Smaller Schools Produced Better Quality

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

It wasn’t the knock-down, drag-out, big-fish affair some expected, but last week’s Kentucky Lake FLW Tour still offered a glimpse of the potential the lake holds when the bass are in the midst of their post-spawn migration to deeper water.

While there were some “mega schools” found, it seemed to be the smaller groups of fish, those numbering into the teens, that produced the bigger specimens. The thinking is that those smaller schools were, in fact, splinter cells that had split off from a larger school due to the extreme fishing pressure those big groups were receiving.

More over, it was the intermediate depths (12 to 18) feet that also seemed to be the key zone for those smaller packs of bass.

While the vegetation that New Johnsonville has become famous for still existed down south, it wasn’t widespread enough yet to be a major factor. Still, some competitors made the long round-trip journey and came back with good results, a testament to how good Kentucky Lake is from one end to the other.

From reaction baits like deep-running crankbaits, dinner plate-sized spoons and swimbaits to nearly 10-inch long finesse worms, a little bit of everything put fish in the boat for the rest of the Top 5 finishers. Here’s a rundown of how each of them earned their keep.

2nd: Brandon Hunter

> Day 1: 5, 22-11
> Day 2: 5, 19-03
> Day 3: 5, 24-12
> Day 4: 5, 22-12
> Total = 20, 89-06

Brandon Hunter caught all of his fish north of the Interstate 68 bridge last week, but he was wary of what the southern portion of the lake could produce.

“If the south end is on fire and the north end is off, then you’ll get your butt kicked,” he said. “(Jason) Lambert found some big schools down there. I caught plenty of big fish up north and usually one end is better than the other, but during the tournament it seemed like the whole lake was good.”

As someone who guides at the lake and has fished it for many years, he had a good understanding of what the fish were doing and the effects the fishing pressure was having. That’s why he focused on finding out-of-the-way spots that no one else was fishing, but he knew would be holding areas for bass making their post-spawn migration.

“I had 30 places with fish on them, but by the end, there were just a handful where I could get bites,” he said. “The key to getting them to fire was finding schools nobody else did.”

He remembered seeing a dozen boats on a big school up north on day 1 and then recalled hearing some competitors complain about not getting the volume of bites they thought they would.

“When you put that many boats on a school, you can’t wonder why they won’t bite,” Hunter added. “You had to find places nobody else was fishing. That was the whole key.”

Practice involved a lot of idling and analyzing how fish were positioned on certain pieces of structure. His key depth range was 17 to 18 feet.

“A couple places I fished were spots they’d get on when they first moved out,” he said. “That was a key place.”

He came out of practice with little feel for what he could catch since he didn’t do much casting, especially on areas where he marked numbers and quality fish.

He had a milk run of spots that he hit the first 2 days on secondary and in-between areas as he totaled 41-14 to qualify for the weekend in 4th place. Included was an area where he finished his limit both days that he knew nobody else had fished. He wound up not fishing it on day 3 as he focused on a spot that he’d found Friday afternoon.

He caught his two biggest fish Saturday on a 6-inch swimbait and the rest on deep crankbaits en route to a 24-12 stringer that pulled him to within 1 1/2 pounds of the lead.

On the final day, he caught all of fish off main river channels with a giant spoon and the swimbait.

“The only thing was, the spot I saved I never caught one there (Sunday),” he said. “I wish I would’ve fished there Saturday and tried to catch a big one there. I needed some 6- and 7-pound bites. It’s hard to win these things, especially when a guy cracks almost 30. My performance, I felt like it was as good as I could’ve done.”

Where knowing too much about a lake has tripped up other anglers, Hunter felt like he used it to his advantage.

“The reason I say that is if I see three boats on a school I want to fish, I can keep going,” he said, “where somebody else without much history has no choice but to pull in. I can go get away from the crowds. It’s not that I know many more places because with GPS, guys find the same stuff, but I can get away from the crowds.”

> Spoon gear: 7'5" medium-heavy 13 Fishing Muse (prototype) casting rod, 13 Fishing Inception casting reel (8.0:1 ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, Nichols Lures Ben Parker Magnum Spoon.

> Jig gear (hair or football): 7'1" 13 Fishing Envy Black casting rod, 13 Fishing Concept C casting reel (7.1:1 ratio), same line (14-pound).

> Swimbait gear: 7'6" medium-heavy 13 Fishing Muse (prototype) casting rod, same reel as jig (6.3:1 ratio), same line as spoon, 3/4-oz. Nichols Lures swimbait head, 6” Basstrix paddletail swimbait (various shad colors).

> Cranking gear: 7'11" 13 Fishing Envy Black Crankenstein casting rod, same reel as swimbait (5.3:1 ratio), same line (10- and 14-pound), Lucky Craft 3.5XD and 6.5XD (chartreuse blue and aurora citrus).

