This can make a huge difference if you come up on a bed from the opposite direction from when you marked it. In the end I found that the flatter bays or flatter points and banks with in the creeks and bays held more and better fish and deeper beds. General traffic didn't help either as every bay or creek I was in had at least a couple recreation fisherman pulling fish off the beds. The best way I found to catch the fish I could see was with 8lb fluorocarbon line a 1/16 or 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten weight and 2/0 MiHaitchi OWG hook rigged with a 4'' zoom lizard. I was able to get a couple stubborn fish to go on a Storm wild eye shiner swim bait dredged threw the bed. As day for was coming to an end and I was running back to the dock I decided to stop at one last bay. With the trolling motor on high I flew around it marking some more beds when I ran into a couple 4lbers with a couple 2 1/2lb males in the corner on it. Figuring it was 4pm already these fish should still be there in the morning.

    Tournament Day - Day 1 I am fortunate to have drawn out boat 5 today and am feeling good about getting on the fish I had found and the end of practice yesterday. We ran back to the bay and the fish are still there. My first pass thru it I picked off two small bucks but it was a start. I turned the boat to head back down it and boated a 16'' male, when I got back to the corner I seen a big fish swim across a sand spot. Without hesitation I threw the lizard up there and one of the 4lbers started swimming off with it and after a careful fight I boat what turns out to be a 4-15 kicker. After regrouping and retied I can see the other 4lber on the other bed yet, knowing I am not going to get here out of her spot on 8lb test I threw everything I had at her and she wasn't having any of it. So out of necessity I picked up my little lizard and fired a cast in there and she swam off with it and the minute I bowed up on her the line just shredded, from one high to one low in fish. I got retied and worked down the bank a little further and boated another 16'' male and have a limit with in the first hour. Having picked most of these fish off I ran around the corner to a big flat bay that had a bunch of fish in it. As I got there more than one other boat had found these fish also so I just pulled onto a bank with some way points on it. There were still a couple of fish the other boats had missed but I spent about 30 minutes a piece and they wouldn't go so I kepted moving down the bank to the next flat which I had a 3lb+ fish market on a small bush. As we eased up on it I could still see it on the bed and worked it for 20 minutes with nothing. I then pulled out the swimbait threw it up there dropped it right in the bed and two shakes later she ate it, this was a nice upgrade from the small male I still have in the box. We worked down the bank to a couple more waypoints that had decent fish on them, one being a 2 1/2-3lb fish and after working it for 20min. it finally ate the lizard and after a short run it shredded line and I had a Brian Brown melt down...LOL. I regrouped and was able to boat one more decent fish while spend almost half the day try to get my co-angler a fish. Day one end with me in 23rd place with 5 fish for 14-6lbs.

WOW! Not the start I'm looking for.

BB — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 14:43:00 GMT

Well so far 2010 has not turned out to be the season I was hoping for. After a bust a Lake of the Ozarks I came home and started my week long Captains Classes at the Green Turtle Bay Marina. I need, as all guides or captains for hire need on any Coast Guard managed waters. This is about the only thing that has gone well as I passed the course put on by True Course which put on a great school. Now after being off the waters here for two and half weeks I finally got my boat back on Weds. afternoon just in time to get my brakes put back on. This would have been great if I had gotten the right size bolts but now have to wait till Thurs. morning to run back to the hardware store at 7am to get the right ones when I should be on the water. Got the brake caliper back on and am ready to get after it now that it's 10am. I decided to fish Lake Barkley for the two days I have to prefish since I don't know it that well yet. The bite is off and managed a few short fish flippin an Outkast Tackle Naughty Bug black/blue with a 3/8oz tru-tungsten flippin weight on deeper bushes and a shallow crank. Friday I was able to get out right a way in the morning but this day was to be cut short by a broken trolling motor cable at 11am so the rest of the day was spent in the garage replacing cables. For those who don't keep spare parts on hand for your boat this is a must have, you may never need them but when you do it's a life saver and they are not hard to do. Tournament morning we got to the ramp and put the boat in just in time as the storms just started to roll in and started raining. So there we sat for an hour and a half in a steady down pour which was actually dry compared to our ride to the first spot of the morning. With a 25 mph North wind rolling against the current we had a 6 mile run in 5-6 footers, nice way to start out the day eating a couple rollers to fill the boat up! As luck would have it as we pulled up on our first spot a flat in the middle of a cove I put the trolling motor in the water and the cables are very loose and the GPS shorts out!!! So without the GPS I decided to just get on the bank and chunk and wind. Mary was throwing a spinnerbait while I was throwing a shallow crank. We did manage to boat a bunch of short fish and even put a 2lb keeper in the boat. After getting that in the boat I took the trolling motor apart and got the cables tight like they should be but could not get the GPS to go so we just kept beating banks all day. In the end we just managed that one small keeper which wieghed a whopping 2.02lbs but good for 80th place out of 300 boats. It only took 5-15 to get a check and 16lbs to win but now with everything working on the boat, new power head and compressor, basically new lower unit last fall, new trolling motor cables, and my gps short figured out I am looking forward to a great rest of the year.

