Rob Kennedy's Bass Fishing Site

Nickajack, Chickamauga, and Tims 12-29 & 12-30

2011-12-30T15:11:00.000-08:00

Tims Ford 12-26-11 pics

2011-12-26T16:58:00.001-08:00

Nickajack 12-19 & 12-20

2011-12-25T15:20:00.001-08:00

Tims Ford USA Bass Open 12-17-11...

2011-12-17T19:39:00.000-08:00

Fished the USA Bass Trail tourney today on Tims. We struggled and only landed two keepers, pictured here. The larger one was 21" and weighed over 4, and the other one was 19" and was around 3 lbs. It took almost 20 lbs to win. Always fun to tussle with the big brown bombers.

RBK

Chickamauga Tues 12-13-11

2011-12-15T14:01:00.000-08:00

Tim's Ford Monday 12-12-11

2011-12-15T13:50:00.001-08:00

Saturday Morning tourney (12-3-11)...

2011-12-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

The weather was perfect today, so i decided to try my luck with the Fate Sanders boys (by myself). We blasted off at 8 am, and I ran to a flat off of a bluff just upriver from Fate Sanders. I caught 3 quick short largemouth on the little Shad Rap and then I hooked a good one that ran straight under the boat. The fish flashed right under me, and it was a solid 3 lb class bass. As usual, the spinning rod / buggy whip offered no assistance in keeping the fish out in open water. She ran under the boat and promptly came unbuttoned- argh!

I then ran to the next bluff upriver where we had caught them last weekend. The fish were nowhere to be found, so it was decision time. Run downlake and try to catch 5 keeper spots or run upriver and go for broke? I opted to run down and made the long run to the Elm Hill bluffs where Billy and I had caught a few the week before. I only managed one small keeper Spot here, so I started heading back up lake. I eased over to Suggs to continue fishing a jig on the bluffs. I landed a fat 14" large head and that was it.

I moved down to a transition bank across from Hole in the Wall island and proceeded to catch 5-6 fish here. Of course I lost the biggest spot while fumbling for the net, but I did add a 13" keeper Ky bass here.

I moved to the Long Hunter State Park area and caught the biggest keeper of the day here- a nice 3 lb largemouth that whacked the jig.

I fished around Bryant's Grove and Jones Mill, but the largemouth I landed were just shy of 15". I ended the day back on the joggle bluff past Fate Sanders and with 10 minutes left I pulled a nice 14 3/4" fish over the rail.

I ended the day with 3 keepers for around 5 1/2 lbs, so I threw them back and put her on the trailer. If I'd have landed the two other keepers, I would have had around 9 1/2 lbs- oh well.

For the day I caught around 12 fish and enjoyed the nice weather.

Tight lines,

RBK

Thanksgiving weekend- Percy Priest...

2011-11-26T15:57:00.000-08:00

I was off Friday, so I met Billy Harris (visiting from NC) at the ramp around 6 am. We planned to fish the Saturday am tourney together, so Friday was about practicing and locating some fish and / or a productive pattern.

We started near the Weakley Ln bridge and Billy caught a keeper spot off the bat at the end of the bluff on a jig. We eased down past the ramp and chunked shad raps on the flat. We caught 5-6 short fish here. Next, we ran to the next bluff heading upriver, and we caught a couple more on a jig, but no keepers. We decided to run down lake and fish our way back. We caught a bunch of small spots and smallmouth on the point past Long Hunter and the bluffs at Elm Hill. We ended the day back on the bluffs just up from Weakley Ln, and we found our pattern- "joggles" on the bluff walls. We landed four more keepers here, and at 2 pm, we headed home.

Saturday, we put in at Stewarts Creek, and we scouted the area before heading over to Fate Sanders to register. We decided to start back in Stewart's, but no luck, so we headed up to the Weakley Ln area. We struggled early, but I was able to land 3 keepers on the joggle pattern by around 10 am. Due to the honking south wind, we scrapped our main lake gameplan. We would bounce around upriver most of the rest of the day, and we caught several short fish but no keepers. With time running down, we ran to a bluff just down from Fate Sanders to finish the day. Billy caught our fourth keeper, a 12" spot with 15 minutes to go.

We ended up with 6 1/2 lbs which was good for around 12th out of 40 boats. Fun weekend all in all. The 25 MPH south wind really hurt our chances to contend on Saturday.

RBK

Big G Alabama Riggin- Saturday, Nov 12 2011...

2011-11-13T11:18:00.000-08:00

I headed down to Guntersville Saturday to try my hand at the perhaps the biggest lure craze to hit the bass fishing world since Mr. Creme invented the plastic worm. The new bait is called the Alabama Rig (really just a castable umbrella rig). Ever since Paul Elias and most of the top 10 smashed the bass on Guntersville three weeks ago in the FLW event, it has been a mad scramble by lure designers to make them and a feeding frenzy among fisherman to get their hands on some.

I found mine by calling the owner of Sworming Hornet Lure Company in Georgia, who supposedly had a good replica of the original, and I wouldn't have to wait 6 weeks to get them. Since the 5 bait version is illegal in TN, I needed to go to AL or KY to try it out. The wind was going to be considerably stronger in KY, so I opted to head to Big G.

Here's a quick run down of the tackle set up:
7 1/2 ft extra heavy Allstar Flippin Stick
Large capacity Curado 200 6.3:1 reel
65 lb Power Pro braid
Sworming Hornet Swarm castable Umbrella Rig (Ark Shiner head- pictured above)
(5) 3/8 oz Big Hammer Hammerhead jig heads
(5) 4.5" Strike King Shadalicious swimbaits - a real key is to glue the baits to the head.
Two items I did not have with me that I would recommend are velcro tennis shoe soles to keep you in the boat as you try to sling this awkward deal 30 yards into the wind and some Ben Gay rub to apply to your wrist and shoulder when you finish. This rig is not for the faint of heart or those with soft tissue injuries in the upper half of their body.

Since I knew most of the fishing pressure on Guntersville is usually mid-lake to Goose Pond, I opted to head down to the town of Guntersville. I launched the boat at the public ramp in Big Spring Creek and ran out to the deeper bridge heading toward the main channel. My friend Russ who finished 3rd in the FLW event at G'ville gave me a good idea of what to look for (big balls of shad suspended in 15 ft over 30 ft in the creeks). I idled under the bridge, and just as I cleared the pilings the screen lit up with huge clouds of bait 12-18 ft down in the 30 ft channel- perfect. I put down the trolling motor, and began lobbing the chandelier.

I stayed on the shad balls in Spring creek for 2 hours, but I never had a bite. I did watch another boat catch a 5 lb class fish on the other side of the bridge, so I was on the right deal. I decided to move down to Brown's Creek to try the same pattern, and it was obvious that there were shad in the creek due to the hundreds of sea gulls working over the creek channel. I ran to within 100 yards of the bridge and started idling back out toward the main lake. The creek channel ran from 22-30 ft deep, and the shad schools were everywhere on the graph. A fish would break the surface every now an then too. I felt pretty sure that this was the place. I kept on the trolling motor and threw at every shad ball and breaking fish I saw. I stayed in the area for an hour and a half, and I caught three nice hybrids but no bass. The bite on this rig is fantastic. It reminds me of a smallie crushing a spinnerbait at night.

Next I ran up to Siebold Creek to see what I could find there. I idled around in the mouth of the creek in the deeper areas and found a few shad schools, but I never had a bite. It was almost lunch time now and I needed to regroup. I trailered the boat and ran up to Waterfront for lunch. Due to the number of trailers at the ramp, I opted to drive up to Comer Bridge and fish up there for the second half of the day. One funny sight when I was driving north- when I drove over the North Sauty bridge I looked down, and there were five boats lined up within 40 yards of the bridge, and they were all slinging the rig toward the pilings.

As luck would have it, I met a local guide when I stopped to use the restroom in Scottsboro. He said that he had caught 30 bass on Friday on the A-rig in the Comer Bridge area. He told me about a secondary channel that runs under the bridge on the West side of the river and suggested that I fish there. I easily found the ditch and started firing the rig thru the deepest part (9-12 ft). I landed my first bass and a double in the first 30 minutes. I worked my way north on the ditch and was able to catch 5 more bass before I left around 3 pm.

I never caught the big fish that Big G and the A-rig are known for, but it was a fun day, and I learned a lot about the new technique. I'd say any time that the fish are on a shad bite and hey are deeper than 5 ft, the A-rig will be effective.

Tight lines y'all.

RBK

Saturday, 10-29-11- Mike's Sat am tourney- Priest...

2011-10-29T16:16:00.000-07:00

I decided to fish the weekly tourney out of Fate Sanders today. The day started a bit crazy. First, I left my tackle box at home, so I had to turn around and hustle to Smyrna to make it on time. Next, when I got to the ramp at Stewarts Cr, my GPS unit would not operate, and considering the fog bank I launched in, I would have a tough time getting across the lake to the take off. I asked another fisherman if I could follow him, but when we got out in the channel, his GPS cut out, so it was now the blind leading the blind. After 45 minutes of idling in circles, I finally found my way to the marina. Chris Meyer, my partner and highschool classmate, had already checked us in, and since the fog was so thick they started us late anyway.

We idled to the back of the cove at Fate Sanders to fish and wait for the fog to lift. I pulled up on a random bank, and on about the 10th cast with the squarebill, wham, fish on! It was a nice 3 1/4 lb largemouth- bonus fish for sure. We stayed in the cove for another hour, and I landed keeper #2 on the Fat John- a nice 15 1/2 " fish. We also caught three or four short fish in the area.

At about 9:45 the fog lifted, and we raced up the river. We spent an hour and a half up the forks looking for a bite to no avail, so we ran back down river to a flat where I had caught them schooling the week before. The shad were stacked in there, and the fish were chasing them. We caught five or six fish in the area including a nice 17" fish that was tricked by the Red Eye Shad. Chris caught a 12" spot on a rattle bait too.

The fish shut off around 2 pm, and we had to be in at 3:30 for weigh-in. We headed back to the starting spot, and I caught a short fish right off the bat, but that would be it for the day.

We weighed in our four keepers, and they totalled 8 1/2 lbs, which was good for second out of about 30 boats. We missed first by 1/4 lb to a tough local team.

We needed one more keeper, but it was a fun day, and we got a little folding money out of the trip ($260).

See you soon. Tight lines!

RBK

KY Lake last two weekends 10-15 and 10-23-11...

2011-10-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

I headed over to the TN portion of KY Lake the last two weekends to try my luck on some largemouth:

Trip 1- Two weeks ago, I woke up late and had a leisurely morning in Nashville. The kids were both away, and the wife had to work on a school project. What is a boy to do?- certainly not watch the Vols get destroyed by LSU. I was hesitant to go due to a recent back injury, but the idle time combined with the perfect Fall weather was too much to take. So, around 9:15 am, I hooked the Bee up to the Landcruiser, and I was West bound on 40. I arrived at Big Richland Creek around 11 am, and I decided to try to pick the creek apart and resist the temptation to run around.

I idled out in the back 1/3 of the creek, and I started looking for bait and hopefully fish chasing them on top. There was bait everywhere on top in the back of the creek, but there was hardly any schooling activity. After idling around near the marina for 20 minutes or so, I decided to move out to the mouth of the Little Richland arm where I have had a lot of success in October before. It was fairly obvious that this was the spot, as three bass boats were weaving in and out of the cove chasing the schooling action. There was one adjacent area that was not being fished, and I figured it would be a likely place to catch a bigger bass (chunk rock and pea gravel bank with a decent depth change that sat closest to the creek channel).

I eased up on the flat within casting distance of the gravel bank, and I just waited. Within minutes fish started herding schools of small threadfin shad up against the rocks. As soon as it would start, I would lob the 1/2 oz Red Eye Shad into the chaos. They wouldn't bite it every time, but when a fish would hit the rattle bait, it was a good quality keeper. I caught four off of this bank, and lost two more. So, after an hour, I had four keepers for around 11 lbs. The fish quit chasing the bait against the bank, so I needed to figure out how to catch them.

In the past I had had luck in the same area on a small jigging spoon in open water, so I eased out toward the channel (100 yards or so from the bank) and the graph lit up with balls of bait and fish. I caught a variety of fish including white bass, yellows, and skipjack. I also hooked three keeper largemouth (only landed two). Of course the one I lost was over 4 lbs! I now had around 13 1/2 lbs on my best 5. The schooling action all but died in the cove around 1:30, so I decided to run south to check a couple of other spots.

