BFL Regional Kentucky Lake

[Team houston]

Due to being short handed I cant get Fri off at work and I have to leave straight from work after I punch out on Fri. I get to Randys about 4 load up and we get on the road. We drive halfway and stop for the night. We finish the drive early the next morning and check in to our motel for the week and get on the water by 8. Randy has a lot of stuff he wants to check. He is committed to a shallow topwater bite because that is how most guys do well down here at the regional. We fish all day without much success. Only three short fish on a bluff wall on Ned rigs when we change it up for a while. The next day is also very slow. Randy does catch our first keeper on a topwater and it goes 3lbs. Monday is more of the same, not much action and only a couple shorts. Finally on Tue we find something worthwhile. While fishing a shallow bar with a trap Randy catches a short. Same cast again produces a 5lber. I cast in with a shakey head and catch a short. Obviously we have found a school and leave. We move a short distance away and Randy catches a 4lber. We move away a short distance again and I catch a 3.5lber. Randy is stokes and we leave the whole area completely. The rest of the day in uneventful. Wed the wind is blowing a steady 25mph. We fight our way South of the ramp a few miles to another area Randy wants to check. Boat control is nearly impossible and the area is trashed with mud. After only a few min we leave. Talking with friends Randy had heard fishing fast tapering gravel  banks with moving baits, was a possible viable pattern. We had not really tried it during the week so with the wind the way it was now was as good a time as any. The first one we pull up on Randy catches a short and a 3lb SM. We catch a couple more shorts and realize it is a good way to generate bites with 4 fish in an hr. We head in early to prep tackle and get ready for the meeting.

[dartag]

I know how the movie ends.  Going to be fun to see how you get there.   Thanks for the report.

[Team houston]

Tournament a.m. I am paired with Larry Frasier. He lives near lake Barkley on the East side and knows it well. With a 35 degree morning and a fifty plus mile run ahead of us and a single console its gonna be long and cold run. We get about 20 miles down the lake and his engine alarm goes off. Its spitting water fine and he says he filled it up with oil. He confesses he is a mechanical dummy and I admit I am one too. He keeps putting it on pad the backing off reversing, then turning it off and back on. I make a couple minor suggestions but he wont even take off the cover. After about 20 min of this we are close to the next bridge down the lake. He says he practiced some here and caught a few shorts. He says Barkley is out now and we will just go fishing. After a very tough practice where me and Randy caught 6 keepers in five days of fishing between us, I am pretty relaxed and take it in stride. I already expected two long grinding days catching maybe a keeper one of the days if I was lucky. I also told myself that if I got near the right looking bank I would throw a swim jig that's what they hit in practice. So we fish a marina the pocket behind it and catch a couple shorts. We fish our way back to the ramp going a couple miles at a time fishing creeks or pockets. We have a 3 30 check in and it is 3 o clock and we are in our last pocket of the day most likely. We are still about 5 miles from check in. We are on the main lake point coming out of the pocket and the bank looks right. I am throwing the swim jig and my rod loads up. I call for the net and Larry scoops up a 16 inch SM. LM and SM have to be 15 inches. Spots 12. I look at my watch and its 10 after. I cant believe I saved my day in the last 20 min. Boom my rod loads up again. I boat flip this one and it measures at 15 and a quarter inches. I look at my watch and it is quarter after. twenty after and we head for the house. We make it with 2 min too spare. Holy shoot! did that just happen. I weigh my two and they put me in 21st place after day 1.

[Team houston]

His alarm never came on again. although we only ran a few minutes at a time going back.

[Team houston]

Day two I am paired with Anthony Getchel from the U.P.  Anthony is mostly fishing brush piles. He shook off a lot of fish the last day of practice but they vanished tourny day. His co caught a 4.5lber and he broke one off about the same size. He has nothing else so we are heading back to the Blood river to fish them again. We arrive through the fog to his starting spot which is a state planted brush pile marked with a buoy. I right away notice it is close to a right kind of looking rock bank. He starts fishing the brush and I am trying to reach the bank with my swimjig. He is slowly easing closer and closer to the main piece of brush and its not until my fourth cast I can reach the bank. Thats the cast I get bit. He nets my fish and it measures. It is very relaxing to have a keeper just a few min into the day. I comment that is  for sure at least a check for me. For those that dont know everybody fishes two days. There is 160 boats in this tourny They pay 24 places but the top 12 fish the last day and the top 6 of those qualify for the All American. I figure one fish keeps me in check range and two will get me in the cut. We continue fish along certain stretches of bank that he has been bit on in practice. When he comes across a state
brush pile or natural brush or log he power poles down and fishes it. I keep the swimjig in my hand and keep firing away. About ten we hit a productive stretch that produces four fish and one is a nice keeper that bites my jig. I cant believe that after such horrible bite in practice that I now have enough that should get me in the cut. We fish out the rest of the day and probably catch a dozen fish between us with just the two keepers. My two fish land me in 6th place in the cut. I feel that if I can catch one more tommorrow I can hold my position. Two or three, who knows I may have a shot at the win.

