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Kentucky Lake FLW Tour

Jay Yelas – Competition Wrapup
Friday, June 27, 2014

> Day 1: 5, 17-09
> Day 2: 5, 17-04
> Total = 10, 34-13 (43rd place)

I fished offshore the whole tournament. It was the first time I'd done that in years – I was a little rusty and it's not my forté to begin with. When I've done well here, it was when I could catch them shallow.

I fished the same ledge for 2 straight days with a couple other boats and I was around a lot of fish. On my first cast today I lost a giant – it just pulled off. It came on the exact same cast that I'd caught a 6-pounder on yesterday.

I had a chance at a decent bag. You're never happy when you don't make the cut, but I guess I have to be content to have a decent finish with the way this year's gone, but the fish were there to do better than I did.

This was the worst campaign I've had in 26 years. I'd made 24 straight Classics or Cups and not fishing one this summer is the end of an era for me personally. I've had lots of good years, though, and everything good in this world eventually comes to an end.

I caught most of mine on Yamamoto jigs and drop shots with a Kut Tail Worm, and the bigger fish were coming on swimbaits. Interestingly, I never saw a fish caught on a crankbait. The fish get in moods like that on these lakes.

I found everything on my electronics – the Lakemaster chips on my Humminbird 1198 are just so detailed. You can see all the fish underneath you. It's crazy to be able to run down the lake and see how the entire bottom lays out, even on real subtle pieces of structure.

Luke Clausen – Competition Wrapup
Friday, June 27, 2014

> Day 1: 5, 18-08
> Day 2: 5, 20-01
> Total = 10, 38-09 (25th place)

It wasn't a bad tournament for me, but it wasn't quite enough to make the (Forrest Wood Cup) – I was in bad shape coming in. I had a better day today, though, and I wish I'd leaned harder on those fish yesterday.

I started out not knowing where I was going to fish or where I wanted to be. I caught them pretty early on both days and I never culled much after 9:30 on either day. I caught a ton of fish, but I never caught a 5-pounder the whole time I was here. One big bite like that really moves you up when you can get rid of a 3-pounder or something like that.

The vast majority of my fishcame on a Z-Man SawtailZ and a Megabass Deep 6, and I also caught a few dropshotting. I was catching 30 keepers and maybe 15 shorts a day. I kept thinking I was going to run into the right bite, but it didn't happen. It's not like I missed opportunities, I just didn't have the bites.


Luke Clausen – Practice Recap
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

I spent the last day fishing from the dam to a little bit south of Paris and I found some more schools. It felt like I was driving for most of the day again. I don't know how big the fish are – I didn't catch any real giants, but I haven't fished for a lot of them. I'll learn a lot more come tournament time.

I don't know whether I'm going to go north or south yet – I found about the same number of schools both ways and I won't really know what I can catch off any of them until I get there. Then I'll just keep hunting around and see what I can figure out as the day goes on. I kind of wish I'd spent more time in one area rather than trying to fish the whole lake, but it is what it is.

Jay Yelas – Practice Recap
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

The fishing's pretty good. I've just been having fun staring at my Humminbird all day, looking for schools on the ledges, and I've found a few. It's all about catching a couple of big fish every day to stay up there, but the bite's pretty phenomenal right now. It's going to take a lot of weight.

Usually 35 pounds (for 2 days) would get you in the Top-20 cut, but this year that's only going to be good for about 50th place. I think you're going to have to be well into the 20s each day to really do anything. It could absolutely take 100 pounds over 4 days to win and I'll be kind of surprised if it doesn't hit that. I'm not catching them like that, but I know some guys are.

Keith Williams won in 2009 fishing the grass around New Johnsonville, but I don't think the grass is going to be a real factor this time. I fished it a good bit and all I caught were little ones. There's just not enough grass to harbor big bass right now.

It's definitely a ledge deal – everybody's going to be out there fishing 20 feet deep.


Jay Yelas – Mid-Practice Report
Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Jay Yelas
Photo: Jay Yelas

It's Kentucky Lake and it's good if you can find the right schools of fish, and there's several of those around. You have to look sometimes for several hours to find a good spot, but when you do find it there's lots of fish, so it'll be a good tournament.

I'm actually going to fish this thing out deep – it's too late in the year, I think, to catch them shallow here. I've spent a lot of time idling around and looking at my Humminbird units, looking for fish. When the water starts moving in the afternoon they're pretty easy to catch.

It'll be a typical ledge tournament and I don't think there'll be too many surprises. I've made Top-5s on Barkley in early June in the last two Tour events here, but I'm not even going to go there. One of the big reasons for that is we're going out of Paris Landing instead of the Kentucky Dam Marina. In my younger days I might've run 90 miles to get there, but I don't feel like doing that to catch 12 to 15 pounds when I can sit on my butt seat and catch more than that real close to take-off.

Hopefully I can catch a few big ones to go with those 3-pounders and have a good, strong showing to finish the year off.

Luke Clausen – Mid-Practice Report
Tuesday, June 24, 2014

BassFan
Photo: BassFan

My practice hasn't been too exciting. (On Sunday) I caught quite a few fish, but they were mostly 2- to 3-pounders and those aren't going to do a guy a lot of good. (Monday) I didn't catch all that many – I spent a lot of time idling and in some areas I struggled to find fish, while in other areas I found quite a few.

The ones you do stop on you can usually catch one right away, but the question is whether they're going to be good ones or not. There are definitely schools of big ones out there.

I've explored a lot of Kentucky Lake and I'm tempted to go to Barkley (Tuesday). I've never fished it much, but it doesn't get as much attention and a lot of fish stay shallow all year. The water's got more color and it might be a different scene.

I've spent a lot of time listening to the hum of my motor and I've found a lot of places where I can catch something, but I just don't know how big they'll be.

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