I started in the Eva area, but the low water had moved the fish from the shallow pockets where they had been. I then ran across to Trace Creek to see if the fish were still in the first third of the creek. I could not find any bait or fish, so I ran back to Richland to see if the schooling action had resumed. I caught a few more white bass and skippies on the spoon, but it was clear that the easy pickings were gone. At around 4 pm, I put her on the trailer and headed home.

Trip 2- A friend of mine who has a house in Richland Creek called me during the week to see if I might want to go back to KY Lake on Sunday. His boat lift was out of commission, so we would need to trailer my boat. I was happy to take him, and I was confident that we would have some success. We put in at his private ramp on the other side of the creek, and we headed straight to the cove at the head of the smaller creek arm where I had caught them the week before. We pulled in and the shad were flipping but the only fish chasing were whites, so after catching three or four of them, we decided to move.

John suggested a flat across the creek with a couple of subtle ditches running out from the bank. He said that the ditches had some stumps on them, and he had done well here in the past. I set the boat well out off of the bank in about 5-6 ft, and we started combing the flat with rattle baits. Sure enough, when we got to the two little drains, I caught two nice keepers in the 2 1/2- 3 lb class on the Red Eye Shad. He suggested that we stay on the flat and keep moving toward the creek mouth. When we got down to a couple of private docks, I landed our third and fourth fish, and one of them was another solid keeper. We now had 3 keepers for around 8 1/2 lbs. We decided to run back to the schooling cove where we started.

The fish were not chasing bait up on to the gravel bank like the week prior, but the activity had definitely picked up. The white bass, skipjack, and an occasional largemouth were tearing up the shad. We landed ten or so whites, and I then I made a few casts toward the rock bank just to check it. I hooked a solid 3 to 4 lb bass here on the rattle bait, but he came unbuttoned half way back to the boat. We trolled out off the bank to try for the suspended fish in deeper water. I quickly nabbed two keepers on the 1/2 oz War Eagle spoon, so we now had our limit of around 13 lbs. As it had done the week before, the bite seemed to die, so I decided to make a run North to check another creek where I had done well in the past in October.

We made the 20 mile run to Hurricane Creek, and the shad were in there thick. There was occasionally schooling action, but it was hard to coax the fish into hitting. It was probably a timing issue, as I knew they were there with all the bait (and boats) in the creek. I did manage to catch a solid keeper on the Red Eye, and it probably would have culled our weight up by half a pound or so. It was now around 1:30, and John needed to run into Waverly to grab a prescription, so we headed in and drove back to Nashville.

It was an almost identical trip to the week prior, and I had a lot of fun. I did not uncover a pattern capable of winning any money, but it's always satisfying to catch a limit.

Until next time,

RBK

F3 Classic KY lake 10-1-11

2011-10-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

Headed over to the big pond this morning for our first ever year end Classic. 5 boats made the trip, and it was going to be a nice Fall day, EXCEPT....15-25 MPH North winds and we were on the back side of a major cold front.

Oh well, enough for the excuses. We took off at 6:30 from New Johnsonville, and since the main channel was rolling with 3 footers straight out of the North, we cut our run down significantly. We ducked into the creek that houses Pebble Isle Marina, and since Noah had located some fish at the mouth of the creek, I eased back a ways inside the creek to stay out of his way. I was chunking a 5/8 oz Yozuri Rattle Vibe in chrome TN Shad, and the fish were there and willing to eat. I caught the fist club keeper in the area, and then I proceeded to hook and lose three fish in the 3 lb range in the span of 30 minutes- Ouch! I also caught 5-10 short fish.

We kept banging around in the creek until around 8 am, and then we followed Noah over to the creek channel that leades into Eva. He had a good little stretch in there, but I fished one other area, with no luck. It was really too windy to fish most of the places I wanted to hit there, so we ran back to Trace Creek. I was able to add club keepers number two and three here. David nabbed a nice 2 lb keeper here on a shallow Bandit crank too.

The wind was so bad by now that we very few options. It was around 10 am, and I decided to seek shelter and finish out our day on the south side of the hwy 70 bridge near the ramp. It was protected from the wind, and it turned out to be a good decision. David caught another 2 lb keeper here, and I was able to finish out my limit by 11:00. The fourth keeper would win the big fish pot for the day. It was a chunky 18" largemouth that smoked the Red Eye Shad. I also lost another 3 lb class fish on a worm. I probably lost 12 lbs of keeper fish on the day, and I should have weighed in 15 lbs.

We checked in at noon, and I won the Classic with 7.7 lbs and also took the big fish money.

It was anoter fun year with F3, and I was happy with my consistency (just missing quality bites most of the year).

RBK

September F3 tourney- schooling fish over 97 ft of water!

2011-09-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

It was a beautiful morning weather wise. When we arrived at the ramp, it was around 57 degrees with a breeze coming out of the southwest at 5-15. I was happy with the cool weather, but the wind was not what I needed for my topwater pattern.

We eased out of the state park around 6:00 am and started on a main lake point just down from LHSP. I caught a nice 14" smallie on the popper, and lawrence landed a 13 1/2 " brown fish on a 1- crankbait. We missed a couple more here, but I had other places to hit before the sun killed the bite. We eased down lake to hole in the wall island, and I caught one short fish, but that was it.

We moved over to the bluff end across the lake, and one other short fish came over the gunnel rail.next we moved down to the next pocket down lake, only to find Noah had already hit the stuff I wanted to fish. I did manage a couple of small club keepers here, but it was time to move. Next, we fished a cut in bear Island that as still holding some shade. I nailed a keeper spot and a 15" largemouth on the spook here.

I now had 5 club keepers in the boat. We bounced around a lot in the lower end. On our first stop by an island near the dam, I hadn't even put the trolling motor down yet, and a huge school of fish cam up schooling over 97 ft of water! I started throwing the fluke, and LW chunked a trap. We landed 3-4 fish here, and I was able to upgrade once.

It was now around 10 am, and we fished with no success for another hour, and then Noah called. He was dead in the water, so we ran down lake and towed him back to the ramp. That ate up most of the rest of our time, and we didn't land anything else.

I ended up with 5 fish for 6.5 lbs, which was good for first place, and I closed out the AOY title.

Tough fishing, but I was happy to have 5.

RBK

Saturday 8-20-11 J. Percy Priest....

2011-08-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Headed out to Priest this morning to try my luck. After being on Old Hickory since May, I was looking forward to seeing some clear water and rocky shore line.

I ran a couple of miles upriver from Long Hunter State Park to check a cove where the fish tend to school in the Summer months. I could see several balls of shad roaming and an occasional blow up here and there, but I only managed to catch one 12" spot here. Next, I ran down lake to the end of a deep main lake bank near the big bridge to try the topwater deal. I had 12-15 blow ups on the Spook on this bank and landed about 10 of those. Most of them were smaller spots and smallies, but I did have 2 really nice spots that were over 13" and I lost a keeper largemouth at the boat.

When the sun came up over the horizon, the fish went deep, and so did I. I went into Suggs Creek and fished a bluff wall with a jig. I landed three keeper spots here. I ran a few other deeper banks in the lower end, but I couldn't find any fish. The sun was high, and the wind was dead, making for tough conditions.

I decided to run the lower half of the lake to look for bait and possible schooling activity. I stopped at the big bridge to see if anything was happening there, and the fish were schooling sporadically over deep water (20-30 ft). I managed to catch one keeper largemouth on a fluke, but I got tired of waiting for them to come back up, so I moved on. I couldn't find anymore schooling fish, so at 10:00, it was time to let the pleasure boaters have the lake.

It was not a bad day, all in all for August. I caught around 15 or so fish, with a few small keepers. In hindsight, I wish I'd have run the topwater pattern earlier, instead of waiting for those elusive schooling fish on the first stop. I think I have an idea of what I will do in our September club tourney, as the areas I caught them in today should only get better if it cools off.

Until next time.

Tight lines y'all.

RBK

August F3 Club toruney Old Hickory - sucked!...

2011-08-13T13:41:00.000-07:00

I scratched out 4 club keepers including 2 legit OHL keepers for a whopping 5.4 lbs. It was good for 3rd place. Only caught 4 all day. I'm hapy to say OHL is behind me for 2011!!!!!

F3 OHL 7-16-11....tough on me...

2011-07-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

We headed out of Davis Corner right at safe light and eased across the river into Station Camp to throw topwater early. I was not able to run down lake to where I had been catching them because my buddy Chris was fishing a money tournament, and I didn't want to get in his way.

We started on a major creek point up shallow on the grass edge. I caught a 12 1/2" fish on the second cast on a buzzbait, but that was the only fish I caught. Sam managed to land two decent club keepers behind me on a worm.

We moved back to the marina slips to try and catch a few before the sun got too high. I zeroed here, and Sam added his third of the day on the worm (hello- message to Rob- they're not chasing today!).

We moved around to a couple of other spots in the creek, but nothing doing. Since I was struggling with my plan to get five small ones early, I decided to ease out to the main river and go for a big one. We threw worms along the river channel on some deep wood just upriver from Spencer Creek. I missed on fish here, and that was all that bit. Ughhhh- really was wishing I could be down lake on my best stuff.

We made a move down lake and hit two ledges near Avondale, and I was able to catch my second small club keeper of the day, and Sam rounded out his limit, but the bite was really slow. Eventually, I threw in the towel, and we ran back up to Station Camp to finish the day on the point where we started. I worked the boat out to the sweet spot on the point that has a good bit of brush on it, and we commenced to getting bit. Sam upgraded three or four times, and I was able to scratch out a pitiful club limit of 5 1/2 lbs. I had reserved 30-45 minutes to hit the main lake wood before weigh in, and I told Sam that once I had five we were gone.

Just as soon as I caught my 5th, Sam jerked back on a solid 3 3/4 lb fish on the worm, so I decided to just stay on these fish and hope for another good bite or two. It never happened, so at 11:49 we ran back to the ramp to turn in our weights. I ended up with 5.6 lbs, which was sixth out of 9 anglers; my worst performance of the year by a long shot.

Sam had 4 real keepers and one 14" one for around 9 1/2 lbs.

Sorry day for me, but there will be another day.

RBK

Struggled on the big pond- TBT July event KY Lake...

2011-07-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

After two pre-fishing trips to KY Lake I had found a grand total of 3 potential schools of fish for DD and I to work on Sunday.

We launched at Buchanon Resort near Paris, and when our number was called, we did a quick U-turn and fished the marina slips for 15 minutes. Dwayne lost a keeper on a blade, and I landed a solid keeper on a big worm.

Next, we made the long 35 mile run South to a cut near the Hwy 70 bridge where I had found some fish the day before. They never came up schooling like on Saturday, but we were able to catch 5-10 fish here on a jig and rig, but only two of them would keep.

Around 7:00 am, we headed upriver three miles or so to a big bay near Eva boat ramp and looked for a ditch running off of the creek channel that a buddy of mine had told me about. We found it without too much trouble, and we cast down the West side of the ditch, fishing it for 75 yds or so. Once we got to the Northern most end of the ledge where it started to turn to the East, we got into a nice school of fish on the rig and big worm. They were sitting just on top of the flat, and we stuck around 12 fish here in a matter of 30 minutes or so. The problem was they were all just a little too small. Most of them were 13-14 1/2" long, which is short of the 15" limit. Rather than sitting on that school and milking it dry, we opted to head out to the main channel and fish our way back North.

We hit around 15 different drops between New Johnsonville and Paris, and we never landed another fish.

It got so hot by 1 pm, that we gave up and headed back in. Since we are not in the points race, we just let the 3 keepers go, and headed back home all hot and tired.

It was a very disappointing day. I'm sure if we'd have stayed on our first two spots that we would have weighed in a limit, but we were fishing for the win, and the quality did not seem good enough in that area.

Until next time.

RBK

June 25th OHL- Realtors' Assn tourney....

2011-06-25T14:23:00.000-07:00

I fished a tourney today with my regular team partner, Dwayne on Old Hickory. We had a solid plan to hit some marina slips early, where we felt fairly certain we could catch a limit. I had smacked em pretty well in there last weekend. The problem was that the event didn't blast of until 6 am, a full one hour past safe light, and we had a long run down lake.

We made the trip down to the creek, and we had no problem getting on the marinas. We did, however have a big problem getting a single bite. The bait was gone, and we knew it wasn't going to happen. So, around 7 am, we went into scramble mode. We fished down near Dupont and Lock 3, but we only managed a couple of short fish there.

