Fished Ky and Barkley every day since March 28th except for April 1 and 2. Had 63 myself with 11 keepers including a 5-1 and my buddy Chunk had 22 with 9 keepers including his biggest ever 6-4 on Monday March 30th, which was Day #1 of CATCHING.
Day #2 of CATCHING happened Friday April 3rd when I had 74 for the day with 20 keepers including my biggest ever 6-13 plus a 5-2, best 5 went just over 24lbs. Friday starts out overcast, windy, cold wind blowing out of the NW at about 250 miles per hour, really 15-20 but when you are fishing ledges and humps in the mouths of the bays and wind is blowing so hard you trolling motor prop is in and out of the water on every wave, the speed really does not matter. Had 40 fish in the first couple of hours including the 6-13, 5-2 and 4-8 and was calling and aswering the phone making people jealous with pictures that I was sending thru the cell phone. Bite was OFF THE HOOK until one little thing happened, the sun pops out around 11am. Sitting on 55 by 11am and then it took me until 2pm to catch number 64 to break my one day personal record that lasted 4 days. Caught that little dink right next to the ramp and put her on the trailer and headed for my ONE BITE spot, actually Dave Stewart put me onto this spot, but if I am there then it is MY spot, if he is there then I will bow to his greatness and let him call it what he wants. I get to my BIG BITE spot and who is sitting in the vacinity but Geobasser, the fella that hooked 367 bass in one day and landed 3 of them only to blame the line. He had lead core steel cable spooled up this time and still could not land a fish, so now I am waiting on his excuse (could not resist George). I asked him did he throw this one particular bait down this one particular area of this one particular bay and he had not so I pulled in behind him going the opposite way and within 10 minutes have the FISH OF A LIFETIME ON THE HOOK. This fish is not ZZZ-ZZZZ-ZZZ stripping drag, she is ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ stripping drag. I use a G Loomis MH rod, Curado reel, with 14lb Flourocarbon and my drag is set about 12lbs, the same rod I landed the 6-13 and 5-2 that morning and this fish made the 6-13 pull like a 12 incher. She strips off about 20 yards to which I have no answer, I let out a yell to George that this is HER, THIS IS HER, and then she "jumps" more like wollers on top and spits the bit. The fish was the easiest 9 I ever saw and most likely a 10. (I am not one to over-exaggerate my size of fish that get away for I swore up and down that I had a smallmouth on a couple of years ago that was an easy 7, by buddy Chunk always said easy 8 and he was right when I saw a fresh exact replica of an 8-4 a few months ago for my fish was an easy 8 then.) After puking, screaming, puking, screaming, puking, did I mention puking and screaming for a few minutes with my stomache in knots, my next cast gets a 4+ right to the boat and she spits it, then next cast lands a 12 incher. Go on to catch 10 on this spot with 4 of them over 3 biggest weighed exactly 4-0. I had lost a good fish on this spot Monday with chunk and Dave Stewart's clients have lost 3 that were over 8 in this same area this year. Can a man get a mulligan, can I get a trade, I will offer 74 total boated fish a few more that I "GEO'D" (that is long distanced released for those that don't know), included in the 74 are a 6-13, 5-2, 4-8, 4-0 and 18 others that were over 15", for landing that ONE BITE. Fish of a lifetime and I blew it. Don't really know what I could have done differently for the hook was set just as I always do, MASSIVELY, the rod was loaded up, drag was set pretty good but evidently my shot of landing that Big Girl was slim and none and slim was on the WKY heading EAST back to Lexington at about 100 mph.
Over the 7 days on the water, NO PATTERN is established. Fished North KY, South KY, North Barkley, humps and ledges inside the mouths of the bays, humps and ledges on the main river channel, flipped some buck brush, fished the flooded flowers, lead in channel banks, shallow mud banks, pea gravel, main and secondary points, shallow flats, etc etc etc, pretty much every pattern that I know was fished in the best spots that I know. Targeting big fish about 65% of the time looking for 5 big bites of the day and still having to weed out the dinks to get to the quality. Monday sunny all day and we crushed them, Sunday overcast cold rainy and we were on the trailer and watching a movie in Paducah by 3pm, Friday cold windy and overcast early bite is the best I ever seen it, sun comes out and bite literally died - but if it had kept up like it was early it would have been a 150 fish day. Saturday fished the same spots that Chunk and I fished on monday with 85 fish and 20 keepers with 3sons ( Mike with me) and Geo and Dave following me around all day on their first ledge/hump fishing experience and we catch no size at all compared to what chunk and I caught on Monday. Fishing is Fishing, but weird in that after 7 days on the water I don't have a clue as to an exact pattern or weather condition is the best for the bigger bite. I do know that if you tie on a lizard and fish it T Rig on any bank in the 2 lakes you will catch enough dinks that you will get tired of them. You will still catch your occasional keeper but my bigger fish came on a variety of patterns and baits.
I will trade the 250+ bass that I caught over the 7 days personally and even throw in the 100+ that chunk and mike caught with me, plus whatever Geo and Dave caught Fri, Sat and Sun as well for the ONE THAT GOT AWAY. Heading back the 18th thru the 23rd and May 2nd thru the 6th, just maybe she will be around again and come give me some sugar.
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