Trends in bass fishing are interesting to watch. They bring to mind a bit of T.S. Eliot prose: "We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
And so Kentucky Lake, like nowhere else, continues to remind us of where bass fishing came from and two salty veterans relied primarily on a spoon.
Yes, Keith Williams won by throwing a football jig the first 2 days, then a big worm. But the spoon was the go-to presentation for the next two highest finishers.
That's the overview. What follows is a closer look at how the 2nd- through 5-place finishers caught their fish.
2nd: David Young
> Day 1: 5, 21-12
> Day 2: 5, 20-14 (10, 42-10)
> Day 3: 5, 20-01
> Day 4: 5, 19-09 (10, 39-10)
Kentucky Lake expert David Young fished ledges all 4 days in depths from 15 to 28 feet. His weapons were a spoon and crankbait. He said he ran pretty much all over the lake, and he lost at least five fish at boatside on the final day that would have won the event for him.
"I was ripping that spoon as hard as you can possibly rip a spoon," he noted. "I don't think I've ever seen anybody rip a spoon as hard as I do. My line pings when I rip it."
> Spoon gear: G. Loomis flipping stick and unknown flipping stick, Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound Berkley Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, Joe Spaits Big Joe flutter spoon.
> The spoon was his main presentation, but he weighed some crankbait fish. He threw a Norman DD22 in citrus shad and a Lucky Craft Flat CB D20 in chartreuse-blue and chartreuse/black-back.
Larry Nixon kept a flutter spoon in his hand the whole time.
3rd: Larry Nixon
> Day 1: 5, 24-03
> Day 2: 5, 20-06 (10, 44-09)
> Day 3: 5, 19-08
> Day 4: 5, 14-03 (10, 33-11)
Larry Nixon is probably the best worm fisherman in the history of the sport, so it was somewhat of a shocker when he revealed that he worked a spoon all 4 days.
"I was fishing one bunch of fish at 25 feet, but the majority were in 18 to 19 feet," Nixon said. "They were either in the mouth of a creek or out on the main channel. I had several different types of places that people overlooked or didn't get a bite on. They were places I'd found 100 years ago."
Nixon threw the same spoon that Kelly Jordon used to beat him several years ago on the TV show Ultimate Match Fishing.
"Kelly kicked my tail with that Spaits spoon and I saw right quick that it could be a big factor on certain kinds of water," Nixon said. "On shell beds, that spoon will trip their trigger when they won't bite. And once you get one to bite, it's every cast.
"I've caught a jillion bass on a jigging spoon in my life," he added. "But on a system like the Tennessee River, with a lot of current, and where the structure's pretty barren except for shell beds, it's a natural. And what I like about it is the little fish don't bother you."
> Spoon gear: 7' medium-heavy Fenwick Techna AV rod, Abu Garcia Revo STX casting reel (6.4:1), 17-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, Joe Spaits Big Joe spoon (silver/blue) and Strike King Sexy spoon (gold/black-back).
> He replaced the hooks on the spoons with No. 1 Gamakatsu round-beds. He originally tried 1/0 hooks, but they were too wide and allowed the fish to shake free, he said.
Mark Rose varied techniques in order to fire up his schools.
4th: Mark Rose
> Day 1: 5, 20-07
> Day 2: 5, 18-03 (10, 38-10)
> Day 3: 5, 14-00
> Day 4: 5, 18-11 (10, 32-11)
Kentucky Lake was Mark Rose's second consecutive cut. He spent the first 2 days of competition fishing a stretch of river ledge between Danville and New Johnsonville, but on days 3 and 4 he started down the lake and then ran up the river to his ledge from the previous 2 days. In retrospect he said that was a mistake. He should have stayed down-lake the final 2 days and fished deeper water.
About his up-the-river stretch, he said: "I fished three little sweet spots on a long, shallow river ledge."
About the deeper down-lake spot he fished the final 2 days, he said: "It was a real deep spot. It wasn't really a river ledge. It was just a rough spot coming out of a bay – a deep point with a rough tip on it. Those fish were all over that thing suspended and I was doing lots of different things to try to trigger them. (On Day 3) it took a 3/4-ounce Strike King Football jig to get them going. (On day 4) I had to pick up a real deep-diving crank and try to ricochet off that hard stuff."
> Jig gear: 7' medium-heavy G. Loomis 844 IMX rod, Shimano Chronarch MG casting reel, 15-pound Seaguar InvisX fluorocarbon, 3/4-ounce Strike King Football jig (green-pumpkin), Strike King Rage Craw (green-pumpkin).
> Cranking gear: 7' unspecified crankbait rod, Shimano Chronarch MG casting reel, 12-poudn Seaguar InvizX, unnamed deep-diving crank (shad).
Travis Fox was the only pro in the Top 5 who spent the whole event fishing north.
5th: Travis Fox
> Day 1: 5, 21-15
> Day 2: 5, 20-00 (10, 41-15)
> Day 3: 5, 17-15
> Day 4: 5, 13-02 (10, 31-01)
Travis Fox spent most of the tournament cranking, but he also caught some fish on big worms – both deep and shallow. He didn't make the run south and instead fished the dam-end of the lake.
"It seemed like my bigger fish came on the crank, but I did catch some nice ones on a worm," he noted. "Mainly it was the deep-diving crank though.
"I'd be sitting in 20 or 25 feet and throwing up into about 10. I did go into the back of a creek arm (on day 4), because I had one little pipsqueak I was needing to upgrade. I broke two off flipping in there the day before. I ended up catching a 3-pounder out of a brushpile with the worm."
> Cranking gear: 7' medium-heavy G. Loomis CBR cranking rod, Shimano Citica casting reel, 12-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, Norman DD22 (chartreuse/blue).
> Worm gear: 7' heavy-action G. Loomis rod, Shimano Citica casting reel, 15-pound Trilene 100% fluorocarbon, 5/0 offset Gamakatsu hook, 3/4-ounce lead weight, 10" Luck-E-Strike ribbontail worm (plum).
Main factor in his success – "Fishing from daylight until dark for 4 days in practice and covering miles and miles of water. I ran my batteries dead every day, and had calluses on my hands, just searching with a crankbait. I literally covered miles and miles of water to find the best areas and schools I could. I'm sure I blew by a whole bunch, but my theory was I could blow by the schools where I might catch one or two, but I wanted to find the really aggressive schools that I could really do some damage with."
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