By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Very few competitors had productive water to themselves at the recent Lake Dardanelle Bassmaster Elite Series. Much of the lake was all but unfishable due to an influx of muddy water from heavy rain that fell prior to and during the event, and thus the Arkansas impoundment fished smaller than usual.
Steve Kennedy was a notable exception. The veteran from Alabama found a manmade backwater that was much larger than normal because of the massive inflows, and it was teeming with fish life. Gar were nearly thick enough to walk on, flickering shad would bounce off the side of his boat as he idled through and chunky bass were hanging out in willow trees and other vegetation, taking advantage of the 24-hour, all-they-could-eat shad buffet.
He had the flooded gravel pit all to himself, and it surrendered enough weight for him to claim his fifth career tour-level victory and first since 2011. He caught a 16-09 stringer on the final day, topped by a 5-10 kicker that was sitting in a place where he never expected to get a bite, to move from 3rd place to the top of the final standings.
He averaged just under 16 pounds per day en route to amassing a 4-day total of 63-12, which eclipsed runner-up Mark Davis by a little more than a pound and a half. The victory went a long way toward erasing the disappointment of falling just short of a Bassmaster Classic win earlier this spring.
Following are some of the details.
Practice
Kennedy started his practice period on the lower (clearer) end of the lake and caught lots of fish on a swimjig, but quality was lacking. He encountered the same scenario at another place where he employed a flipping stick.
He spent the second practice day in the ever-popular Illinois Bayou and got just one keeper bite all day. On the final day, he returned to the locales he'd visited 2 days earlier, but there were few bites to be had by then, regardless of size.
"I was assuming somebody had fished through there and stuck them all, or they left because the water had finally started to drop," he said. "I was kind of freaking out."
At 11:30 on that Wednesday, he decided to run all the way to the lock at the upper end of the lake. He tried a shad-rich creek with no success, then returned to the main river and started working his way back down. He got a bite off a seawall that had formed an eddy in the extremely muddy water, and that encouraged him to hang around in the area. Then he noticed a gap in some trees that led to a pond on the far side of a levee.
There was no visible way to access the pond from where he was, but a quick check on the map on his depthfinder showed a creek coming out of it. The water in that channel was 4 1/2 feet deep and he was able to idle right in.
He said it was impossible not to notice all the gar sunning themselves – there were dozens and he estimated that some were pushing 50 pounds. The surface was dimpled by frenetic shad.
"I started fishing right there once I got in and I went a ways without a bite," he said. "Then I went across the middle of it where there were a couple of willows sticking out and I got five bites.
"I pulled one up and it was 2 1/2 pounds, maybe 3, and the rest all felt like little fish. I didn't get the impression there was a bunch of big ones in there, but I didn't want to stick any more because bites were so hard to come by."
Not realizing what he'd tapped into, he went to the registration meeting late that afternoon singing the same sad tune as much of the field. He predicted that the winning weight would be 51 pounds.
"Some guys were talking 14 pounds a day, and I was thinking there's no way there were enough fish to get those numbers. That's how bad I was crying."
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 16-10
> Day 2: 5, 14-03
> Day 3: 5, 16-06
> Day 4: 5, 16-09
> Total = 20, 63-12
Kennedy started the first tournament day in the place where he'd gotten all the flipping bites on the opening day of practice and boxed three ordinary keepers (and missed a couple more) by 11 o'clock. With about 7 pounds in his livewell, he decided to make the long run to the gravel pit.
He started on the place where he'd had the five bites the previous day and immediately hooked and lost a 3 1/2-pounder flipping a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver. Then he caught an almost identical fish from that exact spot, and then a 2 1/2 from a locale just a couple of feet away.
"At that point I said to my marshal that I may have enough fish here to win this thing," he said. "I hadn't realized how big they were or how many were in there."
Willow trees were harboring most of Kennedy's best fish.
His opening round bag left him in 9th place. He came in 2 pounds lighter the following day, but moved up five places in the standings.
He made a bait switch on the morning of day 2, opting for a white jig in an effort to capitalize on the shad spawn. He also got a few bites on a frog, including one fish that ended up in his weigh-in bag.
He moved up another place on the leaderboard on day 3 as he got his weight back over the 16-pound threshold. He had four good ones within the first 40 minutes, then went awhile before catching No. 5. He made a big cull with a 4-10 specimen a short time later and bailed at 11:15.
"I didn't feel like I had a whole lot left there at that point," he said.
That notion was backed up by a relatively slow morning on the final day, which started with him carrying a 1-05 deficit to Davis. He caught only one fish from his best stuff, then made a lap around the pond swimming the white jig and added three keepers from places he considered marginal. He completed a limit of 2-pounders at about 10:30.
He'd planned to leave the pond at approximately noon, which would've left him an hour to fish some stuff on the lower end of the lake. Instead, he decided to tour the perimeter again, this time with a green-pumpkin jig.
He caught only one keeper, but it was a 5-10 bruiser that sealed the win for him.
"I'm still shocked that that fish was sitting where it was," he said. "It wasn't even in a tree; it was on a short, rounded point and there wasn't a willow there that my bait ever touched. I pitched the bait and hopped it and I was already looking for the place where I was going to make my next pitch.
"I was totally surprised to get a bite and it was immediately apparent that it was much bigger than anything else I'd caught. I don't want to call it luck because I was playing a percentage game – I was throwing a big-fish bait and covering a ton of water."
He made one last cull for just a few ounces on his way back to the launch.
"I felt like I had a shot to win and I thought I might've won. That big fish was the game-changer I was looking for."
Pattern Notes
> The majority of Kennedy's bites occurred while he was swimming the jig. "There were in the tops of the willows over 7 or 8 feet of water," he said. "I'd cast past the trees and then reel it up to them and let it drop. I was fishing all through the water column."
> There were various types of bushy vegetation in the pond, most of which he attacked with a flipping presentation. "Anything that was isolated on a point was likely to have a fish on it sometime during the week."
> He believes that some of the bass in the gravel pit reside there year-round, but others were transitory. "By the number of gar and shad in there, I'm pretty sure that a big number of them moved in off the river with the high water."
Winning Gear Notes
> Jig gear: 7'6" older model Kistler rod, older model Shimano Curado casting reel, unnamed 65-pound braided line (main line), unnamed 25-pound fluorocarbon (5' leader), 3/4-ounce D&L Advantage jig (white or green-pumpkin), Zoom Super Chunk trailer (same color as jig).
> He pitched the Smallie Beaver on the same line configuration, but with an extra-heavy rod.
> Frog gear: 7'6" extra-heavy Kistler rod, same reel, unnamed 65-pound braid, SPRO Bronzeye Frog 65 (natural).
The Bottom Line
> Main factor in his success – "I can't believe that nobody else found that place – our guys are usually pretty good at finding everything. I was shocked that nobody else was in there. There was a little bit of luck involved with that."
> Performance edge – "My Bass Cat boat. I was running 50 miles one way and it's the fastest hull on tour. It got me up there and back every day and it's a lot of fun to drive that thing."
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