We moved around, working our way up lake all day, and DD landed the first small keeper at the mouth of Drake's Creek around 9:00 am. At around 10:00 we stumbled on to a group of fish inside of Cedar Creek on a secondary ledge near the park. We were able to add 3 more keepers here, but they were all small. We moved over to another secondary ledge in the mouth of the creek behind small island, and we caught two more, including our limit fish. By 11:30 we had a small limit of around 8 lbs, so it was time to move and look for a couple of kicker fish. We eased into Station Camp, and we were able to cull on small keeper on a round point near the marina, but it only upgraded us by ounces.

As time started winding down, Dwayne moved us slightly further out of the creek to a bank that the creek channel ran near, and on the second cast, DD stuck a good one that weighed 4 1/2 lbs on the rig. We stayed on that bank for the remainder of the day, but that was all we could catch.

We weighed in 10.75 lbs, which was good for around 9th place (35 or so boats).

It was a decent day, but not what we had hoped for.

Until next time.

RBK

June F3 tourney Sat. 6-18-11...

2011-06-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Omar and I headed across the river to a major creek at first light and I caught the first keeper of the morning on a buzzbait. Then, we moved to the marina slips and I caught 2 more keepers on a spinnerbait. We then eased over to a round point and deeper flat adjacent to the marina, and we caught 4-5 on a crankbait, and by 7:15 I was culling fish. One of the crankin fish was the biggest of the day at 16 1/2".

We moved out to a major creek point off of a duck blind, and I caught a nice 15 3/4" largehead on the rig, but no one else was home. We bounced around in the creek for another hour or so, but we couldn't find them.

We eased down river to Cage's Bend, and I was able to upgrade a small amount flipping wood and grass, but by now the weather was turning nasty. We ran quickly down to Cedar Creek Marina and waited it out for an hour or so. We fished a awhile in Cedar, but the fish did not bite well after the thunder and lightning.

We ended our day back in the creek we started in, and Omar was able to add his third club keeper of the day off of the marina slips.

On the day, I had four legit keepers for around 8 lbs, and 5 that counted in the derby for 9.4 lbs. I ended up second to Bill, who had over 10 lbs.

It was a tough day, but not too bad all in all. If Omar and I had been in a team tourney, we'd have had around 11 lbs on our best 5.

Later

RBK

TBT June at Barkley....

2011-06-12T17:54:00.000-07:00

DD and I had to go into this one blind since neither of us could get away to pre-fish on Barkley. Dwayne does not have much history on Barkley in June, but I do, so I planned our day around some topwater in the early hours and then ledge fishing for most of the day.

We ran down river (North) from Dover and pulled up on our early hole around 5:40 am. The water was stained to muddy, so I figured we may struggle here. I threw a frog and buzzbait, and Dwayne chunked a spinnerbait. he landed a solid 2 lb LM early on on a point with bushes and grass. We had a couple of other bites but could not hook up. We moved further North and went into a bay near the waterfowl refuge to try a hump and some creek channel drops. The water in Ford's Bay was much cleaner, and we nailed about four fish here on the rig and added one keeper here.

Then we spent the balance of the day jumping from main lake drops to creek mouths and cuts off the main channel. We scraped together a limit of cookie cutter 15-16 inch fish and culled a couple of times. We landed about 20 on the day. We ended up with 9.4 lbs and finished 13th on the day. It took 16 lbs to win.

Next we're off to Old Hickory for our rescheduled club tourney.

Tight lines.

RBK

6-4-11 OHL with Omar D......

2011-06-04T13:25:00.000-07:00

Had a fun morning on the water on the lower end of Old Hick today. Omar and I hit the water right at 5 am and headed over to a pair of islands to try the topwater deal. We only caught 3 small fish here, so we moved into Drakes Cr to try the marina slips. That was not working at all, so we moved into a cove with a lot of bank grass. I had a few half-hearted blow-ups on a frog, and Omar caught a few small ones on a lizard.

We moved out to a primary point at the creek mouth, and we nailed 3 solid keepers on a rig and football jig. Next we eased down to a flat near Lock 3 , and I nabbed the one pictured here on a Series 5 Crank in about 6 ft of water. That was the only one in the area, so we moved back up to the points in Drakes Cr.

We caught around 10 more fish here, with 5 or so being solid keepers. Most of them came on the C-Rig in 7-10 ft of water.

On the day, we landed around 20 fish with 9 or so keepers. Our best five would have gone around 13-14 lbs.

On to Lake Barkley next weekend for the TBT tourney.

RBK

Memorial day- JPP...

2011-05-30T12:08:00.000-07:00

We caught around 15 fish today on Priest despite the Memorial Day traffic. Most came on plastics on roadbeds and points in 5-10 ft of water. I lost an absolute giant on a spinnerbait in the marina slips early this morning. It snapped my 15 lb line like it was sewing thread. Picture is the best of the day that Jeff caught on a grub on a hump near the LHSP ramp. I was his personal best smallie.

Back to OHL next weekend.

RBK

OHL 5-15-11- best bag of the year in TN....

2011-05-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

I met my buddy Chris at the public ramp in Drakes Creek, and we headed out for a half day trip. We started on on some marina slips, but no takers here (too early in the year). We tried the shallow bank grass in between the 2 marinas, but it was not working. As I trolled out of the grass cove, I decided to chunk the Zell Pop on the point, and a nice 2 1/2 lb keeper loaded up. From here, we eased out toward the mouth of the creek to a point on the upriver side. Chris caught our first fish of the day here on a crankbait, and he landed another one here too. One of the fish was a solid 3 lb class fish. We worked the area for about 30 minutes, and Chris nailed another solid keeper on the C-rig here.

We then ran upriver to the 2 foot cove, but we did not have any luck here. Next, we moved across the lake to Bluegrass cove. We fished a drop in the back of the creek, and Chris caught a really solid 3 lb class fish on the rig.

Next, we eased up to a narrow cut past Avondale, and we caught 4-5 more fish on a chatterbait and spinnerbait in the grass and around some docks. 2-3 of them were keepers but no big ones.

We went back down to a cove near the Avondale ramp, and we nailed two more fish there on plastics. One of them was a solid 2 lb keeper.

We decided to finish out the day in Drakes Creek fishing out off the bank more with a rig. We targeted points near the creek channel, and it was a good decision. On the first point near a concrete wall, I caught the big one of the day, which is pictured here. We also caught another solid keeper fish here.

We continued to run the pattern for the next 30 minutes, and we nabbed 3 or so more keepers, including another 3 lb class largemouth.

For the day, we landed around 12 keepers, and our best five would have gone around 15-16 lbs.

Great day on the water.

RBK

F3 Club tourney OHL 5-7-11...

2011-05-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

Due to the high water on Priest, we decided to move the May tourney to Old Hickory. My partner for the day would be Steve Becker. We had 4 boats fishing today.

We headed out of Spencer Creek and made a long trip down lake to a small cove down lake and across from Bluegrass and started covering shallow water around some docks, shore grass, and scattered wood. I caught 2 club keepers in the cove and lost a giant that just pulled off.

We then moved up to Bluegrass, and ran the same pattern, but we only caught a couple of fish here.

Next we ran up lake about 3-4 miles to a cut near Avondale. We pitched plastics and spinnerbaits to wood and grass. I was able to round out my limit on this flat, but I did lose a nice 3 lb class fish here.

We checked one spot in Cedar Cr, but no takers here. We now had about one hour left to fish, so we decided to fish in Spencer Creek, near the ramp. I caught my largest fish of the day, which was a chunky 18" largemouth, on the lizard with about 15 minutes left to fish. The fish was sitting ounder a deeper lay down in 3-5 ft of water.

I finished first, and tied with Sam for big fish of the day. It was a nice day on the water. For the day, Steve and I landed around 12 fish.

Tight lines,

RBK

Boat is back in business...

2011-04-23T15:34:00.000-07:00

Bee is back in business! Picked her up from repair shop today. Starting the break-in period and fishing the Lion's Club Fishing For Sight on Saturday.

TBT Trail- Center Hill 4-17-11- Ouch that hurt!...

2011-04-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, did we ever suck on Center Hill Sunday! I was not able to find much in practice last weekend, but the one decent bite I found did pay off early, when Dwayne stuck a 2 3/4 lb LM on the spinnerbait deep on a bluff. We felt pretty good to have a solid keeper in the first hour, but nothing happened for the next four hours at all. We bounce around from deep to shallow to in-between. We threw crankbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs, rigs, and worms.

We finally stumbled on to an area holding some decent spots that was at the end of a bluff mid-lake. The spots were holding in 6-15 ft of water on a transition area. I caught a solid 13 1/2" spot on a blade, and DD nabbed a 12" one on a rig. We stayed on the spot for and hour or so, and then we decided to go try to run that pattern until weigh in. We were in all out speed fishing, scramble mode. We couldn't duplicate it anywhere else, so we loaded her on the trailer at 3 pm, and took our well deserved beating from the other anglers.

We ended up with 3 keepers for just over 5 lbs, and I'm sure we were close to last. We didn't stick around, but Dwayne did say that he saw an 18 lb and 14 lb bag in line.

Oh well- some days it's just not in the cards, and this one was obviuosly not our day.

Until next time.

April 2nd, 2011 F3 Club tourney- Priest...

2011-04-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

Another tough day on Priest. My plan to run to a major creek down lake and catch a limit of club keepers didn't pan out. We only had two in there. Other than that, we just covered water with the little shad rap. I was able to scratch out a limit that weighed around 8.5 lbs, which was good for first place.
The key was finding big chunk rock, boulders, and flat rocks at the head of a spawning area.

Conditions: 38-67 deg air temp and mostly sunny; wind NNW at 10-20 MPH; 52-56 deg water temp (mostly clear).

Later-

RBK

March 20th, 2011 TBT Trail - Priest

2011-03-20T15:09:00.000-07:00

Wow was it tough today. We ended up with 2 keepers for 3.86 lbs, which put us right in the middle of the pack, in 10th.

It only took 10 lbs to win.

The best fish came on a shad rap in 2-3 ft of water near Smith Springs, and DD cauht a keeper spot on the rig in Hamilton Cr.

On the day we caught around 15 fish, with little quality.

Conditions: Water level was at Winter Pool; 54-59 degrees. Weather was mostly sunny and warm, with highs in the low 70's, and SW winds at 5-15 MPH.

Until next time.

RBK

Saturday, March 12, 2011- F3 Club tourney....

2011-03-12T12:56:00.000-08:00

Met Duke at the ramp at 5:30, and we headed up-lake a couple of miles to try some shallow cranking in the pockets across from a bluff. It didn't take long to find a wad of little uns. The fish were chewing a SSR Shad Rap in 1-3 ft on the flat points at the mouth of the pockets. Duke limited out pretty quickly, catching 5 "club keepers" from 12-13 1/2", and I caught two.

Around 7:15 the fish shut off, so we decided to run down lake to find some bigger ones. We eased under the big bridge to my favorite early Spring area near Smith Springs, and we only had one bite, but it was a big ole good un of a brown fish. The fish measured 18" and fell for my old standby #5 Shad Rap. The odd thing was she was inside the pocket, and the deeper 45 degree bank didn't pay off at all (no wind on it).

We moved down to Hamilton Creek, and I added two club keepers on the shallow banks on the Shad Rap. I needed one more, so we eased over to Suggs Creek and went back to chunkin and windin the little plug on the secondary points near the creek mouth. I caught two keepers here, and one of them was a nice 17 1/2" smallie.

We bounced around trying to run the shallow secondary point pattern, but we ran out of time.

All in all, it was a good day for the first trip out on PP. I ended up with 10.3 lbs; first place and big fish for the 18" brownie.

Conditions: mostly clear; low 36 and high around 60 when we left at noon; winds 10-15 out of the SSW; water temps 49-53 degrees.

Tight lines.

RBK

Guntersville TBT Sunday, 2-27-11....

2011-03-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

Dwayne and I met in the Boro at 3:30 am to hit the road to Big G. We registered, and since we had sent in our entry early, we were boat #5, which was a good thing, since our first stop was a well known community hole.

We made the short run to our first stop, and we pounded that spot for about an hour and a half with only two fish coming over the rail, but one of them was a solid 4 lbr that I caught on a swimbait. From there, we eased into the back of a creek to check some staging areas adjacent to a series of large spawning flats. We started in the creek channel, and we hit a couple of brush piles that paid off. We landed our second and third keepers here, with one of them being a 5 3/4 lb fish. We stayed in the back of the creek for another hour or so, but we could not add to the creel.

