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Hey all, last week I had the opportunity to do a couple shows for Tennessee Wild Side with the Wild Side Weekly show. You can catch the show at www.wildsideweekly.com , create a log in and password and you are on your way. The show is about finessee jig fishing on ledges and bluffs. Let me
know your thoughts good or bad.
Thanks
Billy ... |
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Well I have had a few days to rest my hands and wrists after fishing in the Bassmaster Blue Grass Brawl on Kentucky Lake. The Brawl Details
I was really pumped up on Wednesday driving up to Murry KY and the Kentucky Dam Village to register. Rob Kennedy and I go there around 3pm and milled about outside until registration. We seen all the angler there, KVD - Skeet and Ish just to name a few. Registration went well and we had the safety and pairing meeting on Wednesday. As we all know much of this co-angler is all about the draw. Lets say Rob was not very happy with any of his draws. I was pretty happy for all three days.
Day 1 - Mark Davis - Crankbait King
Mark and I took off in boat 95 and 8:30 - due back in at 6:20. Mark said we planned on heading to Barkley and fishing some main lake ledges. We stopped not far from the dam on a ledge. No sooner then I got my life jacket off he had fish on, a nice 3lb bass on a Big-O - nice old school stuff huh. I got the fish in for him and stepped to the back just to hear fish on. To say the least 15 minutes later I am standing there very humbled and amazed by his 5-fish limit. I am standing on the back deck a little shaken and nervous as what to do now. Mark took noticed and really calmed me down and got me focused again. I was throwing a DT-10 and finally got a hook up on a nice looking 4'sh bass and just my luck she came loose at the boat. 2 hrs later I finally hook up on a solid 3lb bass on a C-Rig and dang the luck she comes un-buttoned also. I was pretty aggravated at this point. I stopped and went to a shaky head and on my 3rd cast landed my 1st keeper a nice 3lb fish. A few minutes later I hit another one. With an hour to go I landed my last keeper on my shaky head. My 3 fish was good enough for 8+lbs and 59th place. Those two lost fish would come back to haunt me later as it cost me 1st place.
Day 2 - Brian Snowden - Missouri Pro
We drew boat 12 and got to head out pretty early, 8:10am which was pretty nice. The wind was way up about 15-20 and on this lake you will have 4 foot or better rollers. It was a rough ride to our 1st spot. Brian and I hit ledges all day long, just the way I like it. Brian started off with a 3/4 oz football jig and I started with a 10" Plum Apple Exodus worm. Within 45 minutes we both had a limit and was still catching fish. Brian was smokin me with his jig on the size of his fish. From day 1 I guessed I needed 12lbs to make the cut and I had about 10. I knew I needed some bigger fish so I switched to a bigger worm, a 11" Exodus Paddle Tail worm, this thing was huge. However that worm was the key to making the cut and placing 10th over-all. Not only did I cull out all 5 keepers but caught solid 3lb bass all day long on several different ledges. It was absolutely a blast fishing with Brian. He is a class act guy. Brian ended the day with a little over 14lbs and I had a little over 15lbs and good enough to move me from 59th to 18th. I made my goal of making the cut, and now I wanted a top 10. I thought I needed 14lbs to make a top 10 and with a big bite, who knows!
Day 3 - Byron Velvick - Floppy's Cousin - LOL!
Byron and I drew boat 18 or so and again we were heading to ledges. However as Byron and I got to our 1st spot a local fishing a BFL was right on the honey hole. We fished it the best we could for about 4 hrs. Byron lost a toad, well over 5lbs on a swimbait and caught a few small keepers. I caught my 1st 3lb'er on a shaky head. Byron and I let the local dude have the spot as we planned to come back around 2 when he had his weighin. We hit some humps and other ledges down by the dam but it was pretty slow. He finally caught his limit but they were pretty small 15" bass. 2pm we head back to his main hole. We fished it for over 1 hour without a single bite and then about 3:30 - 4pm the dinner was served. Bryron started whacking some solid 2-3's on a deep running crank, could not catch what it was, maybe a Bandit 700? I tried everything, DT-16 - SWL Spinnerbait - jigs, c-rigs and nothing. I finally said the heck with it and went back to my Exodus worm. Once we found the main school we started to limit out and cull. I final caught my limit and was able to cull out my small ones. I was guessing I had 14lbs. 45 mins to go we decided to head to another hump near weighin. Byron took up his marker buoy and tossed it to the back, it bounced off the seat and hit his ignition switch and broke it. The boat would not start. We both freaked out for a few minutes. I buttoned things down while he worked on the ignition. After taking the panel off and working a pair of pliers we got it started and back to the weighin. Byron was a great guy to fish with and just kept pounding it no matter how slow it was. When it was slow he was free with information and answering my questions about fishing. I was pretty relaxed fishing behind Byron, humor goes a long way!
I weighed in with a little over 14lbs and enough for 10th place. I don't think that was too bad for my 1st event of this magnitude. 
From the pic you can tell I really had to use my JKRUZ sunglasses. I look like a raccoon!
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Saturday April 5th I had the opportunity to fish with a couple great boys and their dad out on Percy Priest. Robbie and Bill are a couple fine young men and quite the anglers. We met out at Fate Sanders about 1:30 and they were eager and ready to go despite the windy and colder then desired weather. The temps never got above 55 or so and I think they actually dropped throughout the day. Whenever you do a trip with kids you always worry about how much they know such as casting skills and fish catching ability. There was nothing to worry about with these two a they were obviously well trained by their dad, Bob.
We stared out in the cove behind Fate Sanders as I had been catching some crappie a few days earlier. We pulled into the 1st spot and quickly caught a small bluegill on a minnow. We got to watching and bass were running/schooling baitfish along the bank. So we edge on in and tried our luck. Robbie and Bill caught a largemouth bass, a KY Spotted bass and a decent little crappie out of the hole.
We finished up there with a few bass and headed down lake to try out luck out on some more bass. We headed to Four Corners were I had just fished that morning and caught a boat load of bass which included 14 keepers.
We pulled into the 1st point and quickly caught a nice bass on a crankbait. We caught a few more bass throughout the day. As the day progressed the temps continued to drop but the boys stayed right with it and never gave up, they went Iconelli on me! We wound up catching a multitude of fish. They caught, Largemouth, Ky Spots, 2 good size bluegills, crappie, yellow bass, and even a big ol catfish. I think they could fish any kinda of fishing tournament they wanted to and do well. We even had the perverbial big one get away. We were around Long Hunter ramp and Robbie had a big bite. He fought it well but it just was not meant to be. I am not sure what it was but they way it fought I think it was a Hybrid or Striper. Either way it was something big.
Thumbs up to a couple good young fishermen and I am officially warning KVD, you better watch your back with these two!
Billy Harris
www.billyharrisbasspro.com
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| Bassmaster Weekend Series on J. Percy Priest |
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