Is anybody interested in reading a journal on the event?
Heck yea I read everything.
Are you kidding I've been waiting
Bring it on
OK, here goes for my two loyal readers. I left work at lunchtime Fri and Drove to my travel partners house( Randy Ramsey). We drove down to Paris Tn and arrived about 11 pm. We woke up Sat morning to very windy conditions. 20-30 mph sustained winds. The main lake was unfishable. We resorted to the mouths of creeks mostly. We ended the day with 7 fish total with 2 being keepers mostly caught on blade baits.
Sun was still breezy but much more fishable. We were able to fish a lot of areas Randy wanted to check. We caught 13 bass 5 of which were keepers. One was a 4 and a half pounder I caught on a shallow shell bed using a chatterbait. We also caught fish on blade baits again, and one on a jig. The first two days we fished South of the Paris Bridge.
Mon we fished midlake between the two bridges that cross the lake and are about 20 miles apart. We caught 12 bass, 7 of them were keepers. The best fish of the day was a 3lb smallmouth I caught on a spinnerbait. most fish this day were caught on spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. After we pulled out today we headed up lake to our cabin at Moors resort. The rest of practice would be up here and the tourney was going out of Moors also. We would be sharing the cabin with Heath Wagner and his father in law.
BLADE BAITS! ;D
Great start. You have the Crowd Riveted waiting for the next installment. :)
Tue was are last full practice day as tomorrow was the meeting so it would be a shorter day. We checked a bunch more areas Randy had on his list and had a pretty good day. We caught 11 bass with 9 keepers.
Again the spinnerbait,chatterbait and blade bait were working. I also broke out the 10 inch worm and Randy the shakey head. At one point we were in a cove that Randy had caught a 4lber in both times he had been here. So he says what are the odds of catching another one. Sure enough a few minutes later he sets up and boats a 4lber. Then I catch a 3lber and he catches another one about 3 and a half. He ends the day with about 16lbs with his best five.
On a side note he started the tourney on this spot and didn't get a bite. The final practice day was windy again. We caught 7 fish with 3 keepers. We caught our fish on shallow rocky points today.
So after five days on the water covering roughly 70 miles I was ready for anything on Ky lake. From shallow flats up to 2 feet deep to 20 feet deep. We stop at the tackle store and get a few extra chatterbaits, blades, big worms and other misc stuff. We then go to the Catfish Kitchen for dinner then on to the meeting.
I am in boat 46 of 180 with Neal Ramsey from Ohio. He tells me we will be cranking road beds on Barkley lake all day. AAAaaargh!!! I was not expecting this. I have to get my head right and grind it out. I need to catch at least one keeper to stay in the hunt.
Blade bait when he is cranking... ;D
thanks for the story Phil . I always look forward to them...
Don L
There are literally MILLIONS of snags in these lakes. I stopped throwing my blades after two practice days to save them. I also bought what I could find at the tackle store. You could lose literally a dozen blades in 15 min. You are right I should have thrown them a bit. I didnt because we were not in the right kind of areas. Dont get me wrong I was prepared to lose all of them in the tourny if the spots were right.
Hey Guys, I have not been on the site for a few years. I just wanted to post a huge thank you to 2 great anglers and friends and fellow Michigan Division anglers. I Friday I went in an hour early to leave my fish for the 3rd day in hopes of winning the ky regional.
I was in 5th going into day 3 with high hopes of going back to the All American. After take off I ran over 80 miles to my areas. I decided to get gas at 9am to make it back knowing the bite would not start till 10-11am. After gas I pulled onto a flat by the marina and could not start my motor. Starter failed. I had just put a new battery and starter in on Wednesday at the Phoenix boat dealer in Paris.
Make long story short. I was not able to fish any of my areas and all I could do was put the trolling motor on high, go down the bank and hope to pick up some cruisers. I picked up 2 small ones and my co got 2 good ones.
I called Tim Sprouse And Joe Nega at 10 am and these guys located a starter in Nashville, loaded up Tims boat, and drove 4 hrs dropped Tims boat in and brought me a starter by 1:15pm. I had 1:30 ride back to 3pm check in with the wind blowing and conditions like Erie which we are all use to!
I made it back but didn't get the chance hit any of my areas, which was devestating. My co finished 4th and made the All American because of 2 of the greatest guys I have ever met! So if any of you know these guys or fish with them, I wanted to drop a line to tell everyone what great guys they are! Thanks Tim and Joe you guys are the definition of good peps!
Great job guys. Man thats a tough break, I feel for you man.
Thanks man. Wanted to clearify it was supposed to be a 4 hr ride for those guys. Day 1 was north winds which were not favavorable for my fish so I only got 4 bites but Friday and Saturday winds were from the south and is what I needed. I left them bitting on Friday. Just so tough to watch it slip away with no way to start the motor. I just wanted everyone to know what great friends Tim Sprouse and Joe Nega are. Thanks guys, good luck to all of you next year!