> He swapped out the stock hooks on his crankbaits to Mustad KVD short-shank trebles (2/0 on 6.5XD and 1/0 on 3.5XD).

> Dropshot gear: 13 Fishing Envy Black Spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 12-pound Sunline SX-1 braided line, 8-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line (leader), wacky-rigged 5" Gary Yamamoto Custom Baits Senko.

> Main factor in his success – “Knowing a few key areas where some big fish were getting to and where they were moving to before getting out on main river. That was key.”

> Performance edge – “That HydroWave. That’s one of those things when you’re fishing deep, it does what it’s supposed do. I had it on the ultra-finesse setting with the volume way up.”

3rd: Mark Rose

> Day 1: 5, 22-10
> Day 2: 5, 15-08
> Day 3: 5, 20-06
> Day 4: 5, 21-12
> Total = 20, 80-04

A bout of hardheadedness on day 2 may have kept Mark Rose from challenging Hunter for the runner-up spot, but other than that, Rose was in his element last week at Kentucky Lake.

He caught some fish on a worm and a jig, but the majority of his key fish came on moving baits – the 6XD and 10XD from Strike King along with a swimbait, standard fare at a lake he adores.

“It hasn’t changed a whole lot,” he said. “Kentucky Lake seems like it’s always been. The prep you have to do is being efficient with your time. I see people getting caught up in fishing too much and getting caught up with community holes.”

Each time he comes to the lake, he forces himself to seek out new areas that may produce rather than rely on past experience.

“What’s been successful there for me has been not loading waypoints into my unit until after day 2 of practice,” he said. “That forces me to go look for new stuff for 2 days. I have to go find some stuff people aren’t sitting on for 3 or 4 hours during practice or a tournament or local community holes.

“The reason why Kentucky Lake is my favorite lake and the shining star on Tennessee River chain is the habitat. It has so much of everything I love – shallow cranking, really deep fishing, flipping if the water jumps up. That’s what I love about it. It’s my passion … finding the new stuff.”

After catching 22-10 on day 1, he stuck with the crankbait and swimbait despite there being little wind and no current to speak of. His weight dropped off to 15-08 as a result.

“I shouldn’t have been hard-headed,” he said. “With the conditions, it was probably the toughest fishing day. It showed across the board. I struggled with picking up the dropshot because I felt like if I kept cranking or throwing the swimbait I’d get 5 kamikazes to hit it.

“The same thing happened in 2012 when (Dave) Lefebre won. I got hard-headed. Sometimes you have to pick up a spinning rod. That was the day for it. I only did it 5 percent of my day and I caught all 15 pounds on it. If I’d spent more time on it, I had the places and knew good quality was there.”

Most of his bites came out of 12 to 15 feet and he targeted smaller groups of fish on secondary channels.

“There weren’t a lot of mega schools,” he said. “I think we’ll see those in the next few weeks. There was a handful now, but they’re getting slammed. What I found was I needed to fish a lot of those 10- to 20-fish schools. Those will turn into 100-fish schools in a few weeks. It was all about catching a few out of those pods. It was all about triggering the bigger ones to eat.”

> Cranking gear: 7’11” heavy- and extra-heavy Kistler KLX Mark Rose Offshore casting rods, Team Lew's Pro Magnesium Speed Spool casting reel, 12- and 15-pound Seaguar InivizX fluorocarbon line, Strike King 6XD and 10XD (sexy herring, sexy shad, green gizzard shad, root beer).

> He swapped the stock hooks on his plugs for 1/0 Mustad KVD Elite Series 1X trebles.

> When cranking, maintaining bottom contact was key to getting reaction bites. “They seemed to want that this week,” he said.

> Swimbait gear: 7’6” heavy-action Kistler Z-Bone casting rod, same reel, same line (17-pound), 3/4- and 1-oz. Strike King Squadron swimbait head, unnamed 6” paddletail swimbait (shad patterns).

> Main factor in his success – “My history and background and sticking with what I know.”

> Performance edge – “My Garmin electronics were showing me shallower schools than I’ve ever been allowed to see. That’s good for early on before they get way out.”

4th: Jayme Rampey

> Day 1: 5, 19-03
> Day 2: 5, 15-12
> Day 3: 5, 19-14
> Day 4: 5, 24-08
> Total = 20, 79-05

Jayme Rampey made the crack that he thinks he threw bigger baits on bigger line at Beaver Lake this year than what he had tied on at Kentucky Lake last week. That was largely based on the fact that the fish he found down south near New Johnsonville wouldn’t react to moving baits.

“All the big schools, I couldn’t get them to bite,” he said. “Those 6- to 10-fish schools were the ones I got bites out of. That was the deal.”

And he did it with finesse tactics typically employed at Ozark Mountain lakes. He threw a dropshot and shaky-head almost exclusively.

