Kentucky Lake Practice day #2

Well, Let me first apologize for not updating on a regular basis.

Friday my Dad and I practiced on Kentucky lake south of the 68-80 bridge. We launched in the Blood River and fished around in the mud soup for about 1 hour. Needless to say, I was getting very discouraged. Especially since my right hand man and tournament partner was back at the hotel with the flu. By flu I mean endless fever, gut wrenching pain, and lung shattering coughs.

Dad and I decided if we were going to make any sort of progress in our tournament practice, we needed to find some clearer water. Nick talked to a guide the night before named Tadd Ladd who is also a friend of his and throughout the conversation, Tadd told him that the LBL (east) side of the lake was going to be clearer and warmer and not to be afraid to look shallow. We headed over there and still managed to suck up the earth!! At about 11 am we headed back to the end of ginger creek to the buck brush just for the heck of it. Boy was that the best move I ever made. Dad and I proceeded to catch or shake off about 6 fish. Mind you we only caught 3 the day before. We recognized about 300 little black birds diving under the water we assumed feeding on minnows. At first I was a little pessimistic on our pattern and proceeded to check another creek to perhaps solidify what we found and maybe put something together for tomorrows tournament. The back of the other creek also had little black birds feeding on minnows and about 25 bass that made our thumbs look like hamburger. At about 2pm we decided that we had enough proof that the fish were back there and decided to go get Nick for dinner and register for the tournament. At the time, we weren't sure if he was going to be able to fish, but if he didn't maybe Dad could stand in for him, or worst case scenario, I fish by myself. At the registration we managed to spend about $300 in new Ranger clothing and a few other necessities. Nick bought me a real nice ranger jacket and when I thanked him for it, he responded "Thats alright, I will tell you why I bought it later." Sigh, man this vacation is getting expensive but when we overheard we were getting almost 8 inches of snow at home, we decided to spend our sorrows away. After registration we stopped at the store and gassed up, pick up some bottled waters, and I think Nick bought out the store in flu medicine.
That night we put together our tackle and a nice strategy for the next day. Nick informed me that I was driving the boat and running the trolling motor. I felt very comfortable with his decision but a little nervous. I began psyching myself out b/c noone else I saw was fishing in the brush and I overheard someone at the marina talking about how much fish love jigs in this lake and how he was catching as many as he could on main lake and secondary points. You know what they say about dock talk and how you are supposed to ignore it, well a few times that night I was having mental battles with myself about wether or not our day was a fluke, or if I was really on to something. It wouldn't have been a big deal, but this wouldn't have been the first time I caught them good in practice and flunk in the tournament.

Stay tuned and I will post our detailed tournament day results as well as some interesting drama.

Day 1 in KY

Today was a decent day on the water. We eliminated Barkley lake b/c it is way too muddy and dangerous to run because of the floating debris. Kentucky lake was in better condition and we did manage to catch 3 nice keepers from there in about 2 hours. 2 of them were smallies and one was about a 4 pound largemouth.

Tomorrow we are going south to Paris Tennessee to find some clearer unpressured water and put something together for our tournament.

Randon thoughts....

Blogging is all about random thoughts, so throughout my blogging career, I may use this title quite a few times.

Today is the day we are leaving for Kentucky lake. We will be shipping out tonight at 9pm and driving straight through. We should arrive in Benton around 5am just in time to get some BBQ for breakfast and launch the boat at 6.

Keep visiting throughout the weekend, I am going to try and update the site everynight.

Jerry, If you are reading this, you are going to have to get your you know what's out of Laura's back pocket and go with us a few times if you want me to put you on the site. haha!