We eased back to our first spot of the day, and Dwayne caught a nice 3 lb fish on the swimbait. We kept pounding the area, but nothing else bit. We now had 4 fish for around 16 lbs, but we needed number 5.

Since the back of the creek had warmed up we figured we'd ease up on the shallow flats and try the old pad stems. We ended up catching around 5 fish in the stems on a Chatterbait, and two of them were keepers. We culled one time and figured we needed another kicker to break the 20 lb mark.

We decided to go back to the deep spot and finish the day throwing the swimbait. Unfortunately, we didn't catch any more.

We weighed in 18.99 lbs and finished in 5th place (of course they paid 4!).

All in all it was a good day on the water.

Until next time.

RBK

Lay Lake Bassmaster Weekend Series Regional 10-15 and 10-16-2010...

2010-10-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Big fish of the tournament 8.04 lbs caught in first 20 minutes of fishing. Ended up with 4 keepers over two days; 13.9 lbs; 53rd place out of 160 or so.

Won big fish award and $1,120 in cash for the bigun.

RBK

2010 schedule / results / points standings...

2010-09-04T13:02:00.000-07:00

Regular Season:
2-27- F3 Club - Percy Priest- CANCELLED due to Weather.
3-13- BASS - ABA Weekend Series Percy Priest- 17th place 4.76 lbs.
3-20- F3 Club - Percy Priest- 6th place 2.5 lbs.
4-10- F3 Club - Center Hill- 5th place 1.4 lbs.
4-24- BASS - ABA Weekend Series Center Hill- 24th place 7.1 lbs.
5-15- F3 Club - Percy Priest- 7th place 3.51 lbs.
6-19- F3 Club - Old Hickory- 4th place- 6.7 lbs.
6-26- BASS - ABA Weekend Series Old Hickory- 11th place- 10.40 lbs.
7-17- BASS - ABA Weekend Series KY Lake- 32nd place- 2.8 lbs.
7-24- F3 Club - Old Hickory- 1st place 7.55 lbs.
8-14- F3 Club - Old Hickory- 2nd place 6.7 lbs.
8-28 and 8-29- BASS - ABA Weekend Series 2 day Divisional Old Hickory- 21st place- 3.55 lbs.
9-11- F3 Club - Percy Priest- T 7th- .96 lbs. (and a crankbait in the hand!)

Post Season: ***
10-15 and 10-16- BASS - ABA Weekend Series Regional Championship- Lay Lake AL- 53rd place; won Big bass Award for 8 lb Largemouth! 10-31 to 11-6- BASS- ABA Weekend Series National Championship- Lake Guntersville AL

*** These are year end championships, and I must qualify for each in order to participate.

AOY Standings:
F3 Bassmasters- 2nd place - final standings
ABA Bassmaster Weekend Series Central TN Div.- 9th place at season end.

Saturday 9-4 JPP...

2010-09-04T12:46:00.000-07:00

Headed out to Priest this am to do some scouting for our last club derby next weekend. I eliminated two shallow spots right off the bat, and picked up Tim at the ramp around 6:30.

We headed down lake to a small pocket near the main river channel with big rocks leading in. I hung a small spot right off on the crankbait on the point. Threw the Pop-r for about 10 minutes, but I only had one blow-up (swing and a miss). We eased down the other side of the cove toward deep water and caught two or three little spots / smallies on a worm and jig. I also lost one on a crankbait here.

Next we eased down to the end of a bluff, leading into a shallow pocket. We caught 3 or 4 down this bank, and I lost a big fish that I never saw (came unbuttoned on the crank). From here we went to a major creek further down lake and hit a bluffy bank with jigs and shaky heads. We caught a couple here including a nice 13" smallie.

From here, we eased across the lake to a 45 degree bank behind an island. We caught three or so here and missed 3-4 more bites on the jig. No size, but the spots were biting ok.

From this bank, we started heading back up lake. First stop was a deep brush pile near the bridge. Tim snagged a nice 2 1/2 lb smallie here on the rig. That was the only bite out of the brush. We idled back to a roadbed in the same area, and we missed all three bites we had here.

We threw at the bridge corner on the Hobson Pike bridge, and I lost a nice one on the jig and shook off a couple more bites.

So far, so good. We had at least gotten bites on every spot since 6:30. We banged around on a few more holes in the mid lake area, but we did not have another bite.

Monday calls for a trip to the upper end to check some stuff up there. If I don't do well up river, I feel fairly confident in what we found on the lower end.

Later-

RBK

2 Day BWS Divisional - OHL 8-28 and 8-29.....

2010-08-29T18:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, was it tough on everyone. The fish have scattered, with the most consistent bite being schooling fish in the creeks. My ledge fish were gone.

The first day I caught two keepers on a trap in the jumps and also landed around 10 short fish. To tell you how truly crappy the fishing is, my pitiful 3.55 lbs put me in 15th place out of 36 boaters.

Day two was a disaster. The schooling fish were not eating lures well at all, and we only caught 3 or four in the jumps. My non-boater caught one decent 2 lb keeper, and I weighed in zero (nada; zilcho; nuttin honey). We caught around 15 on the day, but they were all dinks.

I ended the year in 9th place.

Here is a link to the results so you can see how terrible it really was:

http://www.abaproam.com/results/296.pdf

On to Priest for our last club deal and then the Regional BWS at Lay Lake in October.

Later,

RBK

Renegade Team Trail- 8-21-10...

2010-08-22T12:22:00.000-07:00

I filled in for Dwayne's regular team partner yesterday on OHL. Due to the muddy water on the main channel we decided to head to the back of a major creek to see what we could find. We only had one blow up on a frog (swing and a miss) early, so around 7 am we headed out to try some ledge fishing.

We hit three ledges in the mid lake area and caught around 5 short fish, but the bait was nowhere to be found, and it was obvious that the main lake deal was not working. Backs of the creeks didn't work and out wide wasn't happening, so we went looking in the first half of the creeks. We finally settled down on a shallow point near a creek mouth, and we caught our limit of just over 8 lbs in a couple of hours- 3 came on a rattle trap and 2 on a spinnerbait. We caught around 15-20 fish on the day with 5 keepers. No big fish.

We ended up finishing 5th or 6th and just out of the money.

I didn't find much to help me next weekend in the 2 day BWS Divisional due to the muddy water on the main channel. But, I did find a decent shallow deal that may work next weekend. If I can catch 5 keepers up in the creek early I would feel pretty good about my chances of upgrading out wide.

No more practice this week. I'll just have to go with what I know and make the right adjustments next weekend.

Later

RBK

Rainy evening on OHL...

2010-08-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine who lives on the lake called and asked is I wanted to fish the Tues evening tourney with him on the Hick. I was up for it, so I rushed home to get my stuff and made it to Hendersonville in time. Problem was the weather. The front that was pushing through town had stalled, and at 5:15 it was still raining pretty hard. We decided to bag the tourney since it was likely cancelled anyway. We waited the weather out, and eased out a bit before 6 pm to see what we could find.

He wanted to check a shallow rock pile near his house, so we started there. After about five minutes I hung a nice 14"+ keeper on a shallow crankbait. Fish were chasing bait here, but one was all we could catch. We moved further up lake and started dragging big worms on some main river ledges. We caught around 4 on the first ledge, with one of them being a keeper. The next ledge yielded another 4 or so fish, including a solid 2 lb keeper which bit the big worm.

We wanted to check a new ledge up-river, so that would be our next stop. We caught two fish here, and one of them was a solid 4 lb largemouth (a biggun for OHL). We hit one more ledge on the way in, but we only caught one small one here.

Not a bad result for a couple of hours on Hickory.

Next up for me is our two day Divisional for the Bassmaster Weekend Series over the weekend of the 28th-29th. I've got one more day to practice, so this weekend is important in figuring out my areas for the event.

Later

RBK

F3 tourney Sat 8-14....movin up in the points...

2010-08-14T13:51:00.000-07:00

We fished OHL today, and it was really tough and extremely hot. I caught a club limit of 6.7 lbs including a nice 16 3/4" Largemouth. Most fish were caught on ledges in 8-10 ft on a C-rig. On the day we caught around 14 fish, but most of them were small.

I ended up in 2nd place, but most importantly, I closed the AOY gap to within 2 1/2 lbs, so it's entirely feasible that I could win the points championship in the last event on PP in September.

See yall on the water.

RBK

OHL Sat 7-31....

2010-07-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

These are the three best from the Hick today. All were caught on ledges in 8-14 ft in mid-lake areas.

We only caught around 10 fish, but the quality was there.

Until next time.

RBK

F3 July tourney- OHL 7-24....

2010-07-24T12:58:00.000-07:00

Met my partner at the ramp around 5 am, and we headed upriver to a main lake hump to see if we could get a couple of active ones early. No dice here, so we moved across the channel to a main river bank littered with deep wood to try to nail a big one. Only one bite here, but it was a solid 15 1/4" largehaed.

From here I moved into a creek to fish some boat slips with my little wacky worm to try to catch a quick limit of little uns. No such luck. I did nail a 13 1/4" LM here and one short fish. We messed around shallow for around an hour, but it clearly wasn't happening.

We made a long run downlake to ledge fish for a while, but it was fruitless. We burned a lot of gas and time.

Around 10:00 I decided to run back upriver to the deep wood spot from early morning. We banged around on this one bank for the last two hours, and I was able to scratch limit of "club keepers" along with a solid 16 1/4" largemouth on the big worm.

Headed in at noon with a small limit of five weighing 7.55 lbs. Apparently it was tough on everyone. Second place was 2 1/4 lbs. I won first place and got the big fish money. All in all, it was a decent day considering how tough and hot it was.

I closed the gap in the AOY standings to around 7.5 lbs with two to go. It will be really tough to win it, but I have a shot if I can catch limits the last two events or bust a big sack in one of them.

Until next time.

RBK

Weekend Series 7-17-10 Ky Lake...

2010-07-17T16:18:00.001-07:00

1 fish 2.8 lbs. 31st place. Enough said! (Stayed in 9th in points)

OHL Weekend Series 6-26-10...

2010-06-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

I caught a limit of around 8 lbs by 8:30 am in a creek downlake. This was right in line with my gameplan, which was to catch an early limit shallow, and then head out wide to upgrade the rest of the day.

I was only able to cull one of the smaller fish on a main river channel bank littered with wood. It came about 20 minutes before we had to be in on a big worm. We caught a bunch of fish on the ledges, but they were all small.

All in all, it was a good day. I had 10.40 lbs and fisnished in 11th out of 46 boats. This moves me up to 9th in the AOY race with two events to go before Regionals.

Congrats to Tim Sheets from our club who fisnished 2nd on the non-boater side and had big fish.

Until next time.

RBK

OHL Sunday afternoon 5-30..

2010-05-31T04:38:00.000-07:00

Fought the crazy Memorial Day weekend boat traffic on Old Hickory Sunday afternoon for a while.

It was tough to fish in the middle of so many cruisers and ski boats, but the rain ran most of them off around 6 pm. On the last spot of the day I decided to move up shallow and flip. On about my third pitch up a bank near the boat ramp my line started heading off to the creek channel. Wham, set the hook, and in the boat with a nice 7 lb class fish, which is pictured here. Sorry for the poor photo, but it was getting dark out.

Other than that one good one I only managed four or five shorts on the crankbait.

Later

RBK

Hold your rod low (5-1)....

2010-05-02T04:24:00.000-07:00

Despite the sketchy weather forecast, Carl and I decided to break out the rain gear and head to JPP on Saturday for a little bass fishing. We had to cancel our trip to Guntersville this week, so we were itchin to go.

We launched at 6 am and headed toward Four Corners to try moving baits on some flats. The crankbait didn't seem to interest the fish, but we did catch around 6 bass on the Pop-R off of the big rocks. Herschel lost a solid 3lb class fish here too (not to mention the two plugs he broke off on the shore).

The storms started moving in on us around 7:30, so we ducked in to a marina slip and hunkered down for a couple of hours.

When the severe stuff subsided, we headed out to fish a stumpy flat near the marina. We hung around 7 more fish here, including two legal keepers. Carl caught the best of the bunch, which was a nice 3 1/2 to 4 lb LM.

The weather started getting rough again, so we decided to put it on the trailer for a while. We wanted to fish in a major down-lake creek, so we just drove down there, and since we were already soaked, we put the boat back in there. We proceeded to catch around 17-20 more fish here over the next hour and a half. The weather started to deteriorate again around 1 pm, so we gave up and headed home.

