Kentucky Lake BASSFest

Mid-Tournament Summary
Thursday, June 4, 2015

Chris Zaldain
I’m really new to the whole ledge-fishing thing and I find I’m learning more and more each and every day. There are definitely a couple of approaches to take.

One is to rotate through community holes – that’s not the approach I took. For one, I didn’t know what the community holes are here since I’m not familiar with the lake, but as you drive down the lake you can see where they are. I mark them, but I didn’t stop on them on my way back up. It just was not part of my game plan.

On day 1, I pulled up on my best spot down south and Greg Hackney is on it and as I pull up he is already catching them. I went on and had a measly day, but learned more about this type of fishing.

Today, I hauled it down south again and got my line up even before Hackney even got there. I caught one and then another, but hit a little lull. I moved off and pulled out a deep-diving crank and caught what I wound up with today.

It was a good little rally for me. In all honestly, I was down yesterday. I had no confidence in what I was doing. I’m slowly realizing why KVD is so good here. One, you need a lot of spots – community holes and secret spots. It just fits his style. If they’re not biting, just move on to the next spot. This morning, I went to my best spot and caught them. That’s how it goes. Now, I feel good about going into Barkley and expanding on what I’ve learned. I’ve never been there so it’ll be a cool freestyle fishing deal.

Brent Chapman
I’m a little frustrated with myself and maybe it’s reflective of my practice, but I thought 14 pounds per day would make the cut. Obviously, that was way wrong and thankfully I did better than that.

I literally have one off-the-wall spot back in a creek that’s saved me. Every single ledge I have marked has boats on it. It’s just so amazing the amount of fishing pressure this places gets.

On Wednesday, I went to the spot in the creek because it is the only spot I felt like I could catch a limit on. I caught 20 pounds in an hour. It’s a place nobody was fishing and I didn’t want to be seen there so I bailed out. My smallest fish was 3 pounds and I probably could’ve culled had I stayed there, but it’s not a big spot and I wanted to manage it.

I went back today and caught six keepers and I think I caught all the fish there. Hopefully, it’ll replenish. I wish it was bigger, but beggars can’t be choosers and I’m thankful for what I caught.

Practice Summary
Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Brent Chapman
I’m hearing reports of some guys that have found some decent schools. It’s Kentucky Lake, there will be some great bags caught. I still haven’t found that. I’m still using the excuse that the sun will change things up. Hopefully, tomorrow I can pull up on a place and have the big ones be there.

I pulled up on places today thinking I’d catch them and didn’t get a bite, so it’s a little frustrating. I’m going to run up toward the dam tomorrow. I’ve already made up my mind. Looking back, I wish I had another day of practice, but the weather has been so bad, it’s made it difficult. I’ve got so many places here, but you have to go with where you think you can catch them.

I think only a percentage of the fish are out already and the percentage that’s out are getting pounded because there’s not enough schools out there to go around. It’s Kentucky Lake, so it’s all big baits. It’ll be interesting. I’ll be praying and keeping fingers crossed for it to happen during the event for me.

Day 1 Practice Recap
Sunday, May 31, 2015

Brent Chapman
I did a lot of idling, but it’s definitely not the Kentucky Lake of the last couple times we were here. It was cloudy and misting today and maybe that had something to do with it because the fish were not wadded up like they usually are. Maybe I was just on the wrong part of the lake.

I spent today up north and I’ll go down south tomorrow and use the third day to practice whichever one was better. There were so many boats out there and there was a kayak championship of some kind, too.

The ledges are definitely no secret anymore, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some fish caught shallow. The last time we were here, it seemed like there were a lot more out there. I think the big thing today that had them out of whack was the clouds and a northeast wind, which is never good this time of year. This time of year, they like it 90 and sunny and not a lot of wind.

It will still will take a load of fish to win here. It’s amazing every year how (baits) get bigger here between the crankbaits and swimbaits. I think, as fishermen, we are evolving, too.

The water is in the low 70s and I wish I had taken better notes the last couple times we were here because it’s been rather mild this week. I’ll be offshore here. There might be a few guys catching them shallow, but I’m going to practice offshore and stick with that because that’s how it will be won.

Chris Zaldain
There has been a cold north wind all day and they’ve been letting the water run so you have a north wind going against a south current so it’s making it difficult to idle and graph.

It wasn’t what I expected for beginning of June. I was thinking it’d be a whack-fest and it’s been nothing of the sort. Just talking to a few guys on the water, everybody’s had less than 10 bites and it’s all over the board with crankbaits and swimbaits. There aren’t any of those big mega schools.

The fish are real spread out. The water is 75 degrees and there’s some fast current and they’re not grouped up on locations they should be. I’m moving on with an open mind now after an eye-opening first day. I might have to come up with something else as far as practice goes.

I had eight bites today and the biggest was 4 pounds. I’m going to spend the rest of practice trying something a little different than ledge-graphing and idling. I’m sure it’ll be won that way. It’s just one long ledge down each side of the lake here.