It's a bust!

BB — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:19:00 GMT

    Well the first tournament of the year has come and gone and it turned out to pretty much be a bust! Starting with practice I was just never able to get a pulse of what was going on. I tried to do some networking but didn't get much info as what to do or look for so I went with what I thought should be happening. When we arrived at Lake of the Ozarks for the first FLW American Fishing Series Central division tournament we noticed the water was very low and cold. Before I left the house I circled all the main lake river bends or bluff banks as this is where most fish will spend the winter. So this is where I started my first day of practice throwing a jerkbait and 5/16oz. Outkast Tackle finesse jig. Well after a half day of fishing without a bite and noticing there was no one else doing this it was time for a change. I switched to the inside river bends or the shallower 45 degree pea gravel banks. This proved to be about the only thing I kinda figured out as I seem to catch fish on shallow banks, deep banks, docks in 2' of water and on ends of docks in 20' of water. Water temps seem to vary in the 40 - 48 degree mark, being cooler in the main river pockets vs. being up the rivers where the water was warmer and off colored.

    Day 2 of practice I decided to put in farther up the lake closer to the Gravious River. I wanted to check a couple large main lake creeks before heading up the river. I stopped in the first little pocket in the creek put the trolling motor down and started twitching the jerkbait. I wanted to fish everything to start with to see what the fish are keying on and finally get bit. A nice 16" fish barely grabs my Spro Mcstick jerkbait on the end of a private boat ramp. Shortly after I put a keeper 14" spot in the boat off a dock end in 20' of water. After 3 more hours of nothing I called Doug Pietrzak to see how he was doing up the river. He said he had boated a 5 and a 3 and the water was off color and in the mid 40's, so that is where I decide to go, unfortunately as I get the boat up on plain the compress pump sheared the bolts off again. So with no air pressure mixing with the gas, it's dumping straight gas into the cylinders and the engine does not run very well like this, so off to a repair shop. I called Mary to let her know what happened and she started calling around and found the one and only marine dealer open and was to get it in and fixed and ready to go for the rest of the week, though when done I need to drop it off and have a new block and compressor put on it.

    Days 3&4 of practice I spent up the Gravious arm fishing a jerkbait around gravel points with and without docks with mixed results and nothing to impressive. Totaling only 6 keepers and a dozen short fish I just wasn't able to put anything together that I was able to say I could go to that point and catch a fish or do this or that and catch a fish. Come tournament day I was going to have to just put the trolling motor down and just go fishing again.

    Day 1 of the tournament we are greeted with a 2 1/2 hour fog delay! Once we're giving the okay to go I ran up the lake to the big creek I had caught my first keepers in. With no action here we make the run back up to the Gravious to a bank that I had caught 4 short fish on, the most on any one bank, and boated 2 short fish there. Then we ran farther up river into the Indian Creek to a point that I had caught a keeper and a short on and we each boated our only keeper of the day. We ran a few other spots with only a couple more short fish to show for it. After day 1 and 1 fish at 2.13lbs I was sitting 65 out of 124 boats.

    Day 2 started out very chilly with frost on the boat cover but no fog. After being boat 111 on day 1 I am boat 14 today and decide to start on the bank that we caught our keepers on yesterday but after making 4 passes down it with different jerkbaits, jigs and crankbaits and only one short to show for it I had to move. We ran over to a bank that Doug told me to fish and my co-angler boated a nice 3 1/2lb fish on a jig. After a couple more passes with nothing boated it was time to move and we started running a bunch of shallow gravel points with nothing but some nice crappies to show for it. At 1 pm I decided to give up on my jerkbait and pickup my jig and went back to the bank my co caught his fish on. On our first pass down it my co boats another 3lb fish then on our second pass down it while I decided to pickup the jerkbait again he boats another 16" keeper. After a couple more passes and some short fish and crappies to show for it, it was time to head make for weigh in. So with zero keepers today and my loley 2-13 yesterday I end the tournament in 98th place, not the start I was looking for and a long road to the top 40 to qualify for the championship at the end of the year.

    The fun didn't stop after the tournament was over either. On our 6 hour trip home just as I was crossing the mighty Mississippi River in St. Louis, MO the brake caliper on the trailer breaks off and is jamming up on the inside of the rim and rotor causing the tire to bounce up and down of the road making a sound as if I had a flat tire. I was able to get pulled over on the other side of the bridge were the 6 lanes of traffic come together to look over the problem. We decided to find an exit to pull off on and pull the tire off to get the caliper out so we could push on. With the brake problem fixed in record time due to the neighborhood we are off and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. So hopefully this one tournament I have gotten all the bad out of the way and the rest of the year will be golden.

