Kentucky Lake FLW

I only had three fish today. They just didn't bite today for me. I missed 2-3 fish, and had half a dozen short fish, and that was it.

It was cloudy, more overcast, today. I think the fish I was fishing for were spawning, so I don't think the weather should have affected them. But for some reason they didn't bite for me. I just couldn't figure it out.

I was flipping bushes on south Barkley with a Zoom Brush Hog (green pumpkin/red flake). That's the bait I used all week. I was using a 7' 6" extra-heavy one-piece Kistler Helium rod, a Chronarch reel, 20-pound P-Line a 3/16-ounce Gambler Pro Rat'lin worm weight and a 5/0 Gamakatsu Superline hook, and I was using MegaStrike fish attractant.

I still feel the fish were there, but for some reason I couldn't make them bite today. I'm not pleased with my finish, but I still got a check and I should move up in the points. My whole goal is to make the championship, and this makes it a little closer to reality. But I'm definitely disappointed. I was sure I'd have a limit today.

It was my usual second-day deal. I caught too little too late. I had about 7 keepers, and my biggest one was about 3 1/2. I caught them on topwater Ricos and Senkos, and stayed in Kentucky Lake today. I planned on fishing Kentucky Lake in the first place, but I talked myself into Barkley yesterday and sort of ruined myself. Kentucky Lake was pretty empty of boats today.

I feel frustrated, as usual. I knew I could catch some fish. You just wonder how you can't catch them some days. This one took me out of the championship pretty much, so I'll go to St. Clair just for fun and try to catch some big ones.

Another tournament, another day 2 letdown.

We just didn't have a chance today. The areas that produced a 13-pound limit for Tim Klinger yesterday were nearly devoid of active fish today. I managed to scratch one nice fish on a Senko, but other than a few shorts, that was it. Tim just had one small keeper. My one fish weighed 3-06, which gave me a total of 12-02 for the tournament, good for 41st place.

While I'm disappointed in today's results, I must admit I am fairly pleased with the way the season has progressed. After zeroing at Atchafalaya, I've steadily climbed my way back toward the championship. I figure this finish should pull me up to about 48th place or so for the season, right on the bubble for the trip to Birmingham. A Top 50 finish at Champlain should seal the deal.

I had a good day. I caught 10 keeper largemouths in Barkley. That's the only lake I've ever fished down here. I've not fished Kentucky Lake yet, but one of these days I'm going to have to.

I knew if I had 5 fish, I could have anywhere from 12-13 pounds to 17 pounds. I lost one real good fish, and another about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds. Other than that I landed everything that bit. The weather didn't matter. I don't think it will affect the fish I'm catching at all.

I'll do the exact same thing tomorrow. I have 4-5 pockets I didn't fish (today) that I've been catching fish in, so I'll fish them tomorrow. I'll catch everything that bites. There are too many good fishermen and too many fish coming to back off at all.

I caught two fish. I had some problems. The linkage broke on my motor, and I couldn't get around – one of those bad deals. Just bad luck.

I ran into Charlie Ingram, and we messed around and figured out how to knock into the gear with the handle of a landing net so I could drive it in. And I came on in because every time you stopped you had to pull the cowling off and hit it with that net again – and the wind was horrendous.

I had two fish that weighed 6-05, and I believe if I just kept hitting the cranking places I could have caught a decent limit. But I couldn't get around to do it so it killed me.

I also 3 hours today fishing in shallow water. I never caught a keeper. I thought I could catch about a 12-pound limit shallow, so it really surprised me. Then I only got to fish about 3 places before (the linkage broke).

Tomorrow it's possible I could catch 15-16 pounds and get a check, but that's about it.

I didn't do worth anything today. I think it's called a big slump.

I started on some smallmouth stuff, and some of the big-time locals started by me so I knew I was in the right area. I caught five fish on a Yamamoto grub, and they were all short. I fished shallow – topwater and flipping – the rest of the day, but I think I ended up fishing too fast. I had one fish all day. I burned about $80 worth of gas, and didn't catch any fish.

We had a good south wind, and I fished Barkley because of the wind. It seemed like perfect conditions. Other than the breeze, it wasn't real hot and wasn't real cloudy.

I honestly don't know about tomorrow. I'll see the how weather is. I'll try to just pick an area, put the trolling motor down and fish al day. But most of my areas are a long way away, so I don't know what I'll do. But I'll try to fish more than run.

I'm trying to get back on (the saddle). It will happen sooner or later. It felt like I fished really good today, that's the weird thing.

