BFL Regional Barkley / Kentucky lakes

[Team houston]

Headed down with my practice partner Fri the 5th after work. Arrived at 4 in the a.m. Got on the water about 11 for the start of 5 days of practice days. We started fishing underwater points and ledges without much success. only a couple keepers on the day on a bladebait. Sunday was about the same. Slow with a couple of keepers.

Mon we drove all the way down to New Johnsonville and launched there to "fish the grass". Well there is miles and miles of the stuff. Very thick with very defined edges. Tried frogs on top, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits on the edges and soft plastic were we could. nothing to show for our efforts but a couple of shorts.

My boater partner had seen enogh of here so we would not return.

Tues was a lot better we found a couple creeks near Paris that we caught fish in on swimbaits.

Wed was equally as good we got the A-rig going and I actually caught a limit with it, with help from a crankbait. Wed the short day was spent on Barkley and we did pretty good catching 5 keeps between us fishing only half a day. Spinnerbaits on windy banks worked that day.

Day 1 tommorrow

[Team houston]

Day 1  I am paired with Mike Brown from Eastern Ky. Mike knows the lake well and has fished it for years. A good sign. Its 37 degrees and I am in a bullet bass boat. The fastest boat I have ever been in and the coldest tourny morning I have ever fished in. With no pass console. Mike says he hates the cold so will take it easy.

We are boat 93 of 136. We run about 60mph for about 5 min then he puts the hammer down and we start passing boats left and right. We get to our first stop on Barkley and I ask Mike why he sped up? He says he did not feel cold so he went for it. We were going over 80mph he tells me.

Anyway we start with  jigs on a channel swing. My second cast produces a bite and I set the hook and land a 14 incher. All species have to be 15 inches in this tourny except smallmouth on Barkley in Tennessee waters. Which have to be 18 inch.

After some swings and misses we troll along to the neighboring flat. Mike has been catching them in practice on Redeye shads. We start covering the wood covered flat with the Redeyes. After a few shorts here and there Mike catches a keeper.

A little after that I throw between 2 logs that are about 30ft apart and catch a short. I make the same cast again and hook up. It feels heavy  but when it breaks the surface looks like a short to me. Mike is ready with the net but thinking it is a short I boat flip it and to my suprise it turns into a 2.5lber.

We continue fishing and things are slow. Mike catches two more keeps. I lose two that I believe were keepers. No chance really. You hook up and in the first couple seconds the fish puts its head out of the water and shakes and is gone.

We start fishing main lake bluffs and the tapering rock on each side. I catch one more keeper. I did try a spinnerbait and some topwaters thru the day but evert time Mike would catch another fish on the Redeye so I would go back.

All 5 of our keepers are caught on the Redeye. Weighing in 2 fish for 4lb 9 oz I feel OK. Compared to years past I kept myself in the hunt. I am in 38th. I figure three fish day 2 I will cash a check and 4fish or a limit I can make the cut.

[Team houston]

Day two starts with heavy overcast skies a light mist and warmer temps in the upper 40s. I am paired with Lon Ayrnsworth(spelling) from St. Louis. He zeroed the first day and his co had one. Which he lost because they were 15 min late. Not a good sign.

The reason they were late was they idled way up a small river on Barkley and misjudged the time. he says he lost two big ones up there at a log jam and thats where we are starting. We get there and make the long idle in. There is another boat up the river but not on the log jam so we go there and start.

There is wood everywhere, single pieces and huge piles of multiple logs. After a few minutes of flipping Lon hooks up with a short. He also swings and misses a couple times. I am pitching a beaver with no bites yet. With the heavy overcast day and shallow logs the day is screaming to me TOPWATER. I feel my best bet to cover water is a buzzbait.

My third cast gets about 15 feet from the boat and I am looking where my next cast is going to be when all hell breaks loose with a huge explosion of water. After a couple of quick short runs Lon nets a nice 3lber for me.

I am pumped thinking I can get a few more bites on top. Lon catches a few more shorts and the other tourney boat plus a new one have both gone past us upriver. With no more keeper bites and two boats ahead of us up the small river we opt to go back to the main lake. We start running the bays and banks where Lon did well in practice but only produced shorts yesterday.

Same results today so Lon tells me since he is out of it We will do anything I want. He was a real class act in that regard and I tell him I appreciate it very much. The bank we are on makes a right turn back into a little cove where I see a lot of shad popping. So I suggest we go back there and fish for a few minutes maybe a bass will bust one of them and show himself.

So we do and one does. We throw our baits at the spot and about the fourth cast I hook up. Its only a throwback but it tells us there is bass there working the shad. We start moving slowly blind casting and looking for blow ups.

I hook up again and flip the fish into the boat. I put it on the board and it just touches 15inch. One more and I might salvage a check. We fish around and catch 4 or 5 more after blow ups and blind casting but they are all short. The shad have stopped popping and things go quiet so we move on.

With about an hr left we are fishing along a bank without a lot of confidence and Lon catches a short. So that at least builds my confidence that there is bass in the area. Then it happens I hook up with a solid fish on the spinnerbait. After boat flipping fish all week I instantly have it in my head to get it moving toward the boat and boat flip it.

Lon is on his way with the net and I say forget it I will boat flip it. He is next to the driver console and the fish is coming in that side. I start the flip, the fish clears the water and Snap, the line breaks. Lon dives for it lying across the drivers seat and the back deck. The fish lands on the rim of the net at the water surface with its head on the outside of the net. One little wiggle and it is out of the net and slowly goes down.

I feel sick figuring I just cost myself a check. I learned a few lessons that I wont go into. But one is not to be bull headed. That fish could have easily been netted. Anyway we close out the day with no more bites. I have an identical 4.9 as the first day.

My 9.2 ends me in 42nd place. The one thing that makes me feel better is the last co check was 13.2 so it did not cost me as much as I thought.  Anyway I would like to thank Rufus for renting us an amazing place on 18 acres with a 5 acre stocked pond. Mark for letting me ride down with him and practice all week. Dave for the pot of chili he brought and Jason for his wives cookies. Rufus should be along shortly with his journal describing his weeks efforts. hope you enjoyed

[Team houston]

bueler

[FOB]

Thanks for another great report Huston.  Both my co-anglers there were great guys, and I am glad to say my second day co made it to the All American.

[Team houston]

Thanks Ralph, how about a journal from you? Love to hear it.

[djkimmel]

Was one of your lessons when the bites are slow, wait for the net?

Actually, the year I made the All-American, I flipped a 4-8 or 4-9 into the boat on a spinnerbait and that time it worked. My partner had the net just over the edge of the boat and got it under the bass as I flipped but I told him that the momentum and my need to get that KEY bass in the boat overruled and higher brain thinking at that moment.

He said something to the effect that he had the net as fast as possible and it was there, and he was right. I thanked him for the fantastic effort and made sure he knew it was my crazy need to blame for the entire happening from hook-up to in the boat. I would not have blamed him for anything if I had ended with a different result. He might not have believed me.

People like reading these kinds of stories no matter how they turn out because we've all been there to one degree or another, or hope to be there in the future!

[Team houston]

Yes, that was one of the lessons. Another would be to use heavier line when throwing spinnerbaits on Ky lake. Another would have been to switch rods after I knew I had some bad florocarbon kinks in my line after a few backlashes during the day. Just goes to show you after so many yrs doing this you get complacent. When you are shooting for the All American you have to be basically paranoid about your equipment. By the way on that particular rod, I changed the line the day before the tourny started.