Tru-Tungsten baits

BB — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:36:00 GMT

    Just received my Tru-Tungsten order last night and thought I would put some picks of some the baits out here for you to see and explain a little about each.

First the New 5'' swim bait pictured below with a 4'' bait, is awesome and in the Bluegill color this thing is going to be an awesome bed fishing bait. They come in two styles, 1. a wakebait / slow sink or 2. slow / fast sink this all depends on the how many tungsten ball up put in the body of the bait. The action of these baits is incredible and can be used in many different ways from straight retrieve waking it on top to snapping it like a jerkbait but in doing so these will turn a complete 180 degrees and look at the fish following it.

    Here are some pics of the New "Little Flip" hook along with a 5/0 OWG light wire hook showing the unique bend for better hook up rations by MiHatchii/Youvella. I have the Little Flip hook rigged on a 4'' Outkast Tackle Naughty Bug, a 8mm force bead and a 1/2oz Tru-Tungsten flippin weight, this is the type of bait the Little Flip was designed for.

    The Mad Maxx frog this year has a new softer body to it to allow for easy hook penatration. They also have what is called a "pro drain" which is a small hole out the rear of the frog to allow water to drain out and keep your frog working correctly, they also have a sealed nose to keep water from entering. With all this and the internal tungsten rattles along with the keel shaped bottom for easy walk the dog action and you have the ultimate frog for fishing any cover on any lake.

You can stock up on these products and more at Bass Tackle Depot, with great prices and free shipping they are hard to beat.

Fired Up form Classic

BB — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:40:00 GMT

WOW!!! That's all I have to say about attend the final day of the 2010 Bassmasters Classic. If you don't walk away from there fired up to go get it done nothing will and you better take up golf. I've never been one that big on having to get a bunch of autographs and pictures with a superstar of whatever sport but just to walk throughout the expo and see all the superstars at the different booth was cool. Just the atmoshpere of being at the big show was electrifying and really got the juices flowing for the upcoming year. The expo it's self was huge and nothing but bass fishing, no docks, no boat lifts, jet skis, patio furniture, ect... just bass fishing. Lines for autographs at time for some of the guys we seen like Skeet were 50 people deep. I found it interesting to see some of the Elite pros boats on the show room floor and to look at how they rig there boats. It would have been even better to be able to walk thru the boat yard but that was locked down very tight. We left the expo around 2pm to go get in line for the weighin, which those doors didn't open till 3:30 and lucky we did, as within 20 there were thousands of people behind us along with the couple hundred in front of us. The weighin was an experience in it's self with Fish Fishburne back and being his usual high strung self. Watch the anglers come in and go around the arena just added fuel to the fire to get the year going. Ike and KVD definitely where crowd favorites. I was a little disappointed that it wasn't Kreit's time to win but I was also present to see KVD solidify himself as the best angler ever hands down, no questions asked, but I guess that's what the good LORD has planned for him so it is what it is. The word from Zona was KVD told him 3 months ago how, where, and with what he was going to win the Classic. Below is a pic of the bait that added another $500k to his bank account. You can click on the banner below that to get BTD and get your order in.

Outkast Tackle National Pro Staff

BB — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:31:00 GMT

2-15-10

Outkast Tackle announces their national Pro Staff for 2010

Duluth MN, Feb 15, 2010 – Outkast Tackle, the premier source of precision, tournament-quality fishing tackle in Minnesota and around the country, announces today their 2010 National Pro Staff.

North Carolina Bassmaster Elite Series Pro and 5 time Bassmaster Classic contender Dustin Wilks has joined us in 2010. “Dustin is really excited about our Pro Swim Jig along with our other flipping jigs and we feel he can bring a lot of good input to our company” said Mike Dahl of Outkast Tackle. Dustin finished 13th overall on the Elite Series in 2008 and qualified for the Bassmaters Classic in 2009, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 1999.

Minnesota’s Brian Brown has been with Outkast Tackle since the beginning and is set to fish the FLW American Fishing Series – Central Division. Brian’s 2009 highlights include 1st place at Prairie du Chien (BASS Weekend Series)

Todd Schmitz of Indiana is fishing the Northern Bassmaster Opens. Todd finished 7th place last year overall on the FLW American Fishing Series including a 7th place at the Mississippi River.

New Tools

BB — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:20:00 GMT

Every job requires a tool of some sort and with fishing there is no exceptions. The two tools everyone needs in fishing are a rod and reels and this year I will be fishing with two new lines of tools. First for the first time in 10 years I will be running a reel other than Shimano, as I am the move to Quantum to help patronize their support of our support with PAA. Quantum has a revolutionary line of reels that some of and the best in the business use. I will be running the Kinetic PT series on my jig and carolina rig rods this year.
This is a 7 ball bearing reel with 7.0:1 gear ratio with a deeper spool for holding larger diameter lines.

