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

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...

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...

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.....

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...

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...

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...

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....

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....

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...

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

OHL Weekend Series 6-26-10...

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..

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)....

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...

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...

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...

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....

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...

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...

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....

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.....

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...

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.