Totals for the day: 32 fish with five legal keepers; best five was around 11 lbs.

Everything we own is soaked, but it was worth the trouble.

Until next time, tight lines.

RBK

Bassmaster Weekend Series 4-25-10 Center Hill...

2010-04-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

The tourney was scheduled for Saturday, but due to the severe weather threat they rescheduled it for Sunday. Forecast for the day was mostly sunny with high winds (15-25 MPH with gusts to 30).

I met my partner at the ramp at 5:15 am, and we ramped the boat at Ragland Bottom. They let the 40 boats go right at 6 am. We headed straight to the back of Mine Lick Creek, which is where we would spend all morning. On the first stop we had around ten bites on the rig, but we only connected with four. I had all four of the keepers here, and one of them was a nice 17" LM that went around 2.75 lbs. The other three were little spots around a pound each. We fished that area for two hours or so, and we moved around the corner to a similar spot. My non-boater caught a solid 2.75 lb LM here on the rig, but that was all we found.

We hit our spot from earlier one more time, and I was able to fill out my limit with another 12 1/2" spot. It was around 11:30 now, so we had 3 hours left to upgrade.

We moved around a lot looking for another group of fish, but unfortunately, we only caught one other short fish all day.

My five weighed just over 7 lbs, which was good for 24th place. The finish moved me up to 12th in the Tennessee Central division. My goal was to catch a limit, so it was all good there. I just underestimated the weights that would be caught.

On to Old Hickory next in June.

F3 #2 at Center Hill...

2010-04-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

Wow- the weather really killed the good bite I was on last week. I wasted too much time hammering the same places we caught em last Saturday. Ended up bailing on that deal about 10:30, and we found a decent pattern. Ended up catching 6-7 out deeper, but only one solid keeper (13 3/4" Spot).

Finished 5th which moved me up to 5th overall, but I need to make up an 8 lb deficit on Priest next month. My best sack last year was on PP in May, so I just need to repeat that deal. Still a long season ahead so no need to panic yet.

Next up is Center Hill in two weeks. I expect the fish to be in full blown bedding mode. I probably won't get to pre-fish at all, so I'll be winging it. I know a bunch of areas to fish, so I'm cautiously hopeful that I can get a decent finish up there.

4-3-10 Center Hill...

2010-04-03T20:01:00.000-07:00

Headed up to The Hill early this morning to scout for our club tourney next weekend. We put in at Hurricane Brige and ran downlake to a hump off of a mainlake flat. The wind was howling ahead of the aproaching front, and we felt like we would have the chance to catch a few brow fish. On about his tenth cast, Dwayne hooked up on a toad on the spinnerbait (bigger one pictured here). The wind got so bad that we gave up on the spot.

From there, we moved back to a bluff wall and attempted to fish a spinnerbait. The wind was pounding the banks, and I could not position the boat correctly for fear of smashing into the rocks. Dwayne did catch one on a spinnerbait, and it was a nice 2 lb keeper spot. We moved over to a more protected deep transition bank, and I stuck a nice non-keeper smallie (they have to be 18") on the jerkbait. From there we worked back in a small creek to fish a specific spot. We found what we were looking for, but we only caught one fish on the sructure. DD caught it, and it was a chunky 14" smallie.

The wind kept hammering us, and the stom started pounding rain on us, so I made a run to a marina to take cover. After the miserable run, the rain and wind died down, so we headed to another creek to see what we could find. We caught about 9 more fish in this one creek, with four of them being keeper spots, and I snagged a nice 17 3/4" smallie on the jerkbait.

We bounced around for another hour or so, and DD had to leave. I fished for another hour until the usual boat problems started up. I caught two more small spots, and then hit the road.

Sat 3-27- Priest....

2010-03-28T10:33:00.000-07:00

The lake continues to be tough for me. I launched at Hurricane Creek, mid-lake. headed uplake about 3 miles to fish some spawning coves, and staging ares with moving baits. had one small fish on a crankbait early, but with the clear skies, the fish didn't seem interested in chasing.

I regrouped, and headed back towards the lower end, and I decided to slow down and move out a bit. I hooked a 3 lb smallmouth on a grub just inside a large cove near LHSP in about 6 ft. Unfortunately, the fish jumped and threw my grub back at me. I worked my way back in the cove, but there was nothing doing.

I worked back to the point and around the corner on a main lake flat heading back down lake. I picked up the C-rig, and moved the boat out to 10-2 ft. On the third cast, I hooked a good 3 lb largemouth. I stayed in the area and caught a 2 lb smallie and broke off one more. That was it for that spot.

I jumped across the lake to the end of a bluff wall where the bank transitioned to gravle / mud and scattered rock. this is where I caught the 4 1/2 lb smallie two weeks before. I picked up the jerkbait and worked the bait in 3-9 ft. I caught a noce 12" Spot, but no more takers.

From there, I headed under the bridge to check several shallow spots and a few deeper transition points. It was a waste of time.

Moved around near Four Corners for another hour or so, but the wind got so bad that it was nearly impossible to fish slowly. Loaded the Bee up, and I was home by 2 pm.

Water temps ranged from 47-51 degrees all day. The fish are still not ready to move up on the spawning flats in any numbers, so i continue to struggle. In hindsight, I have spent way too much time downlake the last few weeks. I probably should have joined the crowds in the warmer upper end.

Live and learn.

Later,

RBK

Weak start to Club season JPP 3-20-10...

2010-03-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

Boy did I struggle today! My deeper jerkbait bite never materialized at all. We caught around 8 small fish all day, and the only way we could catch them was shallow, and most came on the little shad rap.

Good news is the boat ran great, so there's that. Winner had 9+ lbs, so I've got some work to do at Center Hill in April.

Until next time,

RBK

Boat problems.....Weekend Seies 1- JPP 3-13-10...

2010-03-13T16:22:00.000-08:00

Made it down to my first stop on time, and had 3 short fish in first two hours. Went to crank the motor, and it would not turn over.

Had to get towed back to Long Hunter State Park. We fished around for a couple of hours, and I caught a nice 20" smallie on a jerkbait. That was it. I had to leave my co-angler at Long Hunter, and bag my fish up. I jumped on board with a friend, and he took me to weigh in.

The fish weighed 4.79 lbs, which was good for 17th out of 50 boats. Not bad for fishing half the time allowed.

Back to the dealer, again.

RBK

March 6th-cold water....

2010-03-06T16:20:00.000-08:00

Headed out to scout for my first Weekend series event next weekend. We stayed down lake all day, and the water was ranging between 39-44 degrees all day. The fish didn't cooperate at all. We fished deep, shallow, and in between (flats, bluffs, 45 deg banks, you name it). Finally, around 1 pm I bumped into the nice largemouth pictured here. She crushed a jerkbait on my favorite 45 degree bank near the bridge. One fish in 8 hrs!

As it turns out, that fish would have possibly gotten me a check in the BFL. Only took 7.9 lbs to win it.

Wow, is it ever tough!

RBK

Bait colors somewhat simplified.....

2010-02-05T18:26:00.000-08:00

There are sooooo many darn bait colors out there, but if you keep it fairly
simple, you can really limit what you need IMHO:

Crankbaits- three basic color patterns:
shad, chartreuse, and craw (I only buy the craw patterns in Spring time baits-
Shad Raps, Bandits, etc. On my Summer deep cranks it's either shad or chart,
depending on water color).

Spinnerbaits / Chatterbaits- white and white / chart

Topwater hard baits- pretty much shad colors here, and same basic colors on
buzzbait as with spinnerbaits above.

Jerkbaits: basic shad or gold back seem to work in most cases.

Jigs: I could really limit it to two colors- green pumpkin / brown and black /
blue, although I really like green pumkin with some blue in it, if I can't
decide.

Plastics: if forced to limit it to two basic colors, I would choose on dark and
one green; probably black/ blue flake and green pumpkin. With either green
pumpkin or watermelon, you can die the tail / pinchers to add a splash of color
if needed. Jig trailers follow the same rule; one green and one dark (black /
blue).

The only two exceptions to the platics rule would be shad imitating lures
(flukes, trick worms, swimbaits, etc.)and big worms. The one color I would
choose for the shad imitators would be pearl white. On the 10" worms, I really
like plum or blue fleck.

The bait companies are smart. They know that the more variations of colors they
release, the more baits we'll buy.

But, if you're on a limited budget or just want to cut thru the confusion, stick
with white, white / chart, green pumpkin, and black n blue. you can fish in
pretty much any conditions and catch fish.

My essential tackle box...

2010-02-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

If I had to start over with a tackle box, here's what I'd have to have to get the through the year:

Topwater:
- XCalibur Zell Pop in Foxy Shad
- Lucky Craft 100 Sammy in Shad
- Stanley Bull Ribbit in White and Catapilla
- Stanley Ribbit in same colors
- Cavitron Buzzbait 1/4 oz white with gold blade

Jerkbaits:
- 4 1/2 " Smithwick Suspending Rogue in Gold Shad pattern
- Lucky Craft 100 Pointer in Shad

Cranks:
- 100 Bandit (shad and craw)
- 200 Bandit (")
- 300 bandit (")
- SK Series 5 (sexy shad and chart sexy)
- Norman DD 22 (Sexy Shad and Chart / Blue back)
- Bomber Fat Free Shad #7 (Foxy Shad and Citrus)
- SK Red Eye Shad 1/2 oz.(chrome sexy, sexy shad, and red)

Jigs:
- 1/4 oz Bitsy Flip (Watermelon)
- 3/8 oz Arkie Style Flippin Jig (brown / green and black / blue)
- 3/8 oz Dirty Jigs Swim Jig (bream, black / blue, shad)
- 1/2 oz PJ's Football Jig (brown / green and black / blue)
- 3/4 oz PJ's Football jig (")
- 5/16 Eakins Finesse Jig (Wat / purple and Green pumpkin / orange)

Spinnerbaits:
-3/8 oz. War Eagle Spinnerbait (White and Wh / Chart)

Chatter type baits:
-Phoenix Vibrating Swim Jig (white and green pumpkin)

Plastics:
- 7" Culprit Worm (purple and red shad)
- 10" Zoom Ole Monster Worm (Plum, Blue Fleck, and Wat / Red)
- Zoom Super Chunk, Jr. (Wat Green)
- Davis Paca Chunk (Gr pumpkin, black / blue)
- SK Rage Chunk (Gr pumpkin, black / blue)
- Yum Craw Papi (4" Gr pumpkin)
- Baby Paca Craw (Green pumpkin)
- Roboworm 4"(Aaron's Magic)
- Zoom Finesse Worm (Watermelon)
- Zoom trick worm (Sherbet)
- Gambler Sweebo worm (peppergrass)
- GYBC 5" Senko (watermelon and blue pearl / silver flake)
- GYBC Creature (Black / red flk)
- Lake Fork Lure Craw tube (")
- Zoom 6" Lizard (gr pumpkin)
- Zoom 8" " (")
- Zoom Super Fluke (pearl)
- Prowler 3" Stubby Tube (Gr Pumpkin)
- 4" prowler flippin Tube (gr pumkin and black / blue)
- 5" Kalin Grub (watermelon)

Swimbait:
-Storm Wildeye Shad (pearl shad)

Spoons:
- 5" Spaits flutter spoon
- War Eagle 1/2 oz jiggin spoon (silver)

Terminal tackle:
too much to list, but weights, hooks, swivels, beads, shaky heads, tube heads, grub heads, etc.

11-13-09 JPP practice day...

2009-11-13T13:23:00.001-08:00

Took a vacation day today to go practice for the Sat am tourney on Priest. My crankbait bite seems to be going the way of the topwater bite that died in October. After cranking three banks that have been good to me lately, i decided to go deep, slow down, and work a jig.

I caught the nice 15 1/2 inch smallie on the first deep spot. Then I moved to a down lake island with deep water near by. I threw the jig on a small rock pile point, and the jig took off to the shallow rocks. I normally don't like setting the hook the day before a tourney, but I needed to see what quality of fish were in some of these new areas. The fish came right to the boat, and in she came. It was the nice 6 lb Largemouth here. Two casts later, and wham, a 3 lbr. I got out of here as quick as I could.

I moved around on deep stuff the rest of the day and caught two keeper spots and about five short LM's. For the day, I had 4 keepers for around 11 1/2 lbs. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

RBK

Sat, 10-31 Sat am tourney...