For my reaction style baits I am going to go with the Catalyst, which is another 7 ball bearing reel, with ultra high speed 7.0:1 gear ration that has a shallower spool which means less spool wieght and great casting ease. I am very anxious to throw my favorite Outkast Tackle swim jig on this reel along with get the crankbaits out on these famous Kentucky Lake ledges this spring.

I will also be running some new rods this year as I have partnered up with Powell rods for the up coming season. Keith Bryan makes an awesome stick and one for almost every situation. I have never cranked with a glass rod before and it seems everyone has their opinion about if you need to or not but with the two of the best fisherman in the world using glass on their reaction baits I figure it can't hurt to try. I got my first shipment of rods in on Saturday and have played around some with them in the house and let me tell you that glass rod is as light if not light than the graphites. I will be running two eight footer this year, one for cranking but in a graphite blank built on a mod fast blank. The other I will use for throwing C-rigs and the Outkast Tackle Touch down head on the ledges this summer.

What is Maxumfiber?

Today at Powell, we have introduced a new breakthrough material called "Maxumfiber." This new material allows our rod design team to utilize less material in the overall rod design, which decreases rod weight, increases sensitivity, durability, and allows for a smoother transition in overall rod performance and feel in your hand.

You will marvel at the sensitivity while working a jig over a rocky bottom, as you feel every pebble and stone. You will experience sensation of feeling the vibration of a crankbait all the way to your elbows as it ticks through the smallest blades of grass. The combination of this material and our design tapers keeps you more connected to what's happening with your lures.

Our longitudinal fibers stay intact better because they are married together by a super light weight resin then intertwined with a special, super light weight webbing that is truly space aged. The combination of these increases the hoop strength of the rod, and has unbelievable dampening characteristics so you have a fishing tool that you can rely on.

Additionally, the material stays intact under extreme loads while fighting fish, on hard hook sets, and is less apt to "go oval" as we say, which causes rod failure. Our design reduces the elongation of rod fibers so they won't pull apart easily.

When you have been making fishing rods for 100 years one thing is for certain: you didn't get there by chance. You did it by a rigorous research and development program, an understanding of how to develop cutting edge materials and how they interact with motion and heavy loads. Mix in the expertise and the materials with real world trial and error process; and the result is a Powell Rod.

Try one today, and see why Powell Rods are 100 years of fishing with tradition!

You can find your Quantum and Powell "tools" at Bass Tackle Depot, click on the banner below to stock up on your new "tools"

2010 a real new year

BB — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:06:00 GMT

Happy belated New Year to all Hype fans!!! This will be a real new year for me as most of you know I am living in a new state, Kentucky, with new home over looking one of two new home bodies of water, Lake Barkley and Kentucky Lake. I will obviously be fishing new tournaments from those back in MN against new faces I've yet to meet. I am going to jump to what most would call the triple A level and fish the American Fishing Series (old Stren, old Everstart) Central division, with tournaments on Lake of the Ozarks, Lake Ouachita, and here on KY/Barkley Lakes. I am also in the works of starting a guide business here on the lakes which means getting a captains license, which I found out from the USCG is mandatory for ANYONE who is a guide for hire on any body of water in the United States.

    Exciting news this year also includes the partnership with two new sponsors for the 2010 season as I will be working with Keith Bryan of Powell rods. Keith a former tour level angler himself has done an incredible job of bring Powell a Fly fishing rod company into the bass arena. These are awesome rods with all the quality fuji components you would expect from a high end stick but with a price point every angler can afford. With 49 models to choose from they have a rod for your every need, you can check them out at www.powellco.com.

    I will also be working with the theFish Harder Companies to help promote their, Tru-Tungsten, Picasso, and Mihatchii product lines. I am very excited to get to work on some of these Kentucky Lake bass with the new Mihatchii hooks this year. With the innovative plastics keepers on the new flip hooks you will be able to yet more use out of your favorite baits and more time
fishing and less time rigging.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Also this for those of you who are big finesse fisherman, GAMMA , has introduced a new fluorocarbon to the market specifically designed for you in mind. The GAMMA TOUCH is a 100% SUPER fluorocarbon line, with ultra high tenacity, ultra feel and sensitivity, is combined with high strength properties and incredible softness all brought about by their molecularly altered propriety process.

     This year I will also be working on new bait development with Outkast Tackle . as we continue to offer a premium product to enhance your fishing experience. Last year saw us add 2 new products with the Texas rig jig and and the finesse jig.



*** If there is a product that you would like to see us make let me know by dropping me a line and tell me what you would like it to do and what you would use it for.

I hope everyone has a great 2010 on and off the water and looking forward to meeting all the HYPE fans across the country as I visit the different venues. Thanks for your time reading these posts and don't forget to send me your emails for the monthly drawings during Jan.- June. from my great sponsor network.

