Well what I can say about Old Hickory Lake...... Well let's start with it kicks my butt every time I go there so I knew the last BWS event was not going to be easy. After a long trip on the road and coming from one of the hardest events I have fished in years on the Detroit River (Lake Erie and St.Clair) I was looking forward to getting back south. Little did I know what I was asking for. I had one day to pre-fish, well more like 6 hours, but knew I could atleast put a small limit together. After getting to the lake I found out this event was going to be alot harder than I thought.
I hit the water at daybreak after a short nap in the truck at the ramp(thanks to the security at Blackjack cove) working some areas I had fished in the past event. I thought if those fish were still there, great but if not I atleast had a starting point on where to adjust on the water. When I pulled up on the first stop I noticed the shad were so thick it looked like you could walk across them. Now don't get me wrong, I love to find bait fish but there is such a thing as too many. I have found in alot of tournaments that if you have too many it kills the bite. Reason being it is hard to compete with Mother Nature.
After finding the deeper bite was not going to work for me I moved to shallow water and started fishing my strong points. I hit grass lines and areas just inside the mouths of creeks right off the main channel finding some keeper fish but nothing huge at all. After making some calls to good friend and local Radio host of Southern Bass Radio, Scott Morris I found I was on the right track. After making a few small adjustments I still found nothing huge but had a little more confidence in my areas.
On day one I drew a good guy that was from the area. We hit a couple of topwater spots fast I had boated a few keepers on first thing then moved to one of my better places when the sun got up. We stayed in that area catching tons of fish but all were smaller except one my co-angler boated on a spook type bait. We saw numbers of bigger fish eating shad but never got them to commit to the baits. Day one ended with my first zero in a tournament day in a long time. Needless to say I was not thinking very right at dinner. I needed to atleast boat one solid keeper to make the top 20 and make it to Regionals at Lay Lake in Birmingham.
On day two I drew out with a guy that didn’t fair much better than I did on day one so I went for the fence. I told him we were going to fish two areas all day on the south end of the lake and that's exactly what we did. On stop one(a small rock pile in Drakes Creek) I started busting all the 13.5 inch fish I wanted on just about everything I tossed at them. My co-angler got schooled in dropshots and Jackall Flick Shake tactics. I boated atleast 30 fish with not one keeper and he had no bites at all. I then moved to the second stop. Within one pass my co-angler boated a solid 2.5 lb keeper on a small crankbait(not sure of the brand). After seeing that I felt a little better and got a second wind. I tossed several baits at them with nothing but shorts to show for it. With time running out I just stopped and cleared my head. I changed the playlist on my IPod and tied on one of my big fish baits, a Jackall Ammonite Shad. I rigged it on a heavy Lake Fork Swimbait hook and went to stroking in under shad on the break line. It only took about 8 cast to put a 2 lb keeper in the boat. This was the last bite I got that would keep before time ran out to make the run back.
Once back at the dock I could already see several boats loading so I knew I atleast past a few others with that one keeper fish. After taking our catch to the scales saw I was in 16 for the year and made the top 20 as I wanted to at the start of the season(I did miss the first event so I made it in 4). To give everyone an idea of just how strange the lake was the angler that won only had one fish on day one and a massive 17+ lbs on day two to win the event. All his fish were caught on deep structure. Congrats to him and a great comeback.
Also I would like to say congratulations to Chad Hall for a great two day event and top 5 finish(he is strong on that lake with this being his 2nd check on it this year) and my roommate Robert Taylor for getting his first check ever on the Co-Angler side. He worked hard all year and waited to the last event to get one.LOL We are done with the regular season now in that Division and it's time to turn up the heat as we go to Lay Lake just south of Birmingham for the regional event. I look for Chad to be a heavy favorite there but I will give him a run for his money.LOL The big picture is making the top 50 there. Once you make the cut you are invited to the BWS Nationals held on Lake Guntersville. The gloves come off at that event and the winner heads to the biggest stage in Bass fishing, The Bassmaster Classic.