2009-11-02T07:39:00.000-08:00

Blasted off by myself at 8 am from Fate Sanders. It was cloudy and cool, with a West / SW wind blowing around 10 MPH. Headed to a bluff end point right near LHSP, where I had caught a 4 lb smallie last week. The wind was on the bank good, so I opted to chunk the 300 Bandit in TN Shad. First cast- wham- a 4 1/2 lb LM. That's what I'm talking about! In the box with her. Stayed on that bank, but no other takers, so I head down under the bridge to another bluff end with a small cove adjacent to it.

I had been pounding the fish here lately, so my confidence was farily high. Unfortunatley, the fish didn't read the playbook. Nothing doing here, so I eased over to a bluff just down lake, and I only had one bump on the jig, but I didn't connect.

I proceeded to run around down lake, alternating b/w the crankbait and jig, but it just never happened. I only caught around 8 more fish all day, with one of them being a keeper spot (12 1/4").

I guess the first cast jinx is for real.

I ended up with just over 5 lbs, and ended in around 5th place for the day. The good news was that my 4 + lb fish won the big fish pot, so I got my money back, plus a little.

I'll report back next time.

RBK

Sat 10-24-09 Sat am tourney Priest...

2009-10-24T14:14:00.000-07:00

Blasted off at 8 am from Fate Sanders. Headed down lake to a point at a bluff end just under the bridge where I've been catching them well lately. We threw crankbaits for an hour or so in that area, and we caught 4-5 fish, but the biggest was a 14 1/2" LM. Moved down to an island near Suggs Cr, but only two small fish here on the crank.

The wind was HONKIN big time, so we went to fish a jig on a fairly protected mini-bluff in a major creek down lake. Two bumps on the jig, but they weren't eating it well. From here we headed to a western shore bank near the YMCA camp that was fairly protected from the wind. My partner caught a 12 1/2" spot here on the crank, so we had one in the box.

Next, we went to a main bluff bank near our starting place. Again,they were just nipping at the jig, and we only caught a couple here. We decided to head back to the bank where we started the day, and we proceeded to catch around 6 more fish, with one being a solid 15 1/4" keeper largehead.

We now had less than two hours til weigh in, so we needed to make a move and go for a big bite. The next and final stop would be a main lake point at the head of a cove near LHSP. When we got down to the point, I felt an ever so slight tap on the jig, set the hook, and I knew it was a good one of some kind. The fish kept digging, and when we got her in the net, it was an 18 1/2" 4 lb brownie (pictured here).

We headed in with our three keepers, and weighed in 6.75 lbs, which was good for 6th place (only paid 3). My smallie just missed the big smallmouth prize (winner's was 4.5).

Good day all in all. Around 15 fish, and 3 keepers.

Tight lines.

RBK

2009-10-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

10-18-09: Cold this morning. Water temp had dipped to 60 deg (7 degree drop from last week). Caught 10 fish, and the one here is the best of the day.

Most fish on a jig in 10-15 ft near the channel. The nice un here was caught on a Bandit 300 in Shad Color at the end of a bluff down lake in around 8 ft.

Good day considering the brutal front and high skies.

Tight Lines.

RBK

Saturday. 10-10-09...

2009-10-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

Headed out to JPP early to see what the topwater bite had to offer. The weather conditions were perfect for a big brown fish, so I decided to stay in the lower end of the lake and stick with topwater most of the day.

Started in a mainlake pocket down by Elm Hill, and caught two nice sized spots on the first two casts on the point heading in. Kept working my way in to the pocket, but the bait was not active back in the back, and I only caught 4 or so small spots off of the big rocks up shallow.

From here, I moved over to the mouth of Hamilton Creek to see if the NE wind had the food chain up on the points. I caught a nice 14" smallie on a crankbait right off the bat, but as I worked further back in the creek, I did not find anything moving or feeding.

Next, I moved back towards the Hobson Pike Bridge to a pocket between two bluffs where I have been hammering the fish lately. Seems they had all disappeared, b/c I only had three small fish nip at the bait. I idled out on the main lake, to the end of a bluff to where the main river channel worked away, and I caught another decent smallie on the point on the pop-r. I worked my way into the pocket, and again the bait was nowhere to be found, and no more fish.

Next, I headed back down lake to a major island near Suggs Cr, and I caught around 4 fish on the crankbait off of the big rock to gravel transitions (near the point). No keepers here, but they were biting fairly well.

From the island, I eased on into Suggs, and I decided to slow down, and fish a bit deeper with the jig. I hit a long mini-bluff on the right in the seven points area, and I caught four fish pretty quickly on a 5/16 oz Eakins finesse jig in around 10-14 ft. The biggest was a solid 16" keeper LM.

I then ran over to the YMCA Camp area to fish the big rocks, but no one was home.

The last stop of the day would be a flat behind a long point in the Four Corners area mid-lake. I started out on the point dragging a rig, looking for a big smallie. No takers here, but I did catch one largemouth inside the point on the flat in about 6 ft. I worked up shallow on the flat, and had a couple of more bumps on the jig and rig, but none in the boat.

By now it was 12:30, and it was time to head home.

Totals for the day- around 20 fish- 1 keeper largehead and three small keeper spots for around 6 lbs.

Looking back, I wasted too much time back in the pockets. Most of the topwater and CB fish were on the points. Should have just run and gunned with a TW and CB on points all day, and then slowed down with the jig more.

Next time out, I'm heading uplake to see what's happening up there.

Until then, tight lines.

RBK

Final F3 Club tourney...

2009-09-27T08:15:00.000-07:00

Tough day:

Rain and storms all morning. The topwater bite I had been on basically disappeared. I did manage 4 club keepers (12+ ") and lost three others that were hooked up including a nice 2 lb smallie that was clearly my mistake. Coolest thing all day was when I caught my two largest keepers on one cast on a Zell Pop.

Weighed in 4.4 lbs. Good enough for around 4th place on the day. Most importantly, I was able to hold on and close out the year as points champion / angler of the year.

Good year all in all. I managed a limit in all but the last tourney.

Until next time.

RBK

Sat 9-19 JPP....

2009-09-23T07:16:00.000-07:00

We headed out Saturday under cloudy skies, with rain in the forecast. Ran down lake to a new pocket near a marina that I suspected would be holding fish. We proceeded to catch around 9 fish on top water and cranks in shallow water in this particular spot. No bigguns here, but we did catch a couple of decent sized spots on top.

From there, we went back up lake to the cove where I had caught them the day before (and last couple of weeks). We snagged around 5 more in there with one of them being a chunky keeper spot. We eased up a bluff in the same area to where the river channel swings away, and I caught a solid 2 1/2 lb largehead on the top water bait on the point. We worked on up into the pocket, and my partner caught two short largemouths on a crankbait in around 5 ft of water. Shad were popping in the area, but we never got on a group of them here.

Next, we headed under the bridge to the mid-lake area, and went looking on the flats. We eased up on a shallow bank with big rocks, and on the third cast I caught another chunky 2 1/2 lb LM on top. We had a couple of other blow ups in that area but no hook-ups.

While we were there, we decided to probe a long gravel point where the smallies tend to feed. My partner was working a c-rigged lizard in around 7-10 ft, and he got a good bite. it was the smallie pictured here, which was around 17" and pushing 3 lbs.

We worked some different types of stuff for the next hour or so, but we never found a really good group of fish. Off the water by 12:30. Totals for the day:

22 fish with three good ones, and a handful of keeper spots.

I'll report back after our final club tourney on Saturday.

Tight lines,

RBK

Fall is showing up- topwater time...

2009-09-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice 5 1/2 lb Largemouth caught on a topwater bait today on JPP. The water is high, and the fish have moved shallow. Sorry for the crappy photo, but I was solo when I caught her.

Labor Day 2009...

2009-09-07T14:14:00.000-07:00

Caught around 4 in the lake early on topwater and crankbait; then headed up towards the Stones River. We caught 3 more on some ledges in the upper end of the lake. Around 9:30 we went into the river. Saw a good deal of schooling activity, but we didn't spend any time chasing them.

Went way up the West Fork, and I caught a nice 4 1/2 lb LM on a jig.

Nice day.

Later

RBK

P.S. fell overboard today! NICE

Guntersville 8-23-09

2009-08-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hit Big G at 6 am today. Headed down lake to a grass flat and caught around 10 on a combination of senkos, pop-r, and a fluke, including a nice 3 1/2 pounder.

From there we headed down to a main lake ledge and landed two on a DD22 crankbait, which included a nice 5+ lb largehead.

Next, we went to an underwater island and proceeded to whack em on a Ribbit frog. We caught around 5 more solid keepers here, which put our total at around 14 fish with eight legal keepers for the day.

We bounced around for another hour or two and caught three or four more fish, but no bigguns.

All in all, it was a good day. 18 fish, with 8 keepers for around 16 lbs on our best five.

Later,

RBK

F3 8-8-09...

2009-08-09T11:04:00.000-07:00

Blasted off at 5:30 am. Headed upriver to a hump adjacent to the main channel. Bait was active, but the current was dead slack. We chunked cranks for around 20 minutes, and I caught a 12' dink, and my co-angler nabbed a solid keeper right at 15". From there, we bolted down river to a major creek to fish around a marina. We caught around 8 more fish here, and I left with a small limit of club keepers (12+ inches, since we don't actually weigh them in).

We ran way down river to a main channel ledge to throw a rig. We landed around 10 more fish here, with 7 or so keepers. I was able to cull up to just over 8 lbs here, but we did not get a big bite. When the fish quit biting here around 9 am, we ran North to fish more ledges, but we would only catch two more small fish all day. The bite just died with the rising heat.

We turned in our weigh sheets at 12:30. I ended up 3rd, and my non-boater finished 2nd. The good news is that my lead in the AOY race remains at 12 lbs going into the last event.

Until next time.

RBK

Old Hickory 8-2...

2009-08-02T17:45:00.000-07:00

Headed out to OHL this morning to do a little practicing for the second to last club tourney of the year next weekend. I was committed to finding some more ledges for the tourney, and I was able to add two to the arsenal.

I started on my marina slips, and it appears that deal is just about done. I caught four fish including two 14"+ keepers, and after thirty minutes, I was gone.

I headed down lake to a ledge that's been good the last few weeks just to check it. After four fish in about 15 minutes, including 3 solid keepers, I decided to start my search for new water. I moved about 2 miles upriver, and started on a main lake drop, but the first 100 yds or so just felt like silted in mud, and I couldn't find any wood or rock in the magic depth. I moved further up the ledge, and I started feeling a rough bottom. I don't know if it was a shell bed or an old roadbed, but it was a key deal. I caught six fish off of this stretch, and two of them were solid OHL keepers.

Next, I went further up and set up on a ledge at the mouth of a creek, and I found a good bit of scattered wood in 6-10 ft, but the only fish I caught here were small.

From here, I went to the creeks to try my flippin and crankin deals, and neither one worked. I did find two keeper fish on a secondary ledge in the creeks.

I hit two more main lake ledges before I left, but no luck.

It was a good practice day. I added two new spots to my milk run for Saturday, and my best five would have gone around 11 lbs. I'd take that on tourney day.

I'll report back next week.

RBK

F3 Tourney Saturday 7-25...

2009-07-27T06:22:00.000-07:00

We had our July tourney on OHL Saturday. We blasted off at 5:10 am and headed to a main lake hump, but with no current running, the fish were not there. After 15 minutes of chunkin and windin, we headed down to a marina to catch some small ones to get on the scorebord. The marina appears to be losing fish every week. We only caught around 10 on the wacky worm, and I only managed two small keepers here.

Next we headed to a secondary drop inside of the same creek, and I grabbed three other small keepers here. I now had a small limit of around 5 lbs, so it was off to the ledges to upgrade. We ran down lake to a main river channel drop and fished it for an hour or so. The fish were not biting very well, but we managed three fish on the rig here, and my non-boater snagged the big fish of the day, which was a healthy 20", 4 1/2 lb largemouth.

I was stuck on 5 lbs, so we headed back up-lake to fish a major creek. We pulled up on a point, and I immediately caught a solid 2 lb fish on the rig. We stayed on this spot for about 45 minutes, and we caught around 8 fish. I was able to cull three more times here, but they were not much help.

We moved around some more, and I decided to go shallow and flip for a while. We caught 4-5 more flippin, but no help to my bag.

We headed in at 12:30. My bag weighed 7.6 lbs, which was good for 3rd place. My non-boater had three keepers including the big fish of the tourney, which won him a little cash.