Tight Lines,
B

BWS National Championship

BB — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:30:00 GMT

WOW! Am I glad that tournament is done. That was THE most brutal bite I have fished through in 20 years of tournament fishing. We thought going to Old Hickory for our regional was going to be tough, Dardanelle made that look like a fish factory. Mary and I rolled into Russellville on Saturday night so we could be on the water right away on Sunday morning.

Day 1 - Practice - We got on the water 6:30 and put the boat in on Illinois Bayou and fish the lower end of the lake today. I started the day fishing a shallow crank along a stretch of rip rap while Mary was throwing a 1/4 oz spinnerbait. We fished roughly a half mile of this rip rap bank without a bite and I knew we had a tough bite on our hands. The water conditions didn't help anything either with the region getting 6'' of rain the week before we arrived and the lake was still coming up and the Corp. was pulling it hard to get it back down. From the rip rap bank we headed for some off shore structure as every where I looked there were 2-3 boats on every bank. We fished ledges for the next 6 hours and never had a bite! Deciding maybe we should go look shallow again I looked for some shallow grass to flip with an 1/2oz Outkast R/T jig while Mary was throwing a 1/4oz Outkast Pro swim jig and this brought the same results, not a bite. I had to check in for the tournament between 4-8pm at the place where we would take off from and wieghin at so we ran over there at 4 and checked in. On the way out I decided to fish the rip rap wall that protected the marina with the shallow crank again while Mary was chucking the spinnerbait and finally Mary caught a 14" Spot. I noticed that the shad were very tight to the rock and some cases right up inside of it and this was the first bait I had seen.

Day 2 - Practice - I decided to move up to the mid lake area today and put in the Piney Creek area. I really want to make a deep bite happen and headed for the mouth of large bay that had a really good creek channel that made some nice inside turns along with some nice points that I thought would hold some fish. We started on a main river ledge with a C-rig and a football head. The bottom felt right with either rock or muscles on it but not a single bite. We moved farther into the bay checking some of the points and inside corners along the creek channel but only could find soft bottom filled with leaves and dead black grassy moss. Very disappointed I can't get a deep bite to go I headed back to the bank with everyone else. I pulled out spook type topwater bait while Mary is still hucking the spinnerbait around, that is when she isn't napping! Finally I connect with a nice fish around 3lbs as it was chasing some of the what little bait we've seen. This would be the highlight of the day though we fished hard the rest of the day without another bite from anything! It's hard to know what to do with so few bites, are you in the right area wrong bait, wrong area, fishing to fast, to slow, wrong bait or color, I am very lost at this point and time and still every where you look there are 2-3 boats on every bank.

Day 3 - Practice - I decided we would put in up at the dam and fish some wing dams and rip rap retention walls. Well that all sounded good until we pulled up to the access and there was a pile of trees and debris waist deep and the water being dumped was unreal. There were white caps rolling down the shore a half mile down river so we headed back down river to the Spadra area. We ran some sweet looking green grass pitching the R/T jig, spinnerbaits and topwater and nothing. The biggest problem up here was the fact it is very flooded and today it is at it's crest and there is no bank to put the fish on. We ran to the back of one creek and worked our way out fishing solid banks and Mary caught another short on the spinnerbait. There was definitely more bait up here in the creek than out on the main river.

Day 1 - Tournament - Well tough practice or not it is time to get the game face on and catch some fish. I drew Mike Lawson from Dallas, TX today. I told him flat out I've got nothing and we are basically going prefishing again today. The only thing I did know was that I would stick around Illinois Bayou and maximize my fishing time, so we started right there at take of on the rip rap sea wall. After an hour with no action we worked our way up the bank fishing anything that got in our way without a bite. Next we ran over to the inlet to the steam plant which I haven't fished yet and fished around in there. There was some nice looking stuff to fish but still no action. We then ran farther up into the bay and fished some shallow grass on a flat that looked good in practice. I was pitching a 1/2oz white Outkast Tackle R/T jig and craw chunk and rolled a nice keeper. After no other action I decided to go into a rock quarry that I seen a couple of other boats fish and worked around it for a couple hours with only to very small fish to show for it. There where 3 other boats in there and only two keepers had caught. With only a half hour left we ran back to the check in area and cranked a rip rap bank with in 50yds of check in point. Mary walked down and watched us fish for a last couple of minutes and told her to go get the trailer so we could get the boat out right away. No more than I said that I boat a 15 1/4'' largie and I'm on the board!!! Today only 105 boaters out of 193 caught a fish to weigh and only 48 co anglers brought a fish to the scales.

(fishing by the check in dock, moments before boating my only keeper)

Day 2 - Tournament - Billy "BJ" Mithchel Jr. is my partner today as we are in the 3rd flight. We each managed one fish yesterday and are both thankful for it. Today I decided to start in the inlet to the power plant and began working a spinnerbait parallel to the grass. When I got to this one special little spot I made to perfect cast to without a bite but as BJ got to it he threw his crankbait in there and a 3.21lb spot ate it. This was not the way I wanted to start the day but was happy to see a fish in the boat already. Unfortunately that was our highlight. We ran back to the rock quarry and the shallow grass flat from yesterday without a bite. I even ran back to the inlet to see if another fish may have pulled up on the little sweet spot but nothing. I also checked a couple ledges again today but still nothing deep. So day two I get to go to the I have no fish to weigh line and get my partner for tomorrow, this line today is twice as long as I caught something to weigh in line!

