Kentucky Lake BFL Regionals

The last tournament of the year for me is now over. I fished the BFL Regional at Kentucky lake this last weekend. The conditions were tough. Going down there I thought there was no way you could not catch fish in that lake. I was partly right as I caught quite a few short bass but the keeper size was harder to catch.

Christina and the kids came down with me to go on some adventures of their own while I was fishing.

Day 1: I drew a great partner that said the fishing was tough and every bite counts. He couldn't have been more right. We started out fishing a cove with a sandy flat. He had one fish blow up on a topwater and miss it. I didn't have any bites. We moved to a marina break wall and I caught 1 short fish on a roboworm. Then we moved to a feeding flat and he caught 3 keepers. I caught 1 fish on a chatterbait. He was only 14 inches but must have weighed well over 2 pounds it was sad putting him back.

We moved to some other areas and I ended up catching a keeper pulling a bomber past the edge of a boat dock in about 8 foot of water. He slammed the bomber and headed straight to wrap me around a post. I pulled him back out from under the docks and got him in the livewell. In a spot close to there we were fishing some bridge rocks. I had a good bite and set the hook with a 10" powerworm. The fish didn't have the hook in its mouth but took half my worm. My boater said he usually only pulls giants off those rocks so that was a little devastating. My boater also had a huge fish pull free from his hook on the same rocks. Shortly after we moved back to the feeding flat where I continued to catch short fish after short fish. It was fun but would have been a blast if they would have been keepers.

At weigh in I had 1 fish for 2 pounds even. I was around 50th place after day 1 with a good shot to move up the next day.

Christina and the kids went to land between the lakes and did some hiking/sight seeing. I took the kids fishing inside the marina break wall once I got back from weigh in. I had spoken to the tournament director's to ensure it would be o.k. to let them fish. They said it was o.k. since it was not tournament waters inside the break wall.

We went out to eat at Oasis Southwest Grill afterwards. I got the surf and turf and Christina go the chicken fried chicken. The steak was cooked perfectly and was of generous size. The pacific shrimp were huge. It also came with 2 sides and rolls for appetizers. Christina's chicken fried chicken was tender and delicious. We had ate there several times last year and we both love the chicken fried chicken.

Once we got back to the lodge I tied on a few lures then went to bed.

Day 2: I drew another great partner for day 2. Unlike several of the other boaters he had located a lot of fish in practice. He had only caught 1 the day before but said he was getting 20 pound bags during practice. We decided to go South to swing for the fences where he knew some good bass were.

We swung and swung until my arm was cramping then swung some more. I caught a lot of bass but no keepers. He said he couldn't believe how many short fish were eating that 10" worm. He caught 1 keeper and I didn't have anything to weigh in.

It was a long ride back North knowing I had nothing to weigh in. Christina and the kids were at weigh in and I really wanted to bring in some fish. My boater offered to let Leo and Gavin carry his fish up to weigh in from the boat. That was pretty awesome of him and the boys really enjoyed that.

Christina, Leo and Gavin did some more hiking on a trail that had a lot of signs with details of the area. Leo was really excited telling me about it. They also went to a safari like area and saw buffalo, fox, owls and some other animals that had sustained injuries and would not be able to survive in the wild.

When I got back to the room, I decided I wanted to drink later and put beers on ice. Then I took the boys down to fish of the courtesy dock at the lodge. I caught a shell cracker and put it on Gavin's line and cast it out so he could reel it in. He got off when I cast it though. We didn't catch any more fish but a couple guys at the end of the dock caught a nice catfish and let Leo and Gavin admire it.

We went out to eat Chinese buffet after that. We got back to the room at a decent time but I was wiped out and went straight to bed instead of drinking any beer.

The next morning we got up and packed the van so we could go get some breakfast. I wanted a nice restaurant breakfast but didn't find a restaurant on the route home so the kids won and we ate McDonald's.

On the way home we drove by Fort Knox and stopped at Patton's museum. It was really informative and free. From there we booked it home. I was feeling pretty bad the whole way home about placing 95th out of 151. Four more pounds and I would have been in the top 12 cut and in the money.

It was still a fun tournament and I learned a ton. I now know how 20 pound bags can be caught even though we didn't do it this tournament. I think all the conditions at the time of the tournament collided and made it tougher than it ever should have been. There was a full moon, so the fish could have been feeding at night. There was a cold front, no moving water, the lake had just been drawn down 6 inches, we had bluebird skies and no wind. I'm sure there were other variables in play.

Somebody will always figure it out though, and I was happy to see Jacob Wheeler figured out enough to get him a check and make it into the All American next year.