[Team houston]

The final day I am paired with Mi angler Troy Stokes. By the way Mi anglers represented very well in this tourny after getting our buts kicked for years on Ky lake. I am looking for one keeper today to hold my position in 6th. I have been here before and am very relaxed. Troys first stop
is again about fifty miles away near the dam. He caught a limit here in 15 min on day one and left to save them. Neither him or his co angler caught any here yesterday. He plans on giving it a shot again today for a while and then head to Barkley. We pull up to a "right" kind of looking bank again near a tree in the water. Troy starts working over the tree. Meanwhile I am saturating the bank with multiple casts. This time it takes about 8 to 10 casts and I get hammered. I guide the fish to the net and see its a good one. I put it on the board and it goes over 16 inches. I cant believe I have got another early keeper bite. This alone should hold me in the top 6. I have the rest of the day to maybe get more. We fish on down the bank and about 30 min later Troy catches an easy keeper. We fish off the bank some then back down the bank again after a while with no more bites we head to Barkley. First stop there is the end of a bluff wall that leads to a pocket. The channel swings in here. Troy is hitting the bluff end hard. meanwhile I have found a long piece of wood on the bottom with my shakey head. I keep bouncing it over the wood hoping for a bite but none comes. Troy catches a couple shorts and decide to fish up the small bluff wall the other way. It doesnt look like the right kind of bank I have been getting bit on but I am slinging the jig anyway. We are only about 25 feet from the bank and I am making quick underhand casts to the  bluff rocks. Letting the jig sink a second then retrieve it erratically. On one of my casts the rod almost gets jerked out of my hands. This fish breaks the surface and I see it is a very good one. I plead for the net and Troy arrives with it in time to get it in. I am unhooking a SM close to 4lbs. Holy crap if I can catch one more I might have a shot at the top prize, A Ranger boat. With no more action here we move way up a creek across very shallow flats that we have to use the trolling motor to get over. There are two bridges Troy wants to fish. He does catch one 14 and a half inches. We leave the bridges and start fishing some docks. Troy starts catching shorts on a weightless t-rigged centipede under the docks. He finally catches the keeper he needs the solidify his position in the top 6. He also misses a 3 plus lber that runs out grabs his centipede and runs back under the dock. He sets the hook and comes back with his hook and half the bait. We then run to get gas and start the 1.5 hr run back. Making good time Troy decided to make a quick stop in the Blood river. We find a pocket that is loaded with popping shad with an occasional
bass blow up. Troy breaks out a spook and I am throwing the jig. I get one on and it doesnt feel big but starts bulldogging under the boat and gets my hopes up. I boat flip a SM and on the board it goes 14 inches. So close! Troy gets a blow up and lands a short SM also. Its time to leave and we race back wishing we had more time there. We make it back with 2 min to spare. I thought I had about 5 and a half lbs but my two go 6.13  Everybody weighing behind me also has two fish and keep bumping me down. I am shocked but happy that I stay in 6th. I thought for sure I would move up but the co anglers caught them good today. For Kentucky lake anyway. Troys two do move him up to 5th. So in April Troy and I will be making the trip to Lake Hartwell in South Carolina. Congrats to the other Michigan div anglers that also made it. Sam Caron, Mark Flick and Kerry Frey.

[dartag]

Great report.  Thanks for sharing.  Good luck in SC. 

[Hollada]

As usual, awesome report!

[Jay-MadWags]

Great read. Thank you for sharing.

[detroit1]

Way to go Phil, we're proud of you.

[cameraguy]

Fantastic report. Very interesting! Congrats!

[Mojo]

If anyone has fished KY in the last few years, they know just how incredible a feat you completed! My God! Congrats brother !! You did it !! hats off my man.

[Team houston]

Thanks guys, I was very fortunate.