Day 3 - Tournament - I drew Nathan today who hasn't caught a fish yet and with me blanking yesterday I'm not sure even what to do. I decided to start in the in let again and hope the little sweet spot would have another fish on it but no it didn't! We then ran back to the rock quarry as I wanted to try drop shotting in there some today. This turned out to be a good idea as i boated a 15 1/4" spot right away and short largie. We thought we were on to something but only managed a few more short fish. We then ran some more shallow grass without a bite. Being in the first flight and needed to check in at 3pm time was flying by and with only an hour left I made the decision to check a ledge one more time but work it the opposite direction than I had been. This was my best call all week as in the next 45 minutes I boated 4 more keepers to bring in a limit and Nathan was able to boat his one and only keeper. I started out fishing down it with a C-rigged Outkast 4'' pigg which produce the first to fish. I then switched to a crankbait to boat the other two keepers. I was beside myself with a limit in the box considering I told Mary when she launched us this morning to pack everything up and checkout so we could head out right after we got checked in. Maybe I should do that more often as I had one of only 3 limits brought to the scales today which so far has been the best day of fishing thus far. With 5 fish weighing 11.38lbs I made the final day cut in 24th place with a 3 day total of 13.70lbs!

(loading my limit from day 3)

(on stage with Lisa Talamage the tournament director, happy with day 3 results)

Day 4 - Tournament - This is the Championship day, the day you've worked all year to get to and it feels great to be here as part of the top 25. After getting everyone lined up in order and some special instructions for the weigh in process and the National Anthem we are off.

With extremely high expectations from what happened the day before I am ready to get after it. We are partnered up with the co anglers that fished in the same position as we had and today I am fishing with Jeff Wheeley. I ran to the channel my ledge was on and started on the opposite side fishing down the shoreline break which had to little rock points sticking out on it. That didn't give up a bite but it was worth a try as couple of guys had been catching a keeper there each morning. We then idled over to the ledge side and started working down that with C-rigs and once we hit the end I would turn around throw a crankbait working back up it. After 3 hours without a bite I had to bail for a while and headed back to the rock quarry thinking I could get a couple keepers on the drop shot. As we worked down the ridge between the flat and deep water I was able to boat a couple short fish but a least it was a bite. We notice some fish starting to bust some shad towards the back of the quarry and put the trolling motor on high and headed for them. As normal the shad along with the fish sank down from the surface. Jeff was able to get a 15" spot with a shakey head right on the bank while all I caught were small white bass yoyoing a small lipless bait. With the quarry not panning out I decided to give the little sweet spot a shot again in the power plant in let but nobody was home. The wind had picked up and we ran to a point the was on a creek channel bend thinking some bait may up. Well the bait may have been there but the bass weren't. With 3 hours left I decided I was going back to the ledge and came out for the day, it was going to be down or die. And unfortunately die it was. The only bite I had out there was a 14 3/4" largie and it was time to go. In the end this was the toughest bite of all four days with 1/3 of the boaters blanking to day and 3/4 of co anglers blanking today.

(day 4 on stage with Morris explaining the tough bite and being thankful of making the final day cut)

I end the National Championship in 25th place with a 4 day total of 6 fish for 13.70lbs and check for $1500 + another $1575 in contingency monies from Triton, Mercury and Motorguide. Not the finish I was hoping for when I left the house a week ago but I could be happier after the practice and tournament I had. Now it's time to start planning on getting back here and getting the schedule layed out for next year. Now that I am in KY our first Weekend Series is March 20, they'll still be shoveling snow in MN.

(Morris "MO" Sheehan and my hardware, check and a top 25 finish at the National Championship)

Packing, Moving, Unpacking and Fishing

BB — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:29:00 GMT

    Well the title says it all for my past two months. Starting the last week of August we loaded a 16' tandem trailer with a load to bring down and put in the garage of our new place here in KY. We made that trip in a 48 hour turn around. Then spent the next week and a half packing and running a week long garage sale. Then it was time to go down Minnetonka for the final Silverado tournament before the T.O.C which would be back there in the following week. I returned home to pack for a couple days again before we left for the final Weekend Series event in Wabasha on the river, which I fished after not qualifying for the Silverado T.O.C.. We returned home from Wabasha to begin loading the UHauls for our trip to our new home in Kuttawa, KY. We closed on our house in Breezy Point on Weds and closed on the house down here on Friday morning and began unpacking to have the UHauls back by Monday morning. We spent the next week unpacking and organizing the new place. That Sunday we left for TN and Old Hickory Lake for the BASS/ABA Midwest Weekend Series regional and now that that is done here I am finally taking a minute to catch up.