I was able to maintain my lead in the points race, which currently stands at around 9 lbs with two events to go. Old Hickory again in two weeks, and then KY Lake in Sept.

Until next time.

RBK

Central Team Trail 7-18-09.....

2009-07-20T07:02:00.000-07:00

Fished a tourney on OHL Saturday with a friend. We have both been on some fish, so we split up our areas and developed a milk run of holes between the take off at Flippers and Drake's Creek on the lower end.

We had one community hole in mind for our first spot, but, as usual, it was occupied when we drove down lake from the launch. We went on further to a major creek and a set of marina slips where I have been catching ton of smaller fish lately. The fish were there, but the quality was just not enough to matter. Dwayne caught one around 13 3/4" and I had a couple of 13 1/2" fish. After about 30 minutes, we decided to leave with an empty livewell.

The next spot was a ledge inside of the same creek. I had been catching a few decent keeper fish here on a crankbait and Carolina Rig in 5-10 ft of water. We pulled up, and there was little if any shad activity, so I was skeptical as to whether or not we could catch them here. We marked the ledge with buoy markers on each end and started down it with the rig and crankbait. We fished for 20 minutes or so without a bite, and just when I suggested that we leave, my partner had a bite out of a rough spot that felt like a small rock pile. We zeroed in on this small spot in about 8 ft of water, and proceeded to catch around 8 fish here, all on the rig. We ended up leaving this spot with two small keepers. The bite died here around 7:00, so we headed down lake.

The next spot was a main river channel ledge that Dwayne had been catching some good ones on. He started with a crankbait, and I went with the rig here. It didn't take long for us to connect, and over the next hour, we caught around 10 fish here. We rounded out our limit, and DD caught the biggest one of the day which was pushing 4 lbs. We figured we had 10-11 lbs, and to contend, we would need two more good fish to cull the smallest ones in the box.

We ran further down lake to Drakes Creek, where I had caught some decent fish last week flipping some shallow shoreline cover. We went to my flippin bank and caught two fish, but they were small. No help, so we're out of there. We ran back to the main lake ledge and caught 3-4 more fish, but we didn't upgrade our weight much.

Next, we ran back up lake to a major creek, and we flipped another shallow bank. Only one small fish here, so back to the drops we headed. We hit a secondary point in that same creek, and caught 4 more fish on a crankbait, but we only were able to cull one fish, and it was just adding ounces at that.

From there we headed out to the main river and hit the community hole we had wanted to fish at first light. We landed three here, but no upgrades were found. Time was running short, so we went to some deep wood along the main river and threw worms, but nothing was biting.

We checked in and took our best five to the scales that weighed 10.5 lbs. It took 12.33 to make the top 5 and get paid and 20 lbs won it (a heck of a sack on OHL).

All in all, we had a really good day. We caught around 35 fish, 11 keepers, and we were able to cull three times. We just needed two or three more good ones to contend for a check.

F3 Club tourney is this Saturday, on OHL. I'll report back.

Good fishing.

RBK

June F3 Tourney-Boat issues...

2009-06-27T17:42:00.000-07:00

Headed out Friday evening for a couple of hours just to check a couple of last minute spots for Saturday's club event on the Hick. Everything was fine until the power trim failed to work right before I pulled out of the lake- ouch.

I was able to nurse the boat on to the trailer, and I called my friend Herschel to see if he would let me use his boat on Saturday. He said sure and even drove up to KY along with me to pick up his boat. We did not get back to Nashville until close to midnight, but I had a boat and could fish Saturday.

I met my partner at the ramp at 5 am, and we blasted off upriver to a major community hole. Much to my surprise, it was unoccupied. The current was ripping, and bait was everywhere. I knew we had a shot to smash them early. My non-boater caught three keepersfairly quickly on a crankbait, and I nabbed one 2 lb keeper, but I lost two solid weigh fish on the plug. The fish were just slapping at the bait. After about thirty minutes, the current went slack, and the fish quit biting.

Next, we headed down lake to a marina to catch a quick limit. We proceeded to catch around 25 fish in around 45 minutes on a wacky worm. No big ones, but the limit was secured for me by7:30 am. Now it was time to move out off the bank and try to upgrade my catch for the rest of the day. We still had five hours, and my confidence was extremely high.

Then, on the next spot, I noticed that the trolling motor was really slowing down. By 8:00, it was basically useless. The batteries were almost completely dead. My friend had not been on his boat in months, and since we did not get back to the house until midnight, I was not able to get a good charge on the deep cycles. Buzz kill! The bad news was made worse by the fact that the wind was less than a whisper, so drifting areas was not possible. We would pull up on a ledge, and the boat would just not budge.

We ended up catching around 6 more fish after 8:30 with no trolling motor, but it was nearly impossible to fish that way.

The good news is that I managed 9 1/2 pounds which is a decent OHL limit. I think I finished 3rd for the day, and I only gave up a handful of my points lead in the Angler of the Year race.

I'd love to know what we could have done with a full day of actual fishing, but such is life.

Until next time.

RBK

Moving on to The Mud Hole (OHL)....

2009-06-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Our Club's next three events will be on Old Hickory Lake this Summer, so my attention has turned to fishing that stump filled, shallow mud hole (you can tell it's not my favorite lake).

Anyway, I have spent the last two weekends checking some spots where I had success there last year. I've found several groups of fish in some of the same areas as 2008 and have found at least four new schools in the same general area of the lake.

This past Saturday I headed out there right at first light and went looking for a top water bite with virtually no success. I landed two babies in some bank grass on a buzz frog, but that was it. The grass that used to grow in the back of a major creek was not there this year. The good thing is that I eliminated that area totally, so I will not waste time on tourney day chasing a non-existent top water deal. Our club tourneys are over at 12:30, so you can't afford to waste any time.

On my way out of that creek I decided to stop and fish some marina slips and did was working for me last year around another marina, and I'm glad I stopped. I caught around 15 fish in 15 minutes doing that deal. They were mostly small fish, but I think I can catch an early limit of "club keepers" on that spot next week.

I then ran upriver to another major creek to try some cranking and Carolina rigging. On one spot I caught three on the rig and two on the crankbait. I also jumped off a toad in the five pound class that loaded up on the crank. It didn't hurt my feelings too badly, because I had the stock hooks on the bait, and it was just a practice day. I know what lives there now, and I'll be back on the day that counts fully prepared with replacement hooks, and I'll be ready to put em in the net.

Next, I headed across the lake to another marina, and by now the sun was up, creating a good deal of shade under the docks. There was no bait fish activity, but with the 90 degree heat, I figured it was worth a shot fishing in the shade. My marina pattern paid dividends here as well. I caught six fish in around 15 minutes, with two of them being legitimate 2 lb class keepers.

From there, I decided to go flippin the rest of the day. I was doubtful that it would work, because the lake was down compared to last year, and most of my flippin banks were just too shallow. So, I moved out a little further in the creek, and it was on. The shade was the key deal again, and I proceeded to whack em on a TX rigged creature bait in fairly skinny water. I had two fish in the 3 lb class and around 10 other fish in the next couple of hours.

The good news is that I had already identified eight to ten other areas to catch them cranking or riggin over the last couple of weeks. This practice day was successful because I added three new spots to the milk-run, and most importantly, I found something I can do first thing in the morning that could easily get me an early limit. Just as important as finding fish is eliminating unproductive water, and I did some of that too. The real bonus of the day was finding that flippin bite. I have a lot of confidence in the area that I found, and it should be a good way to upgrade my catch.

I could have culled to around 11 lbs on what came over the rail, and had I landed the big one, I would have had right at 15 lbs, which is a strong weight on OHL right now. 13 1/2 lbs won the ABA weekend series deal Saturday, and Flippers is taking 14-16 lbs per week to win.

Overall, I'm happy with what I've found. I have around a dozen spots to fish on tourney day, and we should be around fish all day. The best part is that all of my spots are in a small 5-6 mile radius of the ramp, so we won't waste a bunch of time running around. As always on OHL, the wild card will be the bigger fish.

The plan is to catch five early, and then hog hunt the rest of the day with the flippin stick, crankbait, and rig.

I'll report back after the tourney next weekend.

Tight lines.

RBK

Summer ledge fishing

2009-05-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

Here are two of the better ones today on KY Lake. Good day. Caught around 25 with 7 keepers. Best five around 17 lbs.

F3 Club May tourney- some days it all comes together...

2009-05-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Fished our May tourney today on Priest. I had practiced on Friday and caught a bunch of fish but mostly dinks. The good thing is that I had several areas located that were holding fish and shad.

My goal for the day today was to catch a limit in the first two hours, and then go try to upgrade with some larger ones.

We blasted off at safe light (around 5:15), and we headed to a mid-lake flat where I had caught a few on Friday. We started with topwaters and crankbaits. The fish were fairly shallow, and I opted to throw the crankbait. Good call for sure. In the first 45 minutes I caught three keeper fish, and all of them were in the 3-4 lb class. I rounded out my limit on that spot around 6:30, well ahead of schedule.

From there we hit a couple of other flats in the area, but all of the fish were small. I upgraded ounces here.

By 7:30 we were heading downlake to a major creek where smallmouth live. We weeded through around 10 fish on a tube and jig, and then I had a bite that felt very different. The fish slammed the tube, and took off running, leaping, and cavorting. It was a nice 18 1/2 " smallie. That fish replaced a pound and a half largehead, which was a nice upgrade. By now I figured I had around 14 lbs on five fish, with one little one left to cull. We hit a couple of roadbeds downlake, but no takers. I was still confident that I could catch a good one on a roadbed, so we kept moving back downlake.

We pulled up on a roadbed near the bridge, and once my Carolina Rigged Lizard came over the road in the magic depth, WHAM. The fish took off for deep water, and I knew it was a good un. It turned out to be the smallie pictured here, which measure 20" on the button. This fish culled the last small one, so I now had 5 fish for 18.01 lbs.

My goal now became to hit the 20 lb mark, but it didn't happen. My non-boater only had two keepers by now, and I decided to go to our first spot again to see if we could get his limit. We ended up catching around 15 more fish, but no more big ones. Duke added one keeper to his bag, and that was the end of the day.

All in all, it was a great day.

Until next time, tight lines, and sore thumbs!

RBK

2009-05-20T17:22:00.000-07:00

Here's a nice one caught last week on Old Hickory.

2009-05-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

Here are two of the good ones in the High Water post below.

High water bassin.....

2009-05-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

The unusual Spring of 2009 has brought high water to Middle TN, and the fishing has been excellent through the middle of May. Percy Priest has been anywhere from 3-7 ft high for the last three weeks, and the fish have been in the flooded trees, vines, bushes, and other stuff that usually lives well above the water line.

Two weeks ago, I caught a solid limit of around 16 lbs. on PP anchored by two four pounders. The fish were on the edges of the trees anywhere I could find green leafy trees submerged in 2-5 ft of water. It didn't seem to matter what you threw at them, as long as it was either a jig or soft plastic. The best baits were a Lake Fork tackle Tube Craw, GYBC Creature Bait, and a Tight Line 1/2 oz jig and plastic trailer. the creature fish came flipping and pitching directly in the brush, while the jig fish liked a swimming presentation. I'd swim the jig up to the target, kill it beside the bush, and then swim it back to the boat.

I was very confident that we could do well in the Inner City Ministries Big Fish / Black bag event held on Saturday, May 16th out of Fate Sanders. my only concern was that the lake level had been brought down two feet from the prior weekend, but it was still 3 1/2 ft above summer pool, which is plenty to keep the fish in the trees.

We started on a couple of spots that my partner wanted to hit with no bites, and then, about 7 am we went to my flipping spots from the weekend before. We pulled into the first cove, and whack! we caught around 8 fish in the same places I had caught them the week before. Out of the 8, four were solid keepers, but none of them were over 3 lbs, so no need to weigh them in. At this point, we felt good about the pattern, and the fish appeared to be in the same places as last weekend.

We moved on to my second cove and flipped up three or four more, but again, no bigguns. we kept flippin for another couple of hours, but the bite seemed to die as the day went on, so we decided to go looking for some fish out off the banks. We hit a flat mid-lake where I had been catching them good before the water came up, and we had 5 or six here on a c-rig, but they were all small. Then we went way down lake to a flat where the fish have been stacked, but again, we only caught dinks. I had one more cove to flip down lake, but the water had muddied up since the prior week, and we did not get a bite.

As time was running down, we went back to the first cove of the day, but the fish were nowhere to be found. We noticed that the water had dropped at least half a foot since the morning, and I'm sure that had a lot to do with the bite dying off during the day.