More Trips and a Glimpse Into the Past

I have finished booking our reservations at Kentucky Lake. We are actually getting a lake house on Lake Barkley. The two lakes are connected close to where the lake house is.

We started looking at cabins and cottages a couple weeks ago. There was one that caught my eye. It was a little more than I was wanting to pay for the week but was a beautiful lakehouse and had everything we would want for a fun filled week at the lake.

We ended up reserving it for 695.00. It has a complimentary boat dock and a 1000 square foot covered deck that will make a great play area for the kids and relaxing spot for us. The deciding factor was that I could not find anything that looked close to as nice even at the same price. Especially on the lake.

They seemed really nice when I spoke to them on the phone and their web site was nicely worded unlike some of the other sites I looked at.

I also booked a campground for this weekend on Indian Lake. I have only fished it once and barely did that time. The first time we went there we realized that the state campground was one of the best in the state. It has channels running through the campground so you can leave your boat in the water overnight.

Indian Lake also has some slightly larger bass and has many docks and lily pads to fish. It is also a very good lake for crappie and is the states #1 lake for saugeye fishing.

The main reason I got it is to leave the boat in the water while I fix one of the boards on the trailer. This week one of the boards that was rotting finally broke and I need to get everything ready for the Kentucky trip. I also need to install a hummingbird fish finder/gps unit. I am moving my smaller older unit to the front of the boat.

I am getting excited about both trips. I could easily live at the lake.

In fact, a couple years after college my wife and I were living and working in Omaha, NE. One of our landlords had not paid the city rental fees for the house we were living in. We came home one evening and they had posted a 30-day eviction notice on our door. I called the city and they told us what had happened and said not to pay him rent until he paid his rental dues. He came to our house later that day and said we needed to pay him rent so he could pay the rental dues. I would not give him his rent due to what the city had told me.

The next morning we woke up with a 24 hour eviction notice from him on our door. He had pulled some crazy things in the past and I knew if we did not get our things out of the house he was going to end up with some of them. He had already spent lots of time in the house while we were not there. One time he came in and started staining the hardwood floors in the living room. He did half the room and after a week I finished the other half because I could not take it any longer. He had also lit our candles in the bathroom while we were gone one weekend. Apparently he had a girl over while we were gone.

So with 24 hours to get out I called off work rented a storage unit and a moving truck and had everything out of the house by the end of the day. It hit us after our last load to the storage unit that we were now homeless with nowhere to go.

We drove back to the storage unit and I dug back to our camping supplies and loaded them into the car. We made our way outside of town to a place called 24 lakes near Freemont, NE. We set up camp. For the first week while we were looking for a place to live we camped at the lake in a little tiny tent with a great dane and 2 fish from the aquarium.

We had a hard time finding a place that would accept a great dane. We finally found a place that could get us in after a month and a half. We would have to stay at the lake until then.

I ended up talking to a guy at work that was wanting to get rid of his motorhome. It was a little older but had low miles. He could not get it to start and said the air conditioner quit working years ago but said if I could get it to start he would sell it to me for 1300.00. I went to take a look and the outside of the 28 foot motorhome was in great condition. On the inside you could see it had been used for some crazy partying. There was beer spilled everywhere and trash everywhere. The carpets were matted down and black and sticky. The fridgerator had meet left in it for who knows how long and had maggots crawling around. It was a mess.

I came back the next day and started to work on the motor to see if I could get it to start. Around dark it fired up and I had it running. The next 2 days I cleaned the insides of it with many different cleaners and carpet cleaners, spot removers, smell good things. I got everything really clean. The refrigerator was even clean but still had a foul odor. Finally on my day off I paid for it and drove it to the lake.

Once we had it to the lake I crawled on top and took the cover off the air conditioner. A wire had came disconnected and once I plugged it back in the air conditioner was up and running.

After that point we had to move once a week to a different lake still within the same park. Every evening I would go swimming and fishing and we would sit outside and barbecue. My wife even sat on the beach with the dog to watch fireworks on the fourth of July. It was only about 7 or 8 dollars a night for electric camping and showers were pay showers. We got good enough to take a .50 cent shower.

That was also one of the worst storm season's I have seen. We had heavy winds that broke tree branches down all over the campground and seemed like it was going to roll the motorhome. There were tornado warnings in the area quite a few times. One time during a hail storm we heard 30 miles south of us they were getting volleyball size hail. It had put holes in people's houses so big they could stick their kids through the holes in the roof of their houses. We spent a bit of time in the shower houses waiting out bad weather.

It was a great 2 months overall though. We saved money on rent and were outside living it up every day. When the apartment finally opened up we were both pretty upset. Not long after that we found out my job was ending and that we would be moving to Ohio. I sold the motorhome to my Grandmother who still enjoys it.