I also picked up Larry Nixon, who broke down on Barkley. He had about 13 pounds.

Today was a beautiful day for fishing – sunny, bright and warm. There were some decent winds, which can be serious trouble on Kentucky Lake, but weren't a big problem for us today. Just a little refreshing water over the side on the way back in.

I was paired with Chad Morgenthaler today. We made a pretty long run, and checked a couple of areas early. I hooked a decent fish early and got it in near the boat, but it pulled off. I got a quick look at it, and it only looked 13-14 inches long, so I wasn’t worried at first given the 15-inch minimum for largemouths and smallmouths. However, it did bother me when we proceeded to catch four more fish off the same bank in the next 5 minutes, and all of them were spotted bass (there's a 12-inch minimum on spots). One of those was a small keeper that I put in the box.

We ended up fishing shallow with a variety of baits, and the fish were absolutely stacked in there. Getting bites wasn't the problem, but landing fish and having them exceed 15 inches was pretty tough. I probably hooked and landed 30 fish today, and probably had 30 more bites that I missed or got off. The fish were aggressively slashing the baits but not eating them very well. I'll bet that together we caught at least 10 fish that were between 14 and 15 inches. It's very frustrating to be catching fish non-stop and not get to put them in the livewell, but it beats the heck out of not catching them at all.

I ended up adding three more largemouths for the day, all on different baits. Two of them were pretty solid fish, so my four fish added up to 8-12, good enough for 17th place. I lost a 3-pound keeper that pulled off. I hope that fish doesn't come back to haunt me.

Tomorrow I'm paired with Tim Klinger, winner of recent the Beaver FLW. Tim did well today, with almost 13 pounds, and it sounds like he's doing exactly the same type of stuff we were doing today, so I'm excited. On the other hand, I've been a day 1 hero the past few events and have managed to drop the ball on day 2 each time. I'm worried about that happening again.

I figure I need to catch another 7 pounds tomorrow to start thinking about making the cut. I think I can do it.

I went and looked at a lot of different stuff today. I tried some deeper stuff that some guys said they were catching fish on, but I didn't have any luck. I went to my shallow pattern and caught a couple doing that. So I'll pretty much try to stay shallow most of the tournament and just go fishing.

It looks like the weather change – hot sunny skies with thunderstorms supposed to move in. Hopefully it won't affect my fish much. A lot of guys are crying the blues, saying that they're not catching them at all, but you know how that goes: somebody still ends up with a big bag. I'm just looking forward to tomorrow, and having a safe day on the water.

I didn't have a good day today. I fished ledges all day, and found one new spot. I caught a couple of fish off it – one on a Carolina rig and one cranking – but they were just keepers.

I haven't found any good fish. Tomorrow I'll go shallow in the morning and try to catch a limit in the first couple of hours, and then stay on ledges the rest of the day.

Today wasn't real good, but I looked at everything new. The water seemed like it came up a little bit.

I've fished this lake quite a few times. I won an EverStart down here in 1999, the first one I ever fished, and I've made cuts a couple of times in EverStarts down here. Usually I catch a million short fish and some keepers, but it's been about a 1:1 ratio (shorts to keepers) since I've been here. We're catching a lot of 14 1/2-inchers that weigh 2 pounds.

I had a good day Saturday and a good day Sunday. Tomorrow I'll go back and check some of the same stuff I fished then, or at least the same type of stuff – pitching and flipping.

I'm not finding them. All the places I normally catch them have no fish on them, and once I do find them they aren't the size I need. I should be able to catch a limit, but I'm not catching the weight I need to catch.

I usually do well here, and this is the first time we've come here in a long time when they're out on the drops. But the drops I normally fish, either they haven't gotten there yet or don't go there anymore. By the time it starts, it's possible the better fish could be on the places I've found, but the way it looks now, I'll catch a limit shallow and then try to catch couple of decent fish on the drops.

Tomorrow I'll just keep looking on the drops. I feel like I have a shallow-water area if it doesn't backfire on me. I'm still looking for the magic hole.

There seems to be a lot of fish. It's just a matter of getting the quality, I guess. I've been here about 6 days and have found too many things, but nothing real solid. It seems like a lot of fish are around some areas, but getting consistently good ones is pretty tough for me.

Tomorrow I'll try to get some backup stuff. I've tried to find some deeper fish, but I haven't been able to do that consistently. I'll try one more time. The day before the tournament is a good day to try it.