The morning of the tournament dawns with heavy cloud cover and misty rain. We make the run over to Barkley and 15 min later we pull up to his first spot. Its a small bluff point. Neal tells me the road comes from across the cove to this point and then turns.
I start by throwing a big worm up to the bluff wall. The conditions look so perfect for topwater that I cant help but to make a couple casts with a buzzbait. I finally decide I better get to cranking like Neal. I make about 5 casts with a DT 14 in the bluegill color and hook up with a fish. The fish breaks the surface shakes its head and is gone. I didn't get a good look but Neal tells me it was a keeper. &%&$#@.
We start rounding the point into the pocket and Neal picks up a buzzbait and makes some casts to some lay downs on the shore and a dock right after them. If he is not going to throw something slow at them I will. I pick up the worm and make some casts at the wood. Sure enough my bait gets mushy and I see it moving off. I slam the hook home and work the fish to the net. darn, 14 inches, all bass must be 15 inches in this tournament.
We start working across the cove following the roadbed. Frankly I am surprised Neal basically ignored the wood and these trees were big enough to hold half a dozen bass each. We fish across and back to the original point with no more bites and I am dying to make a few more casts to the wood, but we move on to another spot.
This one is another rocky point and Neal catches a catfish and then a nice bass off it. I also hook up but its another 14 incher. On to the next spot where Neal catches a nice smallmouth. We fish a few more spots with no action. At about 11 o clock we end up at a bridge that goes across a creek. Typical of these bridges the banks are covered in rip rap.
I start pitching a beaver up to the riprap and hopping it down the slope. On one of my pitches something doesn't feel right so I set the hook and get a solid hookup.I guide a nice keeper into the net. Neal pulls out a dropshot as we go under the bridge and start on the other side. He reels one cast in and a bass chases it to the surface.
On my next pitch I get a solid thump and set the hook on another short. There are clearly fish along these banks so things are looking up. Continuing along Neal catches a nice keeper on the d shot. Then its my turn again with a nice tap and I set the hook hard. We were very close to the bank so I boat flipped this one. Another keeper, that's comes off into the bottom of the boat.
Neal questions my hooks, so after I put the fish in the livewell I look at my bait. The hook is thru the beaver and the point is buried into the flapper. I show it to Neal and he says if you waited for the net on that one you would have lost it for sure. Win some lose some. We are running out of time because Neal wants to spend a little time on one last spot on the way in. We have time for one more pass on this active stretch.
I comment that one of us will get one more bite for sure. Whether its a keeper or not is another thing. There is one tree laying along the bank that we fished once. On the way by it again as I am reeling my beaver out from it for another pitch my rod loads up and another 14 incher gets swung aboard. We now have about 5 min left before we head to the last spot.
I get another awesome thump. The kind you dream of. I reel down and set the hook and my line breaks right off. Was it a keeper??? We run to the last stop and get no bites. We run back to weigh in. My two fish go 5.8 and put me in 38th out of 180. It could have been a lot better day but I kept myself in contention so mission accomplished.
Fun read...
Day 2
Today I am paired with Kyle Schauf from Wisconsin. Kyle had 4 yesterday and his co caught a limit and culled once. So I am a little excited to be around some fish. The day dawns with heavy clouds again and it does rain a little during the day. We pull up to the first spot which is a mid lake shoal. We are sitting in 5 feet and casting into 2 feet. We are only there a few minutes and the water around us starts to swirl, then boil then full on erupt with a feeding frenzy. Unfortunety its white bass.
The good news is that means the bait is still here. So hopefully some bass are still around. Kyle is throwing a spinnerbait and I am sticking with a chatterbait. I decided I would give the chatterbait a workout because we caught so many keepers on it in practice.
It doesn't take long and I hook up. Its a bass and I get it into the net. Of course its the 14 inch curse again. Not more than 5 min later my rod bows up again and a nice smallmouth comes flying out of the water. I get that one to the net and the 16 and a half incher goes in the livewell.
Shortly after that I get another strike and land a nice keeper largemouth. Kyle catches one that just barely measures 15 inch. We have only been fishing 45 min and I have caught 3 bass and two are keepers. I am thinking this could be a good day.
I wouldn't have believed it but I fish the rest of the day without another bass bite. We bounced around to a bunch of similar shoals throughout the day. Kyle catches a keeper at 12:05. And another at 1:05. He loses a nice keeper on a rattletrap and catches a couple more shorts and a sauger. We could just not find another pod of fish.
We end the day back on our starting spot, then head in. My two go 5.4 for a total of 10.12 which puts me in 34th of 180. After only catching 3 keepers Randy makes an adjustment and catches about 20 keepers the second day. He weighs in nearly 15lbs and jumps up to 18th and cashes a check.
Both of us thought this was Heath's year. He has come close before and had a great practice this time. But it doesn't go his way and he finishes 50-something. Already looking forward to next year at the Barren River.
My little experience with Kentucky Lake so far is that it is an odd place to fish a lot of the time. Good luck at Barren River. Always thought the word 'Barren' is not that inviting, but I guess it has some fish in it.