Old Hickory FLW

Bill finished in 11th place, and is covered in the main story.

John made the cut in 4th, and is covered in the main story.

There's not much to tell. This lake has my number is the only thing I can figure. I know how the majority of guys were catching them, and I fished that way and couldn't hardly get bit. Most everybody was catching them on little crankbaits, running to little rocky banks and stuff. I did it all day long.

I got five bites all day, and two of them kept. I actually didn't catch any on a little crankbait. I caught one on a spinnerbait: I picked up a spinnerbait and threw it by a dock when I got to the back of a pocket, and caught a keeper. Then I did that for 45 minutes and didn't get any bites. I went back to cranking until I hit a bluff bank, then picked up a jerkbait, threw it for 15 minutes and caught another keeper. It was a mind-boggling day.

I'm worn out from all the traveling and everything. I'm going home to get two good nights' sleep, and then head to Eufaula. I usually catch them there. I feel pretty good about it. I was kind of hoping it would stay cold so the fish wouldn't move up, but from what I understand, they caught them spawning at that EverStart. So it should be a slugfest.

Well, today wasn't what I had in mind when I went to bed in 9th place last night. I couldn't help but have visions of a Top 10 finish dancing through my head. I really should have known better.

We ran to several different spots today trying to make something happen. Billy was committed to the long stick/short string bite today, alternating between a tube and a jig. There sure seems to be no shortage of good-looking banks here at Old Hickory, but unfortunately there appears to be a critical shortage of keeper-sized bass. Then again, any lake with a 14-inch limit is going to be tough on the co-anglers. I got four shorts today, three on an All Terrain Tackle tube and one on a Flat Shad crankbait. All of them easily beat 12 inches, but none would stretch enough to keep today.

Billy had a nice 5-6 pound largemouth on a tube that got off as soon as he got it to the surface, and that was the only keeper fish that we saw all day. He was having a hard time getting a hook into his tube fish. He must have missed at least 8 bites on it today. I wasn't having quite the problems he was – my hooksets seemed to be hitting the mark today. I think the difference may have been that I was using a small-profile, unpegged tungsten weight vs. his traditional pegged lead weight, as well as a somewhat smaller tube. But the net result was the same between us: a
big, fat zero.

I finished in 40th place for the tourney and got a reasonable check and a good chunk of points. Today didn't live up to last night's expectations, but I guess I'll take what I can get. Besides, I'm still saving my best finish. I've been telling my wife since last year that I'm going to win the Beaver Lake event, which is the next event coming up at the end of March. Remember, you heard it here first.

I had a good day today. I had five keepers that weighed 12-09, and I'm in 17th place. At least I'm within striking distance. I caught five keepers and one short fish, and lost one and missed one.

It looks like the water level stayed about the same, and the water temperature stayed about the same. We had bright blue skies today. I really didn't have any company around me, which was a good thing.

Tomorrow I'll try to go back in there and duplicate what I did today. I went down (a stretch of bank) and came back up it once, and I had a limit by then and left, and then ran around looking for some other stuff, but I didn't put anything else together.

I plan on going back there tomorrow and living or dying by it. Hopefully I'll catch enough to qualify (for the Top 10), or at least make a good showing.

I ended up catching a limit today for about 13-02. I did what I said I'd do. I went to one little stretch and threw a shallow crankbait all day, and caught 6-7 keepers. I had a pretty good day out of not much.

I'll do the same thing tomorrow. I'll hit that one stretch and hopefully no one will move in on me. I'll beat it for all it's worth, and I'll see if I have enough to make the cut or at least get a good check.

Evidently I didn't have anything figured out. This lake did the same thing to me as it always does. I think it's tough and they catch the snot out of them. I don't know how this lake can keep throwing me, but I never do any good on it.

I caught two pretty good fish on a jerkbait yesterday on some bluff walls in kind of dirty water that I didn't think anybody else would be jerking, and they weren't. I stayed with that pattern all day and caught 6 fish, but only two of them kept. So I have to change up tomorrow. I'm going cranking. I'm going to crank until I can't stand it, and see what happens.

Beautiful day on the water. Of course it always seems beautiful when you catch fish like we did today. It was bitter cold at takeoff, but the wind laid down to a comfortable breeze and the sun was shining brightly all day. The water warmed up a few degrees during the day, which seemed to get the fish up and more active in the shallows.

I caught three nice keepers today for 6-11. Chip managed a limit for 9-13, two of which he caught in the last 15 minutes. We were catching fish all day long, but we probably caught 25-30 short fish. Very frustrating, but it beats the heck out of not catching fish.

We fished one 200-300 yard stretch of bank for the majority of the day. The area was loaded with fish, and we were fortunate to figure out how to make them bite early in the day. I caught every single fish today on a Rapala Shad Rap.