Those of you who don't know Jerry, he is a member of Southcentral Michigan Basscasters and I met him 2 years ago (I Think) from another member Trent Wilson. I have fished against Jerry 4 times, and all 4 times he has beaten me. Every time he acts like it was a fluke and that in no way should it ever happen. At first I though he was really modest, but now I'm starting to think that he's stroking my ego in the hopes that I continue to take his angling skills for granted. Little does he know, I'm stroking his ego until he starts putting some good money on the line. :)

Weather Outlook for KY

So, The weather for today and tomorrow looks a little wet for the Benton KY area. They are expecting anywhere from 4-7 inches of rain.
Thursday - Saturday looks great though. The temps will be in the 60's and partly sunny. I'm a little concerned with the amount of rain they are getting now and how muddy it might make the lakes.
I guess I should be happy b/c while we are there it doesn't look like we will get rained on. Perhaps I won't even take my rain gear, yeah right!!!

A Blog From The Wife of a Bass Fisherman

I wake up to find that the bed is warm and cozy on my husbands side, but not from him, the dog is snuggled in his place. He has abandoned his warm covers to sneak into the world of the worm! With all his tackle in tow and and a buddy along with him, he is headed to launch at a faraway lake somewhere.

I know that sleeping in does not appeal to some, and that is definitely my husband. He gets up before dawn, to get on the lake and start "catchin' 'em". He pulls out his Setyr rods and hooks on a crainkbait to see what's out there. He tells me now is the prime time because the bass are about to spawn.

After a full day on the lake he comes home with rough thumbs from lipping bass and smelling like Gulp spray, which he thinks doubles as cologne! He has the funnies looking farmer tan, and a windburned face to match from all the "running" on the lake at full plane.

He tells me stories of the ones that got away, and says that he out fished his buddy, Nick. He tells me how peaceful is is to watch the sun rise over the water and to hear all of nature during the day. This does sound intriguing to me, and maybe someday I will join him, but for now, I just look at him, laugh, and resume my scrap booking!

My Visit to the tackle shop.....Technology Vs. Old School

Those who know me, know that I'm leaving for Kentucky Lake this Wednesday. I thought today I would head on over and see Kyle Lafountain at Lafountain's Gun Shop in Marshall (buyfishingstuff.com) and purchase a few things that I might need for the trip. My main goal was to look for a few shallow crankbaits in a chartreuse color for the muddy water down there. One hundred and sixty five dollars later, I did manage to get 8 new little john crankbaits by Spro Bait Company, 6 packs of tungsten sinkers, three packs of hooks, a pack of baby brush hogs, a series 5 Strike King crankbait, 4 new Poorboys football jigs, 2 Poorboys flipping jigs, and some rubber core sinkers. Wheew. I think I saw dollar signs in Kyle's eyes when I was checking out. Now I'm just hoping that I can sell some of this stuff to the other two guys that are going with me.

I think bass fishing has come a long way in the last 5 years. The boats now look like Nascars with all of the ads on the sides of them and the better tv exposure, but most importantly in the innovations in tackle. Part of me wants to believe the hype, which is obvious if you have seen my basement and went with me today to Lafountain's, but part of me also believes that if I went to Kentucky with an old KandE pre-rigged worm and a few spinnerbaits, I might be better off.

Evidently the latest and greatest tackle won today!

The first outing of the year.

Yesterday started with a ton of excitement and adrenaline. Craig Deck and I took the ranger down to launch at the Raisin River in Monroe Michigan for a little hot pond action. The ride down seemed to go really quick b/c we talked to a guy who was in their catching them. Once we got there we launched the boat and even remembered to put the plug in. After some slight hesitation, the HPDI fired right up. We idled down the Raisin river to the mouth of lake Erie, only to find ice blocking our exit. We loaded the boat back on the trailer and headed to bolles harbor to launch instead. Our adreneline was starting to wear off but never the less, we were still really excited. Once we got in there, the water temp was 56 at the front and around 58 in the back. My first fish came right in the heart of a down tree. It was so awesome setting the hook and have something tugging back. At the end of the day, we ended up catching (and releasing) 44 fish and to top it all off, the last fish of the day was caught on a swimbait!

Please post any questions in the comments section and I will answer them ASAP.