    Minnetonka Silverado didn't go as well as I hoped. The water was much warmer than I was hoping and the fish weren't set up shallow as they normally would be. I spent one day of practice shallow trying to make that pattern work for me but it was just not going to happen. The other day of I spent trying to catch fish deep on the rocks and that didn't go much better and in the end I had caught a fish pretty much any where I had fished but there was no pattern to any of it. Tournament day arrived and I decided to start on a confidence rock spot and after 45 mins without a bite I had enough and jumped up shallow on an inside weedline. Working a couple hundred yards of that mixed with a couple docks I only had two small squeakers to show for it. I then ran to some other docks that generally hold fish this time of year and they did but they also were just keepers. With the day slipping away I decided to put the trolling motor down and go fishing. In the end that was the best decision of the year, no it didn't get me a win or a check or even qualify me for the T.O.C. but it did take me from 6 fish for 7lbs to 6 fish for 14 with a couple 3's mixed in. Every fish I caught came flipping a craw tube on 20lb GAMMA Fluorocarbon line, with a 1/2oz tungsten weight. This was the end of a pretty dismal year on my first year fishing the Silverado with 3 finishes in the high twenties or worse, it's time to look forward to the river next weekend.

    September 19-20 brought the final BASS/ABA Weekend Series of the year to the river on pools 4&5. This is a week later than the MN federation nation state tournament last year which I had led day one and ended up 10th after a stupid mistake. Anyway I had an awesome practice last year and was looking forward to this tournament all year. Unfortuneatley the Mighty Miss had something else in store. We arrived to very low water and virtually now flow and weeds choking out normally clean waters. I gave myself 2 1/2 days of practice on day on each pool and a half day to resure what I had found was right. In the end I spent the first day Weds. the half day on pool 4 checking past memories and was able to catch some fish throwing topwater and some fish on swim jig. My second l spent down on pool five. I started by checking some wing dams with a C-rig to no avail then moved to the bank with a crankbait. I caught a nice smallie and good green one doing this on the main river. I then began running some backwater areas with a swim jig and top water toad. The bite was tough but I did notice quite a bit more current down there. Day 3 I spent back up on pool 4 checking what I had found on day one and running some new water. The fish were still there that I had found on Weds so I began checking some new stuff. For the most part it was very tough going until I found the mother load. I found this little sand spot that normally is choked out by the weeds but for some reason this year it was clean while everything else was choked out. I had caught two nice 2 1/2lb fish on a swim jig and show a couple off before I went up to look at the area. As I got closer I started seeing fish cruise by the boat and not small fish, these are legit 3-4lb class fish. I pulled off and watched the area for a couple hours and no one was even close to finding them. Needless to say I am stoked for tournament day and a little nervous, I never like having my eggs in one basket. As day 1 arrives I find myself blasting off as one of the last boats and am sick someone else will be on those fish. To make matters worse the lock is broke so the entire field is on pool 4 today. As I rounded the corner I noticed that there wasn't a single sole on those fish and my excitement level went thought the roof. I thought this might finally be one on those tournaments that you just blow everyones doors off. Well it didn't take long to figure out that that wasn't going to happen. After fishing for a couple hours around the the area I had two okay keepers to show for it. Not only did the fish scatter I to fight off one other angler that had happen to find this small sweet spot also. I decided to make the run to the fish I had found on Weds. and this paid off nicely with 3 quality keepers giving me 5 for 12lbs. Day 2 I was one of the first boats out and knew I would be on the sweet spot first but with those fish not going yesterday I decided to reverse my run and go to them in the afternoon and start where I left off yesterday. This worked out in the morning with 4 keepers including a nice 4.44lb smallie in the well but things slowed quickly after that. So I decide to go back and tr the sweet spot but as I got closer I could see a boat on it and it turned out to be the same guy I kepted off it the day before. I knew he wasn't going to let me in there today so I just scratched around the outside and was able to boat my fifth fish and weighed another 12lbs.  With a two day total of 10 fish for 24.56 I ended up in 18th place and made the top 40 that qualify for the Midwest regional down on Old Hickory Lake in TN, Oct. 5-10.

