Home from Neely Henry

The Neely Henry event is over.  I finished the event in 29th place, although 29th place does not accurately describe my tournament, it does explain exactly where I finished. 
With out going into great detail, I had several key opportunities this week to do well, to use a basketball analogy, the ball rolled out of the hoop instead of in it.  Had those opportunities rolled my way, I'd have made the cut and be fishing today, since they didn't...well, you get the idea. 
Practice for this event went well.  I had identified a couple of productive patterns, mostly situational patterns, and had the bites to do well.  I felt like I made good decisions the entire event, kept myself in areas that were productive and even though the event was a grind, I fell like I kept my head in the game.  I had a limit for 11.18 lbs on day 1 and followed that up with a somewhat anemic 8.46 lb limit on day two.
The morning bite on Neely Henry was great this week.  I managed to generate several quality bites each morning swimming a jig around the bank grass in the back ends of the creeks.  Later in the day when the morning bite shut down I would switch over to a pattern of running rip rap banks adjacent to the creek channels, which produced a lot of bites for me.  I fished the rocks using a Lunker Lure Shakee head in 1/8ths oz paired with a Zoom Red Bug trick worm or finesse worm.  It seemed that several afternoons they would start the turbines at the dam (used to generate electricity) and the current that was created positioned the fish at the mouths of the bays and sloughs.  You catch these fish throwing a shallow crankbait, I used a Lucky Craft 1.5 and a SPRO Little John crankbait when running this pattern.  Often, once you got a fish to bite, you could catch one every cast.  Ultimately, lack of execution on day two caused me to finish lower than I had hoped for.  Monday the points list will be updated, and we'll see where I stand.  The last event is scheduled for the Arkansas river in Oklahoma in September.  All in all I'd be wrong in not mentioning that I was blessed this week to find several productive patterns, that generated the bites I needed to do well, I just didn't get them all in the boat.  Even though it stings a little, I know I was fortunate to have figured out what I did, and for that I'm thankful.
God Bless,
Duke



I threw the SPRO Little John with a Powell 703 CB Glass rod
on 10lb Maxima Ultragreen monofilament line



When shakee heading the riprap, I used a Powell 703 MEF spinning rod
and 8lb Seaguar fluorocarbon line.



The 1.5 was tied to 12lb Maxima Ultragreen monofilament line and thrwon with
a Powell 703 CB Glass crankbait rod



When I flipped the grass, I used a Big Bites Bait "Yo-Mamma" on a Gamakatsu 4/0 heavy cover flippin hook
on 25lb Seaguar Fluorocarbon line and a Powell 775 CEF rod