“I didn’t have to share water,” he said. “Everything I had, I had to myself and that’s rare.”

He started strong with a 19-03 stringer on day 1, but his weight slipped to 15-12 on Friday. Still, he made the cut in 15th place.

“I wish I’d stayed in New Johnsonville longer,” he said. “I caught my fish by 10:30 and left. I thought I could catch some back up the lake.”

His key depth range was the 6- to 10-foot zone on flats that lead out to the river channel.

“I tried to fish a little shallower than everybody else,” he said. “A lot of them were on main-river stuff. I was on the flat. Guys were on the break, but they were 100 yards from the drop. There were not a lot of guys going that far up on the flat.”

He bounced back on day 3 with 19-14, including a 6-pounder and 4-pounder on his first two casts, to make the Top-10 cut.

“Some places, I’d catch the little ones then big ones,” he noted. “It depended on the spot. Some places, the big ones bit first, then the little ones. Each place had its own personality as to what would bite first.

“Each school was different. One school would bit the shaky-head. One school would bite the dropshot and another would bite the jig. None would bite the same thing. It made no sense.”

> Dropshot gear: 7’2” medium-heavy unnamed spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 6-pound Hi-Seas fluorocarbon line, 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, Zoom Z-3 worm (morning dawn), 1/2-oz. unnamed dropshot weight.

> Shaky-head gear: Same rod, reel and line, 3/16-oz. Buckeye Magnum Spot Remover jig, Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (plum).

> He also weighed in a few fish caught on a 3/4-oz. Buckeye football jig with a Zoom Z Craw trailer.

> Main factor in his success – “Just trying to find stuff that wasn’t community hole-type places.”

> Performance edge – “Going down in line size made a big difference.”

5th: Scott Canterbury

> Day 1: 5, 19-15
> Day 2: 5, 16-10
> Day 3: 5, 17-05
> Day 4: 5, 24-03
> Total = 20, 78-01

Scott Canterbury had a hard time catching fish out deep in practice so he devoted half of the last day of practice to seeing what he could find up shallow. Eventually, he migrated back out and recorded his 15th career Top-10 finish in a Tour event.

Conditions in practice weren’t ideal for locating schools of fish offshore.

“It was rough idling,” he said. “The wind muddied up the flats. The weather wasn’t good and the fish weren’t out there either. On the Tennessee River, you have to have some mid-80 to 90-degree days to get those fish on the move.”

When the tournament started, he’d committed to fishing deep, but he had a flipping rod rigged and ready just in case. There was a mayfly hatch going on and he’d caught a 3 1/2-pounder in practice shallow.

“I knew I was committed after catching a few out deep,” he said. “I idled a bunch during the tournament and on day 4, too. I’ve only been fishing deep for 5 years. I’m growing with it and learning each time out.”

While others in the Top 10 had success in the 12- to 16-foot range, Canterbury’s baits were in the 18- to 30-foot range before he’d get bit.

“The secondary stuff had bigger fish,” he noted. “The main channel had bigger schools, but not the quality. Most of my fish were in smaller groups and there were just bigger fish around. Some spots had mega schools, but the quality was not as good.”

His bigger fish came on a swimbait or deep-diving crankbait and he filled his limit with a 9-inch finesse worm on a shaky-head or dropshot. He fished from north of Paris Landing to the dam through the event.

On Sunday, when he caught his best stringer of the week, he stuck with moving baits. Two came on a paddletail swimbait and three came on a deep-running plug.

“I didn’t catch a ton, but every one was quality,” he said.

Looking back, there’s not much he’d change about how worked his way through the event.

“Maybe not dropshot as much,” he said. “It got me in the Top 10 so I can’t complain. I wanted to get a good finish and get a check and get points to get to the Cup and I ended up doing better than that, so I wouldn’t change anything.”

> Swimbait gear: 7’6” medium-heavy Halo Fishing Twilite Series casting rod, Ardent Apex Elite casting reel, 15-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, 1-oz. Dirty Jigs Scott Canterbury swimbait head, unnamed 6” and 7” hollow-belly swimbait (shad patterns).

> The key to his swimbait presentation was letting it sink to the bottom and a slow, steady cadence on the retrieve. “After you caught one or two, they’d bust up,” he said. “After that, I wouldn’t let it go to the bottom.”

> His cranking gear consisted of a 7’10” extra-heavy Halo Twilite rod and a new Ardent cranking reel with a 5.3:1 gear ratio.

> When he resorted to finesse tactics, he threw a 1/4-oz. jig head with a 9” NetBait Super T Mac worm (black). “That’s what got me into the Top 10,” Canterbury said.

> Main factor in his success – “I didn’t lose any fish. I fished clean and that’s huge in a tournament like this.”

> Performance edge – “Just confidence in what I was doing and relying and trusting my Lowrance electronics. I did a lot of idling and looking and spent a lot of time staring at that screen.”

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