Stren Series Central Division set to begin

The first tournament of the 2009 Stren Series Central Division is scheduled for May 6-8 at Kentucky lake. I'll be leaving on Saturday morning May 2nd to begin practice that day.

Lord willing the success from the PAA event two weeks ago will carry over.

Neely Henry Baits and Patterns

As promised here are the baits I used to finish 2nd at the PAA event on Neely Henry last week.

The Pattern:

I fished backwater areas, main lake pockets, and creek arms. I specifically searched out small spawning pockets in these areas. The primary factor in whether a spawning pocket would be holding fished, was dependent on having deeper water adjacent to the pocket.

During practice, the fish were set-up on the deeper banks leading into these areas. Most often, the productive banks would be rip-rap, not all of them, but most. Colder weather and slightly falling water had positioned these fish in these areas. With the full moon set to take place on Day 2 of the tournament, the fish were staging up to move in. Other than the first day of practice, the weather was terrible, it snowed, sleeted, was cloudy, rainy

and COLD!! This kept the fish out of the pockets and on the deeper banks.

Fortunately, the last day of practice was sunny and warm, and the fish began to move, the full moon also helped bring them in to spawn. Once the tournament started, I was fortunate enough to get two bites in just a few minutes and that let me figure out how the fish had repositioned due to the warming weather. In the next hour I had my limit, and had culled twice by noon.

The baits:

In practice I used a white Zoom Super Fluke, a Dunn's premium Big Bite Baits Honey Bug, a 3/8ths ounce Lunker Lure Body Lock Jig (white) with a white Zoom swimming chunk, a Hawg Caller Proven Winner Spinnerbait in Sexy Shad, and a Lunker Lure Shakin' Shad (white).

During the tournament the fish had pulled up and I used the Honey Bug nearly exclusively for two the two days of the tournament. I fished this bait on 20lb Maxima Fluorocarbon, coupled with a 1/4 ounce weight and a 4/0 reaction innovations BMF Hook.

Here are some pictures of my baits. I fished these baits exclusively on GLoomis Rods. I pitched the Honey Bug on a 7'5" Model BCFR894, the white jig on a 7' Model 844c and the spinnerbait on a 7'1" Model 853.

More Pics Neely Henry...

PAA Event - Neely Henry Pictures

Here are some pictures from the Neely Henry Event. I'll post more info about baits, equipment and pattern, until then...check out the photos...

Final day at PAA Event on Neely Henry

Just got back to the camper and I'm a little wound up,...I just finished 2nd at the PAA event on Neely Henry, so I thought I'd update my blog. I had a two day total of 29.89. Todd Auten beat me by 1.13 lbs. I had a little trouble with execution on th elast morning, I missed several fish and let a pretty nice one get me wrapped up in some old dock posts and get away, but overall, I feel very blessed to have such a great finish in a tough group of fisherman. Oh by the way, if you haven't used any of the product called Reel Grips, you should, these things are awesome!! Till next time, God Bless!!

PAA Tournament Neely Henry - Day 2 Canceled due to weather

Lightning and driving rain was the weather at take-off this morning. With severe thunderstorms, large hail and tornadoes predicted for noon at Gadsden, AL the PAA Tournament staff decided to cancel day two and allow the whole field to compete on the third and final day..

I was very blessed to catch 17.25 lbs on Day one and be in 4th place heading into the final day. I'm .44 lbs out of second, and 4+ pounds out of first. Lord willing I'll catch a good bag tomorrow and finish in the top 5!!

PAA Tournament - Neely Henry

Well, practice is going ok, I caught a lot of small fish, only a few good ones. I had the chance to go to Birmingham, AL and be on the Rick and Bubba morning show Tuesday morning with Snickers Pro Greg Pugh, and Jasper Engines and Transmissions Pro Chad Morgenthaler. We had a blast!! These guys are a hoot! Any way here's a few pics of the event.