I'm sitting in 9th place right now, and I couldn't be happier about it. I was due for a good performance and I turned it in today. I want pretty badly to make the Top 10 cut, but I've got my work cut out for me. I drew Billy Bowen Jr. for tomorrow. Billy only got three fish today, and his co-angler blanked. He's also fishing completely differently from how I caught my fish today. Not very encouraging. However, his roommate is Glenn Browne, who whacked 19-plus pounds today and is 3rd place. Hopefully Billy will get some inside information on how and/or where to get into some fish tomorrow.

I figure I'll have to catch 6 pounds tomorrow to have a legitimate shot at the cut. I'll try to take everything I learned today and apply it to wherever we fish tomorrow. Chip was generous enough to hook me up with a couple of his double-secret hot custom baits that he caught his fish on today, so between those and the Shad Raps I have some confidence baits to throw. I'll be fishing hard from start to finish. I should have no problem staying focused tomorrow.

We still have quite a bit of current, another front is coming in, it's cloudy and rainy, and we had sleet today. It's just wonderful weather to fish in. I fished around a couple new areas today, and caught a couple of quality fish, but I still don't have a good feel for the tournament. I'm just going to go out tomorrow and go fish. I've got half a dozen different places to fish. I'll just go out and see what happens.

I got a couple of little dinks, and I got my trolling motor running, but it's pretty sad out there. We had a lot of wind and cold weather.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be a little nicer, and hopefully it won't blow as badly. I'm going to stay in the general area where I've been catching them and fish hard all day long. I have six crankbaits and a couple spinnerbaits tied on, and I'm just going to fish like that all day long and see what happens.

I didn't do very good. I caught two keepers, but I think I might have gotten on something, I don't know. I may not catch a fish, but I think it's possible that I might catch some. I got on it late and I don't know for sure.

I think it's going to be a real hard tournament the way everyone's talking, but of course you know how that talk goes. The water temperature is pretty cold, and we're going to have a real cold night and the wind will lay down so that might hurt a little bit.

I think if someone catches 7-8 pounds tomorrow, he might have a shot at making the cut. It wouldn't surprise me if 20 pounds makes the cut, but we'll know more tomorrow.

I pre-fished with my buddy Jeffrey Thomas again today. The weather has been really lousy the past few days. The area got cold with a lot of rain, and the lake has been up high and muddy, with current ripping through the river channel. The word is that the bite was excellent about a week ago, but has been really off since the rain and weather change.

Jeffrey and I each managed a single fish around 3 pounds today, about 5 hours apart and on two totally different baits. Not much to go on, and similar to what has been happening to him all week: a fish here and a fish there. Everyone's crying the blues, but that's pretty typical for conditions like this. You can still bet that some of these guys have found a good group of fish and made them bite. Dock talk has it that the few fish that are being caught are mostly coming on 'Traps. I bet there will be about 400 fishermen with at least one lipless crankbait tied on tomorrow.

I'm paired with Chip Harrison from Indiana. Like everyone else, Chip was on some fish last week when it was nice, but it has slowed down on him. He's fishing a pattern where he's had a few bites, and it's a pattern I've heard a few other guys are running with some success, so I'm optimistic. It won't take but a couple of halfway decent bites to do well on the co-angler side. I really need a top finish here to make up for my big fat zero at Atchafalaya.

Tomorrow I'll probably spend the day alternating between 3-4 different baits all day, switching up size and color as needed. The forecast is for 23 degrees at takeoff. Brisk and invigorating, as my Uncle Beav would say. I plan to find out how many layers I can pile on and still complete a
reasonable casting motion.

It's been exciting. The water's come up, the water's gone down. It's been a little bit of everything. Friday we had major storms come through. The lake shot about a foot and a half, and then they pulled it down a foot and half last night. It's been muddy, but it's starting to clean back up.

The fishing's been fair. I fished the EverStart Championship here, and like I said in my BassFan profile, it's the lake I like least. But I've had a fairly decent practice so far. I've been able to catch keepers every day, about 2-3 a day. I'm covering a lot of water right now, trying to figure it out.

I got out a little late today. I fished a couple of hours and then my trolling motor cable broke. I had to get that fixed, so it wasn't too hard a day.

I've never fished this lake before, and at this point I'm happy I never have. It's sort of pathetic. It's small, and with 200 boats it will be quite crowded. It's muddy and there's a lot of current. It's pretty sick-looking. To leave Guntersville and Table Rock to come here is sort of a let-down. You know there's no big ones here compared to those lakes.

Today I fished a crankbait a lot and caught 5-6 fish. I had one keeper. I'll just leave it open this week. The way this lake looks – the conditions are changing, the creek channel colors are changing – I'll just put a bunch of rods on the deck and go fishing.

I fished about 3 hours today. I caught three short fish, but I didn't catch a keeper. It looks pretty muddy, and they say it's going to be tough.

The creeks on this lake aren't very big, and if the main lake stays as muddy as it is right now it will mean a real crowded tournament. Everyone will try and be in the creeks. This lake would've fished crowded if you could fish the whole lake.

I'll give it all I got, but I'll tell you right now, I'm dragging.