Today, I'm out early.  The problem with that is, I have to weigh-in early too, which means less fishing time.  I make the long run to the south end of Kentucky Lake.  It doesn't take long to find a keeper bass willing to eat my Berkley Jig. 

Overall, the bite is tougher than on day one.  Still a lot of little fish biting.  But, the keepers are a little harder to come by.  After about two hours, my third keeper eats the jig.  As I get it near the boat, I see a 4 pounder trying to get the jig away from the 16" keeper.  The big fish is so close to the boat, that my partner actually hits the four pounder with the net while netting the smaller keeper.  I work the area for a while, but can't get the  4 pounder to bite.  I make a move to another area and boat two more keepers, flipping the Berkley jig.  I decide to hit the spot where I saw the 4 pounder.  I skip the jig way up under some overhanging limbs.  The four pounder must have seen it skipping overhead.  As soon as the jig stops, the 4 pounder eats it.  A good cull.  I notice that my last three keeper fish have come from the shade.  I decide to move quickly and only hit the shady spots.  This works.  I'm able to catch five more keepers and upgrade four times. 

I've still got about an two hours till weigh-in time (about an hour to fish and an hour to run back).  I decide to make a short move to another spot.  As I'm moving, I see a man in another boat running toward me.  He is waving his hands and trying to flag me down.  I stop.  He tells me that Greg Pugh is broke down and needs a ride back in.  I tell him tough luck and continue on my way................. No, just kidding.  Greg and his co-angler both have fish and are due in with the first flight.  So, they tag their fish and tie up their boat.  We transfer to my boat and we plow back to the launch site.  We make it with time to spare. 

My limit weighs 16 pounds, 1 ounce.  Almost the same as my day one weight.  I expect to move up a little in the standings.  The weights usually drop overall on day 2.  But, I stay right where I started the day, 38th place.  That's good enough for a $10,500.00 pay day.  It also puts me in 40th place in the standings.  On the bubble for the Forrest Wood Cup.  Only the top 40 qualify for the Cup.  However, anyone who has already qualified, either through the FLW Series or the Stren Series, will be skipped on the Tour standings list.  So, the top 50 or so should make it.  I've got to catch them at Champlain! 

Day 1 went pretty well.  I drew a late boat #, but wasn't too concerned because I think I was the only angler in the field who was targeting shallow bass.  I made one stop close to the launch to hit the submerged tree where I had caught a seven pounder.  It took just a couple cast to line up and find the tree.  No one home here.  So, I continued south, running about an hour to my starting spot.  As I ran, I could see everything I wanted to fish was void of other boats.  Everyone was out on the main lake.  That's good with me.  I started flipping a Berkley jig and Chigger Craw Crazy legs trailer.  It didn't take long to boat a solid keeper.  It took about two and half hours to boat a solid limit.  With a good limit in the box, I decided to try my pattern on some new water.  I caught several more small fish throughout the rest of the day, but no culling.  I decided to run closer to the launch and check some ledges.  I try the submerged tree again with the same result.  I try to hit some other spots nearby.  My first two spots are covered up.  My third is open.  Once I get lined up on the spot, I catch a keeper on a Berkley Gripper Football jig.  It's a good fish.  But, after using the balance beam, I determine that it won't help and the fish is released.   Now, I'm out of time.  I head to check-in.  My day one weight is 16 pounds, 4 ounces.  I'm in 38th place.  Not a bad start.  The $10,000.00 checks go down to 50th place.  Have to catch them again tomorrow!  It will be a shorter day for me.

After missing a check by 1 pound, 4 onces at Beaver Lake and less than a pound at Lake Norman; it was nice to get a check at Kentucky Lake.  The concensus was that the ledge bite would be the most productive.  There were thousands of bass on the off shore ledges.  Almost everyone reported catching at least 100 bass a day.  The problem was finding the quality bites.  You could go out and catch 100 bass and not catch 5 that would reach the 15" minimum size limit. 

I spent my first day on Barkley fishing both shallow and deep.  I caught lots of small fish flipping a Berkley jig to shallow cover and even more cranking ledges.  Most were small.  I spent too much time running.

My second day of practice I fished on Kentucky Lake.  I bounced around between shallow and deep.  I again ran around too much.  I caught over 100 bass, but still didn't have a limit of keepers.  I did catch a 7 pounder on a Berkley Hollow Belly Swimbait around some submerged grass.  For the most part, the day was unproductive and after two days of practice, I'm struggling!

My third day of practice, I made a long drive and launched in Paris, TN.  From there I ran down to New Johnsonville.  The bite was better here.  I caught several fish cranking the edges of grass flats.  The area was getting pounded though.  Many tournament boats and lots of locals were in the area.  Everyone was fishing off shore.  At about noon, I decided to head north a little ways.  I decided to check some of the shallow shoreline cover.  No one was fishing shallow.  Not one boat.  I immediately started catching fish on a Berkley jig with a Chigger Craw Crazy Legs trailer.  The first 20 that I caught were all short.  But, then I hit a stretch that was little different than the rest and I caught a keeper.  This stretch was a little deeper and had some kind of bushes that were different than the others.  I don't know what these funny little bushes are called, but I decided to idle down the bank until I found more.  The next little patch of these weird bushes produced another keeper.  The next patch did too.  I spent the rest of the day looking for these deeper areas with the funny bushes.  I found several more areas and most were productive.  I caught about 15 keepers, including some 3 and 4 pounders flipping to these bushes.

My final day of practice I decided to see if my funny bush pattern could be duplicated on another part of the lake.  The water here was a little clearer than where I had been the previous day.  Most of the fish were smaller too.  I managed a few keepers and over 100 short fish.  These bushes were loaded with short fish.  You could often catch multiple fish from the same bush.  One bush produced five bass on five consecutive flips.  They were all short though.  I decided to take my oldest daughter out for the final 2 hours of pratice.  I took her to some of the ledges.  We caught short fish after short fish after short.................... Just before dark, I decided to hit a spot that looked interesting on my GPS.  A 7 pound bass ate my Berkley Gripper Football jig.  A good way to end the day!

I was planning on updating my blog after each day of practice and each day of the tournament.  During the spring that worked out alright.  Now that it is summer, my practice days still stretch from daylight till dark.  However, it seems there is not much time in between.  I've also had some connection issues.  I'll try to update more often.