Thanks to all of our sponsors, supporters, and most of all our fans for the great support and well wishes. Looking forward to seeing everyone at regionals in Oct.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Guntersville Report 8-31
Water Temperature: 86
Water Clarity: 2-3 feet
Well after 2 months on the road fishing tournaments from Tenn to New York I made it back to Guntersville. Rodney has had several trips that were very productive and the frog bite has been getting stronger everyday. I hit the water Monday with a halfday trip with a father and son learning some of the lake. We started kinda slow with several bites but nothing boated on shallow grass lines. We then moved to deeper water and teaching them how to use some tactics I learned fishing the Detroit River. They both had some fish but nothing huge. After that bite died we found some schooling fish. We stayed on them the rest of the trip with several solid fish on a Jackall Mikey swimbait and the Bowstick.
After the trip was done I went back out to look around and the flippping bite was ok but not what I expected. I also tossed a rat over matted grass with several blow ups but nothing bigger than 4 lbs..
The schooling fish are alot of fun but the better size seems to come from flipping mats and throwing frogs. Im looking forward to being home all of Sept and staying on Guntersville for awhile. Thanks to everyoe for the calls and support and looking forward to seeing everyone back on "the Big G". Hope everyone has a great and safe Holiday weekend.
God Bless
Phil.4:13
Water Clarity: 2-3 feet
Well after 2 months on the road fishing tournaments from Tenn to New York I made it back to Guntersville. Rodney has had several trips that were very productive and the frog bite has been getting stronger everyday. I hit the water Monday with a halfday trip with a father and son learning some of the lake. We started kinda slow with several bites but nothing boated on shallow grass lines. We then moved to deeper water and teaching them how to use some tactics I learned fishing the Detroit River. They both had some fish but nothing huge. After that bite died we found some schooling fish. We stayed on them the rest of the trip with several solid fish on a Jackall Mikey swimbait and the Bowstick.
After the trip was done I went back out to look around and the flippping bite was ok but not what I expected. I also tossed a rat over matted grass with several blow ups but nothing bigger than 4 lbs..
The schooling fish are alot of fun but the better size seems to come from flipping mats and throwing frogs. Im looking forward to being home all of Sept and staying on Guntersville for awhile. Thanks to everyoe for the calls and support and looking forward to seeing everyone back on "the Big G". Hope everyone has a great and safe Holiday weekend.
God Bless
Phil.4:13
Guntersville Report 9-2-10
Date Fished: 9/2/2010
Water Temperature: 88
Water Clarity: 2-3 feet
Got out this afternoon solo looking for some fish and just fun fishing. Had a solid afternoon with the Jackall Mask Frog over "soupy" type grass lines and the River2Sea frog(both white) on the mats. Most of the better fish are moving around and where I found them on Monday have moved further back in the grass pockets off the river. I did ok on some bigger schools of fish with the Jackall Mikey and new I-Shad(shad colors). The weather is getting better for the rat bite in the coming weeks and the fall pattern is starting to get stronger. Hope everyone is ready for an awesome weekend on the water. Best of luck to the anglers fishing events. See you on the water
God Bless
Phil.4:13
Water Temperature: 88
Water Clarity: 2-3 feet
Got out this afternoon solo looking for some fish and just fun fishing. Had a solid afternoon with the Jackall Mask Frog over "soupy" type grass lines and the River2Sea frog(both white) on the mats. Most of the better fish are moving around and where I found them on Monday have moved further back in the grass pockets off the river. I did ok on some bigger schools of fish with the Jackall Mikey and new I-Shad(shad colors). The weather is getting better for the rat bite in the coming weeks and the fall pattern is starting to get stronger. Hope everyone is ready for an awesome weekend on the water. Best of luck to the anglers fishing events. See you on the water
God Bless
Phil.4:13
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