Bassman30, IE Mark Bell is a CLASS ACT

You know fellas, there are times when we are at each others throats (usually right around College Basketball Season) but there are times when we come thru and help one and another. Just me personally, there was a fund set up at Backwaters where anonymous donations were taken for me while I was battling more health problems, many of you fellas have came to the hospital, called or sent letters to me over the past 4 years of the health battles that I have faced. With me being put on medical disability and not having my Plant Managers job since 2007, our income has been cut way over half of what it used to be. We struggle each and every day to get by and that is why I am mowing grass to get a few extra bucks to make sure our Son continues to play the sports that he wants to play. My boat is not titled as of yet and probably won't be fore quite some time. I am really considering getting out of fishing all together, getting rid of the boat and selling all the tackle. Alll it does is sit in the garage waiting for somebody to play with it but that takes CASH. I say this becasue Mark Bell, Bassman30 Owner of BK Print in Simpsonville took me fishing this past Wednesday. When I say took me fishing, I mean he put every nickle of gas in the boat and truck, paid for the room, paid for all the meals, paid for all the snacks, literally my wallet never opened up (I tried to pay for some things but he would not let me). Mark knows my situation and has known me for about 6 years now. Real nice guy and a heck of a fisherman to boot. This man took me to Kentucky Lake for 4 days to fish. He could have taken any other person and they would have paid half but he wanted to take me on a trip. Class Act, Super Nice Guy and I really do appreciate his generosity. I said it to him and now I will say it in public. Thanks Man

True appreciation is also worth alot...:)
I'm sure Mark feels the same way.

That's great. I bet he enjoyed doing that as much or more then you enjoyed going. The act of helping makes a man stronger. Mark sounds like a stand up guy for sure! Happy for you both.

We went for he wanted me to teach him about ledge fishing, to which I hope he learned more than enough to cover the trip. Fishing was tough to say the least, just look at the FLW results for example 16lbs was big sack on Day 3. Very few 20 lb sacks over the 4 days. We did fairly decent each day and I had a 4-6 Largemouth on Friday and lost another 4+ Smallie after she ran me under the boat and cut me off. Both of these fish would have made pretty much every bag of the 146 FLW boats that day. There were a 100 limits between 13 and 16 lbs on Day 1 that covered 30th thru 130th place. There waas a pro staying in the room next to us from California, that I never heard of, and thought he was in for a rude awakening before it started to which he weighed in 3lbs over 2 days to finish 144th. Tough conditions with take a number on EVERY ledge on North Kentucky, or at least the onese we went to, so we decided to start fishing spots up in the mouths of the bays close to the main lake and caught decent numbers and had a few good ones. Mark said he learned a lot about ledge fishing the first Day and a half and hopefully he can go back the first week of May on a normal year and throw out an anchor and catch a 100 off one spot like can happen that time of year when they all start moving out.

Elwood, did you see anybody fishing the ledge right out from the lodge at Kenlake? Last year during the Elite Series tourney, KVD was starting there every morning and culling fish by 9 a.m. When he would leave 25 spectator boats would idle across it and mark it on their GPS. I figure that place must have gotten beat to death since then.

[QUOTE=Tim_T;457451]Elwood, did you see anybody fishing the ledge right out from the lodge at Kenlake? Last year during the Elite Series tourney, KVD was starting there every morning and culling fish by 9 a.m. When he would leave 25 spectator boats would idle across it and mark it on their GPS. I figure that place must have gotten beat to death since then.[/QUOTE]

We never went that far South. Rhodes Bay was as far as we went south and mainly fished from there to the Dam in Ky and Buzzard Rock to the Dam on Barkley. All of our bigger fish came on North Ky LBL side, which is where I know the best. Pretty much all the ledges out in front of Kenlake, Moores and Ky Dam Marina get hammered and are pretty good ledges, especially in early May when the fish start moving out and with all the fish brought to these 3 marinas during the spring, there is a TON of fish there. Tim Griggs told me once that he could hit one particular ledge out in front of Ky Dam Village in early may, drop an anchor and if we did not catch a 100 fish then I could have his boat (a nice Ranger at that). Tim is a pretty good fisherman and I think he won a FLW event in the spring of 2008 for about $100,000. Won several other good size events on the lake as well. Pretty much it was take a number on most of the ledges that were pretty easy to find if you can read a map.

As far as KVD goes, that is why his record on the Tennessee river lakes is even more impressive because if you add in all that mark his spots then they tell their buddy's who tell their buddy's no telling how many people hit the same spots that he hits after an event. Then the next year he keeps finding fish over and over to finish in the top 5 on Ky, Guntersville and other TN river lakes. It is amazing at how much better day in and day out the Pro's are than me. I get lucky and catch a good bag, like we did on Friday of the FLW event, but day in and day out they would flat out beat me like a Drum. Bring them in BLIND with no pre-fishing for a 1 day event on Dale Hollow the second week of December and I will take my chances against them, provided they let me use my 10' buggy whip, other than that they are so much better than me it is ridiculous.