    Well after getting moved and most of the house unpacked and organized it was time for the Weekend Series Midwest regional at Old Hickory in TN. My boys Connor Summers and Josh Douglas made the trip down Saturday night to see the new place. We all left the house and headed for O.H. which is now only a 11/2 hrs away rather than 14. We had all done a bunch of research as what to expect and it all came back the same, very tough fishery and hard to duplicate day to day weights. Day 1 of practice found me up river East of the 109 bridge looking at shallow pockets along the main river. I was throwing an Outkast swim jig and a Strike King 1 XS crankbait in dirt shallow water, I mean six inches to a foot! I managed to get 5 keeper bites and boat 3 of them. That night we sat down and discussed what we had all found and for the most part all had the same thing going other than a couple deeper flipping bites. Day 2 I spent about the bridge again but got away from the super shallow bite and worked water that was 2-3 feet deep and had little better day boating 5 keepers -15"ers and had a few more short fish to boot. I was still throwing the same crankbait and swim jig and added a little deeper diving crank to the mix a Lucky Craft RC 2.5. I would throw the swim jig on 16lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon and 12lb on the crankbaits. Day 3 I decided I had better at least look at what I consider to be the lake portion of O.H. which would be everything West of the 109 bridge. Running a bunch of ledges with a Fat Free Shad and C-rig I ruled out this bite as I only boated 3 shorts fish. I ran into Connor and he had caught 4 quality keepers by noon fish that dirt deep water and shallow grass. So off I went looking for some of the same stuff and was only able to boat a couple small keepers and a few short fish. Day 4 I was going to get as far away from everyone so I thought as I could and run to the farthest good looking creek on the map. I did manage to get away from most of the crowd but did run into a few boats but not enough fish to make the run on tournament days. This also turned out to be the most frustrating days on the water ever physically mechanical wise, I couldn't keep a bait out of the trees and brush to save my ***! With talking with the guys as to what they had found it was clear there was a pattern building and that is what I worked on the final day of practice. Day 5 I went back up river to the first major creek arm and began running flats that had a creek channel swing into them and it was like clock work. Not all the fish were keepers in fact only two but I caught a whole lot more fish today. Again throwing a Strike King 1 XS crank in ultra shallow water mixing in a chatterbait .

    Day 1 of the tournament brings excitement of what could be, I didn't come planning on winning but to make the top 50 so all I felt I would need is 3 keepers a day and I would be golden. So off I went boat 24 with co-angler Greg Freeman heading up river for a 30 min run. As I rounded the corner I noticed only a couple boats in the area but fishing much deeper than I was. We put the trolling motor down and didn't pick it up for 6 hrs fishing everything in sight that was in less than a 2' of water. Switching back and forth from a chatterbait, baby 1 minus and the 1 XS crankbaits I was able to boat 4 keepers for 6.43lbs good for 42nd and possible a 5th but decided to throw him at the bump tank as I didn't want to take the chance at loosing a pound over a short fish. Overall it was a productive day with 20-30 short fish boated and 3 other keepers that came undone before the boat. At weigh in I find out that Connor had blown his lower unit and needed a ride back to his boat to retrieve his truck keys. So he jumps in and we head for his boat only to have my lower unit gear blow out in the exact same spot in the river!!! After rounded up some friends to help tow me back and run him to his boat we need to get stuff fixed and fast. Off to C and O Marine we are headed as they have the only to lower units for a Mercury Pro XS motors in the states. These guys are awesome and have truly talented guys working there. It is 5 pm on a friday and they would rather be going home instead they are working their butts off to get us back on the water and that they did. We were both out of there by 8:30 and with plenty of time to get tackle taken care of and something to eat.

    Day 2 I am just excited to be back on the water and able to go fishing. I am boat 146 today but get and extra hour to fish that turns out to be very beneficial. My co-angler and ran back to the same creek arm I was in yesterday and began the same trolling motor down and fish everything in sight attitude. Today was much slower fishing than yesterday the only good thing there are a lot less boat up here. I am still surprised to see there is only one other boat fishing this same super shallow water pattern. My co catches a keeper right away to start the day off and I boated my first keeper within 10 yds of that on our second pass down the bank. As we worked into one of the pockets there was another boat in there fishing another tournament today so we jumped around him and I immediately boat my second keeper. I am now stoked that I am one fish away from my goal for the day of 3 which I figured would get me to the National Championship. We jumped across the creek to another shallow bank that had a lot of short fish on it yesterday and began working down that. As we reached one of the small coves I notice a bunch of shad being chased and fired my crankbait into the middle of them and came back with a nice 16" keeper and my goal of the day met. Now it's time to catch a bonus fish and with time running down I decided to run back down river to a secondary point in a major creek arm. With about 30 minutes of fishing time left we noticed bass busting shad all over on top of the point and with a long a cast with the crankbait I was able to boat a fourth keeper and knew I had made it into the National Championship. I had the chance to bring 5 to the scale again today but had 3 more fish pull off on the point there at the end of the day. Todays 4 fish weighed 7.14lbs giving me a two day total of 13.77 good for 30th place out of 169 boaters well with in the top 50 and a trip to Lake Dardanelle in Russelville,AR at shot for $205,000 and a spot in the Bassmasters Classic.

    Tackle that I used this week was a 6'-10" med. hvy. action rod with 16lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line for throwing the Outkast swim jig and the chatterbaits. A 6'-6" med. action rod with 12lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon line when throwing the baby 1 minus and 1 XS crankbaits.