For the day we ended up with around 20 fish and 6 or seven keepers, for around 12 lbs. Fun day of fishing, but no pay back for all the hard work.

The lake is back to near summer pool now, so it's back to conventional post spawn tactics. Our club is fishing our second event of the year Saturday on Priest, and I'm fairly confident that I will do well. This is my favorite time of the year to fish, as the fish are off bed, hungry, and extremely willing to eat a c-rigged lizard, jig, and hopefully a top water plug or two. I'll report back after Saturday.

Tight lines,

RBK

F3 Club tourney 3-28- Priest

2009-03-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Today our club had our first tourney of the year on Percy Priest. The weather forecast was sketchy at best, but by the time we launched at 6:30 am, the rain had stopped, and it was pretty much perfect weather for fishing. The fish would definitely cooperate.

We ran down lake to a major creek and fished some shallow points with a mix of chunk rock and pea gravel with crankbaits. We caught about 15 fish in the first hour and a half with one of them being a 21" pig that had already spawned. We left the first spot and hit a flat in another major creek downlake. The fishing was a bit slower, and this hole seemed to attract half of our club. We did catch 6-7 fish in there on a mix of cranks and jigs.

By now it was around 10:30, and it was time to fire the Yammyhauler and head up lake. We hit on spot around an old roadbed and landed a couple, but we did not find the mother load here.

It was now pushing 11:00, and the clock was ticking fast toward our 12:30 check-in time. We went to a transition point and flat behind a major island, and it was on. We chunked the little crankbait, and the fish were smacking it. We sat in that area for about 45 minutes and caught around 13 more fish, including a fat pre-spawn 18" largemouth. By now I had culled to a limit of around 13 lbs, but I knew I needed to catch one more good one to win the deal. We had around 30 minutes left, and we would spend our last few casts chunking and winding a rattle bait on some major flats near Four Corners. No takers, so we headed in.

Turns out I was right. If I could have culled out one fish with another 4 lb class fish, I would have won it. I finished third with just over 13 lbs. First place was almost 15 lbs and second place was just over 14 lbs. I tied for the big fish award of the day.

All in all it was a really good day with over 30 over the rail and two solid big fish.

Next, it's off the Center Hill for a Team Trail event and club tournament. I'll report back.

Tight lines,

RBK

Preist pics from Sunday 3-22

2009-03-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

Here are the two big fish from Sunday.

Spring 09 breaking wide open...(3-09)

2009-03-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

Last week, I headed down to Guntersville with a freind in my club for some fun fishing at Guntersville. The water temps were in the mid 50's to around 60 in some areas, and the fish were moving up to make little bass.

Thursday we had a guide and ended up with 31 on the day with around 15 keepers. Our best 5 would have weighed around 24 lbs. I had the big fish of the day which was 7.5 to 8 lbs (no scales in the boat). The big fish cme on a main river island ledge in the afternoon on a chrome rattle trap in about 5 ft of water. Most of the fish were caught on clay banks with stumps and grass mixed in in 1-4 ft on rattle baits, craws, and 8" lizards.

After the guide trip ended, we went back to the cabin and grabbed my boat. We stayed around the State park and caught 7-10 more fish before dark with 5 being keepers for around 13 lbs. Total for the day was around 40 fish and 20 keepers.

Friday, a major front pused through bringing with it 25 MPH North winds. We only caught 2 fish all day, and the wind ran us off early.

Saturday was nicer weather wise. We ended up with around 12 fish and 4 keepers for around 13 lbs. with the big fish of 5lbs caught on a grass / clay flat in 4 ft on a trap.

It was a great trip, and if not for the front that slammed us it would have been exceptional.

Sunday, I got back and the wife and kids had plans out of the house all afternoon, so I went to Preist for around 4 hours to try my luck there. The fish were shallow and fairly active. I caught 2 big hybrids by accident and around 14 bass with 3 keepers. Big fish of the day was a healthy 5 lb pre-spawn largemouth caught in 5 ft of water on a crankbait. The key was fishing shallow staging points near deep water and also near shallow spawning flats. bait was a real key too, as if I found bait, the fish were there.

All in all, it was a great 4 days on the water, and it will only get better over the next two-three weeks.

Tight lines,

RBK

Pre-turkey day bassin trip...

2008-11-26T15:56:00.000-08:00

Took a day off today to head to Preist for a little fishing. Hit the lake around 8:30 am and headed down-lake to fish a deep bluff. Fished there for 1 hour- nothing, nada, zilcho.

From there I eased over to one of my favorite early Spring transition banks. Threw a jig for 30 minutes and landed two beautiful smallies. The largest was 18" and around 3 lbs.

Met up with a fellow fisherman on that bank, and he said he'd been catching a few on a shad rap, so I threw that for the next hour or so, and caught a 2.5 lb largemouth and two healthy spots.

Caught two more fish on a jig on another bluffy bank.

Then I fired up the Yammyhauler, shot the gas, and BEEEEEEEEP. The warning buzzer was going off, and the boat wouldn't get on plane. Figured I'd better limp back to the ramp to avoid any damage to the engine, so I put it on the trailer around noon and headed straight to Team Marine to drop the boat.

Good news is the service manager said he thinks it's just a clog in the oil filter or line, which is making the small tank on the motor read low. Should be a fairly easy and cheap fix (I hope).

All in all a good day. 4 keepers on 7 fish.

Until next time.

RBK

4th place ain't bad....

2008-10-25T15:19:00.001-07:00

Fished the new Saturday tourney out of Fate Sanders on Priest today. I got there early to register and got boat #8. None of my regular partners could fish, so I was going solo vs. 2 man teams, but as tough as the fishing was reported to be on PP, I still felt like I had a chance.

Headed straight up the East Fork of the Stones River (a brisk 20 mile run). I set the boat down on one of my favorite stretches of wood upriver, and started throwing a buzzbait at the cover. Problem was the water was a chilly 56 degrees! Too cold for a topwater bait.

When it was clear the topwater deal wasn't going to happen, I committed to slowing down and making hundreds of pitches at wood and rock in both forks of the river.

I moved around for a couple of hours, and lost a decent fish on a shaky head worm around 10:00 am. Then, on the next bank, I hooked a solid 1.75 lb spotted bass on a small creature bait. I stayed in the same area of the E. Fork for another 45 minutes, but no other takers. The front had pushed out of Middle TN by now, and I knew it was just going to get tougher. My plan and fishing technique are ideal for post frontal conditions, b/c up that river the fish will stay shallow and move to cover when the barometer rockets upward. It was tough, but I was still confident in what I had planned.

Around 11:00 am I moved to the West Fork and headed as far up as I could and still float the Bumble Bee. I found three huge groups of shad and tried fishing shad imitations for 15 minutes or so, but I knew I needed to slow down. I hit three deep banks in that area with no luck. Then I fired up the Yamaha and ran about 3 miles back toward the lake. The first channel bend bank I hit held my second keeper, which was a solid 17" Largemouth, just shy of 3 lbs.

By now, I had run out of prime banks up the river, and only had 1 1/2 hrs left until weigh in. Decision time! This is where these things are won or lost, and I think I made the wrong move. Instead of staying a re-fishing the upriver banks, I decided to run into the main lake, and try to catch a couple of spotted bass, since they only have to be 12". I ran to the mid-lake area and fished 2 long bluffs and never had a sniff.

Made it back to the marina on time, and bagged up my 2 passengers for the weigh in. I though I was sunk when I walked up to the scales and heard 12 lbs was leading. The tourney director said he had a 5 fish limit, so I knew 3rd was best possible finish for me.

Good thing is that only one other team had more weight than yours truly. My two weighed in at 4.52. I got my money back, and earned some valuable points for the trail if I decide to fish more of them.

Considering that I hadn't been on the lake in 3 months and I went it alone, I was fairly pleased.

Until next time.....

Tight lines.

RBK

Been laid up in dry dock....

2008-10-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

Haven't been on the lake in three long weeks, and that trip was pretty much a bust on OHL. Had 2 keepers in our last club tourney of the year. Put me in 2nd overall for the season.

I'm planning on heading to Priest this Saturday to fish a local tourney. I'll be fishing blind, since I haven't been out there in over two months, but I've got some good info from late October the last couple of years to fall back on.

Plan on running to the uppper end and looking for off-colored water and fishing shallow early, then working my way back down lake later on if the up-lake thing doesn't pan out.

I'll report back, but I'm cautiously optimistic, and frankly just happy to be fishing!

September fishing

2008-09-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Haven't been in two weeks. Last trip was to Priest and it was TOUGH.

F3 Bassmasters are having our September tourney this Saturday on Old Hickory. I haven't been out there in over three weeks. I'm hoping that the summer patterns are still holding up from August. The good thing is that I was on a shallow bite then, and with the air and water temps cooling, that deal should only get better.

I feel like if I can find the bait I know how to catch em on OHL. Spent a bunch of time out there this summer, and I have 7-10 areas that were holding some decent groups of fish, but we'll see what happens Saturday.

I'm in second place in the points, trailing the leader by 6 1/2 lbs with two events to go. So, it's now or never. To have a chance to win the points, I need to beat him by at least three pounds to have a legit shot to take it in October on Priest.

I'm optimistic on Priest in October, b/c I was on a really good bite there last year in the fall. But I need to get within striking distance by sacking them good this weekend. It's unfortunate I couldn't pre-fish OHL the last week or so, but we'll just see if we can locate them.

I'll report back next week.

RBK

OHL F3 club tourney 8-16-08

2008-08-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

Had 7.6 lbs on 5 clones (all around 14"). All keepers caught on wacky worm around marina slips.

Finished second.

Tough day, all in all, but at least I had a limit.

8-9-08 Pre-fish OHL

2008-08-09T15:13:00.000-07:00

My non-boater partner for next week, Carl A, and I went out to OHL this morning to try to find some more groups of fish for our club tourney next weekend. We actually wore sweatshirts this morning, as it was around 60 degrees when we hit the lake.

We threw topwater baits on some shallow wood early and had no luck, so we went to some docks that have been holding a lot of bait and fish the last few weeks. the fish never came up like they have been, but we did manage two small fish off the docks on a wacky worm, one of which was a 14" keeper.

From there, we just went looking. We hit some deep stuff for around 30 minutes and each caught a fish, with mine on a worm being a solid 2 lbr. Then we went to a cranking spot in a creek, but the only taker was a solid 2 lb white bass.

After that we headed back in a shallow creek arm down lake and found tons of shad fry and some schooling action. We caught around five in that area, but these guys didn't have their training wheels off yet (dink city).

From there, we went back to one of my best ledges in a creek mouth, but no takers.

By now it's around 11:00, and we decided to go flippin for the last hour. We caught around four more flippin shallow wood and called it a day. For the day, we had 3 or 4 14 " + keepers for not much weight.

Tough day, but we did eliminate some water, and confirmed some of the patterns that have been working lately. We'll see how it pans out next week.

Later-

RBK

Recent fishing on Old Hickory Lake

2008-08-05T15:13:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last month on OHL trying to pattern fish in the dog days of summer.

The Army Corps of Engineers has not been generating any current, so the ledge fishing has been spotty at best.

A friend of mine and I fished PBF on Old Hickory two weekends ago, and all I can say is, what might have been. He broke off a 4 lbr right at the boat, and 30 minutes later, I lost an absolute pig in the 6-7 lb class. Those were the only two fish we lost all day, but they were the ones we needed make a run at first place. We ended up with a limit just shy of 9 lbs, which put us in 23rd place. With the two we lost, we'd have had between 16-17 lbs (good for 2nd or 3rd and big fish pot)- OUCH!

The patterns I have working now are as follows:

1. Early morning bite around docks and marina slips (tons of shad fry).
2. Shallow cranking bite on flats in the major creeks in the mid-lake area (3-5 ft).
3. Deeper cranking secondary drops half way back in the same creeks (6-12 ft).
4. Creek channel drops with slow moving baits (6-15 ft).
5. Dirt shallow flipping bite way back in the creeks in the shade.

The good thing is I'm on multiple patterns in a relatively small area, so I don't have to waste a lot of time running around. The bad news is the bait is moving day to day, and the fish are moving with them.

We have our August F3 tourney on OHL on 8-16, and I am fairly confident that I can catch a limit of 14" fish. The wild card, as always will be the key big bite, and whether I can actually get the good ones in the net.

Heading back out to pre-fish this Saturday, and I will report back on what I find.

Tight lines,

RBK