Randy Howell went into Kentucky Lake BASSFest with a fair bit of confidence.
To his knowledge, the school of fish he’d found wasn’t being fished for by any other competitors or locals and it was just a couple miles from the launch ramp in Paris, Tenn. He figured it was the perfect scenario to get a good start and he’d be able to build on it as the weekend approached.
“I had high hopes,” he said. “I had a good practice and I had boat 35 on day 1 so I could’ve gone to any of the good community hole schools. Instead, I chose that school that nobody else had found. It turns out it was a gypsy school that moved around. They weren’t even there when I pulled up there. That’s how it can be on the Tennessee River when there’s heavy current.”
He managed 16-01 on day 1, but slipped to 63rd after day 2 with a 13-10 bag that earned a place in the second-chance tournament at Lake Barkley.
Howell topped the second chance field with more than 18 pounds to earn another day on the big lake. On Saturday, he went back to the area where he’d found those fish in practice and discovered they’d returned.
“They were only 2 miles from the ramp,” he added. “It was crazy. They were on the other side of the lake back into a creek a little bit. I think it was more of a creek school than a school from the river. After seeing Evers and Lester and those guys catch them how they did, they seemed to be more on schools that were creek channel oriented than the main river. I think the majority of people missed that.”
He bagged 22-13 on Saturday and moved up 29 spots to finish 34th. Thanks to the second-chance tournament, he was able to improve his place in the standings and also climbed five spots in the Angler of the Year points.
“I really love that type of fishing,” he said. “Years ago, deep structure fishing was one of my weak points, but I’ve been trying to get better at it.”
He threw a deep-diving crankbait along with a 12-inch worm on a 3/4-ounce shaky head along with a homemade bucktail jig.
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses ons the angler who makes the most significant single-day move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
